Images of a possible next-generation ASUS Eee Pad tablet have leaked onto the Internet through Taiwanese website NCCC. The mysterious 10.1-inch slate could be a followup to the Transformer Prime — with its “TF300T” code name, the device’s pre-release moniker is somewhat in line with the original naming convention used on the Transformer (TF101) and the Transformer Prime (TF201). Aside from a couple of blurry photos, there are no specs or other details to report at this time. Hit the break for a second image of the device.

[Via Engadget]

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ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone — which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one — was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-inch handset that has the ability dock inside a 10.1-inch tablet, which in turn can be docked into the Transformer’s (or possibly Transformer Prime’s) keyboard. When the device debuts next month, it is rumored to be redesigned with a slimmer form factor, and the the physical buttons seen on a PadFone prototype have reportedly been removed in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich’s on-screen controls.

[Via AndroidAndMe]

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Asus is reportedly working on Windows 8 laptops that are equipped with Microsoft’s Kinect technology. The Daily recently reported that it was able to “check out” two different prototype laptops that “appeared” to be made by Asus. The Kinect sensor was built into the area where a notebook’s camera would typically reside, and The Daily also noted a set of LEDs below the screen. Microsoft reportedly confirmed that the notebooks were Kinect-enabled prototypes. As The Daily points out, a Kinect-enabled notebook could allow a user to interact with Windows 8 or play games using motion controls, much like Xbox 360 Kinect users are able to do now. It is unclear when, or even if, the notebooks will ever be released.

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Asus recently confirmed on Twitter that an official tool for unlocking the bootloader on the Transformer Prime will be made available in February. The company didn’t give an exact date for when the tool would be released, but the good news is Transformer Prime owners have just a few weeks to wait until they can unlock the bootloader on the quad-core tablet. Asus originally promised that the tool would be made available after upset customers lashed out in January. An unlocked bootloader allows Android users to install custom ROMs and kernels, but it does come with several consequences. As we noted earlier this year, unlocking the bootloader will void Asus’s warranty and some services, such as Google’s video rental application, will not work properly. 

[Via Pocketnow]

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ASUS’s entry into the Android tablet world was reportedly a success. The Eee Pad Transformer was fast, unique, and it was among the most popular Android tablets to launch last year. The Transformer was one of the first to feature a unique dock that transformed the device into a netbook. For months the Transformer was on back order, with sales far exceeding ASUS’s original estimates. Even though the tablet is now considered “last year’s technology,” there isn’t much holding it back, except one thing — Ice Cream Sandwich. The original Transformer is still running Google’s buggy and unexciting Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, but ASUS has taken to the company’s Facebook page and assured users an update is coming. Google is currently in the process approving the update, and it should hit tablets in mid-February.

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Acer, Asus and Lenovo will reportedly begin selling ultrabooks equipped with Intel’s fast and versatile Thunderbolt I/O port, which combines DisplayPort and PCI Express, during the second quarter of 2012. DigiTimes said mostly high-end computers will adopt Thunderbolt this year since it now costs more than $20 to add Thunderbolt connectivity to a computer. Apple was one of the first companies to adopt Thunderbolt and it currently equips a number of its computers and displays with the technology. A recent patent filing also suggested Apple may begin using Thunderbolt in iOS devices, too.

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ASUS released an over-the-air update for the Eee Pad Transformer Prime on Thursday. The update will boost the GPS version to 6.9.13 and improve the tablet’s faulty signal according to user accounts. Since its release, the Prime has been plagued with numerous bugs that recently forced the company to issue refunds and extended warranties to dissatisfied customers in the United Kingdom. Numerous users at XDA-Developers have reported improved GPS connectivity without the need to connect to Wi-Fi, however there are a few individuals who are still unable to lock onto a signal. ASUS has not yet released an official change log for the update.

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The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime was the first device to feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor, making it one of the most anticipated Android tablets of 2011. Once the slate was finally released, however, early buyers were plagued with Wi-Fi issues, faulty GPS and random software bugs. To make matters worse, ASUS announced a higher-resolution Prime at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show. The company is now looking to ease customer frustration by offering refunds to any users dissatisfied with their purchases. Unfortunately, the offer is only available to residents of the United Kingdom. “Any customers who have purchased a Transformer Prime TF201 and are dissatisfied with the performance of the GPS module are advised to return the unit to their point of purchase for a full refund as per standard consumer rights that apply in the UK,” said an ASUS representative on the company’s website. “Any customers who wish to keep their unit will be offered an extension to the standard ASUS warranty from 12 to 18 months (for any retailers who offer an additional 12 months’ warranty with their purchase, the total warranty period will remain at 2 years).”

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Even though the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime was only released in December, the company has announced a new higher resolution model. The older Prime — again, the unit that was available in the middle of December — featured a 1280 x 800 resolution with a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera, and was plagued with Wi-Fi and GPS issues due to a metallic back-plate. ASUS’ newer model (TF700T) will have a higher resolution 1920 x 1200 Super IPS+ display and feature a new 2-megapixel front facing camera for HD video-chatting. The backside of the device has been redesigned, which should enhance the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS performance. The device runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and sports a price tag of $600 for the 32GB model and $700 for the 64GB model respectively. Not content with one-upping their tablet from last month, ASUS also announced the new 7-inch Eee Pad Memo which focuses on entertainment, media, and light productivity. The device features a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0, and a stylus for enhanced productivity. ASUS’ TF700T Prime and Eee Pad Memo will ship in the second quarter of 2012. Full press release is after the break.

ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME370T

7″ Tablet with an emphasis on Entertainment, Media and Light Productivity. Thin and Light chassis design with Capacitive Stylus capabilities.
MSRP – TBD Availability – Q2 2012 in North America
Display – 7.0″ WXGA, 1280 x 800 resolution, IPS panel with capacitive touch
Processor- Qualcomm 8260 1.2GHz dual-core
Memory- 1GB
Storage- eMMC 16GB/32GB ; ASUS Webstorage options
Connectivity- WLAN 802.11b/g/n , Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
Camera- 1.2MP Video Camera (front )/5MP Auto-Focus Camera (rear) (1080P recording)
aGPS- Qualcomm GPS One
Sensors- G-sensor; e-compass; Light sensor; Gyroscope, Proximity sensor
Interface- 1 x Micro USB port (client) ; 1 x Audio Jack (Head Phone / Stereo Mic-in)
1 x Card Reader(Micro-SD); 1 x micro HDMI (1.3a); 1 x SIM Card slot; Stereo Speakers
Battery- Li-polymer 4400mAh (Battery Life: 8.5hrs video playback routine)
OS- Android 4.01
Dimensions / Weight- 7.8 x 4.6 x 0.50″; 14.2oz
Applications – MyPainter, MyNet, MyCloud, Asus Sync and other productivity and entertainment applications.

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ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF700T

10.1″ Tablet with an emphasis on Entertainment, Media, Gaming and Productivity. Thin and Light chassis design with a 1080P capable display screen.
MSRP – $599~$699 Availability – Q2 2012 in North America
Processor- NVIDIA Tegra 3 Mobile Processor (1.3 GHz Quad core Cortex A9, 12 core GeForce GPU)
Display – Brilliant 10.1″ HD (1920×1200), 178 degrees ultra-wide viewing angle Super IPS+ panel display with Gorilla™ Glass
Camera – Rear facing 8MP Auto-Focus camera with dedicated LED Flash, 2.0MP Front Facing camera for Video Chat
Storage – 32GB or 64GB internal memory plus 8GB of ASUS Web Storage2
Media Capabilities – 1080p MPEG-4/H.264 High Profile, High Bit Rate video decode and playback
Media Capture – 1080p MPEG-4/H.264 video capture
Connectivity – Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Ports – 2-in-1 3.5mm jack, micro-HDMI output, microSD card reader
Audio – Built-in stereo speakers, microphone
Dimensions – 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm, 586g
Battery – 25WHr Lithium-Polymer Battery

ASUS Transformer Prime Keyboard Dock with Trackpad – (same dock for TF201)
Ports – 1 x USB 2.0 ports, Full-size MMC/SD/SDHC card reader
Battery – 22 WHr battery for extended battery life
Dimensions – 263 x 180.8 x 8 to 10.4 mm, 537g
OS – Android 4.01

The highly anticipated and hard to find ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime has surfaced online at Office Depot. The website has the tablet labeled incorrectly with “Prime” omitted from the device’s name, but the TF201 product number clearly indicates that the slate is indeed the new Transformer Prime. An Office Depot customer service representative confirmed that the device is in-stock and mislabeled, though it is unclear how much inventory Office Depot currently has available. The 32GB model of ASUS’s quad-core tablet starts at $499.99.

Thanks, Daniel

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ASUS took to its Facebook page on Tuesday to ease tensions from an increasing number of customers unhappy with the locked bootloader on the quad-core Transformer Prime tablet. The company also confirmed that it will begin rolling out an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update on January 12th. It was reported yesterday that the highly-anticipated Eee Pad Transformer Prime featured a locked and encrypted bootloader, making it impossible to flash custom ROMs and kernels. Irate customers took to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and voiced their opinions. The company announced that it is working on a bootloader unlocking tool, however with an unlocked bootloader comes consequences; Google video rentals will be unavailable and the ASUS warranty will be voided for unlocked devices. ASUS’s full statement follows below.

Thank you very much for all of the support you have given to ASUS. Eee Pad Transformer Prime received excellent reviews and great demand when it launched in December 2011. Now, we are continuing to make the Transformer Prime available in the worldwide market, and doing our best to fulfill the incredible demand. ASUS strives to create the best products and provide the best service for our customers, and will be releasing an FOTA update for the Transformer Prime shortly. This update, version 8.8.3.33, will improve the focus of the camera, the fluidity of the touch experience, and the APK capabilities in Android Market.

ASUS has been working hard to make the highly anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available on the Transformer Prime, and today, we have good news for you. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich FOTA worldwide update for the Transformer Prime will start from Jan 12th, 2012. Thank you for your patience and support through this process.

In addition, we would like to address your concerns related to GPS and bootloader on the Transformer Prime.

The ASUS Transformer Prime is made from a metallic unibody design, so the material may affect the performance of the GPS when receiving signals from satellites. Please note that this product is not a professional GPS device, and signal performance can be easily influenced by factors including, but not limited to: weather, buildings, and surrounding environments. Please understand there are limitations when using the GPS function. To avoid inconveniencing users who demand a powerful GPS device, we made the decision to remove it from our specification sheet and marketing communications. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Regarding the bootloader, the reason we chose to lock it is due to content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible. ASUS supports Google DRM in order to provide users with a high quality video rental experience. Also, based on our experience, users who choose to root their devices risk breaking the system completely. However, we know there is demand in the modding community to have an unlocked bootloader. Therefore, ASUS is developing an unlock tool for that community. Please do note that if you choose to unlock your device, the ASUS warranty will be void, and Google video rental will also be unavailable because the device will be no longer protected by security mechanism.

Thank you for all the understanding and support for the ASUS Transformer Prime. Happy New Year!

After its announcement, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime became one of the most anticipated devices of 2011. The tablet was the first to feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core chipset and built upon the success of ASUS’ previous tablet. After suffering from Wi-Fi connection issues, numerous delays and a newly discovered GPS bug, an xda developer forum member discovered that ASUS locked and encrypted the Prime’s bootloader. The tablet’s bootloader features 128bit AES encryption, making it impossible to flash custom ROMs and kernels. In the past, carriers have requested that devices on the company’s network be locked, however, the Prime is a Wi-Fi only device, leading consumers to wonder why it has been locked. Previously, HTC used a similar method of locking their devices but abandoned the practice after customer outrage.

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ASUS took the Android world by storm when it launched the Eee Pad Transformer last year. The Taiwanese company again shook things up with a sequel, the Transformer Prime. Both devices featured a 10.1-inch display with the ability to dock into a keyboard, transforming the tablet into a netbook. However, newly-leaked promotional images obtained by Notebook Italia suggest that ASUS is readying a 7-inch Eee Pad tablet that is set to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in just a few weeks. It is unclear whether this new device is the delayed Eee Pad MeMO, that debuted at last year’s CES, or perhaps a smaller Transformer tablet. Luckily for us, we won’t have to wait long until this mystery device becomes official.

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Toymaker Hasbro recently filed a lawsuit against Asus for naming its new convertible Android tablet the “Transformer Prime.” According to The Verge, Hasbro has a pending trademark for “Transformers Prime,” which it used in 2010 for an animated television series. The company also owns four other trademarks related to the “Transformers” name. Hasbro said in a statement that it filed the lawsuit to “aggressively protect its brands,” but it doesn’t appear that the company is seeking an injunction against the Asus Transformer Prime tablet just yet. Asus has 21 days to respond and it has not yet issued a statement on the matter.

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Are PC makers starting to give up on tablets? Manufacturers Asus and Acer are shifting focus to Intel-powered ultrabooks instead of tablets to improve gross margins, DigiTimes said on Tuesday. The site’s report suggests that the notebook market may soon begin to rebound after declining in 2011. Both firms are seemingly drawn to the wider margins achieved on sales of notebook computers, and are also gravitating away from developing low-cost netbooks. Asus and Acer aren’t alone; other reports have suggested that Dell and HP may also abandon the tablet market next year despite rumors both would launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter. In addition, Asus and Acer are eyeing opportunities in emerging markets such as China, Indonesia and India as opposed to the United States and Europe, where the firms typically spend the most effort trying to sell devices. Asus has previously denied reports that it might abandon Android tablets.

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