ASUS, we still love you and your snazzy Eee Keyboard but we have to level with you — our patience is wearing thin. We first saw this badass little PC back in January and at that point in time, we wanted it post haste. Don’t get us wrong, we’re still excited to see the Eee Keys hit the market but with each passing day seemingly comes a new and later launch time frame. First it was June, then August, and now DigiTimes is reporting it will drop in October or later with a price point in the $400-$500 range. Price: fair. October or later: lame. The Chinese paper is also reporting that ASUS will launch its Eee Top All-in-one PC in September for around $670 and the Eee Box will land in the same month for $300. Great. We want the Keyboard and we want it now.

[Via Giz]

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Asus has finally released the first version of its much-awaiting all-in-one offering, the Eee Top. For the time being, one version is available to the public, the ET1602, though a slightly beefier version is expected to become available shortly. Of course it’s only available in Taiwan for the time being but the roll out in other markets shouldn’t take long. As for seeing this puppy here in the US any time soon? That remains to be seen but we’re definitely not holding our breath. A recap of the specs:

• Intel Atom processor (1.6GHz/533MHz FSB/512K Cache)
• 1 GB DDR2 667 RAM
• 160 GB SATA II 5400rpm hard drive
• Graphics Card: Shared Graphics (128MB)
• Windows XP Home (SP3)
• 15.6″ (16:10 Wide Panel) touchscreen
• Graphics: Shared Graphics (128MB)
• Webcam: 1.3 Megapixel
• Mirophone: Digital Array Microphone
• Audio Chips: 2 x 4W Hifi Speaker + SRS
• Communication: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
• WLAN: WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• IO Side Ports: Memory card slot (SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro) / USB ports x 2
• IO Rear Ports: Audio Ports x 3 (Microphone, Line in & Line Out) / USB ports x 4 / Gigabit LAN port
• Ships with: StarOffice, Adobe Reader 8.0, Norton Internet Security (90 day trial version), Express Gate, Skype, Eee Memo, SoftStyles, Eee Cam and Eee Cinema

Asus’s more timid ET1602 will run about $580, not bad at all. Our favortie thing about the Eee Top by the way, is the fact that it runs XP SP3 and yet the product page begins with a huge banner reading, “ASUS recommends Windows Vista Business for Business Computing / ASUS recommends Windows Vista Home Premium for Personal Computing”. Excellent.

[Via Engadget]

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Well hello there Mr. Shen. If anyone was wondering what Asus had up its collective sleeve in the coming months (through 2010 actually), CEO Jerry Shen just sat down with Laptop and seriously broke it down. He wasn’t shy at all in talking about where the company is now and where it’s headed. Here are some highlights from the hour-long interview:

• First and foremost among the interesting morsels taken from the Shen interview, Asus will be skipping Vista entirely and jumping right from XP to Windows 7. Burn!
• Asus has currently sold about 4 million Eee PCs and it’s hoping to hit the 5 million mark before 2009 rolls around. Ambitious.
• The all-in-one Eee Top will start shipping very soon. Ok, well we already knew that.
• The Eee Stick gaming controller will soon be released along with compatible games. It will be offered as part of a bundle and as a stand alone accessory at a price point south of $100.
• Next year, Asus will offer an Eee PC that hits the $250 price mark – in the first half of 2009 in fact. Two new models will be announced at CES this coming January.
• Last but most certainly not least, Shen claims that Asus will release a touchscreen Eee PC rocking Windows 7 sometime in 2H 2009! You hear that Microsoft? Time to get the lead out…

[Via Engadget]

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