Asus will release three versions of the Asus Eee PC T91

As interested in multitouch as allways I noticed the ASUS announcement and I'm glad I did not yet buy my netbook since the T91A will be my choice when it is made available in The Netherlands (and prices affordable). Let's hpe the A version will have a GPS and 3G connection as well:

An ASUS UK representative told AsusTablet.com that Asus will release three versions of the Asus Eee PC T91. We already knew about the T91GO which enables 3G, GPS and a digital TV features. In addition to the standard T91 (with a single-touch screen) and T91GO (or T91go), there will be the T91A. This model will be the only one to hold a multi-touch screen. It is not clear if this last version will or will not include the options of the T91go too or if there will be a fourth model (T91Ago), which includes both a multi-touch screen and 3G, GPS and a TV tuner.

An interesting point to note is that the T91A will weight about 0.06 kg more than the standard T91. This is because of the chips installed.

Here’s a line up of the specifications for the different models:

ASUS Eee PC T91A (Multi-touch)

“The Eee PC™ T91A measures just 225cm by 164cm, and weighs a mere 0.96kg—making it one of the smallest and thinnest gadgets with an 8.9″ display in the world today. The Eee PC™ T91A is the one of the first mini laptops to use a full multi-touch interface, supporting Microsoft Windows 7.”

• Screen: 8.9″ LED Backlight / Resistive Multi-Touch Panel
• Enabled for Microsoft Windows 7
• Resolution: 1024 x 600 (WSVGA)
• Battery: Li-polymer, 5.4 hours runtime
• Processor: Intel Atom Z520 - 1.33GHz
• OS: Windows 7
• Memory: 1Gb (DDR2); 2Gb Maximum
• Storage: SSD 16Gb + 16Gb SD Card (included)
• Online Storage: 20Gb (free for 18 mos.)
• Audio: HD / Stereo Speakers / Digital Array Mic
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Camera: 0.3 Megapixel Built-in
• Color: Black / Silver
• Weight: 0.96 kg

ASUS Eee PC T91go (GPS, Digital TV and 3G enabled)

“The Eee PC™ T91Go measures just 225cm by 164cm, and weighs a mere 1.02kg—making it one of the smallest and thinnest gadgets with an 8.9″ display in the world today. The Eee PC™ T91go is a device for on the road. With its built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) and 3G connectivity, it supports advanced navigation capabilities on the go and enables you to connect to the web through a cellular connection. The DVB TV tuner makes watching television on your device a possibility for extensive entertainment options.”

• Screen: 8.9″ LED Backlight / Resistive Touch Panel
• Resolution: 1024 x 600 (WSVGA)
• Battery: Li-polymer, 5.4 hours runtime
• Processor: Intel Atom Z520 - 1.33GHz
• OS: Windows XP Home
• Memory: 1Gb (DDR2); 2Gb Maximum
• Storage: SSD 16Gb + 16Gb SD Card (included)
• Online Storage: 20Gb (free for 18 mos.)
• Audio: HD / Stereo Speakers / Digital Array Mic
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Camera: 0.3 Megapixel Built-in
• Color: Black / Silver
• Weight: 1.02 kg
• GPS: Yes
• 3G Module: Yes
• Digital TV Tuner: Yes

ASUS Eee PC T91 (Standard)

“The Eee PC™ T91 measures just 225cm by 164cm, and weighs a mere 0.96kg—making it one of the smallest and thinnest gadgets with an 8.9″ display in the world today.The Eee PC™ T91’s tablet PC functionality makes it easy to cradle in one arm, enabling users to read documents, scribble ideas into digital notebooks and surf the Internet while traveling on foot. ”

• Screen: 8.9″ LED Backlight / Resistive Touch Panel
• Resolution: 1024 x 600 (WSVGA)
• Battery: Li-polymer, 5.4 hours runtime
• Processor: Intel Atom Z520 - 1.33GHz
• OS: Windows XP Home
• Memory: 1Gb (DDR2); 2Gb Maximum
• Storage: SSD 16Gb + 16Gb SD Card (included)
• Online Storage: 20Gb (free for 18 mos.)
• Audio: HD / Stereo Speakers / Digital Array Mic
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Camera: 0.3 Megapixel Built-in
• Color: Black / Silver
• Weight: 0.96 kg

how dead is the netbook, this one looks smart

Ok I just declared the netbook dead but now I have seen this device rnnig Linux (or Android or WinCE if you like, but have to install it yourself). The article below is shameless copied from gizmodo since they seem to be the only one having a test. The clever part of this device is the way you can transform it from a laptop into a tablet with a touch interface and the way it handles USB. The USB slots are made in such a way you can have your dongles there permanently. For some detailed info besides the test below just go yo http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

First Hands On: Touch Book Is a Part-Netbook, Part-Tablet
By Adrian Covert,

The Always Innovating Touch Book does something I've never seen from a netbook: it has a fully detachable keyboard dock and transforms from a standard looking 8.9-inch netbook, to a stand-alone tablet.

Spearheaded by Gregoire Gentil, the man behind the Zonbu Desktop and Laptop, the Touch Book is his latest project, and a promising one at that. Gentil says the Touch Book's hardware and software are fully open source and ready for modifications. While the device will come preloaded with a custom Touch Book OS, Gentil says this machine is capable of running mobile operating systems such as Android or Windows CE.

The hardware I saw wasn't quite complete—the software was demoed on a prototype, and the final hardware above were just empty shells to give an idea of the design—so I cant comment too much on how well the end product performs, but I saw enough to consider this thing more than vaporware.
The Touch Book is the first netbook powered by a 600 MHz TI OMAP3 processor (built around ARM technology), 256 MB RAM, 3-axis accelerometer, an 8-gigabyte microSD card for storage and two batteries providing up to 15 hours of usage between charges. The 8.9-inch screen can display resolutions up to 1024x768 and uses a resistive touch panel.There's also the usual offerings of 802.11b/g/n wi-fi and Bluetooth.

As a standalone tablet, the Touch Book is roughly 9.5"x7"x1" and weighs about a pound. When docked to the keyboard, it is about 1.4-inches thick and weighs 2 pounds. All of the Touch Book's guts, except for one of the batteries, are housed in the tablet portion of the device, so that it's fully functional while detatched from the keyboard.

The chipset fits on a motherboard about the size of an index card, and is heavily optimized to get the best performance out of the hardware. Part of this involves stacking the RAM directly on top of the processor in a package on package configuration. The lid of the touchbook also pops off, so you have easy access to the hardware and it's two internal USB ports you can use for dongles you dont want hanging off the side of the tablet.

As far as software goes, the OS is based around the Open Embedded Linux platform, but fully customized for the Touch Book hardware. As such, the Touch Book has the power to handle full screen video, and render OpenGL 3D graphics. Gentil says the Touch Book can run some of the same games found on the iPhone and plans to offer them in the future.

The Touch Book UI design depends on what configuration the hardware is in. When docked to the keyboard, the Touch Book uses a standard, cursor-based UI that looks like other Linux desktops. However, when in tablet mode, it uses a custom-designed, touch-based UI. The touch UI is based around spherical icons that rotate in a circular fashion as you swipe to the next one. Content is divided into three categories: web, apps and settings.

On the apps side, Touch Book will ship with both Firefox and

Fennec (Mobile Firefox), games that will make use of the accelerometer, plus various sorts of web and productivity apps, such as word processor and spreadsheet-type programs.

Always Innovating plans to start shipping the Touch Book in late May or early June, priced at $300 for the tablet alone, or $400 for the tablet and keyboard dock combination. Pre-ordering will begin next week, and you can order the Touch Book in either red or dark grey colors. Gentil says he would also like to release future iterations that include support for GPS and 3G mobile broadband.


NEW TOUCHBOOK COMBINES NETBOOK AND TOUCHSCREEN TABLET; PROVIDES THREE TIMES THE BATTERY LIFE AT UNDER TWO POUNDS
PALM DESERT, Calif. March 2, 2009: Always Innovating today unveiled the Touch Book, a versatile new device that works as both a netbook and a tablet thanks to a detachable keyboard and a 3D touchscreen user interface. The Touch Book, previewed at DEMO 09, weighs less than two pounds as a netbook and has a battery life of 10 to 15 hours – three times longer than most netbooks.
"The Touch Book is perfect for these tough economic times because you can use it in so many ways," said Gregoire Gentil, founder of Always Innovating and creator of the Touch Book. "You can use it as a netbook computer, a hand-held game device, or a video player. You can even reverse the keyboard to prop it up on a table in an inverted ‘V'. Finally, because it is magnetic, you can remove the keyboard and put the tablet on the fridge to serve as a kitchen computer or digital frame."
The Touch Book combines the best of open source software and open hardware with a sleek industrial design by designer Fred Bould. The innovative design includes internal USB plugs. "I hate having dongles hanging from my laptop – I often end up disconnecting them accidentally – so we opted to put the USB inside," said Gentil.
The Touch Book is the first netbook featuring an ARM processor from Texas Instruments, resulting in outstanding battery life, and a fan less, heat-and-noise-free system.
According to Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO Conferences, the Touch Book's innovative architecture and industrial design earned it a spot on the DEMO conference stage. "The longer battery life is a boon to netbook users. But the Touch Book's versatility – its ability to function as a netbook as well as a standalone touchscreen tablet – makes it a breakthrough product," said Shipley
The Touch Book is expected to ship in late spring and will start at $299. Advance orders can be placed at http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/store/.

The netbook is dead!?

Ok a netbook is pretty cool but it again is an other dvice in our growing amount of devices. So I have a laptop, I have a phone and I have a netbook and I have to keep all data in sync between the 3 of them. So I think I found the answer browsing the net

My phone and my laptop are at least in sync using exchange for mail and active sync (windows mobile device center) for data (and mal when connected so i do not have to use wireless)

But then my mobile is pretty powerfull and they will become even more in the near future but The screenis small and keyboard isn't the best in the world.

What would be great. If I just have a better screen and keyboard for my mobile when I need it and using it just as a smartphone th rest of the time. So look at this:

REDFLY Mobile CompanionTerminal with a large screen and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop.Easily do email, read attachments, view web sites, and use applications that reside on your smartphone for greater mobile productivity.8-hour battery gives you anytime, anywhere full-screen access to Web2.0 and line of business applications that reside on your companynetwork or the Internet.Unique REDFLY terminal architecture with no OS or data storage lowers TCO, provides data loss protection, and improves corporate security.

What Can You Do With REDFLY?

• Thanks to REDFLY’s large screen and full keyboard, you can use your smartphone more and your laptop less. Most people don’t take full advantage of their smartphone’s high-speed data connection, powerful hardware and robust applications due to the limitations of smartphones’ tiny screens and cumbersome keyboards.



• REDFLY unleashes your smartphone making it easy to type long emails, check attachments, work with spreadsheets, make presentations, view websites, fully utilize CRM applications and connect to remote servers, desktops and applications from anywhere using your smartphone’s data connection.



• Use REDFLY’s two USB ports to connect a mouse, charge your smartphone directly from REDFLY’s powerful battery, or access data on USB Flash drives.



• Need an easy way to make presentations on the road without a laptop? REDFLY has you covered. Just plug a projector or large monitor into REDFLY’s VGA port and use PowerPoint Mobile to run the presentation.• Have you ever tried to look up a contact, respond to a text message, forward an email or just get work done while having a mobile phone conversation at the same time? With REDFLY, you can use both hands on its large screen and full keyboard to fully access your smartphone and get the job done while talking to someone on your smartphone.

The specs:

• 8-hour battery life
• Phone charger (via USB)
• Instant on, always connected
• Bluetooth or USB connection
• 800 x 480 wide-screen• Phone control hot-keys (send, end, soft-key, ok)
• 1 x 6 x 9 inches, 2 lbs.
• VGA and USB connectors
• All data and settings remain on the phone