I’m in trouble. As reported in Engadget, a “real possibility” exists that the $199 Asus Eee PC 701 could go on sale as early as August. Whoops. I’d been giving the impression that $200 machines would show up in late ’07 or next year. Isn’t it Arthur Clarke who in essence warned against making your predictions too safe? Guilty as charged.
A demo 701, as described by Engadget, which got a quick hands-on, seems in “perfect order.” Other tidbits: “While Windows XP is successfully tested on the machine, the final product” will “likely be preloaded with Linux only, but XP driver support will be provided.” Flash memory options could go as high as 32GS—that’s a lot of War and Peaces, even.
In other hardware news:
–“Cell-phone and laptop batteries could last up to 50 percent longer, thanks to a new type of display technology that’s being developed by Clairvoyante, a company based in Cupertino, CA.,” reports the MIT Technology Revew. The Review says “power-saving displays” could “dynamically adjust their backlight and color intensity based on the color and brightness of the content.” How relevant will this be to e-book readers and tablets using LCDs? If the technology is what it seems, could it make LCDs more competitive with E Ink?
–PVI’s flex e-paper has been delayed from mid ’07 to the end of this year, and color e-paper will come out in 2009, according to reports quoted in MobileRead. Meanwhile Reuters as an interesting e-paper round-up.
Related: Earlier TeleBlog items on the eee.
