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Asus Reveals the Eee Keyboard
El Lobo writes "Asus' success with its Eee line of netbooks might have come as a surprise, but the company is now determined to expand the Eee brand into every possible niche and form factor. Case in point: the insanely cool Eee Keyboard, which will surely bring a smile on the faces of those who remember the glory days of the home computer. Described as a fully functional PC with inset Qwerty key arrangement, the keyboard has a 5in touch screen that displays a suite of bespoke media controls or a Windows desktop."
Ahh. Atari 600, I pine for thee.
There may be no "I" in team, but there's also no "F" in way.
This is comparable to a mini pc tucked under the TV with a wireless keyboard and/or a harmony control. The battery life and software UI on the touchpad will be critical to the success of this product.
I am glad I kept my Osborne 1 disks - I can now run those programs in full screen mode under cpem80.
Squirrel!
Kind of like the EEE itself, actually. You've been able to get computers built into keyboards from specialist suppliers for ages now(not to mention the pantheon of fondly-remembered early systems in the form factor) but they aren't inexpensive and tend toward slightly dull, legacy heavy designs, which is appropriate given the usual customers for such things; but not really exciting.
This little guy, if it ever makes it to market, should be great fun to play around with(particularly if the secondary screen widget is reasonably open to hackers and third party devs). Good looking, probably fairly cheap, no doubt fairly basic specs; but enough for many purposes. I like it.
Humm. Now they need to add a USB hard drive that also has a USB Hub in it so that I can add a second USB hard drive and the a printer :)
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Everyone's channeling Steve Jobs' these days.
So now you have a lousy keyboard you can't replace with a decent one. It's bad enough on my laptop, but at least there's an excuse for lowering the form factor of the keys way too far... here, there's simply no logical reason for it other than style.
Yep, it's Apple style all right. If it doesn't come with OS X, why put up with the abuse?
"...much like many home computers from the days Back To The Future was cool".
Oh geez! I missed the memo. Back to the Future isn't cool any more? Man I'm getting old!
Anyone else read the headline and think
"Finally, a new/good keyboard for the EEE netbook."
I already own a computer of a similar form factor. It's kitted out with a state of the art CMOS 6502 processor running at 2 MHz and a unified graphics architecture with 32K of main memory and 32K of PROM based storeage (UV erasable in about 20 minutes or so). Not only that, but it has every expansion port you might expect: parallel, TTL, composite and UHF video, RS-423, analogue, the CPU bus (just for good measure), econet (TM) networking and the innovative Tube(r) interface. Not only that but it also comes with builtin support for both audio tape and *double sided* 5.25 inch floppy disks.
Programs are available for download every night, for free, over the air with a compatible teletext input interface.
Frankly, there's no contest.
Funny anecdote: I remember reading a news story about a burglary at a school which had recently upgraded to the new, shiny Archimedes, replacing their old BBCs. The theives broke in and stole all the keyboards, not realising that the computer was now in a separate box.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I can only imagine the confusion this will bring to non-Asus tech support around the world:
Tech: How can I help you today, ma'am?
Little Old Lady: Well, I haven't been able to print my letter using the printer I purchased from you, although I can print other documents just fine. I turned my keyboard off and then back on, just like my son taught me...
Tech: You mean your computer, ma'am? You turned your computer off and then back on?
Little Old Lady: Isn't that what I said?! Well, anyways, I'm looking but I can't seem to find my letter, now.
Tech: Ma'am can you please describe what the screen looks like?
Little Old Lady: Which one? There's a copy of the letter that I haven't been able to print on the keyboard right now. And there's just a blank document open on the monitor.
Tech: There's a copy on the keyboard but you haven't been able to print it?!! How did it get onto the keyboard, ma'am?
etc...
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
It's got USB ports, so you can easily add a second keyboard for some marathon sessions of two-player Notepad!
This guy's the limit!
This brings up fond memories of back when the keyboard WAS the computer. I remember being a REALLY young kid (probably 7 or 8), and seeing a regular IBM/PC keyboard in the store for $35. Since the only computers I'd ever seen back then were Commodores, TI-99/4a's, Apple's, and Tandys, I perceived this as a great deal since I thought that that keyboard was a whole computer. I remember begging my mom to buy it for me since I wanted a computer so bad and it was only $35. Thankfully, she didn't get it. Man I'd have been disappointed if I'd have gotten that thing home and tried to connect it to a TV :).
Not much later I ended up getting a Commodore 64 :).
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
it already does wireless display -- ultra wideband wireless HDMI.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
It doesn't look like much use as a laptop due to the tiny screen in an awkward place and lack of cover for the keyboard. A three hour battery life means it's not much use as a wireless keyboard. I suppose as a desktop PC it would be OK, but then why have the tiny additional screen and battery? They just make it larger and more expensive than it needs to be. Ditch the screen and battery and it might make for a cheap, compact desktop PC, but as it is I just don't see the point. On the other hand there are plenty of things I don't see the point of that are hugely popular, so what do I know?
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
Wouldn't it be better if the media center itself were a plain, small and silent box (like the Apple TV) to which this neat keyboard could be connected wirelessly?
They already do one!
The Eee Box is a small, plain, (almost) silent PC with wifi that comes with a mounting bracket so you can bolt it to the back of your flat monitor or TV via the four VESA mount holes.
Eric Baird
It's more like the VIC-TV, a 1983 Commodore CES prototype. Picture at Secret Weapons of Commodore pages:
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/supervic.html
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Or maybe you could use it to play games on... in which case wouldn't you be better served by any of the current game consoles equipped with a wireless controller? One more thing... if you've got a built-in wireless HDMI for streaming video to a largescreen TV... what the fsck do you need a crappy 5" LCD screen for??? Sure, this is a cute toy, but what does it enable the average user to actually do better than what they are using now?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
FTA:
... and then they built the supercollider.
problem solved.
Seriously unless you plan on using this thing on the go there's no reason to rely on a battery. And it's not much of a system for on the go computing.
The only reason I don't like laptops is because if the screen goes out you're screwed. My wife's laptop is perfectly functional minus the screen. Fortunatly it has a TV out so it's used to watch Netflix on the TV. This keyboard PC is something that for the right price may be worth getting to replace the old and busted laptop to serve that purpose and be useful for other things as well.
I don't really want to pay $99 for a dedicated Netflix box but if it could be used as a regular PC as well then that's more reasonable.
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