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Asus Joins Tablet PC Race
WrongSizeGlass writes "Reuters is reporting that netbook pioneer Asustek Computer Inc. has become the latest technology company to jump on the tablet PC bandwagon. The device will be called the Eee Pad, will run on Intel or ARM chips, and use Microsoft's Windows operating system. 'The Eee Pad can display Adobe Flash for the full web experience, has a USB port and a camera,' Asus Chairman Jonney Shih said. Asus did not release pricing details or a potential release date, and did not provide further details on the format or a launch date for the new app store."
TG Daily says it's half baked. "Wasn't booting at all."
But at least there's hope for the people who want yet another Windows 7 tablet. Both of them should be real happy with this - next year. Neither tablet will be ready this year.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Pretty sure if this thing will run Windows, it is not going to be an ARM chip.
I'm sure no one will stoop to the level of calling it a Pee Pad. Nope.
Is it just me or does it seem ridiculous that "our device X supports flash" is becoming a major selling point??
I made an app! Shoutium
And then whimper when they find out Asus has been making Apple products for years.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1042363/asus-apple-building-tablet-pc
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
So, Intel or ARM is still not decided, but that it will run Windows is? Guess that must be WinCE? But why not put Android on it? To make a real alternative to those cheap/underpowered chinese android pads floating around, and give the WePad a run for it's money?
Neither model is expected to hit the market until Q1 2011, with prices tipped at between $399 and $499.
At which point the iPad will have been out for an entire year. Every one else that can will have jumped on the bandwagon. If I *wanted* a *Pad, I'd go and get an iPad. I'm not waiting until Q1 of next year for something.
Reminds me of what PCWorld said about the Windows 7 Phone:
"If this were two years ago, Windows Phone 7 might even be a cutting edge innovation that could set the smartphone world on fire."
Pretty sure if this thing will run Windows, it is not going to be an ARM chip.
There's no reason why a Windows brand operating system can't run on ARM. Just as Windows XP has "wowexec" to run Windows 3.1 apps, and 64-bit builds of Windows 7 have "wow32" to run Win32 apps, perhaps an ARM build of Windows 7 would have "wowce" to run apps designed for Windows Mobile.
I'm sure no one will stoop to the level of calling it a Pee Pad. Nope.
Most of the Wii jokes died down after the first six months.
Asus should remarket themselves as "Snapple", call the device the "iPud" and appoint a new CEO with glasses called "Steve Jibs".
I'm sure if Steve Jibs of Snapple Inc. post some viral videos of the iPud showing its Adobe support, multi-tasking and USB ports, thousands of rabid fanbois would queue up outside Snapple Stores to buy one and part with their hard-earned cash before they had calmed down enough to realise they had been duped, albeit with a device of better capabilities than their iPads.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I was about to say "surprisingly", but then realized that it isn't really that surprising after all: The Eee Pad seems to use Opera as its browser.
Clever signature text goes here.
I really like my Eee's, couldn't ever see myself buying a tablet because I use the keybboard on them so much and a non-tactile keyboard that gets in the way of the application you're typing into doesn't appeal to me much.
However if I wanted a tablet I'd get an Asus T91, virtually the same size as my Eee 900's, with multitouch capabilities on the higher model and the screen rotates round to hide the keyboard, allowing you to use it as a notebook and a tablet.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
By announce a simi-vapor product with no concrete release date or price..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
By the time this comes out, with how things are going Flash may be just a distant memory.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The problem with tablets running "full" operating systems is that Windows, OS X, etc are designed specifically for keyboard and mouse/trackpad interfaces and not touch. Having a multitude of windows on a touch screen where you simply substitute your finger / stylus for input and still requires keyboard input via the on screen keyboard is not an optimal solution. I've used the iPad and windows powered tablets, and while the iPad doesn't do all the things I'd like it to do, the interface is ideal for a touch screen, unlike regular windows 7. Unless Asus is going to invest in a really good touch interface to sit on top of windows, or use android or some other OS designed for touch, this will be a failure.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
A Windows 7 tablet and a Windows CE tablet, both lousy software platforms for tablets. They should be shipping Android, ChromeOS, and MeeGo.
EEE Pad? Not even Linux based? **yawn**.... another "me too". Nothing innovative here. There have been many MS-Windows tablets for many years. There is no reason to think this is anything different.
I hate to say this but in some parts of the UK, "Jobs" (or "Jobbies") mean "turds".
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
For idiots who think everyone speaks English, Shih means stone.
thinks that they can be successful in the market place by appealing to nerds. Hint: nerds are few, they are cheap, and they are high maintenance. You don't make a profit by appealing to this demographic.
Instead of trumpeting flash, usb ports, and processors, you talk about something that adds value to the consumer experience?
These rubbish Windows OS based tablets have been around for years, they've sold poorly (even Bill Gates's predictions were completely wrong) and just have rubbish usability. Why will they sell now?
Why do you think Apple put iPhone OS on the iPad? simple, there is masses of touch screen compatible software for iPhone OS, the UI is great for a touch screen (it was built for one). Apple even redesigned and rebuilt their office tools for the touchscreen.
Microsoft couldn't do any of the above, there's just too many internal squabbles and underhanded tactics at Microsoft. The head of the Office software team refused to support tablets, so Office is painful to use. Windows itself only has a hack of a tablet layer on top of it to support tablets.
WebOS beats the pants off Windows Mobile. I'll hold out for Intel shipping a MeeGo tablet however. N900s are fucking awesome.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Pretty sure if this thing will run Windows, it is not going to be an ARM chip.
It runs on a Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
The OS is Windows 7 Compact Embedded. [May 29]
Tablet-like computing is the future, and although Microsoft's absolute fucking around stalled it for years and forfeited the market to Apple, the outcome is still inevitable. What I'm waiting for is a Tablet PC that finally eliminates the lag when you draw on the screen with a stylus. I want to get rid of the security, storage, and landfill problems inherent with drawing my designs in paper notebooks.
Windows tablets been around for about 10 years. Why do they think putting a desktop OS on a tablet is suddenly going to work?
Really? Is this the best you can do? Do you have anything to say that might sound as though it came from an adult?
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
You need to grow a thicker skin if the mere mention of an electronic device invokes violent feelings in you.
You make it sound like no one ever made any other software for PCs that have utilized other inputs.
A lot of what the iPad does with touch isn't even terribly magical.
It's not the tech, it's the approach. It's just that all the fanboys want to whine about
is the spiffy new gadgets. They certainly are prone to grab you're attention but they
really aren't the most important part. Although it certainly benefits Apple for their
users to fixate on the wrong details.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
If, by big players, you mean players such as Hulu and Netflix, no dice. Not going to happen. They've said so.
Are you new here or something?
Do you want to cut and paste that response and store it in a text file somewhere, because you can use that one a lot on Slashdot!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
You need to grow a thinner skin and/or not be an American/fanboi if you cannot see my play on words with a degree of humour.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
If Google is working on one, I hope they'll get it right and call it the GPadd (Personal Access Display Device
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
You know, I've been watching this story unwind for over a year now. Every time somebody comes out with a new Windows tablet the press comes out with accolades and then in all the comments hundreds of people rant about how they want a tablet - any tablet - as long as it doesn't have Windows. "We have MONEY! Take our MONEY!" Some want the iPad, some want the Tegra2 Android tablet. But manufacturers keep announcing Windows tablet designs that are already in the market that nobody is buying.
It's obvious when you think about it. These PC vendors don't have Internet. You guys are going to have to call them on the phone or send them a fax or maybe pay them a visit in person if you want to talk some sense into them.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Plays EyeTV HD recordings without the need for a realtime transcoding server.
*other transcoding whining deleted*
I hate to call people silly outright, but that wishlist is silly.
Why would you want a TABLET, which inherently needs to be as light as possible with as long a battery life as possible, that plays video that far outstrips the ability of the device to display? It takes far more storage, far more processing to decide, and in the end you get the same video that someone who did take a small amount of time to decode only he gets a device that weighs half as much and has 4x the battery life.
Already the market is addressing the issues of transcoding - any media bought from Apple will work with the iPad directly. The latest EyeTV device already transcodes for the iPad in addition to the larger stream in real time. Any modern media PC can handle the transcoding easily and quickly behind the scenes, and it only ever needs to be done once since HD space is increasingly cheap -so why the fear of transcoding?
You don't want a tablet, you want a desktop in your hands. Which may happen in a few years but obviously you are going to be waiting at least five - while all the rest of us shake our heads and enjoy tablets the entire time. And even then, I'd have to say that I'd still rather have 4x the battery life and transcode on whatever media server I have, since being a fixed box it will always have far more power on tap for the job.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What about those of us who *might* want a tablet if it had a maximum price of $500 and could run what we want to on it?
Jailbroken iPad.
It's here today. You can buy one right now.
No it doesn't run Linux but it does run a variant of UNIX you can compile just about anything for you might want - or of course write your own stuff (and that's even easily done without jailbreaking).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You make it sound like no one ever made any other software for PCs that have utilized other inputs.
For the most part, they have not. You can count meaningful PC tablet software on both hands, probably while eating a hotdog.
The iPad can run around 200k applications written specifically for touch input. Around 5k or so I believe, that target the iPad specifically.
To claim any tablet PC has even a reasonable collection of touch based software you can use out of the gate, is absurd.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wrong details, like usability?
And people who are championing Windows Tablets aren't doing so for some esoteric app that actually has touch support. They're doing so because they want to run all their existing Windows apps. Which won't work so well because they aren't optimized for touch, and because most Windows tablets are basically a netbook with the keyboard ripped off.
Because there may be applications that are available there that are not available elsewhere (and no sufficiently good analogs exist)?
Then the consumer would probably be buying a device that already has said applications, not buying a device in the hopes some MIGHT be made. And software makers will be hesitant to make such software given that Windows tablets now have a strong decade long track record of utter failure, in the face of instance success from Apple. If Windows tablets were some new fresh thing I could see a number of companies taking a gamble on it but as things stand, most companies simply cannot program against those kinds of odds of success (without substantial subsidy from Microsoft, which we may yet see).
Again, depends on whether there is a touch-enabled analog in the first place. If there isn't, I'd rather have a mouse-driven app, which is clumsy but usable with touch, than no app at all.
Not me. I've tried that before, I'd rather just use a laptop to run applications that cannot be bothered to take touch entry seriously. If it's too frustrating to use, there really is no point in having the ability to do so. Bad software is bad software, and does not get used.
Why wouldn't it, if all it takes to reach a new audience (even if small) is a simple recompile?
See the point about badly running software above for what happens when you take a desktop windows app and change the target processor dropdown to ARM and call it a day.
Not to mention, you ignore the ENTIRE chain of development and delivery that takes place in real software. You know, testing, packaging, distribution, support, upgrades, etc. etc. etc?
The only time a "simple recompile" is an acceptable answer is when it's the end user doing the recompiling, and even then it's usually a bit beyond a "simple recompile" even on seemingly similar UNIX systems... it will not fly for commercial software
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The pad running a Windows Operating System, horrible. Couldn't Asus have made a sane decision and go with a Linux distribution and the ability to do whatever one wishes with the software just like a normal Computer.
Windows users (talking the vast mooing herds here) just plain don't care about those things. They only know windows, the stuff they buy says windows on it, windows is the computer is the internet, and the speeds they see are "normal" to them, and gradually getting slower from day one is normal. And once it gets too slow, their computer is "broken" or "worn out" -worn out like it needs new piston rings and bearings worn out, that's what they think and have been led to believe by all the "experts" in the shops they go to- so they go buy a new one. As to apps, enough will be available to keep the bulk of them happy, and enough dev time will be throw at it to get more ported, ARM chip or not. It'll just happen, and it won't matter if it needs six layers of compatibility hooks and it won't matter how buggy it is..see above, they don't know any better so they *don't care*
It's the second most successful propaganda disinformation effort ever devised by mankind. The first is the combination of a fiat currency system combined with income taxes to "pay for government". We have millions of otherwise logical and intelligent rational adults who simply can't see that the combination of a fiat currency system and taxes is about the stupidest way to fund government, and they also don't see the reason for it-it is *the* most effective population control mechanism out there. They just refuse to see how they are politically controlled by these economic machinations-this social engineering- by the top 1%, because they have been conditioned since birth to accept it as "reality" and never even one time stepped back and looked at it neutrally to see it for the ludicrous farce it really is. They will actually argue over the benefits pro and con of graduated tax, flat tax, fair tax, etc, under a fiat currency system. This is like slaves arguing over styles of shackles as being better or worse for their predicament.
These are both cult like behaviors and belief systems. Most people will fall for it forever, all their lives.
Tell the big lie enough, almost everyone will grow to believe it. Advertising works, whether business advertising or political advertising. Brainwashing is a science, and is well developed, and continues to be used, and is more effective on people who have previously succumbed, or as it is put here often "drunk the kool aid". People enter their adult lives having already consumed the kool aid mostly stay hooked and ignorant of the alternate and more real reality forever, exactly the way big business and big government wants them, under their control.
Besides which, even if I wanted to, the cheapest iPad is $499 without sales tax - and because I'm in the UK, I'd have to add sales tax and shipping on top of that if buying from the US, or pay £429 (= $620) for one in the UK.
Hey, the next time you want to bitch about a specific price point, how about using local currency? Someone in the U.S. seeking a device for "$500" would of course assume they would pay more for sales tax. Had you quoted prices in pounds, I would have mentioned refurbished models from the start. Kind of makes you wonder if you are really from the UK after all, your verbiage certainly does not seem English nor would anone I know from there quote a price in U.S. dollars from the top...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've been wanting a cheap tablet pc for years. In Australia, at least, they haven't really existed, because they've been built on a srs laptop skeleton.
I Am Not American, and your kilometres may vary.
the eeek-pad.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Some of the commentors here seem to be under the impression that the iPad is the first tablet ever.
Asus isn't late to the game, YOU are for not realizing this game has been going on for almost 10 years now.
The point of a tablet PC isn't to do everything.
expandfairuse.org
What's a "Windows"? I just use the Facebook.
A lot of things that you do on the Facebook require the Flash Player, and the free version of Flash Player needs the x86.
No it isn't.
If you could see past your fanboy induced cognitive dissonance for a second and realise that yes, people want to view media without having to have it transcended by another device or server.
No, if I need a tablet, I need it to do what I want it to do. All other priorities are secondary to this basic goal.
The only real need I have for a tablet in my life at the moment is as a field service data entry unit (GIS and Geology). This niche is currently filled by US$6000 ruggardised laptops/tablet hybrids but seeing as I cant run any decent mapping applications on an Ipad, it's completely useless. So we are using Windows, ArcGIS and a 6K laptop. If you give me a 1K tablet that can run ArcGIS at it's most basic level it would be perfect as I don't need to do image processing in the field, but I do need to enter data on a map.
I don't like DRM so I will not buy media from Apple, not that they have much available in my country anyway so I want a device that will play my current .avi files which include a sizable, already converted DVD collection. Other personal media players produced by the likes of Archos and Cowon (the D2 for example) have no problems with decoding almost any video I've thrown at it on the fly. Other tablets already have this one done and dusted.
Now after this you've conveniently ignored all the GP's other points, here they are again.
Good point, even SD cards are a good alternative. I rarely use more then 32 GB storage at any one time for media but I can see the need for hundreds of GB's.
My laptop has an SMB share, so does my media centre. My desktop doesn't (ironically, the only Windows box out of the three) plus there are the computers at work. I'd like to add MSC to the GP's list. I'd like to manipulate files on the device over USB on any box I choose to plug it into including my Linux boxes.
Yes, I tunes is a buggy piece of crap on Windows and doesn't even work on Linux. I have multiple computers in my life. Most people have multiple computers in their lives these days, my media is spread out on my media centre, laptop and desktop. Not to mention the media I might want to take to another persons computer. Being tied to a single PC that must be a Mac or Windows is unacceptable.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Watch KDE. A decade of lean UI experimentation, a multi-platform consistency, a massive player in Nokia, a great community that's willing to accept great risks.
Yo Microsoft! Internet! Telephony! Data Redundancy! It's not like Apple were quick to the groove.
We exist in a period of extravagant change, and some still think that just because a couple of companies have existed 30 years and have a current duopoly on UI design it's gonna stay that way? Seriously folk, we're just beginning.
And Free/Libre Software is the platform of our future.
What, you think Google are going to be significant in 50 years? Distribution will rule, and Google will only survive as a handy brand-name for lean advertising.
And we'll thought-shape our wishes to clouds of dreaming robots.
science in government
Can I ask, what the devil is so important about taking SD Cards?
I just dont get it, if you want to use an SD card...why not plug in the adaptor? How often do you use SD cards? Is it really worth having a gaping hole on the side/top/bottom of your sleek device?
I'm sure there are genuine professionals who are constantly...taking photos and need to connect to a "computer" several times a day...but cmon, how common is this?
I never understood why people BASHED Apple for so long about having no SD card slot on their computers...then when the MacBook Pro got one, it was a fairly big deal!
My 27 inch iMac has these two awful looking GASHES on the right side, an Optical Drive and SD Card slot. What the hell am I meant to do with them? Who uses discs anymore, apart from the annual OS update...? Ok, I've used my DVD drive on this iMac exactly 213 times....to rip my 213 DVDS using HandBrake. Why the hell would I want to walk over to a bookcase full of pieces of plastic, rummage about, find the correct one...eject the previous occupant...
Again, like the people who DEMAND Apple put an SD slot on iPhones...
Whats the big deal with demanding ports?
---
I'm serious, lets say you're the typical person who dabbles with having a personal website. Why would you want to use Flash? Its slow, annoying, takes over your computer, causes crashes (on my Macs, Windows computers...) and is generally a big pain to anyone who uses it.
Apart from Flash Videos (.flv)...and annoying banner ads...I dont really think I see Flash on *ANY* website...apart from those annoying promotional sites (for a new movie etc) where you have to wait half a minute for the thing to load, and then you just get some annoying little animation behind the "menu buttons".
Back in the 90's I played about with Flash at High School...but now?
Flash *SUCKS*. It should go the way of the Blink tag.
---
How does the Huffington Post come up with details a /. contributor couldn't? Oh, yeah, he didn't rtfa. Anyway, there are a few examples of DIY tablets if you want to go through the effort, such as the Carbon and a Shanzai Tablet (btw, reading the root article translation of this is funny at times if you have brain leakages).
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Yeah but will it run Crysis?
The difference here is that Asus is about to bring forth a tablet PC that costs less than $200.
This is precisely what I have been waiting for. I want an electronic appliance that I can write in like a notebook with infinite paper, for school and for work.
I deal extensively with mathematical, physics, and engineering equations, so I want to write with a pencil rather than a keyboard.
For $200, I am there. This is exactly what I want.
If I can store PDF versions of my textbooks on it, even better.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
>Disregard any tablet running a desktop OS; they've been on the market for years and nobody wants them.
I don't care what the OS is.
What I want is an electronic notepad that I can write on just like a traditional notepad. But I'm not going to pay $1500 or more for one.
Now $200? Now you're talking.
If I can legibly write on it, this thing is a student's dream. One notebook for all your classes. Essentially infinite paper. The ability to email your notes. If it records audio, even better.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.