Actually, the slide-out battery isn't the only change compared to the original Seashell 1008HA (which had a non-removable battery). The keyboard on this 10-inch screen revision has gone chiclet, and there's a new VGA adapter that connects via mini-USB, and hides away in a recess underneath the netbook.

Those other standard specs I mentioned look to include 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard disk, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. And if pink isn't your thing, Fudzilla also has pics of the faux crocodile skin finish in brown.

It's extremely likely this will be one of several Asus netbooks we'll see at CES in January, and also one of many using Intel's Pine Trail-M platform. We already know MSI will have a Pine Trail-based 10-inch touchscreen U150 netbook at the show. Good times. [Hardware Zone (Update: Story removed) via Netbooked]

...should we consider $500 a good deal?

Yes and no. The formfactor is thin and quite small—1.3 inches thick and just 3.2 pounds. That's great. It's a bigscreen netbook...which I guess is a small laptop.

I mean, I'm not arguing this is probably the most promising netbook of all time.

But remember when we were getting countless Core 2 Duo computers from Dell/HP/Etc for like this same price? Yeah, they were chunky machines. But what happened to those computers? Where did they go?

I know I'm not hallucinating here.

Yes, the 1201N looks like a very cool little laptop, and I'm pumped to use an Eee that can handle HD video on a beautiful screen and through tempting HDMI-out. I'm not really upset about the Eee itself. I'm upset that the budget, jack-of-all trades laptop has virtually died as we've seen this artificial performance cap put on the budget laptop market whiled netbooks ballooned to $500-$600. Then again, maybe Ions have enough power that none of us will mourn the loss of cheaper, fatter Core 2 Duos. When reviews hit and the dust settles, we'll know for sure.

Until then, read Laptop's impressions: [Laptop via Netbook Choice via Engadget]

The Eee Keyboard's netbook-like specs include a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16- or 32GB solid-state hard disk, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and battery (no word on its capacity).

The official confirmation backs up DigiTimes' "industry sources" who not only claimed that October looked likely, but estimated the price should be around $400-$500. Asus didn't elaborate on cost, but fingers-crossed that it can keep things that low. And with Windows 7 debuting on October 22, hopefully the Eee Keyboard will ditch XP altogether (though it may have a Mobilin Linux option). [PC World]

Though it cites unnamed "industry sources" (which could mean anything), DigiTimes gets specific for the Eee keyboard's pricing: around US$400-500. The keyboard has a built-in 5-inch display, 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 16/32GB SSD, Wi-Fi and a wireless HDMI dongle.

Meanwhile, the Nvidia Ion-based 20-inch Eee Top ET2002 AIO, and Eee Box nettop are expected to cost about $670 and $300 in September.

The ET2002 has an Atom 330 CPU, 1600 by 900 resolution, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard disk, and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Bonus news: DigiTimes also says HP is expected to launch an Ion-based netbook in September, along with some new ultra-thin netbooks. We're gonna be busy! [DigiTimes]

Price: $499

Verdict: Have you ever wanted to touch Windows XP? No? There's a pretty good reason for that—it's a really crummy touch experience, even with slightly larger-than-usual buttons. It's kind of like trying to poke poke poke around Windows Mobile 5 with a stylus—the onscreen keyboard's small keys gives us pretty horrific flashbacks. (This is at least partly because the T91 is running standard Windows XP Home, not Windows XP Tablet edition.) The "touch optimized" Internet Explorer is a joke. That's okay, Asus knows all of this too, so they've included their own custom interface that sits on top of XP called Touch Gate.

The UI is glossy and glowy and widgety—lighting effects, reflections and giant buttons abound. It can be impressively smooth in action, given how dinky the T91's guts are (1.33GHz Atom Z520). It has its own apps inside, like a flashy photo program, notepad for scribbling, and internet radio. There's widget desktop inside as well. You can move between the Touch Gate homescreen, widgets desktop and Windows XP by flicking left or right. It's confusing and annoying though—why can you only have five programs on the Touch Gate homescreen? To get to other apps, you have to move a slider sitting below to "unlock" the rest of the apps, which pop up in a semi-circle. From there, you can launch one, or trade out the apps that appear on your homescreen.

But let's just cut to it: I'm just not sure why anyone would want this, barring other third party apps you'd install that would unleash the potential of the tablet. (Which is perfectly adequate from a hardware standpoint—the touchscreen is pretty accurate with the stylus after calibration, though the LED-backlit screen suffers from the typical Asus dimness.) With the exception of being able to literally scribble notes and some whizbang photo flick gestures, there's nothing you can accomplish with Asus's custom widget OS overlay you couldn't do on a regular netbook with a regular Windows XP build. And a glorified app launcher for a handful of custom apps + a widget desktop that essentially exist just to lie on top of Windows XP to make touch actually usable aren't exactly compelling reasons to spring for a tablet, especially when more often than not, the experience simply frustrates because the software seems to misinterpret what you intended a tap to mean.

If there's a specific reason you want a Windows XP tablet with a crampy screen that doubles as decent last-gen netbook with a crampy screen, then for $500, the T91 might be your ticket. But if you're just aching for a cheap touchscreen tablet to dick around on the internet, you'd be better off waiting for the $300 CrunchPad. The T91 was much better as the glimmer of hope in our eye at CES.

Asus custom touch interface is flashy without bogging down system too much

Touch is accurate after calibration-provided you use the included stylus

It's half tablet, half last-gen netbook

Windows XP + touch is not the good kind of touch

In the age of 10-inch netbooks, the 8.9-inch screen is weenie-sized

Now bear in mind this is the single-touch, XP-based model that was shown back at CES, not the multitouch version that's been buzzed about as of late. In other words, it's a touchscreen netbook with a versatile hinge. The specs, according to BuyDig, include an Atom Z520 processor clocked at 1.33GHz, a 16GB SSD (plus 20GB of "Eee storage," which I assume to be an SD card is an ASUS online service), 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi. You could do worse on a tablet, spec-wise—and really, for $500, I'm not sure you could do better. [Portable Monkey via Slashgear]

Combined with an extra microprocessor and some custom scripts, the RGB LED illuminates with a different color depending on whether it's email, an IM or a new tweet awaiting one's perusal. With as much extraneous bundled hardware and software bloats most laptops, you'd think someone like HP or Dell would simply integrate such luminescent feedback into their complete line. You'd think. [justblair via lilliputing via CrunchGear]

Not surprisingly, it looks like an elongated notebook inside. One that uses a lot of tape to hold those cables tight in place.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Now the question remains: When the hell is this coming out? [Blogeee—Thanks Martin]

Our goal is to provide products that are better than Apple's.

I actually find this quote refreshing. It's rare that any company admits shortcomings of their products, and it's even rarer that a company points to another company who is doing things better, who can serve as a model.

Of course, Asus probably sees Apple as less of a competitor than Acer, the king of netbooks. More on that little rivalry over at the NYT. [NYT via Engadget]

Previously, we knew about the netbook's touchscreen and hefty £449 ($670) price tag (for an Atom-based netbook, anyway), but the multitouch screen and Windows 7, both demoed in the video, were kind of a revelation.

Dude totally has to work on his MS Paint skills though. You guys and gals can do much better. [JKKMobile via Engadget]

The keyboard houses an entire Atom chipset inside its body which is separate from the touchpanel. But the touchpanel also uses the XP power to run Skype and MSN and serve as a media remote, among other things. Engadget Chinese said it worked pretty well, and if the video is any indication, the 5-inch, 800x480 screen uses a capacitive panel. The keyboard is rumored to launch sometime in June, in either wired or wireless-UWB models, but little is known beyond that. [Engadget]

We'll presumably hear more about the new Eee line once Computex starts tomorrow, but for now we can see the larger Eee will be packing the same guts as the one Mark reviewed except for that mysterious, huge battery. We're not sure if we can believe Asus on that stat, but if it gets even half that, we'll be pleased. [Engadget]

Design
For $429, it's an enjoyable little machine. My demo unit was piano black with the faintest flecks of blue in sunlight. And while that glossy finish will obviously get a bit smudgy, small touches like a beveled-keyed keyboard, tapered edges and integrated lithium polymer battery are reminiscent of computers of another class (yeah, I'm talking about the MacBook Air, pictured below).
Indeed, the Seashell is just 2.4lbs and measures but an inch at its thickest point—a quarter of an inch thicker than the Air. It's probably a bit more functionally thin than OMG thin, but I'm not complaining. The Seashell makes most netbooks of yore look like hardback books with screens.

The keyboard is extremely satisfying to use. It's satisfyingly clicky and each key is easy to find with your fingers. A convenient button controls Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combinations to reserve power, while another button turns off the trackpad when not in use.
As for that trackpad...it's the only obvious design error in the system. While most trackpads are ever so recessed from a laptop's body, the Seashell's doesn't dip at all. Instead, your finger glides over a series of dimples. As you might expect, the sensation is odd at first. But while you'll quickly adjust to feeling of the braille-like design, your fingers will constantly find friction from the netbook's glossy, sticky finish.

The Seashell's sides stay sleek thanks tethered rubber stoppers like you find in some cellphones. They hide two USB ports alone with one each of mic, headphone, mini VGA and Ethernet ports. Notably, Asus stuck one of each of those USBs on each side of the computer, which should prevent the dreaded "there's no room for my second USB device because my first USB device is in the way" conundrum.
The 10-inch (1,024×600) glossy screen? It could be brighter (right now, the brightest setting is just adequate if you're anywhere near a window), but it's colorful and features an impressive angle of viewing. The power adapter? Remarkably small. The annoying mini VGA to VGA cable you'll need to connect to an external monitor? Cleverly hidden within the case's underside.

Like I said, it's a very well-designed classic netbook. If only it came in aluminum, we'd all be freaking the @&#;% out right now.

Performance
The Seashell looks pretty, but internally, it's the same as pretty much every other netbook. Luckily, the computer is running XP, so the Atom N280 processor (without the accompanying, new GN40 video chipset), 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 2GB), 160GB hard drive, SDHC port, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1 will offer a reasonably quick and robust experience for browsing the web and light tasks. But as with any computer in this class, you should expect to lose some framerates during video playback (especially in HD).

But the real reason you should be looking at this performance section is for battery life. Asus promises that their integrated lithium polymer battery lasts 6 hours (keep in mind, this battery is unswappable, though future versions of the Seashell have already been announced that will feature swappable batteries). What does the Seashell really get?

3 Hours, 27 Minutes

That figure was generated through nonstop MPEG4 playback, with the screen at its brightest setting (which I consider the only day adequate setting),Wi-Fi on and Bluetooth off. As I've said before on many occasions, real battery life tends to be about half of claimed battery life across all laptops. Here we see that mantra hold true yet again. Considering that the AC adapter is pretty tiny (not some ludicrous brick that will add a lot of weight to your bag), three and a half hours seems pretty workable, even without a replaceable battery.

Buyability
If you have any Atom netbook, the Seashell's sleeker new form, while attractive, probably isn't so unbelievably beautiful that it's worth forking over the cash for an upgrade. If you're in the market for a new netbook, keep in mind that the Seashell's current $429 price is about $60-$129 more than you could pay for slightly chunkier but similar performing competitors.

Still, I will say, the Seashell will be a very tempting purchase when the price drops a bit in the coming months (which it's sure to, given the ever evolving netbook market and the fact that Asus' Seashell sequels have already been announced). I mean, the thing is just 2.4lbs! Remember back when netbooks were just 2.4lbs? And it's tiny! Remember back when netbooks were tiny?

Asus' Seashell is a quite literal return to form for the netbook industry: Small, light and reasonably inexpensive, the Seashell is easily the most enticing netbook Asus has released since the original Eee.

Impressively slim and light

Great keyboard

Reasonable real world runtime

Screen is just bright enough, but will be too dim for some

Trackpad feels unnecessarily funky

GALLERY







END
It feels like it's from a third generation of netbook—at first you had the crappy 7-inchers, then larger, better models like from HP and Dell, and now you have this, a super-designy netbook which seems to pull more styling cues from Macs than from its predecessors—the Air's tapering, the unibody MacBook's black floaty screen.

The battery is integrated (which lets it be thin, along with a tricky port design and dongle solution), but Asus is promising six hours—besides, who ever carried around an extra battery for a netbook? Also, it's Li-Poly, so it should stand up to more rechargings. I kinda miss the chiclet keyboard that showed up on the last Eee PC, but otherwise, externally, this pretty thing looks and feels great. Internally, it's standard netbook fare: 1GB RAM, Atom N280, etc., and ran XP just like I expected. So thankfully Asus isn't making you pay more than netbook prices for it: $429, or about a $30 premium over its uglier cousin, the 1000HE. You can pre-order May 18 though and get it for $409.

Eee PC 1008HA Seashell

Model: 1008HA
CPU: Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz 667Mhz front side bus
OS: Windows XP Home
Display: 10" LED Backlit WSVGA 1024x600
RAM: 1GB DDR2
Storage: 160GB HDD
Wireless: Draft N WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
Battery: Lithium polymer battery 6 hours battery life*
Webcam: 1.3MP with digital array mic
Ports: VGA, 2 USB, 1 LAN, headphone and mic
Weight: 2.4lbs
Price: $429

[Asus]

I mean, it's a mini convertible touchscreen laptop with GPS and a TV tuner. It's also under an inch thick and weighs two pounds. That's why I'm glad to see that Asus has finally scheduled it for releases (be it in the UK only) this June for £449. We'll see what the localized price turns out to be, because $670 is a little steep for anything packing an Atom processor. [Electricpig]

One name came up again and again. It was the Flip Video, the little camera that changed the industry. While tech giants like Sony, Canon and Nikon were duking it out in the typical, spec-warring dSLR space, a relatively small company named Pure Digital Technologies developed a real piece of crap camcorder called the Pure Digital Point and Shoot. The video quality was absolutely atrocious for 2006. The name was obviously equally as bad.

But as technology improves, we're reaching the era of "good enough."

The Pure Digital Point and Shoot (later renamed the Flip Video/Mino) was pocketable, cheap ($180) and served an important function: It was the perfect YouTube camera. And that, in itself, was enough.

Because of Pure Digital's singular vision and perfect timing, not only did the camcorder quickly steal 13% of the camcorder market causing bigger companies start duplicating the Flip (with only moderate success), but Pure Digital was itself bought out by mega corp Cisco.

However, the Flip Video is not alone in under-performing game changers. You may remember way back to 2007 when a company we all kind of knew named Asus had something planned called the Eee PC.

Its screen was but 7-inches, and its storage was dwarfed by most iPods. But once again, the Eee was small, cheap ($245-$400) and served an important function: It was the near-perfect knock around computer. And that, in itself, was enough to drive the entire computer industry mad overnight.

I'm by no way implying that the technological arms race is over, that companies no longer care about building the fastest machines with the biggest storage and most ridiculous sticker prices. But a number of technologies are finding a new equilibrium of price and performance in the industry by knowing just where consumers are willing to settle.

These are devices that fulfill a functional niche, sure, but do so with the minimum amount of effort possible—keeping a unit price and bulkiness to a minimum. The breakthrough "good enough" product features the price and specs of a third tier product, the build quality of a second tier product and the design aesthetic of a first tier product. The hardware is fully capable, but it's just sort of...cheap...for lack of a better term.

And yes, like Wired, we have to marvel at how magnificent gadgets of yesterday—the ability to record something in HD (HD!)—became just a "good enough" gadget.

Of course, now we must wonder, what is the next Flip or Eee? What's the next technology that can have its bar set ever so lower but actually excite the public with a new, utilitarian form factor in the process?

If you know the answer to that question, you stand to make a good deal of money.

Elan is a Taiwan-based touchpad manufacturer, best known for supplying the touchpads on several Eee PC models. And apparently they've got a well-leveraged patent position on multitouch tech: last year, Elan and touchpad giant Synaptics came to a cross-licensing agreement after an initial injunction in a similar lawsuit ruled in Elan's favor. The case was settled out of court.

As of now it's unclear what Elan is demanding, but it may be a last-ditch effort for a company struggling like so many other Chinese and Taiwanese OEM suppliers. But after their win over Synaptics, Elan is emboldened, thinking their legal position has some weight. Kind of like Afghanistan, maybe, in our little Cold War metaphor—the little fish that proves to be the graveyard of empires.

Whether Elan is being shadow controlled by Palm, or whether Palm execs are currently sending cases of thank-you champagne on the next container ship back to Taiwan, has yet to be verified. [NYTimes]

The 10-inch netbook is ordinary in every other way, loaded with the typical N280 Atom chipset (that's the newer one), 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. And while it may look like a bit like a Mac, from what we can tell, the body is aluminum only around the keyboard, meaning that the underside is still plastic.

The 1004DN is 3.2 pounds (when loaded with a 6-hour, 6-cell battery) and 1.3 inches thick at its chunkiest point. It should begin shipping overseas in April, but there's no word on pricing at this time. [Asus via Electricpig]