What's new in the Eee PC rumour mill?  Well lately news has been going 'round that not only will Asus' Eee PC be sporting bigger screens and wimax technology, it will now also apparently come pre-installed with a touchscreen.  That's right, no need to hack it yourself anymore.  Well that is until we hear it officially announced of course.

Unofficially:
http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20080117PD214.html

The news from Asus at CES 2008 is that the next generation of Eee PCs will have WiMAX technology and feature screen sizes of 8 inches and 8.9 inches.

8-inch prototype 

 8.9-inch measurements

For more info:
Translated from chinese
jkkmobile

In case you haven't heard, Asus will be releasing a line of official accessories.

These include mice (in all colours including white, black, Blush Pink, Sky Blue and Lush Green), headphones, spare adapters, and a reported 6-cell battery.

See official site: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm#acc

So far only the spare adapters can be found at the ASUS eStore (do a search using the term "eee").  These are available in black and white.

This has been an exciting week for the eee pc community. Firstly, there has been the release of the new coloured 2G Surfs, which (until now) we've only seen glimpses of in the Asian markets.

Image source: eeeuser.com

You can find them at Newegg, along with their brand new supply of 8Gs!

With ASUS's announcement that Eee PC sales have exceeded their expectations and have reached 350,000 units, we shouldn't be surprised that EEE users have invented different uses and created some very neat hacks, mods, and tweaks.

Some really neat ones are:

• Running OS X on the Eee
  
  With 92 comments, it looks like there's a lot of interest in this modification. Maybe it'll plant a seed into Apple's head and get them thinking about producing a similar product. Not sure if that'll be a good idea or not.

• Running Vista on the Eee!
  
  Who would have thought?!

• Adding a touchscreen to the Eee!
  
  A very natural upgrade to consider since the Eee PC is all about compactness. Much better than the existing touchpad and annoying button, I'm sure.

If sales of the Eee PC continue to grow this holiday season, we'll surely be seeing more cool stuff created by the user community into the next year. Until then, enjoy your EEE's & happy holidays!

References:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20071220PD213.html
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/olpc-killer-round-2/asus-eee-pc-2g-surf-launches-eee-pc-8g-now-available-at-newegg-334308.php

According to Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSTP30697020071011) Jonathan Tsang, president of sales and marketing at Asustek has reported his company's intention to distribute the Eee PC to major retailers Best Buy and Newegg.com.

Continue to keep your eyes open.

After many delays, ASUS has finally released its Eee PC.

I got a nice little e-mail from ASUS with the subject: ASUS Eee PC Global Launch.

They have actually updated the Eee PC official web page (http://eeepc.asus.com/en/).  You can find the news release at http://eeepc.asus.com/en/news101612007.htm although the information is nothing new.  What's new on the web page is information on the Eee PC models.

There are 4 Eee PC models: Eee PC 2G Surf, Eee PC 4G Surf, Eee PC 4G,  and Eee PC 8G.

These are the specs:

For more info see http://eeepc.asus.com/en/product.htm

Its awful that ASUS has been so quiet on its products when everyone has been eagerly looking for any scrap of news on the Eee PC.  Luckily it looks like they're shaping up a bit since according a Crave blog post at http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9783702-1.html, ASUS has partnered with a new PR agency.

Hopefully we'll be able to get our first glimpse of the elusive Eee PC.  The article mentioned that there are three models available for pre-order already and that they should be shipping in early October, which is just about where we are at the moment.

The three models are:

Asus Eee PC 700
7" (800x480) Internet PC
2GB Flash Storage (No HD)
256MB RAM (upgradeable)
Black only

Asus Eee PC 700
7" (800x480) Internet PC
2GB Flash Storage (No HD)
256MB RAM (upgradeable)
Webcam built-in
Sleeve case Included

Asus Eee PC 701
7" (800x480) Internet PC
4GB Flash Storage (No HD)
512MB RAM (upgradeable)
Webcam built-in
Sleeve Case Included
White or Black Color

They range in price from $259 to $399 and are offered at allasus.com

According to a report from engadget the release date for the ASUS Eee PC seems to have been pushed back.  ASUS originally quoted a non-specific target of August but unfortunately it may be mid-September to early October until we'll be able to snag one.

Reference: http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/03/asus-eee-pc-possibly-delayed/