Tech Olive

Hot on the heels of Intel‘s release of newer-gen Core processors, Asus says that they’re set to raise quotes on their motherboards. Chewei Lin, general manager of the motherboard division at Asus, said the increase isn’t due to greed or taking advantage of the new Sandy Bridge CPUs, but rather to cope with the labor shortage in China, the NT dollar’s appreciation and higher material costs (copper mostly). However, Lin continued on saying that this will hardly affect everyday consumers and DIY system builders since prices have already been on the rise recently. It mostly affect OEMs and their contracts with motherboard makers like Asus.

via [DigiTimes]

Image Credit: jepuy

CES 2011 has now come and gone and what a week it was! While the show officially started on Thursday, companies were already announcing and unveiling new products as early as Monday, and since I didn’t cover everything that happened under the Las Vegas Convention Center roof, I decided to sit down and reflect back on the week, as well as catch up on stuff that I missed.

After the break, I’ll be recapping some of the best in PC products that were shown at CES and give you my prediction on what this year will have in store for us based on what we saw at CES 2011.

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Bigfoot Networks, makers of high-performance ‘Killer’ network cards, have announced a partnership with motherboard manufacturers MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS. The result of this partnership is, of course, the inclusion of Killer network card technology as onboard networking hardware on new motherboards, including Gigabyte’s new G1 Killer series motherboards and ASUS’ ROG Rampage III Black Edition motherboards. We even saw some details about future MSI integration, but no models were mentioned by name. No details on pricing or availability were announced.

With Bigfoot Networks also having recently announced plans with VisionTek to include Killer networking technology, it’s becoming easier and easier to get your hands on a fantastic Killer network card.

[MSI Press Release, Gigabyte Press Release]

Asus has finally officially unveiled it’s Eee Slate EP121, and for a tablet, it’s more than quite impressive. While the device has been teased in the past by the company, details and pricing are finally available for the looking over. On top of running Windows 7, it’s got a Core i5-470M processor, 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a 64GB SSD, and a 12.1-inch IPS capacitive display at 1280 x 800. It’s also sporting HDMI-out, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, 802.11n, and a front-facing camera.

The Eee Slate EP121 will be available later this month starting at $1,000.

UPDATE: The tablet just showed up on Amazon for pre-order starting at $999 for the 32GB model and $1,099 for the 64GB model. Who’s breaking out the plastic?

via [Engadget]

During an early press conference at Computex 2010, Asus has finally unveiled the Eee Pad EP101TC and EP121, as well as the Eee Tablet. The EP101TC will be a 10-inch pad that runs Windows Embedded Compact 7 (which offers more cloud integration) and is just 12.2mm thick and weighs 675g. The EP121 will be a 12-incher that will run Windows 7 Home Premium and be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor, as well as offering a webcam and USB from what we hear. Both models are expected to hit the market as early as Q1 2011, with prices said to be between $399 and $499.

The Eee Tablet is quite an interesting device. It’ll have a non-backlit monochrome LCD display (not E-ink) that will have a 2,450 DPI touchscreen input sensitivity. There will also be a 2-megapixel camera, USB, a microSD card slot, and a 10-hour battery life. Asus is targeting this towards students as a digital notebook, if you will. The Eee Tablet is expected to arrive in this September and priced between $199 and $299.

View the press releases after the break.

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It’s officially here, folks. We knew it was already put up for pre-order on Amazon, but it wasn’t until today when Asus actually launched the EeeKeyboard. After its first showing at CES 2009 and a total of five delays, Asus has published an official press release stating the release of the all-in-one keyboard.

[Press Release]

This is one of the most confusing technology brands as far as pronunciation. We can never seem to get a solid confirmation on how to pronounce “Asus.” We’ve heard several different employees pronounce it differently, which confuses the hell of out us, so we decided to leave it up to you on how the readers want Tech Olive to pronounce the mysterious word. Vote and discuss!

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It seems that Asus is true to their word with their late April release date on the EeeKeyboard because the all-in-one device is now available for pre-order on Amazon for $599. It’ll include an Intel Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD, 5-inch 800 x 480 multitouch display, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, HDMI, a UWB receiver and three USB 2.0 ports, all topped off with Windows XP Home.

[Amazon via Netbooked]

Remember the HD-capable Eee PC 1005PR we told you about last month? It’s finally up on Amazon for pre-order. For $400, you can get a netbook capable of playing HD video, thanks to the Broadcom Crystal HD decoder and the 1366×768 display. No official word yet on when the 1005PR will begin shipping, but B&H Photo, who also has the 1005PR up for pre-order, says that its approximate arrival is this month, which means we should see it anytime.

via [Netbooked]

It’s about fraggin’ time. Engadget is reporting that Asus has confirmed they will be shipping their long-awaited EeeKeyboard at the end of April. Sadly, that’s all we have.

It’s pretty hard to trust Asus after they gave the EeeKeyboard numerous delays over the past year, but I guess we’ll take their word for it like we do every time. We’ll have more details as they arrive.

via [Engadget]