Asus Launches Touchscreen Eee Desktop

Barence writes "Asus has launched an Eee-branded 15.6" touchscreen desktop PC as a budget rival to HP's TouchSmart. Available for pre-order now on Play.com for £399.99 ($749), it shares much of the same specification as the Eee PC, but with a larger 160GB hard disk. Interestingly, it's listed as coming with XP installed, so we'd guess Asus will be using some sort of proprietary touchscreen interface — yet the image on the site clearly shows Linux on the screen, which may be a better bet for an easy-to-use touch system."

Touchscreen??

[Finallyjoined!!! (1158431)]

Why oh why would anyone want a touchscreen? It's hard enough to make out stuff on my flat screen, through the greasy fingerprints, as it is. (Have to hot-desk)

It would be even worse after Marmite on toast :-)

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[pembo13 (770295)]

Why are you touching your screen if you don't have a touchscreen?

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[hansamurai (907719)]

People come to my cube all the time and poke my screen to point things out. Quite annoying.

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[Finallyjoined!!! (1158431)]

My point exactly, and it's even worse when you have to sit at the desk previously occupied by someone with a predilection for jammy doughnuts and a nasty habit of running their fingers over the screen. :-(

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[lysergic.acid (845423)]

maybe Asus should sell a Don't-Touchscreen Eee Desktop.

just design the monitor so that any direct physical contact with the LCD display area produces a mild (or not so mild) electric shock--the greasier the finger, the higher the current.

perhaps they can even license the technology which Honda has apparently built into my car door. every time i get out of the car and grab the metal frame of the door to shut it, i get a nice jolt of static electricity. it's gotten to the point where i'll only put my hand on

Re:Touchscreen??

[aplusjimages (939458)]

no because then there would be ball smears all over the screen.

Re:Touchscreen??

[couchslug (175151)]

"Why are you touching your screen if you don't have a touchscreen?"

I'm trying to wipe off the collateral damage from my...surfing habits.

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[Kangburra (911213)]

Where's the +1 Eww moderation??

Re:Touchscreen??

[physicsphairy (720718)]

It would be even worse after Marmite on toast :-)

Incorrect.

After you've been forced to eat Marmite on toast, nothing is worse.

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[KermodeBear (738243)]

I agree 100%. I do not see the point of a touch screen for home or business use. The screen will quickly get smudged up and look gross and nasty and require constant cleaning. Of course, I suppose you could wear gloves, but how silly would it be to have to put on The Computer Gloves every time you wanted to look at something? More chances to scratch the display as well, and don't get too excited - you may push your computer right over.

Hampster Ball!

[Atheose (932144)]

Well how are you supposed to mount that inside a hampster ball? [xkcd.com]

Touch Screen interface

[Widowwolf (779548)]

"Interestingly, it's listed as coming with XP installed, so we'd guess Asus will be using some sort of proprietary touchscreen interface -- yet the image on the site clearly shows Linux on the screen, which may be a better bet for an easy-to-use touch system" Honest question, not flaming: Ok, so if its a proprietary touchscreen interface, why would it be so much easier on Linux then XP

Re:Touch Screen interface

[exley (221867)]

Honest question, not flaming: Ok, so if its a proprietary touchscreen interface, why would it be so much easier on Linux then XP

I had the exact same thought. I have a convertible tablet laptop, and sorry, but the tablet support and applications under XP and Vista are much better than what I've seen for Linux. In fact, I have Linux installed on this laptop (as well as tablet/stylus support and apps) but never use it. Unless if things have changed or I've missed out on something with Linux, I don't see why things would be much different for touchscreens as well.

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[Repossessed (1117929)]

X recently integrated a touch screen interface, so yes, things are a bit different. I can't say how well it works though.

Re:Touch Screen interface

[TheNetAvenger (624455)]

Interestingly, it's listed as coming with XP installed, so we'd guess Asus will be using some sort of proprietary touchscreen interface

I think this statement is also pulling straws.

A) An XP interface would NOT be any harder than a freaking mouse driver.

B) TabletPC XP already has multi-touch driver interfaces, that go back to 2003 from several vendors. Yes Apple Fans, WindowsXP TabeltPC devices existed back in 2003/2004 with multi-touch, far before any iPhone or multi-touch trackpads from Apple.

Crap like this is why Apple's marketing works so well, it gets repeated no matter what the truth is.

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[Colonel Korn (1258968)]

Interestingly, it's listed as coming with XP installed, so we'd guess Asus will be using some sort of proprietary touchscreen interface

I think this statement is also pulling straws.

A) An XP interface would NOT be any harder than a freaking mouse driver.

B) TabletPC XP already has multi-touch driver interfaces, that go back to 2003 from several vendors. Yes Apple Fans, WindowsXP TabeltPC devices existed back in 2003/2004 with multi-touch, far before any iPhone or multi-touch trackpads from Apple.

Crap like this is why Apple's marketing works so well, it gets repeated no matter what the truth is.

Thanks. I was insisting to a friend a couple months ago that another friend of mine had a multitouch Windows tablet of some sort long, long before Apple had anything of the sort. Now I can easily find the wiki pages to send to him to prove it.

This is pretty close.

[dbc001 (541033)]

This is pretty close to the one thing that my home network is missing.

I'd love to have a little wall-mountable computer that could play videos, mp3s, and interact with my network.

No need for a fast cpu - i'm not going to do any work standing there; or play any games. But with a webcam and Skype or IM, it would make a great phone replacement. Maybe a photo screensaver that pulls from a network folder or flickr account.

Basically what I'm looking for is a larger (and faster) version of the Nokia n800. I'll definitely buy one when they get the size and price right.

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[qoncept (599709)]

They're touch screens. Quit looking at the picture and imagine what is a more direct competitor.

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[Steauengeglase (512315)]

Tertiary-E?

Re:One thing I've always wondered...

[Drooling Iguana (61479)]

According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], it's pronounced like the letter "e", but that's stupid so I just call it the Triple-E.

Re:One thing I've always wondered...

[vux984 (928602)]

That's a surprisingly common mistake. its "a Triple-E" not "an Triple-E". You always alter the article (a or an) based on the sound of what you are actually saying.

  a Liquid Crystal Display
  an LCD ("ell-see-dee")

  an AAA member (pronouncing each letter: ay-ay-ay)
  a Triple "A" member

As for the eee, its pronounced as a regular long 'e',
or 'eee' is to 'eee PC' what 'i' is to 'iPod'

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[tkw954 (709413)]

That's a surprisingly common mistake. its "a Triple-E" not "an Triple-E".

It's "it's", not "its".

Re:One thing I've always wondered...

[tkw954 (709413)]

And punctuation marks go inside the quotation marks.

According to wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

The traditional convention in American English is for commas and periods to be included inside the quotation marks, regardless of whether they are part of the quoted sentence, while the British style places them in or outside of the quotation marks according to whether or not the punctuation is part of the quoted phrase. The American rule is derived from typesetting while the British rule is grammatical (see below for more explanation). Although the terms American style and British style are used, it is not as clear cut as that because at least one major British newspaper prefers typesetters' quotation (punctuation inside) and BBC News uses both styles, while scientific and technical publications, even in the U.S., almost universally use logical quotation (punctuation outside unless part of the source material), due to its precision.

Since I'm not American, and Slashdot is (loosely) a scientific or technical publication, I think I'm justified in putting my comma outside the quotation marks.

Unit Conversion

[onkelonkel (560274)]

For us SI/metric users, a quick question: how many passles in a shitload?

Re:Unit Conversion

[wonkavader (605434)]

Six.