Asus Launches Eee PC T91, a Touch-Screen Tablet Netbook 205
MojoKid writes "Asus today launched yet another addition to their Eee PC netbook product offering. The Eee PC T91 is unlike any Eee PC we've seen before, primarily because the screen can be spun around and flipped down in the style of a tablet. This so-called 'netvertible' sector is still in its earliest stages, making the T91 one of the first netbooks available that also doubles as a full-fledged tablet PC. Unlike the Eee PC 'Seashell' line, which is largely just a sleeker take on the tried-and-true Eee
PC netbook, the T91 takes a completely different approach to computing. Its 8.9" resistive touchscreen literally puts a new spin on the netbook and enables a new usage model."
Does it run... (Score:2, Insightful)
Does it run GoogleOS?
I'm still waiting... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm still waiting... (Score:4, Insightful)
I couldn't agree more. Using a trackpad is like trying to use a mouse with a broken arm swaddled in plaster. you're lucky if you can get the pointer 1/3 of the way across the screen without reseating your finger, and at higher sensitivities it's even more of a cumbersome pain to use.
the T91 takes a completely different approach.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Does it? Does the T91 take a completely different approach to computing? Really? What is this marketing fluff?
It's a touchscreen. We've seen that. It spins around. We've seen that (GRiD 2260 anybody? Ruggedized convertable laptop from 1992. Incidentally, only eBay auction I ever got screwed on, but it was resolved) It's small. Damn sure we've seen that. Were touchscreen laptops ever that big of a deal? They were The Next Big Thing a few years ago but never got the impression people liked them that much.
Maybe I'm not 100% clear on what 'a completely different approach to compting' looks like (why I'm here, doing what I'm doing, and not out buying my new car for the day), but I'm pretty sure the T91 isn't it.
Re:Does it ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because this is more portable and power efficient?
Re:Does it ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why bother? Because it has a touch screen?
Give me a real keyboard and pointing device over a touch screen any day of the week. Use an iPhone (non-Apple-fanbois only, please) or another touchscreen phone like Samsung Instinct and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Garbage. They're just incredibly frustrating to work with (I know, I know, you'll get to used to it. What if I don't want to?)
I can pick up a Dell Mini 10 for under $500 that has the same processor and memory configuration, 4 times the SSD space, a bigger screen with the same screen resolution (or, for an extra $50, one that does 1366x768), everything else being comparable. Oh, and this one actually comes with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-loaded instead of that Microsoft proprietary garbage.
It's the price. (Score:5, Insightful)
>Is it relevant because they shrunk the overall thing and now its a "netbook" ?
No, it's relevant because it's $500 instead of, say, a $2000 Fujitsu Lifebook.
Re:Weak screen mount? (Score:3, Insightful)
Thats one of the things i love about this [alwaysinnovating.com], the screen comes of entirely and i assume/hope that you can just flip it over entirely so there is no joint to break.
Re:Does it ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Even from an embedded perspective such as the beagleboard [beagleboard.org] using the TI OMAP3530 SoC (PowerVR SGX530 + ARM Cortex-A8) [wikipedia.org].
From what I've experienced you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a chance to the closed source graphics libraries in order to utilize the SGX530 graphics controller and those libraries aren't quite stable either. If you look on youtube for demonstrations of the beagleboard and PowerVR's SGX530 controller you'll notice those who posted those videos are all TI employees or associates since they're the only ones who have easy access to such libraries at this time.
Of which I find to be a huge disappointment since the beagleboard developers are all showing off Linux on the board, yet give no love to the community to actually give them a helping hand. I have since figured out that the beagleboard project isn't very well organized when it comes to getting the thing up and running. Blackfin's uclinux community project is far more organized and at least gives you a good starting point by using their distribution. Beagleboard it's just references to a bunch of distributions of which have no actual documented use with beagleboard.
OK enough of my ranting, sorry.
Re:Does it ... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, is very Linux-unfriendly. So I won't buy such crap. It's sad that we have lost a company that supports linux, fortunately there are others.
Re:Does it ... (Score:4, Insightful)