Asus Announces iPad Competitor, the "Eee".

[Tyyr]

No I'm not making that name up.
Sauce

Asus ConfirmsTegra 2-Based Eee Pad Slate PC
Thursday, January 28, 2010 - by Shawn Oliver
Asus has already confirmed that it will be entering the booming e-reader market later this year, but one device we haven't heard much about is the purported Eee Pad. In fact, we've only heard the Eee Pad referred to in rumor form, but all of that changes today. Asus' Corporate Vice President, Eric Chen, recently confirmed to members of the press that it's planning to release an Eee Pad in the future, and with the new revolution of tablets upon us, we could see Asus' play getting a lot of attention in the very short future.

He stated that an affordable touchscreen, 3G-equipped device in the form of a tablet would be unveiled later this year, and it will be equipped with NVIDIA's Tegra 2. That's not completely stunner, since we heard rumblings of such a device at CES 2010. However, when asked about Asus' reaction to the iPad, he stated the following:

"A slate? Yes, sure. We have the Eee Pad. Which right now is still under development. Basically, it will have an ARM CPU and a 3G connection so you are always connected to the internet, so just like with the Eee Book you are always connected.

And you can choose to play video or something, when you like. Now the key is how to combine the content together. That will be the key. We have studied how people will want to connect to their content and also how they want to interact with the user interface (UI).

You look at the iPhone, for example. The reason the iPhone is so successful - and call quality is really not that good - is the UI function, I think, is just the best. So this is also the way that we need to improve."

Asus essentially created the netbook craze that we know now. It has proven that it can hold its own as a pioneer in an industry, and there's nothing stopping the company from doing the same thing in the tablet sector. Apple's iPad looks to be just the first of many tablets to come, but it remains to be seen if the public is finally ready for these slate-type devices. Remember, tablets/slates died out years ago, but those weren't nearly as sexy nor as powerful as these. Are you excited?

...does some have a copyright on the name "Slate" or are these people just too dense to use it?

[Nickswitz]

No I'm not making that name up.
...does some have a copyright on the name "Slate" or are these people just too dense to use it?

It's not that. ASUS's line of netbooks are called the Eee series. That's what the name could be. And I knew this would happen once Apple entered the competition.

[Sionnach Glic]

Great. So we have the iPad and the Eee.

Who the fuck is coming up with these godawful names?

[sunnyside]

I'm sure once companies like Dell or HP are putting them out you'll get proper bland computery names.

But for now these things have to make a bit more splash.

I am curious if Apple will have a hit with this one. They've got the fanbase, but tablets have proven unpopular every other attempt to get them to sell.

I worked at a company as a tester for a while that had put out a tablet computer. The thing didn't do so well, so you could get them for work. I got a couple and velcroed them to the side of my cubicle and used them to monitor or run automated things, but I didn't like them overmuch when it came to using them like a computer.

Actually if the price eventually gets way down there I could see doing something like the cubicle thing around the house. Maybe having one mounted on the wall work the audio system.

[Tyyr]

Apparently their marketing departments have all been turned over to the interns.

[Reliant121]

I've seen a lot of websites moaning about the iPad because it lacks flash players or proper USB connections or something. All i know is that they didn't like the iPad. Just a jumped up iTouch really.

[Graham Kennedy]

Ian and I argued over the iPad. Personally I don't see much point to it. It's like an iPhone/iTouch... but way too big to fit in your pocket. So people aren't going to buy these instead of their phone.

So it's like a laptop... but it can only run one thing at once using iPhone-type apps. So it's like a particularly crappy laptop, then.

When I bought the iPhone I knew exactly what I wanted it for - I wanted to combine my phone and iPod into one so I could walk around listening to music and still hear the phone ring, without having to have two gadgets. The on the go web access, GPS, camera, etc, have all proven to be very useful extras.

With the iPad, if you handed me one for free right now I simply can't imagine what I would do with it. Who exactly will buy this and what exactly will they do with it once the novelty has worn off?

[Sonic Glitch]

...does some have a copyright on the name "Slate" or are these people just too dense to use it?

How 'bout just PADD really ... Oh wait.

[Nickswitz]

Ian and I argued over the iPad. Personally I don't see much point to it. It's like an iPhone/iTouch... but way too big to fit in your pocket. So people aren't going to buy these instead of their phone.

So it's like a laptop... but it can only run one thing at once using iPhone-type apps. So it's like a particularly crappy laptop, then.

When I bought the iPhone I knew exactly what I wanted it for - I wanted to combine my phone and iPod into one so I could walk around listening to music and still hear the phone ring, without having to have two gadgets. The on the go web access, GPS, camera, etc, have all proven to be very useful extras.

With the iPad, if you handed me one for free right now I simply can't imagine what I would do with it. Who exactly will buy this and what exactly will they do with it once the novelty has worn off?

The only reason I can really see any use is as an ereader with some extra crap on it... Besides that it's really not that useful.

[sunnyside]

Actually as I understand it the Kindle has been selling reasonably well. So this might be able to hit some sweet spot where it's big enough to read comfortably but small enough you can use it on the subway.

[Mark]

Well, as I understand it the widget is coming out next spring....it's supposed to replace todays larger and bulker electronic handheld devices.

[Lighthawk]

Well, as I understand it the widget is coming out next spring....it's supposed to replace todays larger and bulker electronic handheld devices.

Shit, I can barely get a good grip on half the handheld devices that are out now. If things get any smaller I'm going to need new fingers to use them.

[Tsukiyumi]

Well, as I understand it the widget is coming out next spring....it's supposed to replace todays larger and bulker electronic handheld devices.

s**t, I can barely get a good grip on half the handheld devices that are out now. If things get any smaller I'm going to need new fingers to use them.

My grandpa used a pencil as a stylus to push buttons on calculators. I'm almost in the same boat with cell phones.

[IanKennedy]

Well, it's an iPod and a Web browser but it also runs just about every one of the now 140,000 iPhone applications. But, that's just the start. You can write applications specifically for it. For example apple are going to release Pages, Numbers and Keynote (a word processor, spreadsheet and slide show app). Each of these is compatible with the office equivalent and the existing MacOS versions. You can drive all of them with your fingers. Plus they cost $9.99 each. For someone like my boss who travels a lot (he's currently on a flight to Australia as we speak) and does so to give talks it's seems like a good idea. Plus there's a book reader app free with it. The book reader is also attached to a new apple store, this one selling books (what a surprise). Think of it as iTunes for books. There's also lots of other publishing things coming for the iPad.

As someone said think PADD and this is what you've got. It should also wipe with floor with the top level Kindle, it's cheaper by almost $100. It's colour and simpler and much better styled:



Not to scale, they're about the same size.

[IanKennedy]

Ian and I argued over the iPad. Personally I don't see much point to it. It's like an iPhone/iTouch... but way too big to fit in your pocket. So people aren't going to buy these instead of their phone.

So it's like a laptop... but it can only run one thing at once using iPhone-type apps. So it's like a particularly crappy laptop, then.

When I bought the iPhone I knew exactly what I wanted it for - I wanted to combine my phone and iPod into one so I could walk around listening to music and still hear the phone ring, without having to have two gadgets. The on the go web access, GPS, camera, etc, have all proven to be very useful extras.

With the iPad, if you handed me one for free right now I simply can't imagine what I would do with it. Who exactly will buy this and what exactly will they do with it once the novelty has worn off?

The only reason I can really see any use is as an ereader with some extra crap on it... Besides that it's really not that useful.

People said the same about the iPhone, including Graham.