The future-splosion known as Computex is underway in Taipai, Taiwan this week and in the interest of not inundating Techland with post after post about every single tablet, netbook, and other bits of technological wonderment, I thought I’d include everything in a daily roundup for those of you interested in this kind of stuff. I’ll add more to this post throughout the day as needed.
Tablets!
Netbook manufacturers are gunning for Apple’s iPad, with both Asus and MSI announcing tablets capable of running Windows 7. MSI got the ball rolling with the WindPad 100, a 10-inch tablet powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU with 2GB of RAM and a 32GB solid state drive running Windows 7 Home Premium under a customized touch interface created by MSI. According to Engadget, it’ll be available later this year for around $500. It’s apparently pretty light at 1.7 pounds but it runs a bit on the sluggish side and the screen resolution is only 1024×600. It’s still an early prototype, though.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7nxJoLnQbo]
JKKMobile looks to have gotten a hands-on with an Android-powered WindPad as well, so we can probably expect to see both flavors this year.
Asus announced the Eee Pad, which will be available in 10- and 12-inch models. The 12-inch model, shown above, features a low-voltage Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium, and you’ll be able to buy a keyboard docking station for “more than 10 hours of smooth, continuous computing.”
The 10-inch model, shown above, will weigh just under a pound and a half and measure less than half an inch thick. It’ll run the recently-announced Windows Embedded Compact 7, which is kind of a stripped-down version of Windows 7 that manufacturers can modify and customize in order to run on portable devices. The main focus is on a touch-friendly interface and the ability to seamless synchronize data with a full PC. You won’t be able to install most full-blown Windows applications but the devices will be powerful enough to run full Flash websites, 1080p video, and the like. It’ll probably be more like the iPad than anything else—long battery life, some sort of app store, relatively portable, etc. It’s also being reported that this 10-inch model may be available as an Android tablet as well.
As for both Eee Pads, the pricing looks pretty good at a reported $399 to $499 for the 10-inch model and $599 for the 12-inch model. The bad news, however, is that we apparently won’t see them until early next year.