This post was published 1 year 4 months 24 days ago.
It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.

More interesting Eee news from the rumor mill. Digitimes  is reported the following tidbit, which they culled from unnamed Asustek channel sources

The Eee PC 904 and 905 will adopt Atom processors and the major difference between the two and the previous 901 model is that they feature a bigger keyboard. Asustek is still evaluating whether to make changes to the two models’ battery and storage capacity.

In addition Digitimes is saying that the rumored 904 and 905 will have similar price points to the 900/901 which would put it in the $550-650 US range. Asus has not decided yet if they will then EOL the 900/901 in favor of their chunkier new additions, or keep the models and drop their prices. The latter would make a lot of sense to me, since dropping a 900/901 to $399/499 would ease a lot of the pricing problems the new Eees are facing and likely move an awful lot of new Eees.

If this is a pricing gambit, it is brilliant….but I am not sure that it is.

If it is a way to deal with the complaints of cramped keyboards, I think it is wrong headed. The 10 inch chassis is getting too big to be classed as an UMPC, keyboard or no. Keeping the 8.9 screen would help on power consumption, and price, but not a lot else. Asus would be better off, imho, dealing with the cramped keyboard issue by redesigning and improving the keyboard itself, not just making it larger in a larger chassis.

Hopefully Asus will keep the 900 and 901 in the marketplace as is at reduced prices, showing intelligence, nerve and considerable gamesmanship in a rapidly crowded field. If they lose them in favor of the larger 904 and 905, then they will be continuing down the wrong path.

Also in Eee news, Kamal over at GadgetMix just posted a nice little how to for making the most of your Eee, aimed at new or inexperienced users. He gives some excellent tips, especially about installing the irreplaceable AsTray+. Definetly worth a look.

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).