14 DAY TRIAL // Asus announced on Monday that its Eee Monitor was on track for a September this year release. Asus' computer is a PC built into a monitor, just like Apple's all-in-one iMac, only it will retail for a lot less, making it somewhat of a rival for Apple's systems. More recently though, Asus showcased a couple of photos of the Eee Monitor to further tease industry players. Images and details are available below.
Aside from offering the first look at its upcoming all-in-one desktop, Asus also showcased an Eee family roadmap featuring previously unannounced products alongside the Eee Box B202 mini PC and 42-inch LCD Eee TV, PC World's Danny Allen is reporting. The base specs for the Eee Monitor were also revealed during Asus' TekTrend Seminar, held at Taipei's Grand Hotel. They include Intel's newest processor, the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet networking, four USB ports and a multi-card reader.
Two operating systems are supported, none of which are Mac OS, which is why I can't look at Asus' pretty monitor as an iMac rival. Windows XP and Linux is all you can slap on it, according to the specs. Also, users will have the option to choose from DDR memory 512MB to 2GB, and hard disk 80GB to 250GB.
Asus' Eee Box is so similar in appearance to the Apple's Mac mini that even Psystar would be ashamed to sell it. The systems do include extras, though. The only problem is that the extras are also copying a product available on the market, namely, Nintendo's Wii. The fourth image below depicts the Eee computers' Wii-like motion gaming controllers.
PC World also got the chance to have a close look at Asus' Eee Box mini-desktop. The system is also due out soon (mid-July). Pricing starts at $200.
Jerry Shen, ASUSTeK CEO, also presented the 2008 Eee family roadmap. This included two previously unannounced Eee products set to launch between September and December this year. They are the "Eee S1" and "Eee K1." Little to no information is available on the pair for now.
Pictures of the Eee Monitor and Eee Box were snapped at the Asus TekTrend Seminar in Taipei's Grand Hotel. Image Credits: Danny Allen, PC World
