News Bits: FlipStart price drop, Dell is #1, and Eee PC gets a touchscreen

FlipStart pricing dropped to $699

The price of the FlipStart ultraportable PC has been dropped from $1,500 to $699, making it a competitor to the Asus Eee PC and the Everex Cloudbook. There are rumors that a v2 of the FlipStart is coming out soon, so that could be the reason for the price drop.

Product Page (Dynamism.com)

Dell now #1 in US sales, beats out HP

Although HP is still the world's larget PC maker, Dell has overtaken HP in the US computer sales according to recent sales statistics for Q4. Texas-based Dell shipped 5.5 million units in Q4, a 15.2% increase compared to the same period last year and a 29.6% increase in market share. HP in comparison shipped 4.5 million units. Dell's comeback has a lot to do with its move into retail stores, including Best Buy.

Read More (PCWorld.com)

Asus Eee PC to get touch screen functionality?

Asus is currently testing out sample touch screens from panel makers to win orders for the next-gen Eee PC, coming out later this year. The second-gen Eee PC will have larger 8-, 9-, and 10-inch screen sizes; the 9-inch size is to have the touch panel. It reportedly costs less than $15 to add the touch functionality. Asus is predicted to ship 4 - 5 million Eee PCs in 2008.

NotebookReview.com Review for the Asus Eee PC
Read More (DigiTimes.com)

New technology allows 40 hour battery life
Scientists at Stanford University have developed a way to increase the life of lithium-ion batteries to 40 hours. The scientists used silicon nanowires in place of the traditional graphite, which increased the amount of lithium held by the anode ten times.

Read More (Yahoo.com)

Gigabyte low-cost PC coming this June

Gigabyte Technology has revealed plans to launch a low-cost PC in June. It will use Intel's Basic Platform and feature a 7 - 9-inch screen. Gigabyte is likely to see its notebook business make a profit in 2008.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

WaterField Designs introduces MacBook Air sleeve

WaterField Designs, a manufacturer of laptop bags and cases, has introduced a new SleeveCase designed for the Apple MacBook Air. It has a ballistic nylon shell and a neoprene interior. It is available in a horizontal or vertical orientation. The SleeveCase size 13-2 for the MacBook Air retails for $39.00 and will ship before January 25.

NotebookReview.com for the WaterField Designs SleeveCase
Product Page
Full Press Release

 

good job by Dell & Stanford

 

The Asus EEE gets better by the day. Can't wait to buy one in April!

And the link for the DigiTimes article on the Asus EEE touch screen opens the Notebookreview EEE review.

 

Hi Chaz,

I believe the story on battery life is the same one you reported earlier on Notebook Review from Dec. 27, 2007

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4165
(link to story) http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=5413

From Yahoo: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/57832

I think Yahoo is just behind, but it made it look new. Interesting and exciting info, but not really new.

 

Hm wow, it is. There are so many new advancements coming out . . . I forgot I did that one! Yahoo is behind the times . . .

 

The linked should be fixed now(hopefully I found the right link ). Thx for catching that.

The EEE with touchscreen could be really interesting to see and touch .

 

The Eee is starting to get interesting with the new screen options - even for me

And it seems like everyone is taking their stab at the UMPC market. Good. The more competition, the better the technology and the lower the prices will be.

 

this UMPC thing is now a huge hit. I wonder why...

 

Finally back and posting, yay me, but on a more serious note, imagine the new EEE PC tech combined with that new experimental battery tech... would it ever die? I was just looking and purchasing an EEE, now its time to wait a tiny bit longer

 

does anyone know when these batteries will actually be put in notebooks?

Notebooks with 40 hour batteries can't come soon enough IMO.

 

This would be huge for notebooks...Imagine cell phones that lost a month, however. Some already last a week. I suppose if they really do last 10x, they would last nearly 2 months.

 

Cool, I'll be buying the EEE PC for my car. I think the EEE PC touch screen + a USB GPS would be a great trip companion. Could also play music off it... I hope that because it costs $15 more they are not going to jack the price up $50...

 

4-5 million eee pcs would make asus the 3rd largest notebook maker in the world in itself.

 

Without knowing much about the flipstart I'd say its biggest problem isn't the price . It just doesn't look attractive enough to spend any amount of $$$ on it looks like something styled by DELL .

And speaking of DELL , I'm sure the coupons discounts ( 400$ off ) had nothing to do with the climb . Btw when is the 50% off coupon coming ?

 

Bigger screen? Count me in..

 

I am definitely impressed with the EEE and it sales. But I do remember when ASUS stated the COST was $200, this means their COST to build it...and now they sale price is $400 (MSRP)...meaning atleast $150 profit goes to Asus and maybe $50 goes to the reseller as profit.

So Asus can sell something like 500,000 EEEs with at least $100 profit each, thats a lot of money! Provided my numbers are correct.

So the COST for Asus to input a touchscreen is $15, they can easily charge us $30 MSRP for this upgrade which will be already included in the price of the entire EEE pc.

I am hoping may the price of these new EEEs will be $400 for the high-end one because sometimes technology prices drop over time.

For example my V1JP cost 2300 CAD, and now the V1S is $1800 CAD for literally double the performance!

I would definitely like to see more User reviews on this popular laptop, man I should just check one out myself lol.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

40 hourse for normal notebook-that is 30+ hourse fornotebooks like m17x nice...

 

What's the point of a touchscreen unless it's a multi-touch screen?

I'll put up w/a single touch screen on my Windows Mobile cell phone because there's no mouse pad and so the single-touch screen adds easier navigation functionality than using the D-pad. (directional)

Sure, I guess a single-touch screen would mean that you can save your doodles on the Eee, but I had that on my tiny little HP Jornada over 10yrs ago.

C'mon Asus, you think a single-touch screen is going to get us excited these days? .....yaaaaaawn!

 

Size matters! Sorry, I don't know who invented it, but it's just one of the basic tenets of product price marketing...if you make it smaller, people will pay more for it.

Unless you can convince people to change, this isn't going to.

 

I wonder if the larger screen EEE means a higher resolution. I certainly hope it's not the same resolution (800x480).

Every year there seems to be some break through news about battery life but none seems to materialise. Lets hope this is not one of them.

 

I have a feeling I might just have to get a 2nd gen Eee. It would fit great in the inside pocket of my jacket.

 

i'm def looking into buying one, i got a 17" for college and i guess I just didn't think it through. I'm hoping to replace this with the EEE just for the sake of portability

 

I think the most exciting part about the use of the new batteries is not only life but the fact that you will be able to probably use your computer at full speed like it is connected into an outlet and still get 10 or 20 hours of battery life.

 

> a screen that actually fills the chassis with no thick bezel: ~8" sounds great then.

> a screen that has a usable resolution: 1024x600 sounds perfect in a ~8" screen.

> a linux operating system on the decent screen version: if that means no wimax so be it.

> menlow platform using the silverthorne CPU: it's the 21st century, so kick me.

> 8GB of flash as a minimum so we can install our distro of choice: opensuse running a kde 4.1 desktop sounds ace.

do that, and i'll be happy.

 

the flipstart looks interesting. anyone have first hand experience with it?

 

im liking the new EEE pc. i think il get it for convinience sake