03/26/2008, 2:45pm, EDT
Wednesday, March 26thFCC shows new Eee PC to have multi-touch
ASUS' upcoming Eee PC 900 will have multi-touch features in its trackpad when it arrives on US shores, according to a new FCC filing. A user guide posted as part of the US agency's testing process reveals a trackpad with controls similar to (but simpler than) those found on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Unlike most notebooks, the 900 will allow both for two-finger scrolling as well as a "pinch" gesture to zoom into photos and some documents.
Like Apple's offering, the full multi-touch control will at first only work in a customized OS as well as certain first-party programs. The feature will require ASUS' variant on Xandros Linux and will only support pinching in Adobe's Acrobat Reader, ASUS' Photomanager tool, and OpenOffice documents. As with the Mac, scrolling is universal.
Outside of the addition of Bluetooth, other features of the Eee PC shown in the FCC documents are already known, including the larger 8.9-inch screen and Wi-Fi. However, the computer was also confirmed today as having a touchscreen panel and so may be the first notebook anywhere to offer both advanced gestures on its trackpad as well as a touchscreen.
No clues are given as to an exact release date or any official pricing for the new micro-notebook, which is officially scheduled to ship sometime in April and use Intel's Atom processor. [via DailyTech]
Filed under: computers
Other story tags: Linux, ASUS, MacBook Air, FCC, Eee PC, MacBook Pro
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now would that be the first patent that didn't get accepted because of posterior-art?
Asus is free to R&D this technology as much as anyone else, so it is perfectly legal. However it is a shame that so many on the Windows side live in a cloud of such ignorance that they don't see real innovation when it happens and they don't appreciate those who did the real work before. Just a commentary on consumer myopia.
As for Asus, I hope they get their patent on ugly, white, toilet-style microlaptop design!
Actually I would love for Apple to have a touchscreen microlaptop of this size ... just don't want to feel like I would need to hang a 1000 Flushes sanitizer on the screen when in use.
And it is a shame on how much Apple gets 'credit' for has existed on the other side as well. Oooh, build in web-cam, just like those PC laptops did (although the PC ones rotate).
Oh, and speaking of myopia, it took apple long enough to cure itself WRT multi-button mice, although it still isn't the default on any machine.