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Perhaps the once king of the netbook market, the Eee PC 701 seems to have been losing some popularity with all of the new introductions. However that may be coming with some good news because according to some reports that will be driving the price down even further. The Eee PC 701 from Asus may not be the most full featured netbook, but its certainly a good option for those looking to do some basic browsing and have something that is lightweight and easy to carry.

UK based online retailer Expansys has just lowered their pricing for the Eee PC 701, which now sits at £158.99 (around $280 US). Not bad for a model that first came to market less than a year ago and was retailing for $399. If you remember the lead up to the Eee PC 701 release, Asus was promising a sub-$200 model, and while we are not at that point yet this is one step closer to reaching that goal.

Of course on the flip side, these drastic price cuts are most likely hurting the resale value for those that were early adopters and since moved on to other netbook models, but I would imagine that is only a small group of people.

Via [Liliputing]

Asus still has not announced just when we can expect to see the non-Eee branded N10 notebook hit the retail market, however that is not stopping the leaks. The most recent leak comes in the form of some official looking leaked documents that highly detail the N10 notebook along with some in-the-wild style images of the notebook from the recent Asus World 2008 conference.

Based on the leaked documents we can see that the N10 will be a pretty solid offering. The N10 will feature a 10.2-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, an NVIDIA GeForce Go 9300M GS 256MB graphics card, a built-in webcam, fingerprint reader, three USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard slot and HDMI port. Other features include facial recognition software, a 6-cell battery that will offer up to 6.5 hours of battery life and a switch to use either the graphics from the NVIDIA chip or the pain jane built-in motherboard graphics.

Pricing seems to run as low as $649, and go up to $849 for the top of the line model that is pictured above. A specific launch date has not yet been announced, but they are expected to be available later this month. Keep reading to check out the rest of the spec sheets and those in-the-wild style images…

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There has been talk and details about the newest laptop from Asus, mostly centered around the material it’s made from; bamboo. Admittedly this isn’t the first time that bamboo has been used as a computer case (Dell intro’s super-small, eco-friendly bamboo Green desktop PC) but it may be the first time for a laptop, and it does look interesting.

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T-Mobile has already been offering an Eee PC that comes along with a mobile broadband package, but up until this point its been used with an external modem. However, based on a recent press release it looks like we can soon be expecting to see a new version of the Eee PC 901 with built-in 3G capability, which has been dubbed the Eee PC 901 GO.

According to the release, Asus will be working with T-Mobile to offer an “ASUS Connection Manager” which will allow the 3G-capable Eee to easily and quickly connect with the network when launched. In addition they also mentioned that users would get up to five hours of surfing time. As of now T-Mobile has not yet released any information as to when this service will be available, they also failed to mention how much the service will cost, or how much the Eee PC 901 GO will retail for.

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Asus has quietly launched their latest offering, the Eee Download service, and judging from the initial support and initial response, they should have kept it a little quieter and made sure it was a little further developed before they unveiled it.

See, at first glance its a great idea, the Eee Download service offers the ability to “install software and multimedia in just one click,” which comes courtesy of the Click ‘N Run (CNR) format. If you remember back, CNR comes from Lindows Linspire fame shame, however CNR has since recently been purchased by Xandros.

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I can honestly say that as strange as the “scented” term in the title sounds strange it is indeed accurate, Asus has officially announced a notebook that comes pre-loaded with a scent. I guess we can think of it somewhere along the lines of a fancy expensive air freshener. You can choose from either a floral blossom, musky black, morning dew or aqua ocean scent, and according to Asus they not only engage the “eyes with attractive motifs and for the first time, our sense of smell with infused scents.” Of course, they are quick to point out that “the lifespan of fragrance depends on actual usage,” which I can only guess means the scent will go away rather quickly.

Anyway, the newly announced notebook is the F6 and it does offer some decent specs. The F6 features a 13.3-inch WXGA Color Shine display, along with an Intel Core2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, either a 120, 160, 250 or 320GB hard drive, integrated webcam and a fingerprint scanner for extra data security. The F6 will also be running Windows Vista. As typical with an Asus press release, they made no mention of any availability date or pricing information.

Read [Asus] Via [Fareastgizmos]

Next in the series of new notebooks that Asus has recently announced is the B50 notebook which is geared for the business professionals. According to Asustek, it is the ultimate notebook computer for the business environment. Featuring the latest Express Gate technology, the Asus B50 boasts of an 8-second boot-up time for fast access to various desktop applications and online connection.

This powerhouse machine also boasts of Asustek’s exclusive Power4 Gear Extreme for efficient power management which extends usage beyond 5 hours. Another notable feature of the Asus B50 is its spill resistant keyboard which can pretty much assure the users that their notebooks will not be damaged even if some liquid gets spilled into it. A special built-in LED light for the keyboard also adds extra use for the notebook even when in a dimmed meeting room.

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Asus continues its rampage on the notebook market with another announcement of a new portable notebook called the Asus F8. Featuring both excellent hardware and software features, the F8 notebook is powered by the Express Gate, a special built-in OS that pushes the notebook to an 8-second boot-up time which in term makes the most commonly used applications available to the users quickly. These applications include, web browser, instant messenger, Skype, photo manager, music player and online games.  The Express Gate also enables the F8 easily shareable and yet safe enough knowing that it won’t allow files to be altered.

The Asus F8 is also geared for those seeking a multimedia experience from their notebooks. It has a powerful and high-performing 3D graphics core that allows excellent performance when playing fast-action 3D games. Additionally, the Asus F8 also comes packed with a built-in TV Tuner with remote control and the remote control even has its own slot on the notebook itself. This more than makes up for a very powerful and versatile computing machine.

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With a refreshing change, the latest Asus netbook has just been unveiled and thankfully it does not carry the Eee PC branding, instead it is simply dubbed the Asus N10.

Sporting what appears to be a more professional looking outer shell, the N10 features a 10.2-inch display with a 1024 x 768 resolution, fingerprint reader Bluetooth 2.0, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, built-in card reader and a possible 320GB hard drive. It has also been mentioned that the N10 will be running either Windows Vista or a Linux variant. As for ports and connectivity, the N10 is expected to include HDMI, VGA, three USB 2.0 ports, Express Card slot, headphone out, microphone in, Ethernet and Wi-Fi with an external on/off switch.

As of now we have not seen any estimated time frame for a release date, however the pricing is expected to be in the ballpark of €300 - €400 (around $446 - $595 US). In the meantime, keep reading to check out a few more images of the Asus N10…

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While we all know that nobody seems to be all that excited about the latest Eee PC model because of its lack of outstanding features, we still owe it to you our dear readers to cover the official announcement of the Eee PC 900A. Like we said before, the Eee PC 900A doesn’t offer to many features and probably realizing this, Asus decided to add a new color variant to the Eee PC 900A instead, sadly of all colors that are available in the color wheel, Asus decided to paint it in purple. It’s not that we have anything against the color purple. But we just think that it doesn’t fit into the category of the Eee PC netbooks.

Anyway, if you’re raring to get that purple Eee PC 900A as soon as it comes out here’s a quick recap of what you’re going to get for your hard-earned bucks. The Eee PC 900A features the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor that the Eee PC 901 has, an 8.9-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1GB of RAM, built-in card reader, 0.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VGA out, three USB ports and a 8GB or 16GB SSD option.

In addition, Asus is throwing in a free 20GB of online storage on the Eee Storage Service that was announced a few days ago. Another weakness of the Eee PC 900A is that it could only offer 3-4 hours of battery life and its lack of Bluetooth connectivity feature. Still, if these don’t bother you too much, you can grab yourselves the Eee PC 900 for around $465 when it comes out later this month.

Product [Asus]