Sadly GPRS roaming doesn't work everywhere much less EDGE or 3G... and in some places, modems are the ONLY option. Admittedly I haven't been to one in quite a while.

It comes with wireless enabled, plus you can plug in ethernet or a phone cord for dial-up.

Try using wireless in the bush.

Any word on when the version with 8GB will be released? I saw late November but didn't see it listed anywhere for early ordering ... (i'm trying to be patient but really want to get my hands on one)

Do You Read Chinese?
 

I did some research back on 10/16/07 when EEE were first introduced in Taiwan. (see my post under the ultraportable recommendation thread: Something Light & Small. Did I mention "cheap"? :) )

I think most detailed and current coverage is in Chinese (ASUS is based in my home country: Taiwan). I am not sure if the time schedule had changed since. I didn't follow up on it and do not have any scoop. I assume Chinese is not your "preferred" language, so I will do the honor to translate. :D

According to this news article (which is also the 2nd link in my above referenced post), the timetable for the Taiwan market follows:

1. October 16, 2007: Eee PC 4GB on the market
2. End of November, 2007: Eee PC in 2GB & colors (black, pink, sky blue & light green: targeting female consumers)
3. End of December, 2007: Eee in 8GB & Windows XP OS only in the "luxury" models (priced about $80 more than the Linux models)

It seems US market is roughly 1-2 months behind Taiwan's. So I would say maybe late Jan or Feb 2008, they will be available in the US. Don't quote me on that though. I am just the messenger (or translator ;)).

ps. The links in the Eee PC news updates may have some newer info, if you would like to check it out. (no need for translation since the website is in English.)

picked up one of this little babies today, in black.

so nice and small!!

got ram upgraded and got an 8gb sdhc card as well.

so far am liking it.

the thing is (as already mentioned) very small and very light. it'll be quite nice to travel with.

once i've had a proper play with it, i'll do a review.

New Jersey?

Sorry, couldnt resist. Seriously though, the only time I have been in what I would call the bush it didnt even have electricity, much less a phone to plug into. Although it is possible that I could have plugged a computer into my satellite phone I suppose.

I love the look and the price of this gadget-and it is excactly what I am looking for except,,,,
Do you think they will come out with one with a dvd drive)or will that add too much weight and bulk to the product.
Battery life?
No svideo out port?how would you get it to work with a connectivity panel digital display?
I am a novice when it comes to this stuff-so please be gentle :D

My understanding is that to add a DVD adds significantly to the size/weight and power requirements of the device. The added power drain adds further to the weight as the battery has to be bigger to get reasonable run times. This can be done while keeping the price down but it jacks the price way up. By way up, look at some of the ultralight Sonys with DVDs and you are pushing 8x the price. There is an old saying that a product can be cheap, good and light. You get to pick 2 out of three. The other thing is that I think people will be more and more moving away from internal DVDs. You can download movies for instance from Amazon now and more and more there will be a role for devices without internal optical drives as the size of USB and other easy add in memory begins to replace the need for the drives.

Anybody want to try this?

http://digg.com/apple/399_Ultraporta...on_Asus_EEE_PC

It's be like making your own NeXT laptop.

I've been a user of lightweight laptops for years and the DVD/CD drives were the first thing to be removed to reduce weight. There are some light (but not as light as what I carry) versions that now include the drive, but as stated above the battery implications are fairly painful.

Thanks for the advice and info on this thread. I decided I couldn't wait for the next version to be released, I should receive my white (they were out of black) laptop around T-Giving Day. Very excited!!

well this really seems to be a new day for laptops.And bravo to Asus for breaking the <$700 price point.
Now-if I were to be greedy :eek: do you think these will drop even further after christmas?

Unless you mean for sub laptops, the $700 price point was broken ages ago. Stores like BestBuy have sold $500 laptops for quite some time now.

For a machine this small the price is nice though.

...and although it's a bit difficult to do the thing DOES run XP off an SDHC card. I just got finished and am installing drivers now. I'm about to reload the SSD drive. May try loading OSX on another SD card. Not as slow as I'd thought it'd be... I'm using an 8gb Class 6 card.

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1433&p=1

The only place I had trouble was cloning the drive. I couldn't do it from within XP. I booted off the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows and used SelfImage... worked perfectly!

Sorry-I meant "sub"laptops(under 14'')

Now -I am a little concerned about the very small storage on this-4GBs?that is really small I am guessing.
I see that they are bringing out an 8GB-but that still seem small to me.
What do you think?