IdHp.net – Style And Gadget

• Overall Rating No Ratings

Review We liked the Asus Eee PC 1008HA – aka Seashell – when we first saw it at the CeBit show this past March. Asus has done ‘luxury’ netbooks before – most notably the Eee PC S101 – but they never won us over. Just too darn angular for us. You might as well have a regular netbook and pay a lot less for it.

But the 1008HA, with its MacBook Air-inspired curves, contoured port covers and, crucially, sheer darn skinniness made us think it might be something worthy of purchase.

Asus’ Eee 1008HA: MacBook Air for buyers on a budget?

The potential stumbling blocks were, as always, price, performance and practicality. Asus’ most stylish netbooks have never been cheap, and then there was the company’s confession that the 1008HA has a built-in battery that you can’t take out and replace.

If the ability to swap the battery, no matter how long its runtime, is a deal-breaker for you, the 1008HA’s performance and styling are unlikely to win you over. Fear not, Asus has an alternative model on the way, the 1005H. It does have a removable battery and sports the 1008HA’s features and looks. It’ll be cheaper too, though the catch is that it’ll be substantially thicker and heavier than the machine we have in front of us here. Read the rest of this entry »

• Overall Rating No Ratings

Review Appearing a somewhat solitary member of the Asus Eee product family, the unique AiGuru SV-1 Videophone stands alone in more ways than one. At around 25cm tall, with curves akin a to Brancusi sculpture, this tabletop unit bearing a widescreen 7in LCD features built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a rechargeable battery to deliver round-the-home portability.

Asus’ AiGuru SV-1: comes with full source code

While numerous messengers offer audio-visual communications on a computer, all this Asus device needs is an internet connection – Ethernet or wireless – and you’re away, waving a hand to far flung relatives or more select parts of your anatomy to a new best friend in Rio. The catch? It only works with Skype. Indeed, Asus is eager to point out that the AiGuru SV-1 is the world’s first ‘Skype Certified’ standalone videophone. Read the rest of this entry »