Lekiosk, the France-based digital newsstand that last year raised $7.1 million in a Series B Round to push its vision as a “Spotify for magazines”, is today announcing a deal with Asus in a bid to grow its Android business. The makers of the Nexus 7, the PadFone and FonePad, and other tablets will preload the lekiosk app, covering some 800 magazines, as part of its ASUS@vibe+ content platform on… → Read More
What a day folks — mere moments talking up Asus’ new Padfone Infinity, CEO Jonney Shih just revealed that the oft-rumored Fonepad is an honest-to-goodness product. Confused? I don’t blame you. → Read More
Asus introduced the new Padfone Infinity today at MWC in Barcelona. The successor to the company’s hybrid tablet/smartphone has a redesign with an aluminum back and edge-to-edge glass display, a 5-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 441 PPI. The LTE phone can plug into a 10-inch tablet dock, which itself offers 1920 x 1200 resolution. → Read More
Something there is that doesn’t love a viral video.
To wit: we present Asus’ baffling Spanish MWC teaser which involves a giant metal dildo landing on the Sagrada Família, Barcelona’s beloved Gaudi masterwork. The voiceover, performed by someone with the earnest excitement of a cocaine addict in a Fanta commercial, muses at the weather. Then we hear: “Wait, is that a metallic object flying… → Read More
Asus may soon be the next Windows Phone 8 handset OEM partner for Microsoft, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal today. And the company isn’t just looking to stick the operating system in any old device; per the report, it’s looking specifically at creating a version of its docking, Android-based smartphone and tablet combo, called the Padfone, using Microsoft’s OS. → Read More
Leap Motion, makers of the innovative Leap Motion controller for PCs, today announced that at launch, it will sell its device exclusively through Best Buy’s physical and online stores in the U.S., as the only other sales channel for the device besides its own website. Leap Motion will also be available soon for pre-order from Best Buy beginning in February, and will come to Europe and other world… → Read More
Trolls, feel free to skip to the bottom of this column and post your comments immediately without reading a word. Actually, who are we kidding — you didn’t make it this far.
Everyone else, brace yourselves. You may want small children to leave the room. I’m about to do something I don’t do often — something I always said I’d do if the product deserved it. Something some people seem to think… → Read More
The guys at iFixit are at it again and just posted their Nexus 7 teardown guide. Overall, iFixit found that the device is rather serviceable and seemingly well designed. Unlike the iPad 2 and new iPad, the Nexus 7 employs clips to hold the whole assembly together. This results in an extra 1mm of thickness, but they allow owners to open the case with just a little prying.
Once inside, the… → Read More
Little by little, Google is slowly piecing together a more cohesive and complete mobile OS. Having the right hardware to drive Android doesn’t hurt either. While the Nexus 7 isn’t quite what I expected Google to roll out last week at I/O given the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it’s arguably the first real Android tablet to date.
With a $200 starting price, Android users and those looking for a… → Read More
The Transformer Prime is a fantastic example of a product rushed to market. It was as if Asus was trolling consumers and yelling “First!” The tablet launched with a host of problems, many of which Asus fixed over the weeks following its release through a constant stream of updates. But some issues, like the poor GPS capability, were seemingly addressed through placebo updates. Asus was even caught… → Read More
A federal judge has ruled that Asus’ Transformer Prime tablet does not infringe on Hasbro’s Transformers trademark, in spite of the suit actually making sense. Just “Transformer”, or just “Prime”, might have flown right by Hasbro’s lawyers without a second look — those are words, after all — but putting the two together seemed like tempting fate. As expected, Hasbro took Asus to task in… → Read More
As Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform continues to pick up steam and hardware partners, one company has managed to stay out of the Windows Phone game despite their long relationship with Microsoft. Taiwan-based Asus has created developer units for the platform in 2010, and leaks indicate that they haven’t managed to get Microsoft’s mobile platform off their minds.
So with all that said, what… → Read More
The Padfone is a peculiar beast, to be sure. Given the right accessories (and enough money, I suppose), Asus’s newest smartphones can easily transform into a tablet and a faux-notebook in the blink of an eye, but how well does the thing work? Asus was kind enough to let us play with one for a short while in their booth here at Mobile World Congress, and we’ve put together a quick video for your… → Read More
Once upon a time the Asus Eee brand held some weight. The Eee name debuted with Asus’ netbook line, which nearly instantly set the bar for low-cost, but still quality, computing devices. That’s why the Eee brand was used for Asus’ first tablets. But now, in 2012, with netbooks quickly fading into irrelevance, Asus wisely decided it was time to retire the name. From here on out Asus tablets will be… → Read More
There you have it folks. The Asus Padfone is about as real as a phone can be, now that Asus has formally unveiled the little beast here at Mobile World Congress.
What we’re looking at is a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a Snapdragon dual-core S4 chip from Qualcomm. You’ll find an 8-megapixel camera on the back equipped with autofocus and flash… → Read More
The Asus Transformer Prime was the great, grey hope for many Android lovers – until they realized that the bootloader was locked it was impossible to upgrade or install a new bit of firmware onto the device. Asus has finally relented, allowing folks to download an unlocked bootloader and install it over the “official” Asus bootloader. → Read More
Right on cue, Asus started rolling out Ice Cream Sandwich to Transformer Prime tablets last week. The update not only brought Android 4.0 to the tablet, but also a fix for the lackluster GPS performance. But apparently the GPS is borked for some. Users are still experiencing poor performance and worse yet, some are even stating that the GPS no longer works in ICS when it did prior to the update. → Read More
The Asus Transformer Prime was the latest tablet to wear the title of iPad killer. It was supposed to rise up, powered by the all-mighty quad-core Nvidia Terga 3, and finally stand tall against the iPad. It was supposed to use its keyboard dock as a mighty quarterstaff and deliver a memorable blow against Apple’s champion. But that didn’t happen. The Transformer Prime is dying at the hands of… → Read More
Asus clearly didn’t get the memo that netbooks are dead. Tablets killed them. Or rather so goes the popular narrative. In real life consumers will continue to look for low-cost alternatives to traditional notebooks and Asus will clearly be there, ready with new models to fill this increasingly niche demand. → Read More
Call me naive, but I just assumed that when Asus showed off a device called the Transformer Prime, they had some sort of deal to license or at least provide some kind of royalty to the Transformers franchise. Apparently not, as Hasbro has just filed a lawsuit alleging that Asus is infringing on the Transformers trademark.
Now, if the device were just called the Transformer, I think I would come… → Read More
Netbooks are still big business for Asustek. So much so that the hotness from 2009 outsold Asus tablets in 2011. Per numbers released at the company’s global sales meeting (and relayed by Digitimes), Asustek expects to ship 4.8 netbooks by the end of 2011 but only 1.8 million tablets. But that’s expected to change in 2012. The roles will be reversed and Asus sees big things for next year. → Read More
The ratio of awful tablets to good ones in this year’s Black Friday ads doesn’t exactly inspire much confidence, but there are some good deals to be found even at this early stage. Case in point: Best Buy’s leaked Black Friday circular has the first generation 16GB Asus Transformer for $250, a respectable $150 drop from its current price. → Read More
Now that Ice Cream Sandwich is real, manufacturers can start talking about the roll out. The good news is that ICS looks Tegra 2 friendly so it should run on most of the first generation Honeycomb tablets. Asus and Acer have both confirmed that their respective tabs will get the update but haven’t detailed the launch schedule. That’s the bad news, which really isn’t all that bad in and of itself. → Read More
Gasp! A new Asus Transformer tablet is in the works. This of course calls for a YouTube teaser trailer that doesn’t show a damn thing. The Next Transformation hints at the future of Asus’ convertible tablet. Giving Asus’ recent marketing strategies, prepare yourself for a healthy dose of viral campaigns until this thing is officially announced. But chances are the likely upcoming videos and teaser… → Read More
Sure this Padfone thing (yes it’s real) happened in May, but I just saw it and can’t stop laughing and can’t focus on the other thing I was writing so I am posting it here to get it out of my system, Arrington-style. → Read More
The promise of the ultra-cheap ultrabook hasn’t quite been fulfilled yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a few sexy machines before the new ones hit. Acer’s Aspire S3 dropped yesterday, and we’ll have a review up soon, but the new Asus Zenbooks, rumored and pictured earlier but only actually announced today, are the ones I’ve been waiting for.
You’ve got two basic models: the 11.6-inch… → Read More
Asus does not plan on participating on the recent tablet price cutting wars. CEO Jerry Shen will not race RIM or HTC to the bottom and currently has no plans to cut the original Transformer’s price. This comes by way of a Digitimes report that also states the company is on schedule to launch the second generation Transformer tablet for $499 and meet their initial shipment forecast. → Read More
Asus is hoping to capture some of the Kinect’s good will starting this October by kicking off a marketing campaign for its motion controller clone. The WAVI Xtion was created in partnership with PrimeSense, the same group partly responsible for the Microsoft Kinect — hence the familiar design and capabilities. Asus demoed the device last January at CES 2011, but Digitimes is now reporting that… → Read More
The day of the Ultrabook is nearly upon us and per Asustek chairman, Jonney Shih, the PC maker has five to six models on the bill for an October release. Prices are said to start out $899 but also reach $1,999. That’s notable higher than Intel’s target price of $999 and under. Still, if Intel has its way, ultrabooks will be the next big thing in PC notebooks. The ultra-thin, ultra-sexy notebooks… → Read More
Remember when the Asus Eee Pad Transformer was the hottest thing since Laserdisc? Remember when it was hailed as an iPad killer with its fancy IPS screen, low price and sweet name. Autobots, unite! Well, Walmart is currently selling it for $350, which puts it at the low-end of the Honeycomb tab price scale. Jokes aside, it’s actually a great deal for an Android tablet. → Read More
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