Back at Computex Asus announced two new tablets, a 12 inch touting Windows 7 device called the Eee Pad EP121 and the Windows 7 Embedded, 10 inch EP101TC. Windows 7 Embedded runs on the Windows CE platform which Microsoft isn’t pushing as a finalised tablet ready operating system but instead a base in which OEM’s like Asus can create their own user interfaces for.

Well today Netbook News reports that Asus has decided to ditch Windows 7 Embedded in favour of Android.

Which version of Android is still a mystery although rumour has it that it could possibly come with Android 3.0, also known as Gingerbread. If that is to be the case the earliest we would see this device is Q1 of 2011, although with Gingerbreads rumoured support for higher resolutions, this would tie in nicely.

This is an interesting one. The design looks slim, working and, well, almost complete! Intel’s reps tell us that it’s just a prototype and maybe this is something ASUS worked on before they decided on the 12” Eee Pad that we saw at the ASUS press conference but we like it and hope they pursue it on the Oak Trail platform in 2011. It looks like it’s currently on the Menlow platform.

15:22 Jonney Shih on stage talking about gaming…hold you horses for a few minutes!

We’ve just been handed the images of the devices. (Thanks Netbooknews)

15:32 Still waiting for that tablet ‘news.’  The 12” Eee Pad looks rather huge. Comes with a docking station apparently. 10 hours battery life (It’s going to be heavy!)

Press release is available

See scans of press pack in previous post.

15:43 Still waiting. The Garmin A10 smartphone is now on the screen so we should be up next.

15:47 Here we go… Jonney talks about innovations around the Eee PC brand/ Lots of talk about ‘humans’ and ‘life’

Surprise ASUS just launched an app store based on Intel’s AppUp architecture.

This is important for Intel as it means AppUp will be pre-installed. This is  great news for Intel.

15:55 Here comes the tablet news . EP121 with docking station.

EeePC 101TC

Eee Tablet:

OK. Winding down here. We’ll try and get some hands on after the conference but there are some real wolves in here!

End of post.

Today is day Zero (many of you reading this will still living out Sunday but it’s already Monday here) and the action starts in just a few hours with a press conference from chip designer ARM. We’re not expecting anything new to be announced in our area because the Cortex A9 (multi-core ARMv7 architecture) is still just starting to ramp-up with OEMs but we might hear a little bit about Mali, the GPU architecture,  and maybe some hints about future architectures. Mostly, we’re just expecting a partner parade and if we’re lucky, one or two product announcements and maybe, just maybe, some tips about how the operating system space is shaping up in ARM’s non-smartphone world. 

Later today we’ll be hearing from ASUS and there’s an MSI press conference too that I’ll try and report on. Finally, I’ll be attending Mobile Monday here and maybe even giving a short talk on something. Handheld software is in my mind right now but we’ll see what comes up during the day.

Grab yourself a nice Jasmine Team, sit back and enjoy the show. You can go behind my scenes by checking out the stream at http://www.umpcportal.com/behind-the-scenes/ or for near real-time action, my twitter stream @chippy

Rumors are brewing about a product that ASUS will launch in June (Computex?) According to chairman Jonney Shihm it will be a ‘killer.’

No-one quite knows what it’s going to kill at the moment but the sensible money is on a tablet.

ASUS “killer product” in June says CEO: Tegra 2 tablet to launch? – SlashGear.

Source: Digitimes

All behind glass indicating that they are not yet ready for human consumption (read, months to go before they are ready for market) but looking good and showing that ODMs and OEMs are putting efforts into designing devices around ARM platforms. In the video you’ll get a brief view of tablets from Wistron, ASUS, Compal, Mitak, Notion Ink, Viewsonic and  Foxconn.

Obviously it’s interesting to see the EeePC brand in there and it indicates that an Eee PC tablet (apparently to be called the EPad or EeePad)  is on its way. Android is likely and pricing will be competitive. Netbooknews was reporting in Dec that it’s planned for March but in our recent podcast, Sascha (netbooknews) was talking about June / July. A few months to wait yet! More images of the Eee Pad below the video.

Click to enlarge images.