Asus announce/launch three new products

I subscribe to a total of roughly 1000 RSS feeds spanning many categories, including about 200 gadget feeds. Sadly, most of the incoming messages are not worthwhile reading and I run a filter once every hour or so to find interesting information without having to read on average roughly 5,000 articles a day. One key search term today that brought up some articles was: Asus. Now that may not seem interesting, but it is as they announced or launched three interesting gadgets today.



One product that was launched today is a sleek looking PDA, the A686/696 GPS PDA. As from the model name we can already guess that it features GPS for navigation, but instead of needing an additional antenna as most PDAs have, this ASUS comes with an in-built antenna which makes for a nice optical bonus. This PDA is defiantly designed for business people who need a robust, powerful and good looking PDA, as it sports not a plastic but stainless steal case, a 3.5-inch 240 x 320 anti-glare display and a 1200mAH battery which should last for a couple of hours and can be removed. Apart from that WiFi (802.11 b+g) and Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR) offer the needed connectivity for working from the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. What I always need in a good PDA is a good microphone, which both versions have as well as integrated speakers for playing back most major audio formats.Both versions have 128MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM, the A686 has an Intel XScale 312Mhz processor and the A696 an Intel XScale 416Mhz processor.


If you just need a navigation system without the PDA, ASUS are now also entering the satnav market with the ASUS S102 PND. Personally I have only used the TomTom One and Volkswagen systems before, but both did not have the feature I find quite interesting in the S102 PND: handwriting and voice recognition. This could save many frequent traveler’s thumbs a lot of painful and annoying work in deed. The screen is fairly sized at 3.5″ with a resolution of 240×320. ASUS use the SiRF III GPS chipset with an built-in antenna, but also offers an external connector. And if all these features are not enough: the S102 PND also doubles up as a personal entertainment system, playing mp3s and displaying pictures from the SD card inserted. When it will be available or what it will cost is not stated in the press release, but my guess - depending on the maps included - will be around the same as a TomTom One.

And if all that weren’t enough ASUS products for one day they also throw in a mobile phone. I am not quite sure who the announced Z801 is targeted at, but it seems to sport some fairly common features, a QVGA display, voice dialing and 64 MB internal memory (expandable with microSD) for example for storage of mp3s, AAC and MPEG4 which can be played back on the phone. ASUS are marketing this a stylish phone, but it does not look too impressive. I will have to wait and see this in action to see if it convince me that it is as cool as the other two product announced today.

Palm Launches the Treo 750 with Cingular Wireless

Palm, Inc. and Cingular Wireless launched the first smart device running on Cingular’s 3G/UMTS network, Palm Treo. It is providing mobile professionals with an amazing-fast download speeds in and an exceptional phone experience.

The highly anticipated Treo 750 five-band world phone which uses Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push Technology shows Palm’s exclusive usability improvements with powerful business features, including email, security, and web access on the go. It combines a world GSM phone, email, broadband wireless, and Windows Mobile. The Palm Treo 750 is aimed at executives, sales people and other “mobile professionals” who travel worldwide and need to use e-mail,the Web and their cell phone.

With the web becoming part and parcel of the modern office, email and web access from cell phones have become a necessity. Executives on travel need to access and share data every now and then. But more than ever, a reliable wireless connection has become utmost necessity. Video too is becoming a necessary application for cell phones and so most new phones are coming in equipped with these features. Treo too is in the list.

The Palm treo will be available at Cingular Wireless retail stores and online at a retail price of $400 along with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate. In internal specifications, the Treo runs Windows Mobile5.0, and has an internel antenna, alphabetic keyboard. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, an Touch screen of 240-240mm and Bluetooth support for headsets.The Phone has a 60MB on internal memory.

The Palm Treo 750 initially will be enabled for UMTS with a free upgrade, scheduled to be available later in 2007, to Cingular’s supercharged HSDPA technology. UMTS/HSDPA is a global standard and natural 3G evolutionary path for GSM providers with 142 UMTS networks in 61 countries currently available.

The Palm launched the Treo in September 2006.The delay was mainly due to certification issueswith carriers, some of which were not in Palm’s control. Palm Chief Executive mentioned that the rival companies got the benefit of the Palm Treo’s delay and they introduced a number of new smart phones during the same period.

Thus the Palm Treo 750 phone helps to stay connected by true means. It sports a more compact design and comes with integrated Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and world phone capabilities with all features like phone, email, messaging, web, and Windows Mobile with Palm enhancements.