Gadgets for Better Life: The Existing, Errata and Enhancement of Asus eeePC 701 --- part 02

The Errata

From Latin words, Errata can be considered as condition of something not in proper way or not as planned, as we know now as 'error'. After we went through the 'proper way' or the existing, we're going take some time of it's Errata.

The Keyboard. Though at the beginning, I mentioned about the OLPC concept, this Asus eeePC was meant to be used by every level of ages, including adults. Unfortunately, the mini size of this UMPC, is built for 10-fingers of children under teenagers. Therefore, I found some difficulties on writing in comfort when I used -say- the Word processors. Typing this blog, for instance, I should need an external USB standard keyboard to avoiding heavy pain on my wrists.
The Heat produced. It seems this is a common issues in Asus notebooks including UMPC. The device is getting warmer quickly (some case turns hot) on wristpad in less than 1 hour standard usage. I think the heat produced (in) and released through vent (out) was not balanced and creating this issue.
Touchpad button is (sometimes) hard to press either left or right. The material (chrome?) looks cheap for me. It is the only design that IMHO not match with overall parts, once I open the lappie.
The AC Adaptor is way to big! The weight itself can be a significant proportion compare to the unit. In daily usage, one power jack sometimes used for other devices, so the slimmer one is more appreciated.
External Optical Media. Perhaps this one is not about the product itself, but more on marketing side. I still wonder why Asus did not provide the DVD or CD USB external packed inside so the user does not have to 'invest' another device that could raise some incompatibility issue (and cost for sure). Still I consider this as an Errata for the incompleteness of the overall unit pack.

There we have my quick Errata that hopefully can be considered to be some potential issues for improvement, which about to be completed more on Enhancement.

The Enhancements

The 3 Existings (with 7 quick benefits) and 5 Errata on my previous posts are just a milestone for us to see how this Asus eeePC actually has such enormous potential to be enhanced as a Must-have-gadget-of-the-year.

1. Yes, the SSD can get bigger and the display can get wider. As of November 14, 2007, Asus has confirmed to release the one with 8GB and 10" display, as reported in Engadget.

2. If today the product is capable for Windows XP, then tomorrow the same product can be installed with Leopard and make it as the cheapest MacOS UMPC ever, as reported in Uneasysilence.

3. What kind of device is called UMPC if it's not Touch-screen capable. Jkkmobile has shown us that this product can have touch-screen feature as well, as shown in his youtube.

4. Since the original resolution is poorly set on 800 x 480 pixels, scrolling more up and down, left and right can be painful for us. Pauldiy123 in his 2 (two) youtube instruction shows us that with installed Windows XP, the unit can have resolution as big as 1024x768 full display. Check these 2 video below, part 1 and part 2:

5. CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2008 also presented the future of Asus eeePC as reported from engadget.com here. In short, Asus will provide WiMAX on next eeePC.

The Extra

Here they are all the Existing, Errata and Enhancements of Asus eeePC I can give and as a bonus to really closing my review of Asus eeePC 701, I put some latest update (as of January 2008) about the unit :

1. In October last year, the Asus eeePC has been sold worldwide 1 unit every 6 (six) seconds. Here is the report. No wonder, Asus has announced this unit as the most successful product ever.

2. Quite OOT. The OLPC CTO, Mary Lou Jepsen has resigned and decided to build the same business with more profit orientation.