11/20/2008, 10:55am, EST
Thursday, November 20thASUS ships Eee Top iMac rival in Taiwan area
ASUS today officially launched the Eee Top in its home territory of Taiwan. The desktop is positioned as a budget alternative to an iMac or a similar media all-in-one with just a 15.6-inch, 1366x768 display and the components of a netbook but with features often left out of more expensive desktops. A built-in touchscreen supports both media playback through a special front-end (Eee Cinema), drawing notes and browsing the web using finger input. A stylus is also bundled with the Eee Top for more precise input or general use in Windows XP.
Only the base ET1602 is shipping with the formal introduction and has specs typical of a high-end netbook, with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi making up the system's core. A 1.3-megapixel webcam and a system-length speaker bar also save users from having to tie up the three USB and audio in/out ports.
Local pricing for the starter Eee Top runs the equivalent of $566 for black and white versions. US launch information isn't available, nor are a price and launch date for the higher-end ET1603. The latter adds a Mobility Radeon HD 3450 to free up main system RAM and speed up both 3D and video decoding. [via SlashGear]
Filed under: computers, Apple
Other story tags: Intel, ASUS, AMD, Atom, Eee PC, ATI, Radeon, iMac
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STOP IT ALREADY!
It cannot be an "Alternative" to an iMac unless it runs OS X.
You guys keep saying crap like this and it makes no sense and is just plain out misleading and bad journalism.
That is like saying a PT Cruiser is an alternative to a Mercedes. It is not. It is an inferior product made for the masses. A person who purchases a PT Cruiser over a Mercedes could never afford the Mercedes in the first place and was never in the market for one.
Similarly, a person who buys this piece of $hit Eee Top PC was NEVER seriously considering buying a Mac.
I Agree with Previous com
I agree with previous comment. It's not an iMac rival if it is not running OSX. XP doesn't cut it, Vista even WORSE!!! On screen touch is STUPID!!! I hate fingerprints on my display.
So far nothing compares to the iMac other than another iMac.
Not bad
Actually I was considering getting an Eee PC to sit between my MacBook and my iPhone, in the same manner some day I might get an iMac, but perhaps I want a computer in the kitchen that I can quickly access things on that just sits there, I might consider getting one of these and just leaving it sit. It doesn't run Linux which actually makes it an alternative. It might not replace an iMac for most people, but for a lot of people this wouldn't be a bad product.
Rivals
Well, for most people, computers are computers. You turn them on to get mail, surf the web, etc. Most people aren't going "Well, it doesn't run this OS, so its not the same!". They walk into a store, look at the computers, and compare them.
Oh, and if the Mac isn't a rival, then why is Apple trying so hard to pull PC users to the Mac side, since the products are just so different?
As to your argument about the PT Cruiser, that just goes to show you have no idea what you are talking about. Based on that comment, no automobile is a rival of any other automobile, because they aren't built to the same specifications.
what!
This thing looks nothing like the iMac, the only similarity is the keyboard.
I know it uses the concept of a computer in a monitor but that has been around well before the Mac.
Stylus
Stylus no multitouch = fail.
Nicely Designed
Actually, it is a rival. Testudo is right. For the VASE MAJORITY of users, they really don't care about the OS. They want something easy to use and reliable (and for many people, attractive).
If people are looking for an "all in one" machine for the kitchen or other area, this is a decent looking product. I would not consider it, since it is a Windows machine... but for people not wedded to any particular OS, it is an alternative.
It is good that Apple has made other computer companies think of style; we have come a long way since beige boxes humming away.
I do think that imacs are a bit pricey for an entree computer, and not everyone needs a 20" or 24" screen. Smaller screens meet some needs.