Wednesday, March 26,2008 @ 2:45pm
FCC shows new Eee PC to have multi-touch
ASUS' upcoming Eee PC 900 will have multi-touch features in its trackpad when it arrives on US shores, according to a new FCC filing. A user guide posted as part of the US agency's testing process reveals a trackpad with controls similar to (but simpler than) those found on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Unlike most notebooks, the 900 will allow both for two-finger scrolling as well as a "pinch" gesture to zoom into photos and some documents.
Like Apple's offering, the full multi-touch control will at first only work in a customized OS as well as certain first-party programs. The feature will require ASUS' variant on Xandros Linux and will only support pinching in Adobe's Acrobat Reader, ASUS' Photomanager tool, and OpenOffice documents. As with the Mac, scrolling is universal.
Outside of the addition of Bluetooth, other features of the Eee PC shown in the FCC documents are already known, including the larger 8.9-inch screen and Wi-Fi. However, the computer was also confirmed today as having a touchscreen panel and so may be the first notebook anywhere to offer both advanced gestures on its trackpad as well as a touchscreen.
No clues are given as to an exact release date or any official pricing for the new micro-notebook, which is officially scheduled to ship sometime in April and use Intel's Atom processor. [via DailyTech]
