Whatever you've been up to with your Eee PC, we're pretty sure it wasn't just limited to typing and surfing the web. If you're a power user, you might have tested the full potential of the Eee PC in games and similarly demanding software. But sometimes you wished you could do more than just up clocks and mess with configurations, and we hear you. Apparently, ASUS heard you, too, and they've just released official SDK for the Eee PC.

A whole bunch of companies involved in the use of LEDs and laser diodes in mobile phones, high-def players, and data storage devices are currently facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission on charges of patent infringement. More in the full article.

For those who are planning to buy new notebooks, it might be good to hold off that plan until Spring as Acer plans to launch Blu-ray notebooks by then. These come with 16-inch and 18.4-inch LCDs. To know more about these cool babies, check out the full article via the "read more" link below.

Laptop users were thankful to Asustek for coming up with the Eee PC line of budget laptops. But affordable laptops with touch screen panels? As it turns out, budget touch screen laptops are possible for the computer manufacturer. Check out the full article for more details.

It seems that LED back-lit laptops are the current trend in portable computer development.

Both Apple and Dell have jumped on the bandwagon and have tapped Kenmos Technology and Taiwan Nano Electro-Optical Technology (Nano-Op) to supply them with notebook-use LED backlight units. Want to know more? Check out the full article for more details.

 

The Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) is sending out word that their format is picking up new support by way of Acer. According to the report, the Taiwan-based computer manufacturer has now joined the ranks of the BDA.

Now, in case you're wondering what this means for us (the consumers), Acer followed up this announcement by stating their plans to add Blu-Ray players and burners to their new laptop and desktop PCs.

In related news, the company further reports its intent to purchase Gateway Inc for approximately US$ 710 million. This merger is expected to create a company with  more than US$15 billion in sales, and 20 million computers shipped annually.

Taipei, Taiwan is home to Computex, the second largest computer show in the world, and the South China Sea island is responsible for the biggest chunk of laptop manufacture in the world. At the show, the theme, as far as manufacturers are concerned, seemed to be "smaller and cheaper."

Laptop makers are in search of the next big thing that will take the mass of consumers by storm. Most of them are in the same page as far as the core model is concerned. Designs presented in the show were sleeker and more low-cost, with the smallest units measuring only seven inches across and weighing in at about two pounds each. The most low-cost units were available for only about US$ 200.

The idea, manufacturers say, is to come up with something that has sufficient features, is lighter and smaller than a laptop, but is more reliable and versatile than a smartphone. The sleekest models exhibited in the show seemed to be closing in as most of them were small enough to fit in a lady's bag but could still house a full keyboard.

Alvin Kwock, an analyst for JP Morgan comments "computer companies are really boosting their industrial design capabilities to gain more business."

AU Optronics (AUO) has revealed not just one but two new groundbreaking technologies for mobile phones.

One of these is a 2.2-inch transreflective panel with a border of 0.9mm on both the right and left sides. This TFT LCD is being touted by AUO as having the world's slimmest border. According to DigiTimes, AUO claims that this is half a size smaller than products currently in the market. The slim border design can increase the TFT LCD's active area without sacrificing resolution.

The other is a 2.7-inch panel which AUO claims has the world's highest contrast ratio of 2,100:1. According to DigiTimes, this panel was made possible through AUO's AMVA-mobile technology. The AMVA-mobile technology can provide high contrast ratios coupled with a wide viewing angle.

Both the 2.2-inch and the 2.7-inch panels will be showcased at Display Taiwan 2007 in Taipei on June 13 to June 15 along with other TFT LCD technologies from AUO.

Taiwan-based company PQI has recently released their Traveling Disks series, called the "H Series". Although it looks nothing like their flashy thin flash drive, the H Series doesn't lag behind in the features department.

The H series members are all Windows Vista ReadyBoost supported. Aside from that there is also a built-in Webaroo offline browser. Webaroo downloads and saves internet packets of the website of your choice so the user could browse online contents offline using a laptop, PDA or a smartphone.

Current models of the H series are the Cool Drive U310H, U350H and U339H. 512MB to 4GB variants are available and aside from the features mentioned above, they also boast faster read and write performances. To know more about these PQI goodies, head on over to the read link below which will take you to PQI's official site.

Today's a sad day for employees of BenQ Mobile. Forbes has revealed that the bankrupt German handset business of Taiwan's BenQ Corporation will be split up and sold after a failed bid to turn the struggling company around. This was announced by the company's insolvency administrator on Sunday.

"There is no longer a realistic chance of it being sold as a whole," spokesman Martin Prager said, confirming a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Munich-based company filed for insolvency protection in September, a year after the Taiwanese firm took over the struggling unit from Siemens AG.

Prager declined to comment on the fact that splitting up the firm means that almost all of the 3,000 jobs at the firm would be lost for good. Around 550 former BenQ Mobile workers have already signed up with other companies, some of them with Siemens. Forbes reports that thanks to a transitional arrangement largely financed by Siemens, the remaining employees will keep on receiving most of their previous wages for up to a year.