The recent fire at an LG battery factory is creating quite a shortage for ASUS’s laptops, including the Eee PC. According to an article on Yahoo, 40% of Asustek shipments could be affected by the shortage created. This Digitimes article also says that ASUS hopes to resolve the problems by the second quarter of this year.

We’ll have to wait and see if the battery shortages play a large role with inventory of current Eee PC 70x’s– or if it causes a delay in the Eee PC 900 series.

Laptop Magazine has an interview with Jerry Shen, where he talks about future plans for the Eee PC line. They include the already announced 8.9″ Eee PC 900 and Eee PC with Windows XP preinstalled. Other plans include the possibility of larger non-ssd hard drives, Intel Diamondville processors, and “more stylish looks.”

Shen also indicates that the Eee PC 900’s price may be $499 for US users. Not bad!

There’s a wealth more of information if you read the full interview here.

If you head over to youtube, there are two new videos (link 1, link 2) that claim Eee PC’s can run much higher resolutions than the standard 800×480. In the first video, you can actually see what appears to be an Eee PC running in several different modes including 1024×768. The second video shows a step by step process to downloading and installing the drivers to make it work, with a “Don’t try this at home!” style warning.

The real question, does it work? Of course I had to try it!

I went ahead and installed Windows XP, and followed the instructions in the second video. Low and behold, it actually works! I used it on Windows XP Home and simply ran \utilities\setup.exe from the zip file. It appears as though the driver essentially makes the screen space larger, and then scales the elements on the screen to appear as the proper resolution.

There’s a nine page thread in our forums about the driver featuring posts from LazerTag, the man behind the driver, if you’d like to read it for more information.

I have no idea if there are any possible consequences or problems that can occur with your device (or it’s warranty!) with the use of these drivers. So, use at your own risk, or keep an eye out for more information.

Two new pages are up on the official Eee PC website.

The first is the Eee PC quick guide. It is an interactive flash video that highlights the features of the device with sections such as Work, Play, etc. It has plenty of screen shot captures of the operating system software.

The second is an actual product page on the ASUS website for the 4gb model of the Eee PC. While no new information seems posted on it, it is the first mention of the Eee PC outside of the subsite and press releases on the ASUS website.

According to this article from DigiTimes, ASUS will indeed announce the final Eee PC prices on October 16th. It does officially confirm that the $199 price point can only be reached by contract orders, as expected. An initial batch of 10,000 units will hit Taiwan markets after the announcement. By the end of this month, Eee PC’s will be available in the BestBuy / Newegg channels (as suggested in the last news update.)

Furthermore, x94scorp on our forums noticed a new update on the official ASUS website where the RAM specifications of the devices have all been raised. The 8G model has 1GB of RAM, the 4G and 4G Surf models have 512MB, and the 2G Surf has 256MB. Have the specifications been raised? Interesting!

It looks like we might actually see the Eee PC on brick and mortar store shelves and traditional internet retailers, according to this article from Reuters. Specifically, it states:

“In the United States, the company plans to sell the low-cost laptops through channels such as Best Buy and Web-based retailer Newegg.com”

Some of the other highlights:

1. ASUS has received an order for 1,000,000 Eee PCs by one customer for an emerging market
2. Will market Eee PC in China this year or next year

[thanks ninjaluke!]

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The official Asus Eee PC product page has received a few more updates, specifically a table showing the possibly finalized specifications of the four models. Most notable are the device names and the battery types. The model names (going from highest end to lowest end) are: Eee PC 4G, Eee PC 2G, Eee PC 2G Surf, and Eee PC 2G Pure. In the same order, the battery specifications are: 4 Cells 5200 mAh, 4 Cells 4400 mAh, 4 Cells 4400 mAh, 2 Cells 2600 mAh.

Also, check out this review (the original is in Russian) that has CPU-Z information about the processor along with benchmarks. It appears to be the Eee PC 700 model. [thanks pulped]

The French Eee PC blog Blogeee has up part three of their great series of reviews on the Eee PC 701 (the original French version is here.)

Finally, it looks like ASUS removed the reference of the Eee PC 801 on their website- it was up, then removed, then up again, but now removed once again…

Remember the Eee PC flash slideshow on the official Asus Eee PC website that’s been the same since way back in June? It finally changed- and a full new website is up! Check it out here. It still looks like a work in progress, but maybe it’s proof that we really are approaching a release date. There are three languages that you can view the site in- English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese- maybe a sign of the first locations the Eee PC will be released to.

Also, from other website updates, looks like there may be an Eee PC 801 model (thanks Yesh!)- possibly with an 8″ higher resolution screen!

According to an article in DigiTimes, Asus has once again delayed the Eee PC 700 and 701. Now, shipments are not expected to begin until the end of October or early November.

The reasoning? They want to add more software.

…Huh?

It’s odd as working prototypes of the Eee PC have been around since the original announcement way back in June. Reviews keep popping up in many different languages of production quality devices. Asus keeps insinuating through the press that shipments are right around the corner, only to continuously delay shipments further. Now, they’re delaying because they want to add more software? What’s there to add? Why will it take so much time?

One must wonder- what is really going on? Specifications are still not solidified, pre-order prices are higher then the original announced prices, and Asus continues to keep us guessing and in the dark about everything.

What’s the deal, Asus?

Rumored information from the recent Intel Developer Forum has been posted in an article on the Inquirer website about the upcoming Eee PC model lines. They speculate that there will be at least four different varieties:

Models: 700-C / 700 / 701 / 701-6

700-C: 2GB, 256MB DDR-2, no camera, 2cell battery, no wifi, wired ethernet, 56k modem, $199 price (they also say this model will be available on tender only…)

700: 2GB, 256MB DDR-2, no camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $239

701: 4GB, 512MB DDR-2, camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $299

701-6: 6GB, 512MB DDR-2, camera, 4cell battery, wifi, wired ethernet, no modem, $399

We are not fully sure how accurate this information is, however the inquirer does claim that it is straight off of an Intel data sheet. If this does turn out to be accurate, the 2GB/246MB boost on the 701 model seem to be a solid upgrade from initial speculation. However, if the speculation that the 700 models have soldered on SSD and RAM components is true, you would pretty much be forced to buy the 701 if you wanted 512MB of ram- which isn’t so bad as you’d technically be getting the speculated “$399″ model for the $299 price.

But of course, as always, this is just more speculation!

For the full article, click here.

[thanks, Fluffywings!]