Asus Keyboard streams HD video to your TV

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While Asus was busy launching every laptop under the sun, their marketing executive, John Swatton, confirmed to Tech Digest (me) when the infamous Asus Keyboard will be landing and what it’s actually for.

The self-sufficient computer-in-a-keyboard conundrum is supposed to be a controllable media centre primarily for your living room but, in practice, could be as portably useful as you want it to be.

It will stream HD content, stored on its 32 GB SSD, via a wide-band HDMI standard to your TV, a monitor or just about anything else with a panel. At the same time, you can use the built-in 5-inch touchscreen to do your e-mails, your shopping or whatever else you like in front if the box.

It all sounds quite fun and the main reason it’s taken since CES to get the product to market is because Asus hasn’t been too sure what it was all about either and to create another niche – as they did with the Eee PC – you’ve really go to have some idea of the best environment to put your innovation.

Seeing as no-one else is sitting on anything quite like the Keyboard, the Taiwanese tech master has had the luxury of time to perfect their latest product but the company memo seems to be that the end of August is the date we’ll all be getting a look. Can’t wait.

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Asus Keyboard to hit the shelves in June

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The most puzzling gadget from CES 2009 looks like it’s about to be up for grabs as word spreads that the Asus Keyboard will be on sale by the end of June.

The computer-in-a-keyboard device created more of a confusion than a storm when it was brushed over fairly casually at the Asus press conference in January. So, just in case your desktop isn’t enough, the Taiwanese innovator is selling a finger tapper with a mind of its own.

It comes with an embedded 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen, and it runs XP on an Atom N270 CPU and a 32GB SSD. It also happens to rock 802.11n wirless, an HDMI-out port, Bluetooth, a set of speakers and even has a microphone as well. I think they’re just doing it to make everyone’s computer feel really dated. “Look,” they’re saying, “even our keyboards are better than your tired old machine.”

Of course, the big question is what exactly am I going to use the thing for? I look forward to the demonstrations.

(via Engadget)