Asus plans netbook with optical drive

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All the pillars that we once knew as hallmarks of netbookiness are crumbling. Screen sizes now go up to 12.1″, the Atom processor is being seen less and less regularly, solid state drives are rare and now Asus is bringing out a model with an optical drive attached!

The E1004DN will have an optical drive, as well as an Intel Atom N280 CPU paired with GN40 chipset, and a 120GB hard drive. It’ll be out mid-April in Taiwan and will cost NT$18,000-20,000, which is about £375 or so in quids.

(via Digitimes)

Sony/NEC predicts sub-$100 Blu-ray drives for PCs by year end

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In the ongoing push to make Blu-ray hardware more affordable, SonyNEC Optiarc (a joint collaboration between Sony and NEC) has predicted that Blu-ray drives for desktop PCs, capable of reading Blu-ray Discs and reading and writing DVDs and CDs, could go for under $100 (about £60) by the end of 2008.

It’s worth bearing in mind that this is most likely to be a wholesale price for PC manufacturers. Similar drives for notebook PCs could hit the $150 level, while Blu-ray burners will be priced in the region of $150-$200…