Hey USers — we know where all those “delayed” Winds are. Just take a look across the pond. bit-tech managed to wrap their paws around a retail unit of MSI’s Eee PC fighter, and while early reviews sang a lovely song, this one was just a bit flatter. All in all, reviewers found the machine to be useful and totally practical, but it was glaringly obvious that they were none too pleased about MSI jacking up the price of its own machine while the completely identical (save for branding) Advent 4211 was selling for less. If you’re listening to these guys / gals, you’ll gloss right over the Wind and nab yourself a rebadge, but whichever edition you end up getting, it’s sure to be “great” in the grand scheme of things. Check the read link for the full spill.

ASUS has apparently gotten totally, righteously official on its Eee 904, according to reports. Word on the street is that the new iteration of its overflowing line of micro-laptops will be headed to shelves very soon, though it won’t exactly pack a groundbreaking set of features. As we previously reported, the system will feature an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display — but now full specs include a 900MHz Celeron M CPU, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and an install of Windows XP on board. Keep in mind the keyboard on this model mirrors the one used on the larger Eee 1000, though little else is different about this model versus the Eee 901 (which incidentally gets a price cut to £299, or about $595). The 904 will retail for £269 ($535), and will be available mid-July.

[Via TechRadar]

It’s true. Any decent mother would wonder what on Earth her child was thinking rocking that thing you see above, and even though all those wonderful ladies of the world would be entirely entitled to that curiosity, we can understand the obsession. On its surface, this timepiece and its cryptic display is unquestionably ugly — even the “stainless steel” band reeks of cereal box quality. But there’s just something about those flashy lights that stirs the soul of nerds everywhere, making it seem quite the bargain at $132.85. It’s okay, we won’t tell mommy.

[Via BoingBoing]

Seems that just about anyone inside of Asus is authorized to discuss the Eee PC roadmap judging by the whirlwind of information we always get prior to an official launch. Case in point: an unnamed “company representative” says that a 3G version of the Eee PC will be launching as early as September in Europe. An alternative to the WiMax version already annouced and demonstrated on Sprint’s Xohm. The prices for the presumed HSDPA/HSUPA enabled mini-laptops will of course vary depending upon contract. Can’t wait? No worries, why not roll your own? Should be a snap now that the Eee is riding that bigger 9-inch chassis.

Building a big robot is nothing to congratulate yourself on, but doing it in this manner is certainly worthy of a little self-indulgence. The creature you see standing before you is a 22-foot tall Styrobot constructed entirely from spare polystyrene packing materials, and no, each piece didn’t just show up that way. Michael Salter managed to whittle away on this beast until its completion, and now we’re hearing that it’ll be going on a short demonstration tour before being “decommissioned.” We say throw a brain in there and see what happens when you cut it loose.

[Via TechDigest]

Ah, ha! So, that Chinese S.W.A.T. team we caught ridin’ dirty on Segways earlier this week actually had a reason to be carrying on like they were — they were performing anti-terrorist drills in preparation for security during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Comically enough, the drill was said to be one of “rapid deployment,” though we aren’t told how many spills were taken when officers tried to actually maneuver one of these things around, aim at a target, pull a brown bag down around their head and keep it from spontaneously reversing. Just one question guys: what’s with the tiny guns?

[Via CNET]