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Report: Asus to launch Eee PC with optical drive in April

By | March 27, 2009, 8:11am PDT

Summary: Always-busy usually-true rumor mill DigiTimes is reporting that Asus is scheduled to launch its new Eee PC, the E1004DN, in mid-April, and will follow with the 1008HA in May, according to sources at retail channels. The E1004DN, which will be the first Eee PC to have an optical disc drive, is built with an Intel [...]

Always-busy usually-true rumor mill DigiTimes is reporting that Asus is scheduled to launch its new Eee PC, the E1004DN, in mid-April, and will follow with the 1008HA in May, according to sources at retail channels.

The E1004DN, which will be the first Eee PC to have an optical disc drive, is built with an Intel Atom N280 CPU connected to a GN40 chipset, a 120GB hard drive. It will carry a suggested retail price of roughly $550, DigiTimes reports.

Which begs the question: is an optical drive worth offering on a netbook? It seems to me that we’ve moved past the optical drive, instead preferring flash memory, such as USB sticks.

(Tell me what you think in TalkBack.)

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Topics

ASUS, Optical Drive, Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is editor of ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

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What is wrong with a CD/DVD player?
Kaiwai 29th Mar 2009
When you have a partition based recovery - what happens
when the whole hard disk dies the death of a thousand
knives?

This will finally allow people to reinstall or replace the
default operating system; allow people to easily upgrade
from Windows XP to Windows 7 (or move to Linux or some
other operating system).

DVD/CD drives are used for more than just ripping music
and videos; amazingly enough, software is distributed
primarily on such media happy
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0 Votes
+ -
Not everybody wants to rip a DVD
Michael Kelly 27th Mar 2009
to be able to watch it on their netbook. As long as it doesn't increase weight by more than a couple ounces and the thickness by more than a couple millimeters, I think it will go over well.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Report: Asus to launch Eee PC with optical drive in April
joudbren 27th Mar 2009
Complete waste of time and effort IMHO. I don't understand why these manufacturers continue to try and blur the line between Netbooks and Notebooks. I have a Netbook currently and love it for what it does and it fills a need for small, light and very portable computing.

My Notebook at work rarely leaves the office now and even with the optical drive in that unit, I bet I read a disk once a year if I'm lucky. USB keys and flash media are quickly making CD/DVD technology yesterdays news and they will be joining VHS and Vinyl Records sooner rather than later. Just sayin'!
0 Votes
+ -
Battery Drain + Weight + Price + Size + Obsolete = Lets add it anyway... nt
T1Oracle 27th Mar 2009
nt
0 Votes
+ -
What is wrong with a CD/DVD player?
Kaiwai 29th Mar 2009
When you have a partition based recovery - what happens
when the whole hard disk dies the death of a thousand
knives?

This will finally allow people to reinstall or replace the
default operating system; allow people to easily upgrade
from Windows XP to Windows 7 (or move to Linux or some
other operating system).

DVD/CD drives are used for more than just ripping music
and videos; amazingly enough, software is distributed
primarily on such media happy

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