We've seen tons of Eees modded with touchscreens, and it looks like ASUS is taking the hint -- it's saying that it expects to launch touch-enabled Eee PCs next year, as long rumored. It's not clear whether the new models will run XP or a special Linux build, but we'll find out soon enough, since the company plans to show them off at CES in January. Unsurprisingly, we should also be seeing dual-core Atom 330 chips make their way into the Eee line as soon as they're available in quantity, but the best piece of news is probably that ASUS will be getting aggressive on price with a sub-$300 Eee. Now just wrap all that up in the S101's case and we're all set -- that would be just about perfect.

[Via Electronista]

AMD's breakup into two separate companies is certain to have wide-ranging impact in the industry, and unsurprisingly, Intel's among the first to react -- it's warning that it has "serious questions about this transaction" as it relates to its patent cross-licensing agreement with AMD and that it'll "vigorously protect" its intellectual property rights. That's about as aggro a patent attorney can get without coming to your house and peeing on the lawn (or, uh, filing a lawsuit), so we'll see how this shakes out -- for its part, AMD says that it's taken the deal into account, and that it'll "continue respecting Intel's intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours." That's a respect throwdown, right there -- you gonna take that, Intel?

It look like Hollywood's won the first round in court against RealNetworks' RealDVD DVD-ripping software -- Judge Maralyn Hall Patel (of Napster fame, remember her?) ruled yesterday that a temporary restraining order blocking sales of the software will stay in place indefinitely until she decides whether it violates the DMCA. The central issue is whether or not making a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD constitutes circumventing copy protection: the studios claim the encryption keys must be read off the disk under the terms of the license agreement, and RealNetworks obviously disagrees. There's a lot at play here, including the studios' argument that fair use doesn't serve as a defense to backing up DVDs, so we'll be tracking this one closely -- it's sadly clear to us that Hollywood's fight here is against consumers having flexibility with their media, since it lost the battle against actual piracy ages ago.

It's been over a year and half since Sling first announced the SlingCatcher, but the mythical streamer is finally, finally here -- it's now officially for sale on Sling's site and at other major retailers. You already know most of the details about the $299 box -- Slingbox playback, SlingProjector computer streaming, extensive codec support including XviD, eventual Sling.com content delivery -- so we'll just let you hit the order page, but rest assured we'll be tearing this thing apart when our test unit arrives.

Uncle Woz is stirring things up today in an interview with The Telegraph, saying that he thinks "the iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one, things like, if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while... they get real cheap and then they are not selling as much." That's certainly an interesting parallel to draw, since the iPod is unquestionably the market leader and the recent updates to the nano and classic weren't particularly overwhelming -- but we've got to disagree here and say that the metaphor doesn't quite work.

Walkmans and radios were standalone products that didn't really change over time, while the iPod is clearly evolving into a compelling standalone computing platform -- and it's tied to iTunes, which, hate it or love it, is the most popular content store out there. Sure, things could change dramatically -- competitors like the Zune are getting way better, subscription music could finally take off, and DRM is slowly going away (at least for music) -- but it's hard to see Apple getting baited into a brand-tarnishing price war or simply letting the iPod fade away without putting up a fight. We'll see, we suppose -- any of you willing to throw down some bold predictions?

[Via Wired]

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime sat down with VentureBeat on the heels of last week's DSi announcement, and while he didn't drop any major bombshells, he did put the kibosh on those Wii HD rumors, saying that they were "pure rumor and speculation" and that Nintendo wouldn't show off upcoming models to devs as the rumors claimed. Reggie also downplayed the talk that Nintendo is going head to head against Apple, saying that Ninty's always "viewed ourselves as competing in a larger entertainment space." That's the end of that for now, we suppose -- but Reggie didn't close the door on either rumor entirely, and his closing comment that Nintendo's good fortunes "makes us the most paranoid people in the world" certainly keeps possibilities open. Hit the read link for the full interview.

Just when we were getting used to having most Nikon announcements thoroughly preceded by a flood of leaks, the company's managed to totally surprise us by introducing a new head-mounted display with PMP features -- and it actually looks pretty sweet. The WiFi-enabled 8GB Media Port UP UP300x has a .44-inch 640 x 480 screen that appears to be the equivalent of a 50-inch image viewed from about 10 feet away, and includes a motion sensor that allows media functions to be controlled through head movements. (There's also a "basic" 4GB UP300 that omits the motion control features.) Codec support is pretty slim, but there's a browser app and a new UP media store that allows for direct downloads. Two AA batteries will last for two hours of video or 270 minutes of audio, which should be enough time for you to look thoroughly like a dork, but we won't lie -- we'd buy one of these in a heartbeat if they ever make it out of Japan.

[Via Akihabara News]

Sure, we've seen projects like SplashTop boot a stripped Linux build quickly, but Intel engineers at the recent Linux Plumbers Conference took things a little farther last Thursday, starting up modified versions of Fedora and Intel's own Moblin Linux on an SSD-equipped Eee PC in just five seconds. That's all the way to an idle CPU and disk, not cheating and starting a window manager while background services thrash in the background, mind you -- and it's fast enough that the splash screen was removed from both distros. The changes are being sent back to the Moblin and Fedora trunks, but if you're curious, a detailed overview of the changes awaits at the read link.

[Via SlashGear]

After seemingly endless delays, it looks like the SlingCatcher is finally making its way into the world, as evidenced by this grainy unboxing at the SlingCommunity forums. Sure, it looks exactly the same as the prepro boxes we've toyed with, but we won't lie -- we've been waiting for this box with breathless anticipation ever since it was announced at CES 2007, and combined with the recent launch of the Sling 2.0 software, the Slingbox PRO-HD, and the seemingly-imminent launch of the Sling.com video portal, Sling's ending the year strong. Click on for a few more pics, and don't worry -- we'll be blowing this thing out as soon as we get our hands on one.

[Thanks, Christopher]

AMD just issued a release saying that president and CEO Dirk Meyer will be making a "significant corporate announcement" tomorrow, which sounds ominously like those breakup rumors are coming true -- particularly since Dirk's on record saying that the chipmaker plans to spin off manufacturing and fabrication into a new company. We'll see in the morning -- anyone planning on throwing a blowout "last night of the old AMD" party in the meantime?

Update: The WSJ confirms it's a breakup -- but don't worry, they'll still be friends. [Thanks, aztalon]

Update 2: Official PR is here. How's "AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi to Create New Leading-Edge Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Mubadala increases investment in financially-stronger AMD, which is simultaneously unlocking the value of its manufacturing assets" for an exciting title?

Get ready, Blackberry fans. After weeks of leaks and goofy internal videos, it looks like the Storm's finally a-comin' -- the first ads for the RIM's touchscreen wonder aired on CBS tonight. We're on the lookout for a better video, but even at this low res we can't help but notice how chunky this thing looks -- but we're totally willing to trade some heft for some sweet, sweet copy / paste action. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Jerry and deltajam]

SanDisk just released a firmware update for the Sansa Fuze -- pretty minor, except it adds in support for FLAC and Ogg, which should make fans of jam bands and lossless music encoding extremely happy. Nothing much else of note here apart from some UI tweaks and bug fixes, but Fuze owners will be appreciative, we're sure.

[Via DAPreview]

We're assuming Apple will eventually give up and release a netbook of its own, but until then Steve had better get used to seeing OS X hacked to run on all manner of tiny laptops -- the latest to make the switch is Dell's Inspiron Mini 9. Nothing too complicated about this hack, since most of the work was already done for the internally-similar MSI Wind, but you'll have to dig up some extra Broadcom drivers to get WiFi and sound working. Seems like a fun little project for the weekend -- anyone going to take the plunge?

Man, the DSLR rumor mill never stops, does it? This time we're being treated to some leaked Japanese Nikon ads, which feature a shadowy DSLR body that's somewhat different than the D700 and D3 and the word "big" in Japanese. Of course, it could be totally fake, but we're not going to say we're not hoping for a compact full-frame camera -- but we're clearly dreamers. Anyone else have any guesses?

Read - First ad
Read - Second ad
Read - Sensor size comparison

Steve Ballmer's whirlwind UK media tour ahead of the Professional Developers Conference just keeps giving us sound bite gems: first it was Windows Cloud, then Zune on Windows Mobile, and now Stevie's taking shots at Android and the G1. Calling Microsoft David to Google's search Goliath, Ballms said that he wasn't worried about Android because it won't be "attractive" to other handset manufacturers because it's "version one... and it looks like version one." Not only that, but he apparently thinks Google's going to sit still, saying "they've got one handset maker, we've got 55. They're available through one operator, we've got 175." True for now, sure, but we know Android isn't going to languish on a single handset on a single carrier for long -- and we're pretty certain Steve knows that HTC and T-Mobile aren't exactly minor players, regardless. Still, it's some masterful bluster from a master of bluster -- now if he'd just back it up with Windows Mobile 7, we'd be way more inclined to believe him.

[Via Cool Smart Phones]