My New Asus A730

[RiPpeR]

I like being blissfully ignorant... it makes for sunnier days... and much less stress in one's life.

I don't think that the priority of the American market has anything to do with Asus's issues... afterall the unit has not yet been released in Asia either... though if it is on a boat to the US... maybe it has been...

Maybe its time to surf the asian sites for any spottings of the elusive Blue/Grey... Asus... a730W...

[tankee531]

just came across this asus' china website that had a price listing for a730w

http://www.asus.com.cn/products/spec_PDA.htm

[PROPortable]

If it weren't for me, no one in North America would have any information on the 730w's. With the 716 and 730 bluetooth models we ran pre-orders and ran into usual BS from Taiwan... but on both occassions we had products in customers hands atleast 3-4 weeks before anyone else could.

With that said.. this pre-order on the 730w has been total BS.. And I can tell you that none of it comes from either myself or Asus's US PPC manager. He feels like he is getting BS when dealing with his Taiwanese Superiors. Tiawan doesn't see a need to keep the US office updated the US office doesn't know what's going on until they knew their units have been shipped. I have kept everyone up to date with every detail as it rolls in. Looking back now I would never have agreed this do this last pre-order, but we provide these as a service to the customer who wants the very first units, and as a service to Asus it gives them a good idea of what they need to allocate for the US market.

Technically, the pre-order was supposed to start in June...... Asus wanted a pre-order started exactly 1 month from when a rock solid delivery date was to be set. We started the 730w pre-order August 15th, with initial delivery set for mid to end of September. Graphic bugs found during Pocket Matrix's initial review of a supposed final production 730 bluetooth somehow stopped production on the 730 bluetooth and on the 730w models, pushing delivery back 1 month to the end of October. Sometime in the begining of October some one either on here or another site voiced their option of BT and wifi working at the same time and how frustrated he was with the 716 because they wouldn't work at the same time. Asus brought in some software company to develop a way for both to work. This takes up up to the ship date of Nov 26th. Now it's a waiting game.

My contacts only go as high as needs (head of their US office) and as high as I can understand... I only speak English. Since Asus doesn't have "official" press releases for their US Mobile Division, all MyPal news goes right from Taiwan to Mr. Han to myself and out to our customers and Brighthand and Pocket Matrix as news. Thats as good as your going to get.

Now, this is to everyone... if you can't wait, get off the list. It's as simple as that. The 2nd shipment won't be for 4 weeks after the first delivery, so that puts us at the begining of Feb for anyone now on the pre-order list.

If you would rather know nothing and be left out in the cold, that is fine by me too. But these units are just going to show up on the shelf at best buy one day either. For every person who's mad at my over saturation of updates, there are hundreds who have thanked me for keeping them updated.

Finally... for the record..... if I already didn't have my experience with the 730w demo this summer, and the final production 730 bluetooth this fall...... we wouldn't be selling the 730w and wouldn't care about when it came out. But the bottom line is the unit is a great one and we think its better than HP and Dell's offerings. At the same time, I would be #1 on the most frustrated list with Mr Han coming in screaming at #2...... All of you men and women have to fall in line.


Everyone have a safe and happy holiday season and don't miss out on our HUGE holiday contest starting over at www.pocketmatrix.com next week..... Prizes include a 730w.. and thats not even the best prize.

Sincerely,
Justin O'Dea
PROPortable

Please note that I'm always available:
Direct line: 570-430-8920
Email: justin@proportable.com

[PROPortable]

By the way ... the 730w was SUPPOSED to be released in the North American market 1st....... Asus trades off with each unit.

The 716 went to Italy and the UK first.

The 730 bluetooth went to China and Taiwan first.

The 730w is supposed to come to the US first.

Now.. all this means nothing.... It just means who gets the units as they roll out the door. Since it takes so long to get here, they could still be released in Taiwan sooner..... for obvious shipping reasons.

Justin O'Dea
PROPortable

[tankee531]

er ... it's Taiwan. not Tiawan.

[PROPortable]

Yeah... it's been a long day... all fixed! I said I could speak english, never said anything about my spelling.

Justin
PROPortable

[Menneisyys]

Originally posted by rEVOLVE
Have heard speed issues w/ the FS Loox 720's USB and was wondering if the ASUS's had the same problem.

Some people have indeed encountered quite bad transfer speeds (see http://www.firstloox.org/forums/show...9&page=1&pp=15), but I think there was some problem with their setup. I've measured the same transfer speed between a USB hard disk and the main memory:

Copy from USB to main memory: 428 kbyte/s
Copy from main memory to USB: 333 kbyte/s

Videos under 500-600 kbps generally play without problems. Over that speed, BetaPlayer sometimes stops to buffer.

[aluluei]

I'd like to apologize to Justin. In retrospect I shouldn't have taken it upon myself to pass on the shipping details. Of course it would be nice if the 730w's were here already, but I'd prefer to wait for this model which has all the features on my wishlist than to have ordered another unit which doesn't.

Elizabeth

[PROPortable]

Elizabeth,

No no.. there is no need to apoligize.. thank you for keeping this forum updated! All the information you have is obviously available on our site and through myself... When one person gets frustrated, its bad enough..... when hundreds of people are... everyones frustration builds on one another. Thats not a pretty site.

Justin

[RiPpeR]

Elizabeth... there is another device that has all the functions of the Asus a730W and is available now... it is called the Loox 720...

I intially thought the price was substantially more than the Asus... but it appears you can get it for the same price less $5... I believe Expansys US sells it for $595... Oops... just checked the site, it has gone up to $619...

Anyway... this was the PocketPC at the top of my list... only because the intial suggested price was $200 more than the Asus... now that the costs are comparable... it is a very viable choice...

You can get more information about this device at http://www.firstloox.org/

A nice website specifically for Loox users...

If I did not mention it... the Loox comes with a much larger standard battery... and Bluetooth 1.2. I am not sure if the Asus comes with the usb cable... but it is included with the Loox...