We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Pete, who reckons a tablet + keyboard combo will be best for his future note-taking. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I will be attending college next year and figured that getting a tablet + keyboard combination to take to class instead of a netbook or small laptop would be a better idea. I was looking into getting the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, but my grandparents gave me an iPad 2 as a graduation present. A friend of mine is considering getting the Transformer, but doesn’t want to pay 0 for a keyboard dock. Both of us will be using our tablets for essentially the same purpose and we were both wondering what the best wireless keyboard was for a tablet. Thanks!”

We’ve definitely tested our fair share of tablet-focused keyboards, but none of ‘em have actually struck us as ideal. The newly-released Lenovo Folio case is a gem, but alas, only functions with the ThinkPad Tablet. So, bright minds — any ideas for Pete and his pal? Drop ‘em in comments below.

Ask Engadget: best wireless keyboard for tablet use? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS’ Eee Pad Slider is fast becoming just as mythical as the flying horse the company’s named after. We’ve had several encounters with potential release windows for the slate, only to see it continually creep back into fall. Well, judging by a recent report from Notebook Italia and the tab’s new product page, it looks like we may actually see a September launch for the 10.1-incher — in Italy. Contrary to prior rumors, the company will be offering the Slider in two storage configurations — 16GB and 32GB at potential €479 and €599 price points overseas, while 0 and 0 models should hit the US. We’ve also got a slew of official specs for the Honeycomb-based device, which should ship with Android 3.1 installed, with a promised 3.2 upgrade to follow. The QWERTYfied tablet packs a 1280 x 800 WXGA display, dual-core 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of memory, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, USB 2.0, mini-HDMI, microSD card reader, WiFi and Bluetooth. The company’s also thrown in one year of “unlimited ASUS Web Storage” for your cloud computing needs. Will the electronics maker finally commit to a concrete launch for the Slider? We’ll find out in a month’s time.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider shows off its specs, may launch in September originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Asus Eee Pad Slider Android tablet is expected to launch this month and an Australian blogger has one of the first hands-on looks at the unique slate. The CarryPad blog today pointed me to Ritchie’s Room, which provides a full first look at this 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet that comes with a twist, or rather a slide. The entire display can shift up at an angle, revealing a full QWERTY keyboard. That gives the tablet a laptop-like form factor when needed, in addition to the standard touchscreen slate use.

In addition to the always-attached keyboard, the Eee Pad Slider adds a full-sized USB port and microSD card slot for memory expansion. Adding these ports and the keyboard adds some bulk and weight, however; two things I’d say actually reduce the portability of the tablet. The slider is larger overall than the iPad or Galaxy Tab 10.1, for example, and at 31.3 ounces, weighs just under two pounds.

Yes, that’s still lighter than a notebook or netbook computer, but noticeably heavier than comparable tablets. From a design standpoint, Ritchie says the sliding mechanism on the tablet works well. It’s a spring loaded design that Ritchie claims is “very smooth action.” The screen angle is a fixed position, however; don’t expect to tilt the screen at different angles.

Maybe I’ll feel differently once I get an Eee Pad Slider to look at, but I’m not sold on the design for my personal needs. Honeycomb is a touch-driven interface, so your hands will be moving back and forth between the keyboard. Even though the travel looks looks small, it’s not ideal from a usability standpoint. With either the USB port or Bluetooth radio, you could add a mouse to address that problem, but that’s more to carry, which reduces portability even more. And the added weight of the keyboard and sliding mechanism is something buyers will be carrying the whole time, although they do gain a stand out of the design.

Again, perhaps the heavy slate will impress me when I see it for myself. And I’m not suggesting the Eee Pad Slider is a non-starter: It will surely appeal to some who don’t mind carrying a larger device in order to gain an integrated keyboard. My concern is that I’d be “carrying” the extra weight and size for the keyboard all the time, yet I’d likely be using the keyboard for a very limited amount of time. Folks that are supplementing a true slate with some type of wired or wireless keyboard would likely feel the opposite and for them, the Eee Pad Slider might press all the right buttons, assuming Google Android is their platform of choice.

Keyboard or not, I haven’t been impressed enough by any Android Honeycomb tablet to buy one for myself. I actually still prefer Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, on my lighter 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. And that’s a problem that no keyboard will fix.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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The Asus1015 PEM is a initial EeePC design to get a dual-core Atom CPU produced particularly for netbooks, the 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550. The EeePC 1215N also runs on the dual-core Atom, but this distinct one particular is designed for nettops (the desktop version of a netbook). The HP 5103 is an additional netbook that uses the N550, but it is paired with 2GB of DDR3 memory; although the Asus Eee 1015 PEM includes 1GB.

Overall performance scores weren’t mind-blowing, however the Asus 1015 PEM SYSMark 2007 Preview Total score (42) was not less than 10% better than single-core netbooks much like the Toshiba NB305-N410 (38) and Samsung N210 (38). It didn’t conduct as well as the Asus 1215N (53), and it trailed the Lenovo X100e (51) and Acer AO521-3782 (52)-netbooks that run on AMD processors-by a healthful margin. In the true globe, even though, tasks like Net browsing with various tabs, word processing with MS Office, and only launching an software seem to be more rapidly on a dual-core Atom than a single-core 1.

Energy effectiveness will be the motive why you’d desire a dual-core Atom devoted to netbooks. The 1215N, with its nettop Atom, performed extremely well in speed exams, but its battery score topped out at 5 hours forty minutes. AMD-based netbooks also favor velocity about battery efficiency, which can be why the Acer AO521-3782 (5:06) and Lenovo X100e (5:23) did not conduct at the same time as the 1015PEM inside battery department. Using the enable of a 63WH, the 1015PEM amassed eight hours 13 minutes in MobileMark 2007, placing it within the very same league as the HP 5103 (eight:forty) and Toshiba NB305-N410 (8:59).

Asus could have very easily charged a large premium for Intel’s most up-to-date dual-core Atom, and it could have simply bundled a smaller battery and been content with 5-6 hours of battery lifestyle. But for the sub-$400 netbook, you get a good-looking style, a smoother net and office productivity practical knowledge, and enough battery life to go away the AC adapter in your own home. Escalating the dimension from the keyboard and tweaking the mouse buttons would be the only adjustments that should be created. That way, it could stand as tall as the Toshiba mini NB305-N410-the Editors’ Choice in this category.

Fancy keyboard is fancy.

It’s the Asus Eee Keyboard, a sorta PC-keyboard hybrid that pretty much blew my mind.

It’s got an Intel Atom processor, 1GB of memory, and either 16GB or 32GB or storage space, and a five-inch touch screen on the right-hand side.

The idea, nearest I can tell (this is the first I’ve ever heard of the thing), is to squeeze a netbook into a keyboard. You can connect it to an external monitor and control it like it was any old Windows netbook.

I have no idea what’s going on anymore, but this is neat. $600 neat? That’s for you to decide.

It seems a little odd that we first saw the Eee Keyboard at CES 2009 and it’s still not available. The demo that we played with at least seemed like it was nearly production ready. But here we are over a year later and now the Asus chairman is stating that the new release date is April 2010. Like we haven’t heard that one before.

At this point Asus better produce a flawless product. It’s unbelievable that there isn’t more generic clones available. One was spotted at CES 2010 made by the Chinese company Great Wall, but it’s a China-only model. Hopefully we’ll see the Eee Keyboard sometime this year. You might as well start saving your pennies though, it’s not going to be cheap.