At CES 2009 in January I used a netbook, the MSI Wind U100, exclusively at the show. It didn’t take long to realize that the business world today still expects you to have access to an optical drive. The vast majority of information given at the show was on CD or DVD, which is a problem considering the netbook lacks an optical drive.

The Asus Eee 1004DN has hit the FCC website seeking approval for sale in the US. The netbook will fix the issue many netbook users have of the missing optical drive. The 1004DN is the first netbook to feature an integrated optical drive in the Asus line.

Asus is all about thin with their U and UX series of ultra slim notebooks that will show up in the second quarter of the year. Both models will havea chiclet-style keyboard and auto-adjusting LED backlit display for optimal viewing.

The U series also features a 15.6″ glossy LCD display and a touchpad that uses progressively fading lights to follow your fingertips. Under the hood there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics card, up to 500GB of hard drive space and Altec Lansing speakers with SRS true surround sound.

Great news. Asus’s awesome Eee Keyboard will be available in May or June for only $400-$600. It’s essentially a home theater PC inside of a keyboard, complete with wireless HDMI and a secondary touchscreen. According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, they’re working on two different models, one wired and one wireless. The wired version will cost around $400 while the wireless will be around $600.

The keyboard features a 5-inch built-in display, 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16/32 GB SSD, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It’s got all of the ports you want like wireless HDMI, 2 USB 2.0, VGA, HDMI, and audio in/out. We’ve been waiting for this one. It’s almost here.

Maybe you’ve been looking for an inexpensive all-in-one for your kitchen, so you can look up recipes or read the ‘Brick while burning dinner. If so, you might want to have a look at ASUS’s Eee Top.

It’s almost available in the US as it has a pre-order page on Amazon.com. The 15.6-inch touchscreen model has a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, and XP installed on a 160GB drive. It’s available in either black or white flavors for $599.99 with free shipping. If you already have one by the time you read this…Something’s burning. Go check.

ASUS has us doing a triple take with its new Lamborghini VX5 laptop. The machine will sport a 1TB SSD, a Core 2 Quad CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 16-inch “Full HD” display.

You’ll also get a GeForce GT 130M graphics card with 1GB of GDDR3 memory, an illuminated “chiclet” style keyboard and a Blu-ray optical drive. It’s for those of us who don’t care about laptops with an astronomical price tag obviously, though the MSRP is yet to be announced.

Asus was one of the first companies to start the netbook segment and its Eee netbooks are the systems that prompted many computer makers to enter into the netbook category. Asus has a wide array of models and systems in its Eee lineup and today it has introduced its latest machine.

The new Asus Eee 1000HE is the first netbook to launch using the new Intel Atom N280 processor. The N280 is slightly faster than the N270 it replaces and is optimized for better battery life. The machine uses the Asus Super Hybrid Engine to boost CPU speed for performance or to lower it to get longer battery life depending on the user’s needs.

The ASUS F50 and F70 range of notebooks sport features tailored specifically for users who want both high definition audio visual entertainment and extensive multitasking capabilities. Users looking for large screen entertainment and massive storage will want the Asus F70SL, the world’s first 17.3″ notebook with 16:9 golden aspect ratio for cinematic viewing and dual hard disk drives providing up to 1 TB in storage space.

The Asus F50 and F70 range of notebooks come standard with high definition audio quality and a 16:9 Full High Definition display for high contrast rate, brightness and color saturation. An HDMI port allows users to connect their notebooks to larger external LCD displays or other HDMI-capable devices.

Asus has introduced their latest high-end gaming notebook at CES. Known as the ASUS W90, the laptop provides a 18.4- or 17-inch display, depending on model with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 or HD 3850 X2 dual graphics, or a single NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GS GPU, and the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

The W90 uses the Intel X38 chipset and has three SO-DIMM slots for up to 6GB of DDR2 memory. Some other neat features include up to 1 terabyte of hard drive storage space using two HDDs, DVD burner or Blu-ray optical drive, six built-in Altec Lansing surround sound speakers, optional TV tuner, AI Touch Media, a 2MP webcam, 802.11 Draft N wireless, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and a 56k modem just for good measure.

Your Eee Box experience is missing one key ingredient isn’t it? A branded keyboard/mouse/remote. According to Eee PC News, ASUS is getting ready to ship an Eee-branded wireless keyboard / mouse combo in black and white.

That should be good news for Eee users. The multi-function remote should handle all of your media center duties easily. There’s no word yet on a price or release date, so we unfortunately, you’ll have to wait to find out.

It looks like a Celeron-based Eee Box B203 has shown up on Asus’ website. Aside from the the Intel C220 processor, little has changed from the Atom-based Eee Box B202. It features Windows XP Home, ships with up to 2GB of RAM and 160GB storage, and measures just 222 x 178 x 26.9 mm (which is about 8.7 x 7 x 1 inches). As far as looks, it still leaves a lot to be desired, but on the plus side if it’s cheaper, faster, and fits behind your monitor, you probably don’t care about it’s looks.

I really like the idea of a HTPC in my living room. I would love to be able to watch A-Team or The Pretender on my big screen rather than my PC display from Hulu. The catch is that I don’t want a big and bulky HTPC machine in my entertainment center, I just don’t have the room, and I want HD capability.

Asus has announced a couple new Eee Box models that could be perfect for my needs. The models are the B204 and B206. Both of them offer HD capability thanks to a new discrete ATI Radeon HD 3400 series video card. The systems also offer HDMI output for connecting to HDTV sets. The B204 adds Bluetooth and an internal battery to act as an uninterruptable power supply.

If you’re looking for an environmentally-friendly laptop that will match your wood floors, the ASUS U6V-B1-Bamboo laptop is for you. It’s actually fairly nice looking and this 12.1-inch ultraportable laptop is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It features a Moso bamboo cover and a palm rest that is “artisan grade,” ooo la la.

Even the touch pad has bamboo fiber patterns on it, making it feel as though you’re scrolling and pointing on a real bamboo surface. Specs include a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, a 320GB hard drive, a NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS 256MB graphics card and more. The display is LED backlit and features a 1280 x 800 resolution. An optical drive is included as well as Windows Vista Business. Go ahead and pre-order it on Amazon now for $1,999.

It looks like ASUS fans have another model to consider from the company, the new N20A model. At around 4 pounds, this one has a 12.1-inch WXGA display, described as “glare-type”, and it gets a boost in the performance as well. You can choose from four different Core 2 Duo processors, though it sports an integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics chipset. You’ll get up to 4GB of RAM, a max 320GB hard drive, and a DVD burner, built-in webcam, memory card reader. There are also HDMI and VGA outputs, three USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, eSATA port, 8-in-1 media card reader, and the Trusted Platform Module 1.2 in select models. No word on price yet.

DigiTimes is now reporting that Asus is planning to launch an Android-based handset, which confirms some rumors we’ve heard. They were invited to join the Open Handset Alliance after all. The phone will apparently be available sometime in the first half of 2009, and might land in Taiwan first under ASUS’ own brand before coming our way in the form of different customized models. As you might expect, no other details at this point, but sources say that ASUS will be phasing out its use of the Ericsson Mobile Platform for handset platforms from Qualcomm and Marvell.

ASUS’s new Eee PC S101 will be landing in the States on November 1st. Landing with a thud thanks to it’s hefty $699 price tag, not due to it’s weight. You’ll get a new super-slim enclosure that’s just 0.75-inches thick, but the specs are pretty standard.

It sports an Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, matte 10.2-inch 1024 x 600 LED-backlit display, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, multi-card reader, multi-touch touchpad, VGA webcam, 5.4 hours of quoted battery life that you can believe when you see it and Windows XP. No Linux option in the States. It all weighs only 2.3 pounds. This expensive laptop comes in copper brown and graphite varieties. Are you impressed?