Today marks the launch of the new NVIDIA GTX 280 video cards. These cards are replacing the dual GPU 9800 GX2 as the king of the performance from NVIDIA. The new video card uses only one GPU and is NVIDIA’s first all new video card class in a while.

ASUS has announced details of its GTX 280 called the ENGTX280/HTDP/1G. The card ships with ASUS’ SmartDoctor utility to adjust the shader clock to provide more performance. The GTX 280 has 1GB of GDDR3 memory. Pricing for the card is $649.99.

Looks like Asus has been working on an official handwriting recognition add-on for the Eee PC. Which is good news if you’ve been trying to mod your DS to do the job, but failing miserably. It was demoed at last weeks Computex show, and it accepts English and simplified Chinese characters via the Eee’s USB port.

The touch pad is just over 2-inches across, with the whole thing measuring 4.3 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches. If you’re big on handwriting, you’ll have to wait. How long we’re not sure. No launch date or price info yet.

Asus has debuted what it is calling the world’s smallest PC equipped with a built-in independent graphics card. It is called the Asus Mini PC Nova Lite PX24 and there is no pricing or availability information as of yet.

The Asus Mini PC Nova Lite PX24 measures 242- x 184- x 51mm and weighs around 1.5kg. It runs Windows Vista and is capable of 1080p output via HDMI and its built-in ATI RV620 display card. Processing power is handled by an Intel Celeron 220 and this mini computer has 2GB of on-board RAM.

Asus ditched their plans for all-bamboo laptops, much to the delight of bamboo chewing Pandas everywhere. Instead they’ve revealed the U6, which is only bamboo trimmed for that we’re still green statement. I have to say, the look works.

If laptops evolved from the old wood-grain atari console, this is what they would look like. You’ll pay for all that elegance, as it will cost you around $2000. Apparently, plans for the all-bamboo Asus EcoBook were scrapped when heat management became an issue. Good thing too, because otherwise we wouldn’t have this looker.

Are you as weirded out as I am? I’m not sure if it’s the strange tomato color or the fact that two nunchuks appear to be mating. They were seen recently at a trade show in Taipei. We think they must be connected through a wireless usb transmitter and it would make sense if they were compatible with the company’s new desktop.

It would not only be good for most types of games, but could obviously be used as a wireless mouse as well. I’m guessing there must be a few extra buttons we aren’t seeing judging by the 10 and 11 buttons. Word on the street is that the price will be $70 whenever it comes out into the open. Check out a video below to see these in action.

Some of us just can’t get enough TV shows no matter where we are. For those people, the Asus My Cinema U3100 Mini is an awesome device. Your computer just needs a free USB slot. It’s bus powered, so there’s no need for an external power adapter, and with Asus’ Pop-Up TV technology, you will get instant display TV channels on your monitor without having to manually launch programs.

It’s compatible with the Asus Eee PC, so you can watch your favorites anywhere, never missing an episode again. It also works with all Windows XP and Vista platforms. Show recordings are also easy, just make sure you have enough storage space.

Asus has announced a new laptop computer which offers a number of high definition enhancements for multimedia lovers. It is called the Asus M70 and no specific pricing information is available as of yet.

The Asus M70 sports a 17-inch WUXGA screen showcasing 1920 x 1200 pixels and 16:10 aspect ratio. It runs off of your choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and can support up to 4GB of RAM. Maximum hard drive space is said to be 1TB due to dual hard drive support.

Asus this week unveiled a new notebook computer with Blu-ray Disc playback ability. It is called the M50. There is not yet any specific pricing or availability.

The Asus M50 offers up a 15.4-inch display and your choice of several Intel processors including some Penryn ones. A variety of Windows Vista flavors are available as well as up to 500 GB of storage space, a hybrid TV tuner and a fingerprint scanner for security.

ASUS launched its latest ultraportable notebook today and it’s a looker. The ASUS U2E is an 11-inch notebook weighing only 2.7 pounds and clad in leather. According to ASUS the notebook is hand crafted and designed to appeal to the user’s sense of style.

The U2E claims to be the lightest notebook available with a built-in DVD-RW drive and the system runs on Windows Vista. Since Vista is resource intensive ASUS ships the U2E with 3GB of high-speed DDR2 memory.

When two devices collide into one new hybrid device, the results can often be “What the hell were they thinking?”. This hybrid from Asus is one such cross-breeding experiment. It’s a flash drive from Asus that is also a wireless mouse. While it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, I don’t see myself using this anytime soon.

Being a flash drive, it must be as bulky as it looks, so you wouldn’t want this in your pocket. As far as the mouse goes, who can use something that small? This isn’t for me, but if it pleases your tiny hands, you’ll have to wait for pricing and availability info, as we simply don’t know yet.

These days everyone is going green. It’s not just for peace loving hippies anymore. That’s why Asus has their eye on a greener line of products. The idea is to make computers and notebooks out of environmentally friendly materials like bamboo. It makes sense, and not just from a Panda luring standpoint. Bamboo is not only environmentally friendly, but also very tough.

Asus products that will be made with bamboo include notebooks, LCDs and Mini PCs. They claim that they’ve figured out a special manufacturing process to make it even more durable. While the idea will not singlehandedly save Mother Earth, it will help a tad, while giving everything a nice retro look. My one concern is that when they harvest all the bamboo, the Pandas will be coming for our laptops.

ASUS this week slapped Windows XP officially as a pre-install onto its Eee PC product. The company also incorporated Windows Live and Microsoft Works features.

With the addition of Windows XP, ASUS said, users will have a “fuss-free” platform and a “dependable” operating environment – sure, ok (blue screen of death). Works will offer, of course, your typical word processing and spreadsheet programs, while Windows Live brings to the table online email, instant messaging and photo management.

Business and education technology company Tangent has begun selling through computer manufacturer Asus a mini-notebook computer. It is called the Tangent ePC and pricing starts at around $300.

The Tangent ePC, which looks like it will sport the Asus logo on the cover, comes in a variety of colors and incorporates a seven-inch screen. Dimensions are on the small size, with the four models in this line up measuring 8.86- x 6.3 x 0.79-inches and weighing just over two pounds. These are not laptops designed for heavy business use but rather casual applications like Web browsing and word processing.

If you’re a fan of the Asus Eee portable PC you’ll probably be happy to hear that Asus may have a desktop version of the popular notebook in the works. According to Asus president Jonathan Tseng, the new desktop Eee PC will launch in 2008 most likely running Linux and will come with no monitor and an affordable price since it will save by not paying fees for a pricey OS.

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The Palm Foleo looks like it will be a pretty interesting device despite it’s questionable necessity and a $600 price tag. When we first read about the Asus Eee PC we thought it might be pretty cool as well, but we’re confident about the Eee in the ‘coolness’ arena now with an expected $199 price tag.

The Asus Eee UMPC looks like its no slouch in the world of 7″ notebooks, either. It’s designed particularly for portability combined with browsing the web with a 7″ screen, full keyboard, webcam and microphone. It has a weight of just 1.9 pounds and promises 512MB of RAM with a flash drive for storage in sizes from 4GB to 16GB. Wireless comes standard and built-in, and rumors of 3G abound as well. It would be nice to see a few more specs or something …