Looks like we will be getting an Eee-branded UMPC at some future date. It almost has to come to pass, what with these drool-worthy pics of an Eee PC 701 prototype, inspired by the original Origami R2H device found on Mobile1.

It does away with the keyboard and loses some weight, at just 1.68 pounds and even comes with a stylus. Sadly there’s no word yet on any release date. It may or may not ever make it into production, but it sure looks awesome and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

If you have somehow not been affected by the current economic climate and like to pay for overpriced furniture, this may be your next major purchase. For $15,436 you could own one of this multimedia sofa known as ‘Athena’. It features an integrated computer.

The sofa and home computer in one lets you connect it with multi-room systems to take care of all of your media applications. Everything from email to watching TV right from the comfort of your overpriced and very white, soon to be filthy sofa.

We’ve been seeing all-in-one PCs more often lately. The latest is this 18.5-incher, the ZX2300 from Gateway, which should be available in Taiwan soon. The system is powered by an AMD Athlon 2650e CPU that runs on Windows XP Home, and supports 1GB RAM and a modest 160GB hard drive. LCD screen resolution is 1366 x 768.

The 18.5-inch display will give you a 16:9 aspect ratio. The ZX2300 also features Wi-Fi, webcam and a 16X LightScribe DVD burner. The PC will sell for about $530. No word on exactly when it will drop, but those in Taiwan will have a first crack at it.

This Half-Life 2 case mod is a real looker. It was created by “Geno” and was part of the “Beat This” case mod contest. What’s amazing about it, aside from it’s good looks, is that it was constructed in under two weeks… From scratch.

The custom PC is fitted with a water cooling system and three fans to keep the air circulation going and keep everything cool. It’s one of the coolest mods we’ve seen lately. His wife even got in on the action and helped with some of the modding. Which is probably a good thing, because during those two weeks that it took to build, he was also busy getting married and having a honeymoon.

So here we are, another day a couple more Acer product announcements sans photos. Thanks Acer for forcing me to use another generic photo for the story. Anyway, the products may be of interest to some of you out there who are shopping for a new LCD or a small form factor PC.

Acer has announced its 23-inch touch control LCD that boasts full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. The display is called the Acer H233H bmid and sports a 75Mhz refresh rate, 5ms response time and a contrast ratio of 40000:1. Inputs include HDMI, DVI, and VGA with a MSRP of $229.99.

Small PCs are the way to go for HTPC enthusiasts. It fits in a component shelf, offers cutting edge performance and connectivity without being an eyesore. This one is engineered with the latest blazing fast Intel 64-Bit EMT64 Core 2 Duo Processors, and packed in a 6×6.5-inch enclosure. The Stealth computer LPC-650 offers another mini PC with desktop power at only 2-inches tall.

It boasts a rugged all aluminum chassis and is loaded with desktop-grade connectivity with Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi 802.11g, 4-USB 2.0, Serial, 2-VGA Video, Audio and HDMI ports. The board supports 3D GPU with memory expandable up to 4GB, and has a built-in 2.5-inch anti-shock hard drive slot.

If PCs were being made in the 1950’s they would look a lot like this. Why not? It will match the ‘57 Chevy parked in your driveway. Thomas Thomassen created this beautiful retro media center PC for his final project in BA (Hons) model making for design and media at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth.

Obviously he knows what he’s doing. It reminds me of the old Bakelite radios from the 1940’s-50’s. He created most of the parts through the process of vacuum forming. Some inside specs include: VIA Epia 13000 miniITX, SilenX CPU fan, 1GB RAM, 100GB 2.5″ Harddrive and a Soundgraph iMON Remote Control.

We love us a good case mod round these parts and the Wolfenstein case mod sure brings back memories. The FuG-01/ET aka the Wolfenstein PC Case Mod. This beauty was inspired by the Wolfenstein 3D video games of course.

It features dual electric gauges, one measures amperage, and the other core voltages. There’s also an old phone handset, which won’t make any calls to HQ, a carrying strap and some bullet holes. Creator “Sheyr” really did a Ben Heck of a job capturing the look and feel of the game.

Research firm IDC has reported its numbers for the computer industry worldwide for Q4 2008. With the global economy down, the results of the numbers will not be a surprise to many consumers. Along with the numbers, the company also lists the top Pc makers globally and in America.

IDC reports that the global PC market shipments were down 0.4% on for the last quarter of 2008 compared to the previous year. Shipments were down by 2.5% compared to Q3 of 2008. It’s very odd to see shipments decline in Q4 when holiday shopping typically sees Q4 as one of the busiest of the year.

For a long time Lenovo only went after the business notebook and desktop market in America. The computer maker offered some consumer focused systems in its native China though. Last year Lenovo brought its consumer-focused machines to the U.S. and the firm has now introduced its latest consumer focused desktop systems for America.

Lenovo has announced its new K series desktop computer line. The IdeaCenter K220 is one of the new systems and offers Lenovo’s VeriFace security that allows users to login by facial recognition. The feature requires a compatible monitor and webcam. The machine can be optioned with Intel Core 2 Quad CPUs, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a Blu-ray drive.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a good car mod. The last one was an Xbox 360 modded into a Suzuki. Now, thanks to some crazy Ruskie hacker, an Eee PC gets crammed into an automobile dashboard. He’s posted an article showing how to take a 7 inch Eee PC apart and turn it into a carputer that hooks into an auto stereo system and it even acts as a graphic equalizer.

The finished product is a computer in your car with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of built in storage plus an 8GB SDHC card, a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, Bluetooth, a slot-loading DVD-RW drive, GPS, 5.1 channel audio, a touschreen, and a boatload of USB adapters that string the whole thing together.

This is one of the coolest, most awesome, most jawdropping PC case mods we’ve seen in awhile. This AMD Phenom PC Case opens up in almost all directions, and looks a lot like a Transformer. It even features a green lighting scheme. Seriously, this thing looks like it’s about to take flight and fight another robot and fill your home with explosions and flying parts.

It’s got a certain classic Cylon look about it too. Look at the picture. Now look at yours. Yeah, now that you’ve seen it, you know what is missing in your life. It was created by Bill Owen, who is a true genius among men. We are not worthy.

Sony introduces a new high-end PC speaker line-up with superior sound quality. The design is pretty interesting too. One of the high-end PC speakers is the SRS-DF30, which is a 2.1 Speaker for your PC with a built-in FM Radio Tuner. Other models include the SRS-D25, SRSZ50 and SRS-Z100.

The slim size Sony SRS-Z50 is a pair of speakers that feature a bass reflex duct, while the three-way SRS-Z100 speakers feature bass boost. The Sony SRS-D25 2.1 speaker system sports a subwoofer for strong bass.

The MBook M1 ultra-mobile PC looks like it’s pretty usable, unlike some of its competitors. The keyboard looks comfortable for one thing. This Windows-based UMPC is small in size, yet promises ease of use.

There is one tiny problem though. The device has no USB ports. Yes, it looks nice, but how do you use it productively? It’s use is severely limited.The MBook M1 gets points for looks though. That’s gotta count for something.

HP intros the new all-in-one PC. The HP DX9000 is actually a business version of the HP TouchSmart IQ506 PC. The computer comes equipped with the HP Power Manager, an energy-savings tool that allows you to manage the energy used by computers, which sets it apart from it’s predecessor.

It also comes with HP Total Care Advisor, a diagnostic tool that may reduce IT requests and CarePack Services and aftermarket warranty.