Asus to launch laptops with instant-on feature

The Asus M50 is one of five laptops to incorporate the Splashtop technology, under the name Express Gate.

(Credit: Asus)

Five new laptop models from Asus will incorporate DeviceVM's Splashtop instant-on software, the software maker said Thursday.

The Asus M70T, M50V, M51T, F8Va, and F8Vr will be the first laptops on the market to include the "rapid-start platform."

We've seen the technology, which Asus has licensed from DeviceVM and rebranded as Express Gate, before. It was first introduced last fall on a single Asus motherboard, and recently expanded to Asus' full P5Q series of motherboards.

Splashtop differs from the intant-on media players already found on many laptops because it's actually an embedded Linux OS with both Firefox and Skype. The advantages are threefold: The quick on/off feature means you don't have to wait to load Windows when you want to hit the Web--a boon for travelers who just want to hop online for a few minutes while waiting to board a flight. It also means you can turn off your laptop while in transit, instead of wasting battery life on standby mode. And the Linux base means the Splashtop browser isn't vulnerable to viruses that target the Windows OS.

The laptops announced Thursday are expected to be available at the end of June or early July. More laptops featuring the Splashtop technology are expected in the coming months, though a detailed release schedule hasn't been released yet.

[scythie]

"instead of wasting battery life on hibernate mode."<br /><br />Wha..? Hibernate doesn't use up battery life. It's the same as turning off, except it saves onto the hard disk the current "state" [http://opened programs, etc.|http://opened programs, etc.] of the computer.

[b00dah]

Ummm... actually you are wasting energy by going into hibernation mode. Think about it... there is an amount of energy "wasted" if you will, during the actual save/buffering process. I'm sure that's what he's referring to. You could spend up to a minute before some systems finish writing the file and shuts down where as this new laptop would simply "click" and be off.

[zlevee]

I think you're misunderstanding. <br /><br />The author probably meant "standby", becasue that's a similarly quick on/off method, but the downside is the battery continues to power the system and if you don't eventually plug in to an outlet or resume using the PC, you will lose whatever was going on when you went into standby. <br /><br />"Hibernate" is not similar in that it is slower. However the advantage is that you can leave the laptop off and come back months later and will be right where you left off. You are correct though that it does use some power to write to the disk and start from the disk.

[markb1967]

Wow, finally a new idea that Apple didn't introduce first,, although I would bet they are testing something similar and will release it soon. I have asked the same question for 5 years now. Why not put the OS on a Flash Chip vs. HD, and the OS would load much faster.

[zorky9]

Because SSD's cost way much more today. If you're willing to pay as much as 10x more for solid state disks, then there are notebooks out there available.

[Lerianis]

Actually, it isn't 10 times more. There are some that have 32GB drives that are comparable to a high-end computer (about 3K).

[purcell429]

So does this mean that you are essentially dual booting Linux/Windows? Or is this laptop Linux only? And as far as apple not doing this first, that's true, although considering that OSX only takes about 15-20 seconds (at least on my macbook pro) to boot to a useable state, maybe they just don't care? Plus, flash was fairly expensive until recently (at least the amount needed to load an OS on).

[thatcherm]

elevee and others, you're right--in my haste I typed Hibernate instead of Standby, which always seems to use more juice than I expect. Correction has been made.

[C433Z]

Will this be something you'll be able to download for current laptops eventually?

[3rdalbum]

C433Z: No, you won't be able to download it for computers that don't have the capability. It does require new hardware.<br /><br />As for "They didn't do this sooner because flash memory is expensive", who says you need flash memory or NVRAM? It's certainly possible to run an operating system from a non-writable storage device. Every Linux live CD does it. I even remember that there was a certain Macintosh that had a full copy of the operating system in its ROMs.

[Elicius]

Being an avid user of imdb during tv shows just to check who an actor is, I think this revelation [to me atleast, I've only just disvovered it, heh] is pure genious. Way t'go Asus.