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Correction: The previous price listed was incorrect. This post has been updated to reflect the correct price of $599.

The company famous for its stylish, small Linux desktops is trying its hand at touch screens.

Shuttle X50

(Credit: Shuttle)

The Shuttle X50, an all-in-one desktop with the low-power Intel Atom processor, is now available in the U.S. and Europe, the company announced Thursday. The X50 was first announced at CES in January.

It sports a dual-core Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, 5.1-channel audio, a Web cam and built-in microphone, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 15.6-inch touch-screen display. It's priced at $599.

The touchscreen all-in-one Atom-powered desktop is a growing category of Nettops, which are generally defined as low-cost, low-power desktops. Before Shuttle's product was announced, Asus had already released the EeeTop, which has very similar specs. MSI's version is called the WindTop. Though these have only just begun to trickle out to consumers, PC industry observers see this as a viable subcategory of the tired desktop market. Because of the influx of these inexpensive touch-screen Nettops, the overall category of all-in-one desktops--which includes the much pricier Apple iMac and HP Touchsmart--is expected to grow more than 80 percent during 2009.

The MSI WindTop hits online stores Tuesday.

(Credit: MSI)

According to our inbox, MSI's WindTop AE1900 touch-screen all-in-one PC is scheduled to hit online retailers Tuesday. It will join the already available Asus Eee Top and Averatec All-in-One in the niche-but-growing Nettop category. On paper, anyway, the Wind Top may stand out due to its many features.

The $525 WindTop essentially marries the key features of the Eee Top and the Averatec system with no price premium. Like the Asus system, MSI's WindTop will feature touch-screen capability, only with a larger, 18.5-inch screen that MSI says conforms to the familiar 16:9 screen ratio common to HDTVs. And as with the Averatec All-in-One, the WindTop also includes a DVD burner. The Eee Top is optical drive free.

Like these other Nettops, the WindTop is powered by a slow, low-power Intel Atom CPU. With Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and the Windows XP Home Premium operating system, the WindTop is only a serviceable computer (serious digital media work and 3D gaming are both out), but marketers and fans of the Netbook/Nettop movement will tell you that computing power isn't the point.

As long as Nettop prices stay low and real all-in-one prices stay high, we agree. The only problem is full-power systems like Dell's $699 Studio One 19 starting to emerge in the same price ballpark. If that trend continues, the "performance doesn't matter" argument won't hold up for long.

Photos: All-in-one Nettops

Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the Dell Studio One 19 cannot be configured with an Atom processor.

Just a year ago, this category didn't exist. But after several Atom-powered all-in-one PCs debuted at CES in January, it's officially the hottest grouping of desktops on the market.

A category long dominated by Apple's $1,200 iMac is suddenly rife with nice-looking imitators that pack less power than traditional Windows desktops, but are also gentler on the wallet. They're a subcategory of desktop PCs called Nettops, and, like Netbooks, they're generally defined as a computing platform powered by the Atom processor that runs either Windows XP or a version of Linux. Combined with the all-in-one form factor and a smaller screen than most desktops (between 15 inches and 19 inches), they're essentially the Netbooks of the desktop category.

Photos: All-in-one Nettops

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"A year ago I would have said Netbooks are not going to cannibalize the notebook market. Then the economy went kablooey," said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch. Since then, many people who needed a notebook have chosen to spend $400 on a Netbook instead of the typical $800 on a full-size notebook.

"I think we'll see something like that for Nettops," he said. "Either for retirees or younger folks who don't need the portability of a notebook, and just need something to get on the Internet and do basic computing. Nettops, and all-in-ones will be very attractive devices, and we expect to see a lot of retailers who have stayed out of it will jump into it."

The all-in-one category as a whole is expected to grow to more than 6 million units in 2009, and to over 7 million in 2010, according to DisplaySearch. That's almost an 80 percent spike in shipments, which was unexpected at the end of 2008.

Reinvigorating a tired category
In fact, the rise of all-in-one Nettops looks to be the most interesting thing to happen to desktop PCs in years. And, just as the economy helped bolster Netbooks' appeal, so too will it make Nettops more attractive to buyers, industry watchers believe.

Asus stopped by to show us the touch interface of its upcoming Eee Top, the Atom-powered all-in-one desktop. Check out the video above. It will start shipping in early March.

The Eee Top is interesting for many reasons, but most certainly because, at least for now, it's the cheapest all-in-one desktop PC on the market. At $599 it comes in at almost half the price of the all-in-ones available from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Apple.

Though it's certainly fancy with its 16-inch touch screen, custom Asus Easy Mode menu, and MacBook-esque tile keyboard (with pop-out stylus), the low price is achieved by what's not included: No Vista, no superfast Intel processor. It's a Nettop at its core, running Windows XP with an Atom processor.

As a result, the Eee Top is sort of a strange hybrid in terms of what machines it competes with. It's a Nettop, but the only one that comes with a monitor built in. (See Shuttle's X27 Mini, and Asus' own Eee Box.)

On the other hand, it's a touch-screen living room or kitchen PC, which would place it in the same category as HP's TouchSmart, except it's much cheaper ($599 versus $1,299) and much less sophisticated in terms of styling, design, and software.

Asus would tell you it has no competitors with this PC, and it's right--for now.... Read more

If you're a regular Crave reader, you know about the runaway popularity of the Asus Eee PC, the grandfather of the Netbook category. But the company's attempts to roll that success into a small-form-factor desktop, the Eee Box, have thus far fallen flat.

That hasn't stopped the company from trying to make a splash in the so-called Nettop category. According to a report in DigiTimes, Asus is readying a new version of the Eee Box that will feature a budget-minded Celeron 220 CPU instead of the Intel Atom found in earlier versions. Asus will also increase the hard-drive space in the new model, going from 80GB to 120GB.

According to the report, the processor change will drop the cost of the Eee Box to $240. The company seems to be hoping the lower price point will present a better value proposition than the previous version, which at $350 couldn't compete with similarly low-cost desktops and laptops.

MSI appears to be the only thing standing in the way of Asus and its attempt to take over the world with Eee-branded products, including an Eee Nettop that is on tap to be announced Thursday. MSI sees Asus' Eee Top and raises it three Wind Netons, MSI's (odd) name for its new line of all-in-one Nettops.

At the low end is the Neton M16, which features a 15.6-inch screen and a $400 price. In the middle sits the M19, an 18.5-inch model for $500, and at the top of the line is the still reasonably priced $799 M22 with, you guessed it, a 22-inch display. The two low-end models serve up 1366x768 resolutions, while the M22 does 1920x1080 while also including a Blu-ray drive. All three have touch screens.

I assume the prices quoted are for the single-core Atom chip, but MSI will also offer the dual-core Atom. Linux isn't offered, but you do get a choice of OS: XP with a single-core chip and Vista with a dual-core chip.

You won't see these Netons until next year--the M19 in January, the M16 in February, and the M22 in March. By then, perhaps someone will explain to me why I'd want a computer based on an Intel Atom processor that doesn't also include a battery.

Via Engadget China, which has photos from the MSI event.

(Credit: CyberLink)

If you purchase a DVD or Blu-ray internal optical drive for your desktop, chances are it comes bundled with PowerDVD from Cyberlink. The company's media playback software has been popular in both desktop and laptop PCs running Windows.

On Thursday, however, CyberLink announced to extend the realm to support Netbooks and Nettops--the budget laptop and desktop computers designed to run the Linux operating system. The new Linux software applications include PowerDVD Linux and PowerCinema Linux.

PowerDVD Linux is derived from Cyberlink's movie player, PowerDVD, and supports DVD Video playback with menu navigation, subtitles, and video rewind and fast-forward. PowerDVD Linux incorporates CyberLink TrueTheaterT Lighting for automatic video lighting enhancement, and support for CyberLink TrueTheaterT Surround and Dolby audio technology.

CyberLink PowerCinema Linux, on the other hand, is an all-in-one media player for the Linux operating system that can handle DVDs, video files, music files, photos, and even manage portable and plug-in devices. The application supports a wide range of video formats, including ASF, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DAT, and AVI.

The two new applications will be made available via OEM licensing. Currently, it's unclear if they will be available in retail versions.

The Shuttle X27, which we reported on last week, is small physically. Turns out, so is the price.

(Credit: Shuttle)

Shuttle let us know Thursday that the miniscule desktop will start at $189--sans monitor, and peripherals, like all Shuttle PCs. It will be available in mid-September.

Now, $189 isn't the cheapest PC Shuttle makes. But that's the lowest price we've seen thus far in the emerging Nettop category, or small desktop PCs bearing Intel's low-power Atom processor.

The Eee Box from Asus, another Nettop, goes for $350. CherryPal, a newcomer to the space, makes a tiny desktop that keeps most data in the cloud, has a Freescale processor, and is to sell for $249.

Cheap is good, but as my colleague Rich Brown points out, is there actually a large market for these small, low-power PCs when you can get a full-fledged desktop for about the same price?

Shuttle plays to the nichiest of niche markets--people who love Linux--so that's probably not its biggest concern. But the company is clearly hoping PCs that can cut down their power usage and space, as it promises with the X27, will catch on.

As if Shuttle PCs weren't small enough already.

The small-form-factor PC maker is set to release an even smaller desktop, its X27 mini-desktop with Intel's Atom processor in mid-September, the company told CNET News.

(Credit: Shuttle)

The X27 falls into the Nettop category, a small desktop with Intel's low-power chip. Shuttle says it's so low-power that even when running full speed, the noise level only reaches 23 decibels. Plus, it promises the computer uses just 23 watts of power in idle mode, and 36 watts while in use.

Shuttle says it saves space too, measuring approximately 10 inches long, 7 inches wide, and 2.75 inches tall. It's about the same size as the $350 Atom-based Eee Box from Asus. Dell is also making a tiny desktop, the Studio Hybrid, which has a Core2Duo processor from Intel.

A few more specs:

*Intel 945GC chipset

*Intel GMA 950 onboard video

*4 USB 2.0 ports

*Gigabit Ethernet port

*Analog 5.1-channel audio

No word yet on pricing.