CNET at MWC 2013: Asus press conference live blog
Asus is keeping quiet about its Mobile World Congress plans, but it could be the star of the show. Join CNET to find out.
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Afternoon all, and welcome to Asus' press conference at MWC. I'm Michael Collins to Stephen Shankland's Neil Armstrong and Rich Trenholm's Buzz Aldrin, forlornly orbiting Barcelona at a distance of several hundred miles, while they get to bounce around in craters full of mobile devices.by Nick Hide
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Stephen, Richard and our ace photographer Sarah Tew have just been let into the event in the Fira Congress Hotel in Barcelona, Spain, and are getting setup now. We expect proceedings to start in around 15 minutes or so.by Nick Hide
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by Sarah Tew -
Asus' strategy in recent years has been to carpet-bomb Barcelona with cheap Android phones and tablets, but it's likely to have Windows 8 in its sights this year. As Charles Cooper explained in his handy primer for this event, Asus has been blurting out cryptic teasers, with "metallic miracle" this and "new discovery" that. What are you hoping to see this afternoon?by Nick Hide
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by Sarah Tew -
by Sarah Tew -
Liveblog preparation in line: busting his knees!
by Sarah Tew -
by Sarah Tew -
Is there a stream for this event?by Anonymous
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@Anonymous: See if this works. I couldn't get it to load: www.asus.com/event/2013/mwclive/by Nick Hide
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by Sarah Tew -
ASUS Global tweeted me this link. Seems to be working. new.livestream.comby Anonymous
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There's a delay of 10 minutes, Stephen tells me. They're having connectivity problems at the event.by Nick Hide
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Here's Asus' 'Metallic Miracle' video while we wait: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MnfOXx4k6-8by Nick Hide
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by Sarah Tew -
Asus has just tweeted that the press conference has been delayed by 30-40 minutes. Sorry folks!by Nick Hide
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We've got some moody, dreamy music, presumably to inspire us in our "search of incredible." It beats the Muzak version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" we had a few minutes ago.by stephen.shankland
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You think the livestream is crowded -- but you should see this basement room at the Fira Congress Hotel. Pretty sure this isn't up to fire code!by stephen.shankland
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It's standing room only here in this tiny conference room. Asus, no need to underestimate yourself! Be bold, be confident -- book a bigger room!by richard.trenholm
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OK, here we go!by stephen.shankland
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Floating above the clouds with harp music. Is this heaven?by richard.trenholm
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Video with spacy music, We're flying through space, above the clouds. I feel inspired already!by stephen.shankland
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"New Ubiquitous cloud computing era. Everything is easy, efficient, effortles, enjoyable."by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
Oh, we're in 'the Cloud'. I get it.by richard.trenholm
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"New Ubiquitous cloud computing era. Everything is easy, efficient, effortles, enjoyable."by stephen.shankland
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55 second countdown before we get to the end of the space floaty video, it appears.by stephen.shankland
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Before we get to the goods, we're going to revisit Asus history here for a bit.by stephen.shankland
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it's the magician
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It's the magic trick guy! I saw him at IFA in Berlin, but his show went a bit haywire then. Now he's fiddling with a giant Windows tablet. He's just intro guy though.by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
Here's Asus chairman Jonney Shih on the screen -- and in reality! Tumultuous applause. OK not really that tumultuous.by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
"Asus open cloud computing is an open and well-balanced architecture which provides the best ultimate solution for ubiquitous cloud computing."by stephen.shankland
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The presenters 'step out' of the video, then 'reach into' the screen of the phone. It's exactly like the video for Take On Me.by richard.trenholm
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"The home CIO gets software and services to help care for their families' ubiquitous computing needs"by stephen.shankland
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Home CIO? I don't want to be a home CIO.by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
by Sarah Tew -
First service: aoHelp. Online first aid (for tech), self and remote diagnostics tools, automatic system optimization, Asus e-support as backup.by stephen.shankland
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Then we have aoStream. personal cloud for syncing your devices. And aoCloud, with one account to bridge between public cloud and your personal cloud.by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
Another video: Lots of happy people doing crafts projects with tablets and phones and PCs scattered around.by stephen.shankland
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by Sarah Tew -
They've used aoHelp for tech support and transferred a file. Jubilation ensues among the video actors.by stephen.shankland
