Announced last month at IFA 2013 in Berlin, ASUS’s latest Transformer Pad variant, the TF701T – which ships with the traditional dock included – will go on sale in the U.K. through Amazon and eBuyer starting Monday, October 21, with the price tag of £429.99.
[Update: No need to wait for an email, you can go get your dongle now. Simply follow the instructions laid out here: ASUS]
When we told you ASUS would be providing its Transformer Prime customers with an add-on dongle to improve GPS, we had no idea they’d be turning it into the Hunchback of Transformer Prime. ASUS must be fans of Crocodile Dundee: “That’s not a dongle, that’s a dongle!” Okay, that’s enough analogies for now, you can see for yourself that this thing is quite the add-on. The good news is it improves GPS significantly, but then again, so would a GPS IIF satellite (okay, this time I’m done — for real).
Owners of ASUS’ Transformer Prime have most likely noticed the tablet’s poor GPS performance. ASUS has tried to remedy the situation by releasing a myriad of software updates, but the issue seems to really be around bad hardware design. According to an ASUS support employee, ASUS will soon be sending out a free GPS dongle to Transformer Prime owners. The dongle will connect via the proprietary charger port, to offer better GPS performance.
When ASUS first teased us about an “awesome” update coming to the Transformer Prime, we were giddy with excitement. Later their Italian brethren spilled the beans about the update and it wasn’t as “awesome” as some had hoped. Now, the update is rolling out and it doesn’t even include the features listed by ASUS Italy! We’re not sure if they plan on pushing out more than one update, but the one hitting ASUS owners now is anything but “awesome.”
Transformer Prime: Hasbro’s hip toy or an ASUS tablet? That’s the confusion toy maker Hasbro hoped to eliminate when it set out to bar sales of ASUS Transformer Prime in a lawsuit filed last year. Today however that seems to be settled, as PaidContent reports that the judge has come back with a ruling, saying that Asus is clear to sell the tablet. The judge didn’t think that the name would cause confusion:
