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Asus has a launch event planned for 7 January at CES, where it will team-up with Intel and US wireless carrier, Sprint, to unveil the new device.

It's strongly rumoured that the event will be used to showcase the new Eee PC, which will have integrated support for the latest Wimax wireless technology.

Wimax has so far failed to gain much traction in Europe, but integrated support in the next version of Centrino

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and in devices such as the Eee PC could give the technology a much-needed push.

It's also reported that Asus could be ready to unveil a Windows version of the Eee PC. Microsoft has been making strenuous efforts to tailor Windows for use on low-cost laptops, such as the Eee PC and the One Laptop Per Child project's XO.

Microsoft's biggest challenge is making its operating system run on such limited resources: the lowest-spec Eee PC has a hard disk of just 4GB. However, the company has promised an 8GB version with 1GB of RAM, which should be enough for a feature-light version of Windows XP.

Finally, there are also suggestions that Asus will boost the screen size of the Eee PC to 8.9in. Taiwan's Commercial Times claims the bigger screens and Windows can be added to the laptops without significantly increasing the cost of the device.

Click here to read PC Pro's review of the Eee PC.