Microsoft plans to impose royalty fees on Taiwan-based vendors of Android handsets for using its patents in e-mail, multimedia and other functions, with Acer and Asustek Computer being targets in an actual attempt to prevent the two vendors from adopting Android and Chrome OS for their netbook and tablet PCs, according to Taiwan-based makers.

Who in the hell is Asustek, and why does Microsoft hate them more than any other company in the industry? Why does Apple, Dell and Palm Computing hate them?

Kellen Hage typically uses a three-year-old Averatec Inc. laptop to browse the Web and send instant messages. But the laptop's Microsoft Corp. Windows software has too many hard-to-find features, making it cumbersome for Kellen.
After all, he's just 6 years old.
So his mother, Ellen Hage, was thrilled recently when she found a laptop specifically targeted at kids Kellen's age.

In early June, Asustek Computer and Intel announced at Computex Taipei that they would soon be releasing a low-end $199 subnotebook PC, the Asus Eee PC 701. It appears to be on schedule, and when it arrives in customers' hands in late August or early September it will be running a variation of Xandros Desktop Linux.