Welcome back! It is nice to see you back again.

Asus does a good job mixing a Netbook and a touch sensitive screen in the Asus Eee Computer T91, whether or not the system hits two first-generation snags. The optional custom touch interface, with enormous, straightforward to snatch icons, works well–even if it is not as slick and responsive as the touch interface on, as an example, an iPhone. We appreciate Asus’ try to keep the price forcibly in normal Netbook territory, and a convertible tablet computer for only $499 appears like a fair deal, even for one with a smallish 9-inch screen. The T91 feels and looks little and light, even for a Netbook.

That is because it’s built around a 9-inch screen, rather then the bigger 10-inch ( and now 11.6-inch ) displays found in most current Netbooks. The most obvious compromises, besides the smaller display, are the small keyboard and touch pad, but the tradeoff is a system that is terribly glossy and simple to hold. Naturally, a touch screen PC is not intended to be essentially used with a standard keyboard and touch pad. And because employing a little touch-sensitive screen, whether on a 9-inch Netbook or an even smaller UMPC, could be a bother when making an attempt to fumble around Windows XP, Asus has included a custom interface intended for finger-driven computing.

You launch the Touch Gate interface by either drumming a physical button on the screen bezel ( you hold the same button down to revolve through screen orientations ), launching from a desktop shortcut, or by drumming a launch button on the Mac-like Eee dock bar that sits at the top of the Windows XP desktop. There is a short animation of the screen revolving, landing on the main Touch Gate interface window.

This screen holds 5 huge app icons, intended for simple drumming with a finger or stylus. A tiny button at the base of the screen brings up a longer list of apps, and you can drag decisions onto or off the big five-app menu bar, setting up your own custom collection of often used apps. Besides the custom version of Web Explorer that includes some helpful finger gesture controls ( though we’d rather see a version of Firefox ), Asus also includes a few exclusive software programs, including notepad and memorandum programs for writing notes.

Most engaging was FotoFun, letting you flip thru photograph studios, moving and revolving photographs with your finger ( like what we have seen in HP’s TouchSmart systems ).

By flicking your finger ( or the stylus ) close to the right side of the main Touch Gate screen, the display flips to the 3rd interface, a full-screen widget dock built round the Yahoo Widget engine. You can drag different widgets–from clocks to calendars to battery life indicators–anywhere on the screen. Asus includes several useful widgets to begin with, and more are available from Yahoo. Flicking your finger close to the right side of the Widget screen will take you back to the main Windows XP desktop. From there, you may have to launch the Touch Gate interface through one of the shortcut buttons to get back to it.