It’s been whole, oh three or four days, since Asus was talking up the latest edition to their Eee range of products so you knew something must be around the corner. Sure enough, today sees confirmation that the long awaited Asus Eee Tablet, with an 8-inch LCD touch-screen, is being released to the public from this October.

Initially it’ll only be US customers who get their hands on it, for around $300 (€235). Prices will of course vary by market but hopefully we’ll get confirmation of the (inevitable) Irish mark-up and release date soon enough.

As ComputerWorld notes, it was rumoured the device would be the first major, non-handset Android product from Asustek and that it might compete with Apple‘s iPad. However, neither of these claims seem to be the case. The Eee Tablet may rival Amazon’s Kindle in the e-reader market, but it does not use digital ink or specialized e-reader screens that give e-readers their long battery life.

Instead, the 8-inch touch-screen is a normal LCD display that can handle 64 shades of grey, has 1024 by 768 resolution, but does not have a backlight. It will run a Linux OS, but not Google’s Android mobile operating system, which has long been the rumour.

The device also has a Web browser. The Eee Tablet can connect to the Internet wirelessly via onboard Wi-Fi. Asus says the device will run for 10 hours before needing a recharge. It has 2GB of internal memory for storage and a MicroSD card slot to add more capacity.