Acer

Acer unveiled details of its new 4.8in, 1024 x 480 Iconia's Smart. While the screen is rather large it is not "retina display" of the iPhone 4.

The display of Smart has a density of 235 pixels per inch which is much lower than the iPhone's 326ppi.

The smartphone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor, and features tri-band HSPA 3G, 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS and an FM radio.

According to the rumors coming from some moles Acer, Asus as well as Lenovo are preparing to launch MacBook Air clones as early as next year.

While the notebooks will be reportedly "ultra-thin" - 13.3in and 14in – a great number of ports along with removable batteries and hard drives rather than SSDs will make them hardly competitive with Apple’s Air.

The only specs info available is that the laptops will use Intel's 'Sandy Bridge' next-gen 32nm processors. The Air alternatives will be out by the end of Q1, the moles claimed.
 

Fall is the time digs are leaving for colleges and universities. 

So the need to replace desktop for some 15in notebook arises.

Acer unveiled its latest netbook which combines Android and Windows XP operating systems in one pack. The netbook was announced at the Taipei Computer Applications Show.

The Acer Aspire One AOD255 netbook uses Android as a quick-booting operating system and then Windows as the main operating system. Acer software on the device, called Acer Configuration Manager for Android, controls which OS will boot.

PC sales have surged by 23% compared to last year, pushed mainly by growing demand in Asia. 

Thus, if in the first quarter of last year 66.5 million PCs were shipped, the first quarter of 2010 showed 81.5 million sales.

Acer has introduced its latest Android-based smartphone the Acer Liquid Stream. Main features distinguishing the device from other Acer smartphones running Android OS the Donut and the Éclair is the Stream's 5.0-megapixel camera that records in 720p HD video, as well as an HDMI port for streaming video to your HD TV.

This week Acer announced its new Aspire Ethos laptops which will incorporate a secondary touch screen that doubles as a touchpad to help navigate multimedia content. Additional touch screen is placed under the keyboard where a touchpad would normally sit.

The second touch screen can display icons that make it easier for users to navigate through movies or music, said Alison Williams, an Acer spokeswoman. The screen will also allow users to do things like adjust the volume or sort through images.

Acer is expected to be among the first major computer makers, along with Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Cray, to present newest Opteron server chips 6100 series, based on Advanced Micro Devices.

Formerly known by the code name Magny-Cours, the Opteron 6100 series consists of 10 chips with either eight or 12 cores, offering clock speeds ranging from 1.7GHz to 2.4GHz. The prices vary from $266 up to $1,386 each in 1,000-unit quantities, a common way of quoting chip prices.

As ASPs are to increase this year customers should be ready to pay more for new PCs, says Acer. The rise in prices will be the first time in computer history.

Walter Deppeler, senior corp vice president of the Taiwanese computer maker, the second half of the year will be the time of revival in the PC business.

"One year ago we were in the middle of the tunnel," he said. "One year on, we can start to see the future starting to look much better."

The release of new Acer netbooks based on Google Chrome OS was shifted from the second half of 2010 to the third qarter.

Jim Wong, head of Acer’s IT products division, didn’t say whether Acer’s Chrome-based netbook will be a single-OS device, but he noted that didn’t say whether Acer’s Chrome-based netbook will be a single-OS device

Two new environment friendly laptops were introduced by Acer this week. The two notebook models were labeled by the environmental group, Greenpeace, as being virtually free of two toxic substances, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFR).

Acer Aspire 3811TZ and Aspire 3811TZG, which represent slim, light laptops that use Intel's ULV (ultra low voltage) Core 2 Duo microprocessors for long-lasting batteries, were certified by Greenpeace.

After several reports that some laptop models are overheating and melting in a microphone place Acer decided to recall about 22,000 Aspire notebooks.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission alerted that a microphone wire found underneath the notebook's palm rest can short-circuit and overheat.

The recalled notebooks are the Acer AS3410, AS3410T, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG. Affected units were sold between June and October of 2009, the Commission said.

Acer, the second largest vendor in the global personal computer market, is planning to launch Google's Android operating system-based mobile devices in India next month.
Acer has recently entered to the Indian market and is banking to find a footing with affordable Android phones, most probably touchscreen devices, among the 500 million mobile subscribers in India.

Microsoft Corp's Windows 7 operating system has already gained positive references being approved by Acer as a good product for sale. "When we saw the features of Windows 7, we already knew that it would be good for demand. We have no plans to revise."

 However, in spite Windows 7 operating system launch last month has been positive for year-end PC sales, the gains were within expectations.

 Acer's CEO stated it was keeping its quarterly revenue outlook and maintaining a 15% sales growth target for next year.

Acer launched its first home server called the Acer Aspire easyStore Home Server which will be unveiled for the U.S. market on Thursday. The server is designed for home use as well as small businesses that have a need for networking multiple PCs. The easyStore will run Microsoft Windows Home Server. Owing to the server users will be able to access files, including photos, videos, and documents on any other computer connected to the network, and an image-based backup of each PC will be created daily.