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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
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Acer Unveils Windows and Android Tablets, Dual-display Model and
New Smartphone
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Acer unveiled a range of tablet computers to help it compete with
Apple's iPad, wading into the fast-growing market. The company
also released a 4.8" widescreen smartphone.
Acer?s strategy is based on the concept of sharing multimedia
content and enjoying it across any device, and Tablets are ideal
devices for this purpose.
With close to 19 million tablets sold worldwide in 2010, 54.8
million units expected to be sold in 2011, and 208 million units
forecasted for 2014.
Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci announced at a news conference
in New York on Tuesday that the tablets would have 5-, 7-, and
10-inch screens, running on Google's Android software. A second
10-inch tablet will run on Microsoft's Windows.
The company said the WiFi-only models of the tablets would come
out in April 2011, while the third-generation -capable models
would arrive about a month later.
Acer also unveiled a media store and software called Clear.fi
that lets customers stream content on different Acer devices.
Acer's 10.1" Android touch screen tablet with Wi-Fi and 3G
connectivity comes with an aluminum casing provides and a high
gloss finish. The device is just 13.3mm thick and has been
designed for HD entertainment, offering a built-in HDMI port and
1080p capability. Users will be able to run and play HD arcade
games and complex online 3D games, thanks to the 10 point
multitouch and gyro meter control.
Acer's 7" Android tablet features a front-facing HD camera for
video chat and an HDMI port.It features a dual core processor
with Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support. The tablet also comes with
Dolby Mobile Technology, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and supports
DLNA.
The company's 10.1" Windows tablet combines touch screen
user-friendliness with the comfortable experience of a physical
keyboard. In fact, the tablet comes with a docking device that
includes a full-size keyboard. Thin and light (only 15 mm and
less than 1kg), and with a 10.1" high resolution display, it?s
easy to carry around. The tablet will run on the next-generation
AMD platform and will be equipped with two 1.3MP cameras, one
rear and one front-facing, as well as Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.
ICONIA Dual-screen tablet
Acer also presented ICONIA, a new concept device that combines
the conventional 14" form factor tablet with a dual-screen layout
and multi-touch functionality.
ICONIA has two all-point multi-touch displays offering enough
space for users to enjoy multimedia, entertainment,
communication, web browsing and office apps. To improve
readability of web sites or documents, the window can be spread
across both screens. But the dual screen also means you can do
one thing in one screen and something else entirely on the other.
"We took this insight and created a range of easy to use devices
with touch technology including Smartphones, Notebooks, AIO PCs,
Tablet and our latest addition, the ICONIA Touchbook: this level
of commitment to touch technology is something no other PC vendor
can compete with." states Jim Wong Acer Inc. Vice President and
ITGO President. "The Intel Core i5 processor together with our
experience with touch technology has allowed us to completely
remap the user experience to create a far more natural
interaction with our devices."
Both 14-inch displays have HD 1366x768 resolution, Acer
CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCDs and take advantage of
technologies supporting all-point multi-touch for precise
on-screen input. Protected by the ultra-thin yet durable Gorilla
Glass, the displays are scratch and fingerprint resistant, easier
to clean and offer the same touch functionality.
The starting point to launch ICONIA?s touch features and controls
as well as applications is the Acer Ring.
The Acer Ring appears simply by placing five fingers on the
screen and making a grab gesture. The Acer Ring allows users to
start touch applications by scrolling through the App cards and
tapping on the one they choose. The Ring also provides fast
access to: Virtual Keyboard, Gesture Editor, Window Manager, and
Device Control Console.
The Virtual Keyboard can be launched from the Acer Ring or by
placing both palms on the bottom display. The intelligent design
senses the position of the user?s palms and launches the
keyboard. It comes with a full-size QWERTY layout with
international language support and features predictive text input
for natural-speed typing while avoiding mistakes. The Virtual
Keyboard also includes a touchpad and a numeric keypad and can be
switched to handwriting mode.
With the Gesture Editor users can set customized gestures to
launch specific applications, open websites, view their desktop
or lock your computer.
Window Manager allows users to organize the various application
windows on the double touch screen. Windows and applications can
be moved across displays. Plus, users can browse through a list
of running application, and resize, dock or close windows.
Besides the built-in touch applications already implemented on
Acer?s touch devices, such as TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto,
TouchMusic and TouchVideo, ICONIA includes three new ones:
SocialJogger, My Journal and Scrapbook.
SocialJogger lets users gather and check updates from Facebook,
YouTube and Flickr in all in the same place, taking advantage of
the dual screens to check posts and updates on the bottom display
and use the second display for exploring and viewing more
content.
Users may use MyJournal to collect web clippings on their
preferred topics. Web clippings are dynamically updated to
display all the latest information and can be categorized and
displayed according to their needs.
Scrapbook lets users store clippings, posts and just about
anything else from different sources in the same place. Users can
capture screen shots from the web or an application, edit them
and add notes. Users can create photo collections with notes and
comments. They can also add your scraps to presentations, and
documents.
Acer ICONIA is based on the Intel Core i5 family of processors,
and can also be equipped with 3G connectivity, while an HDMI
port guarantees high-definition viewing and the Dolby Home
Theater v3 provides high quality audio.
Separately Tuesday, Acer's rival Dell announced a new tablet
that runs on Microsoft's Windows software.
Apple's iPad, a touchscreen tablet that began selling in April,
still has an overwhelming lead in the fledgling market.
Dell's new 10-inch touchscreen Inspiron Duo looks and runs like a
portable tablet but can also be popped into a laptop shell and
used like a traditional notebook, similar to one of the new Acer
tablets. The Duo starts at $550. Dell has already released the
5-inch Streak tablet.
Taiwan-based Asustek will also launch its newest 7-inch, mobile
communication tablets in early 2011. They will reportedly
feature mobile communications and built-in GPS and maps developed
by Garmin. In addition to 7-inch tablets, the firm will also soon
launch several models with different screen sizes. For instance,
the firm`s 12-inch tablet will be available at the end of this
year, which runs Microsoft`s operating system and sells for
around US$1,000 per unit. The firm will launch two 10-inch
tablets with keypads, too.
Next generation smartphone
Acer also announced a new smartphone, which also combines the
features of a tablet. The device has a thin and slightly curved
shape, a full metal body, a smoothly curved back and minimal
width (64mm).
The front is entirely dominated by the multi-touch, high
resolution 4.8", 21:9 screen (12.2cm diagonal, 1024x480), with 4
keys: Home, Search, Back, and Menu. While on the back there is an
8MP camera, complete with LED Flash.
This Android smartphone is powerful and able to wirelessly
control all the multimedia content of a home environment, thanks
to the integrated clear.fi media sharing system. With Clear.fi,
Acer has created a content sharing platform that merges content
stored on different devices across the same network around the
idea that it is easier and better if this content is simply
linked together under one system with a common interface.
The smartphone also comes with an Android browser with
multi-touch, Java script, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and multiple
page opening support.
Connectivity options include HSDPA @ 14.4 and WiFi N for data
connection and Bluetooth 3.0.
Dolby Mobile technology delivers high quality sound, while DLNA
technology and the HDMI port can be used to connect the
smartphone to a bigger TV screen.
Inside the product beats the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which, in
addition to the large screen, turns this smartphone into a
perfect game console. Together with 6-axis motion sensing
(Gyroscope + accelerometer), this smartphone will exceed any
gaming expectation.
The smartphone is also equipped with an 8MP camera and LED flash,
and a 2MP front camera for IP video calling. |
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