Ok so in New York at Acer’s Global press event, and it’s kicking things off with its Windows 7-based Iconia dual-screen laptop / tablet, boasting a pair of glossy touchscreens, Naturally, you won’t find a keyboard here only a virtual one will emerge from the secondary panel. it’s running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and is equipped with an Intel Core i5-480M / 560M / 580M CPU, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, a pair of 14-inch multitouch displays (1366×768 resolution), integrated Intel HD graphics (128MB RAM), VGA / HDMI outputs, an inbuilt microphone and a S/PDIF interface. There’s also a 320/500/640/750GB hard drive, Acer’s CrystalEye webcam (1280×1024 resolution), 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, integrated 3G WWAN, gigabit Ethernet, a four-cell battery and a total weight of 6.18 pounds. Closing things out, there are a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 jack and a one-year warranty. ALSO the company teased its new Clear.fi media sharing system. As the story goes, it’s a cloud-based system that’s designed to play multi-format content over multi-platform devices, enabling any number of gadgets to talk to one another in order to make content visible and shareable with any other device. So far, it looks as if that could apply to movies, games, photos and music, but it’s a single-house affair for now. So long as there’s a router and a WiFi connection nearby, any Clear.fi-enabled device should be able to share, search and consume.

@TatWza

Acer ICONIA

A personal approach to personal computing

New York, November 23rd 2010 – Not so long ago mobile computing devices with touch screens were only found in science fiction. Now Acer presents ICONIA, a new concept device set to add a brand new tablet experience, combining the versatility of a conventional 14″ form factor with a unique dual-screen layout and highly intuitive all-point multi-touch functionality, which means you can use all the fingers of your hands to navigate ICONIA.

If you are looking for a different and innovative approach to personal computing, look no further. With its two all-point multi-touch displays Acer ICONIA offers an enhanced content consumption experience and brings the interaction with the tablet to a new level.

Multimedia, entertainment, communication, web browsing and office productivity seamlessly flow across the dual screen, allowing users to set the best scenario for what they are doing. 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: you can browse a website on the top screen and view the contents of your favourite folder on the bottom one or you can watch a video on the top screen and check out your multimedia library in 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® Coreâ„¢ 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.

“Intel is proud that our close collaboration with Acer has helped to deliver the world’s first 10 finger multi-touch dual-screen notebook with an exciting and innovative end-user experience, powered by the Intel® Coreâ„¢ i5 processor,” said Mooly Eden, vice-president of PC Client Group, Intel Corporation. “Combining the adaptable and energy efficient performance of the Intel® Coreâ„¢ i5 processor with Acer’s Iconia provides new and immersive ways to seamlessly view and interact with your favorite videos, photos, websites and movies”.

Both 14-inch displays have HD 1366×768 resolution, high-brightness Acer CineCrystalâ„¢ LED-backlit TFT LCDs and take advantage of cutting-edge 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.

ICONIA is designed to provide the optimal all-point multi-touch experience on a dual-display tablet. This is why Acer equipped it with a full range of intuitive and easy to use features and applications that fully exploit the countless possibilities of multi-touch technology. 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 you to start touch applications by scrolling through the App cards and tapping on the one you 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 to give users the same experience of a traditional physical keyboard 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 easily switched to handwriting mode. With all these functionalities you won’t miss the traditional physical keyboard!

With the Gesture Editor you can set customized gestures to launch specific applications, open websites, view your desktop or lock your computer. The Gesture Editor offers you a simple and intuitive way to personalize ICONIA to best suit your needs.

Window Manager allows users to organize the various application windows on the double touch screen. Windows and applications can be moved across displays, so you can always have what you need where you need it. Plus, you can browse through a list of running application, and resize, dock or close windows.

A wealth of built-in touch applications designed to easily manage content provides a seamless experience. Besides those already implemented on Acer’s touch devices, such as TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto, TouchMusic and TouchVideo, allowing an enhanced browsing experience with on-screen gestures to zoom, rotate, flip and scroll and to access and enjoy your multimedia from an integrated touch-optimized interface, ICONIA includes three new ones: SocialJogger, My Journal and Scrapbook.

SocialJogger lets you 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.

You can use MyJournal to collect web clippings on your preferred topics. Web clippings are dynamically updated to display all the latest information and can be categorized and displayed according to your needs. Simply tab on a collected Web Clip to display the full webpage on the top screen for a complete access.

Scrapbook lets you easily store clippings, posts and just about anything else from different sources in the same place. You can capture screen shots from the web or an application, edit them and add notes. You can create photo collections with notes and comments. You can also add your scraps to presentations, and documents. Scrapbook helps you keep track of anything you find interesting, funny or valuable and share it!

Acer ICONIA is based on the Intel® Core™ i5 family of processors, delivering smart performance for multimedia, social networking and other demanding mainstream applications.

A fusion of the latest and best technology, ICONIA can also be equipped with 3G connectivity, for total freedom, while an HDMIâ„¢ port guarantees high-definition viewing and the Dolby Home Theater v3 provides vibrant audio for an immersive sound experience.

The result? An outstanding entertainment experience!

ICONIA offers an entirely new computing and touch experience. Are you ready?

***

About Acer
Since its founding in 1976, Acer has achieved the goal of breaking the barriers between people and technology. Globally, Acer ranks No. 2 for total PCs and notebooks. A profitable and sustainable Channel Business Model is instrumental to the company’s continuing growth, while its multi-brand approach effectively integrates Acer, Gateway, Packard Bell, and eMachines brands in worldwide markets. Acer strives to design environmentally friendly products and establish a green supply chain through collaboration with suppliers. Acer is proud to be a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Movement, including the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter and London 2012 Olympic Games. The Acer Group employs 7,000 people worldwide. 2009 revenues reached US$17.9 billion. See www.acer-group.com for more information.

+Acer Clear.fi: a new way of saying ‘share’

The media sharing system that keeps your multimedia life together

New York, November 23rd 2010 – There’s a universe of content that is constantly changing, passing from tangible to virtual and back again. There’s also a world of devices, itself under constant change, that allows users to both share and enjoy multimedia files.

Each device spawns a range of different uses and, as a consequence, a range of different libraries. Finding, sharing, storing and transferring these libraries quickly and easily is rapidly becoming an emerging need.

It is one thing to anticipate a new need; responding to it is another thing entirely.

Acer did just that.

Clear.fi is the Acer media sharing system based on the idea that it’s easier if all multimedia content is simply brought into a single system with a common interface. No matter where they are.

Clear.fi works straight out of the box, automatically detecting the Clear.fi-enabled devices connected to the wireless home network, and then allowing all digital content stored on any of these to be shared seamlessly with the other devices using the Clear.fi media interface.

There are no limits to the Clear.fi scalability: any Acer branded device will have Clear.fi embedded, and can instantly join the wireless home network and share stored multimedia.

Take a photo on your smartphone and when you get home, it will be available straight away on your notebook or TV. Edit a video on your PC and you can watch it back on your TV straight away. When a friend comes to visit you with his wedding album, Clear.fi immediately detects his notebook and the image library; just select where you want the content appear be played and it’s done.

Multimedia content is collected and displayed all in the same window. What’s more, it can be played or moved across the network seamlessly, with no need for physical drives (USB key, external hard disk, etc.)
The unique interface delivers a common user experience.

Music, Video and Photo icons are always displayed on the top left corner.
Beneath these you can find the list of sources where multimedia are stored:
• Library – local disks
• Shared libraries – Video, Music and Pictures folders from all the connected devices
• Web resources – direct access to the most popular social networks (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube).

Once the source is selected, content thumbnails appear in the middle of the screen. You simply click on the one you want to play and the Clear.fi built-in player takes care of the rest.

On the top right corner, a list of actions you can do is always displayed:
Play to – reproduces selected content on the connected devices of your choice
Save to – saves any content on the PC you are using or another one
Publish to – allows you to post videos on Facebook and YouTube or upload images to your Flickr and Facebook accounts

Acer’s focus on different PC usages led to the development of a new and rich range of devices that have broken the barriers between people and technology.

Barriers that are not only physical – format, weight, battery life – but also virtual: simplifying the way devices interact with each other means removing virtual barriers and this dramatically changes the way users interact with content.

Thanks to Clear.fi, Acer enables multiple users to keep their multimedia life together, organized and ready to be shared and enjoyed.