Acer has come up with what it has promised. Or rather it has delivered more that what was expected of it. For not only has the company announced a tablet each in the 5, 7 and 10 inch categories, but to top it all, there is also a dual screened tablet device on display which perhaps is the most interesting new device to grace the Acer launch party. And its not just the new pieces of hardware that Acer has to show off eager enthusiasts at the New York event since the company has also has two key announcements – Alive and clear.fi. But more on that later and let’s deal with the tablets side of the story first.
That is what Acer is referring to the netbook styled device equipped with twin touch enabled screens and is much like the Toshiba Libretto though the Acer offering is bigger and runs the Windows 7 operating system. And its not just the device that impresses but also the accompanying software to work with the touchscreen based device. Like placing five fingers on the screen will be enough to launch the Acer menu while placing both the hands on the display acts as the trigger to launch the virtual keyboard as the device is intelligent enough to anticipate some common user requirements. While the bottom screen acts as the tool for media management, the top screen acts as the display. There are also apps that allows for convenient video and photo management as well as a web browser that has been designed to perform under a touch screen environment.
Here too there are surprises galore for Acer has not two but three devices to show off, one each in the 5, 7 and 10 inch segments. Also among the unique aspects of the tablets, what’s known till now is that all the devices conform to the traditional tablet form factor with a single touch sensitive screen, they all run the Android operating system and none of them are expected to enter markets anytime soon. In fact, the earliest we can expect to see the tablet across the retail sphere in around April 2011. And since its coming that late, Google tablet centric version of the Android, that is Honeycomb is what to new tablet line up is expected to be based on.
Of these, the 10.1 inch sized tablet will have its heart a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, a twin camera setup with a 5 MP webcam at the rear along with a lower resolution unit at the front, HDMI out port along with support for Flash 10.1.
About the 7 inch tablet, Acer has announced the device to have a Galaxy Tab topping resolution of 1280 x 800 pixel and will be built around an even more powerful 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU.
The smallest of the lot is the one with 4.8 inch display though it has an impressive resolution of 1024 x 480 pixels. Other features that Acer stated the tablet will have include a 8 MP rear built-in webcam, a 1.3 MP front-facing camera as well as a LED flash. The mini tablet will also come equipped with 6-axis motion sensing capability while also being able to record HD quality video.
Among the other important announcements made is Acer’s “next-generation store” which thay have named Alive to drive home the point it functions real time. It actually is a cloud based store which means one’s content will be safe even if the device itself gets lost or damaged. Also, Acer is justifying the Alive name tag by stating each content will appear as a feed that will get displayed in real time. Another unique aspect of Alive is that it will be both international as well as local at the same time in the sense it will have on offer content both that is relevant all over the world as well as those sourced from local partners. To add to the convenience, all pruchases will be a one click affair.
Alive will also have a filter function that will allow users to segregate contents on the basis of such qualities like type, quality, gender and so on. In much the same manner, there is Alive Recommends that will suggest contents on the basis of what’s already present in the library.
As for the choice of content, it isn’t bad either as there is a mammoth music database comprising of 8 million titles, a video library that boasts of thousands of movies along with a vast assortment of books to choose from. And a good thing with Alive is that it is platform independent.
That is Acer’s way of bringing together all devices that under a single purview. So if a media is downloaded on one device, any other clear.fi device too can have the media via Wi-Fi through a simple drag and drop effort.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
