Acer Iconia Touch Technology Now Here

March 24, 2011 was the date when Acer & Microsoft launched Acer Iconia.  I initially thought it would just be another update of Acer laptops.  Most probably with Microsoft newest software since the event was a collaboration between the two companies, Acer & Microsoft.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised when I saw the two new products from the Acer Iconia line.  These were the 1st touch-screen personal computer I have seen.  With Microsoft’s operating system powering both models and Windows 7 at that- you can be sure to have an enjoyable computing experience allowing you to get more things done.

Acer Iconia-484G64ns

Acer’s newest touch-screen PC.  It comes with not one but two(!) touch-screen displays.  Acer Iconia-484G64ns has a nickname too, you can call the PC a ‘touchbook’.

You’ll surely make heads turn when you use the Acer Iconia Touchbook in a coffee shop or any other public place.  It is very intuitive, innovative and cool!  Acer basically combined all the technologies of existing gadgets and created a totally new product!  Awesome!

The specifications will definitely impress you:

• dual 14-inch multi-touch screens
• high-definition and high-brightness 1366×768 resolution Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD screens that support to 10-finger touch
• LCD screens are made of tempered glass, are ultra-thin yet extremely durable, with a scratch-and fingerprint-resistant face made by Corning.
• touch-screen LCDs are also mercury free, making it environment-friendly
• video support is handled by Intel HD graphics with 128MB of dedicated system memory that supports Microsoft DirectX 10
• its Acer CrystalEye webcam has 1280×1024 resolution totally ramps up face-to-face communication over the internet
• has a smart virtual keyboard that features adaptive typing intelligence & predictive text input that gives a real keyboard experience.  Complete with a touchpad, numeric keypad & a multi-gesture handwriting mode
• assured of great computing power courtesy of Intel Core i5-480M (3MB L3 cache, 2.66 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz 35W) processor that supports Intel 64 architecture & Intel Smart Cache.
• Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset & 2x2GB DDRIII memory
• has more than enough storage space for a Touchbook with 640GB capacity

While the Iconia Touchbook has impressive specifications, my attention was on the Acer Ring Control Interface.

Acer Ring Control Interface is a fast & intuitive entry point to launch Acer’s touch applications and handy built-in features and controls.  You basically launch Acer Ring Control Interface by a simple grab gesture as illustrated above.

The Acer Ring Control Interface, described simply, is the Acer Touchbook manager.  You can access utilities & settings, QuickMenu & Appcards (which lets you scroll to view the applications; tap to open it).

The Gesture Editor, for its part, allows customization of touch gestures in launching tasks.  For example, you usually use Yahoo Messenger on your PC.  You can set the touch gesture to swiping from right to left to launch Yahoo Messenger.  Being able to customize is the key and I love that with the Acer Iconia.

There is also the Window Manager which allows you to organize your applications on the dual touch-screens or to an external display..

I may have described Acer Iconia Touchbook as a perfect PC but I have a bit of a problem with it.  As you can see, the gadget is very powerful, thus it may drain your battery quickly.  Well, I was right.  Acer Iconia Touchbook only has a battery life of three hours.  If you can live with that, then quickly get your own unit of Acer Iconia-484G64ns!

Acer Iconia-484G64ns sells for Php 70,900.00 at your favorite PC stores nationwide.

Acer Iconia Tab W500

Oh, another Acer Iconia product, but this time around, it’s a tablet PC.  But wait!  Acer Iconia Tab W500 is different!  Why?  Because it is dual-purpose.  It has the perfect high-definition multi-touch tablet portability and the full productivity features of a standard notebook via its dockable keyboard.

Acer Iconia Tab W500 is similar to the Touchbook as it also has the Acer Ring control interface and gesture editor.  However, it uses a different processor.  The Acer Iconia Tab W500 is powered by AMD C-Series C-50 (1MB L2 cache, 1 GHz, DDR3 1066MHz, 9W) processor.  It also has AMD A50M Fusion controller hub chipset and up to 2GB DDR3 memory chip with a 32GB SDD capacity, a 10.1-inch high definition 1280×800 resolution Acer CrystalBrite LED-backlit TFT LCD with integrated multi-touch screen supports finger touch & image auto rotation and lastly, an AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics card with 256MB dedicated system memory.

Product Features of Acer Iconia Tab W500 are as follows:

• Handy multi-touch tablet
• full-size chiclet keyboard docking
• dual 1.3MP webcam with AV recording
• Integrated battery: 4 hours HD video playback, 6 hours of internet browsing
• multi-touch Acer ring control interface
• touch optimized user interface
• device control console
• TouchBrowser
• Acer clear.fi cross-platform multimedia sharing
• My Journal web clipboard
• Windows 7 platform
• Games

Acer Iconia Tab doesn’t have a suggested retail price yet but will be available very soon.

The Acer-Microsoft event was definitely a success with two innovative products launched.  Representatives from both companies demonstrated both products with its capabilities and features.

It is important to note that Acer Brand Ambassador was there too!  Who else than Mr. Derek Ramsey!! 😀

We were able to try out the gadgets ourselves for a few minutes.  It was cool!  I believe any of you will enjoy this whether you’re a techie, a student, a parent or a youngster.

So take your pick between Acer Iconia Touchbook and the Acer Iconia Tab.  Head on to your trusted PC stores and try it out or buy one!

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This is the initial draft of my article.  Final version can be found in Manila Bulletin’s March 28 issue.  Also posted in MB’s website.