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All Entries Tagged With: "Acer"
Sponsor Needed for Biggest, Baddest Head to Head Netbook Video Review Ever
We want to do a head to head video review between the following netbooks - in one big video review: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook, Lenovo S10, Acer Aspire One, HP Mini 1000, Samsung NC10, Toshiba NB100, the Asus 901 Eee PC, and possibly others. We want to compare the keyboards, the webcam, the screens, the weight, typing speeds, the standard battery life, the size, and more. Wouldn’t that be a heck of a video review?
We’ve had some of the units in at various times, but never all at one time, and in one place, in order to pull off such a head to head review. If your company is interested in sponsoring this video review for us, getting some fantastic press, and making a lot of mobile pc readers happy, contact me at rob@gottabemobile.com.
Toshiba and Acer Say 90% of Netbooks Sold are Win XP
I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, but Toshiba and Acer are saying that 90% of the Netbooks they are selling (the Acer Aspire One and the Satelitte NB100) are running Windows XP.
Acer, Asus, Toshiba Planning to Use Snapdragon?
Interesting. According to this article at CNet, Asus, Acer and Toshiba are working on small notebooks using Qualcomm’s instant-on solution, Snapdragon. Actually, according to Manjitt Gill (the interviewee) it is more like always on.
“Our vision is that (the device is) always connected. Even when you shut it down, it’s still ‘on.’ (The laptop) goes to your Exchange server, gets your e-mail, puts it on the drive–solid-state or hard drive–and then when you’re ready to do e-mail, you flip it open and it’s right there. Instant on, always connected”
Acer Leads In Netbook Sales
I wouldn’t have thought this to be the case, but then that shows you how much or how little I know. A report out today from DisplaySearch shows that Acer leads all Netbook manufacturers accounting for a 38.3% market share. Asus is in second place with 30.3% and way behind in third place is HP at 5.8%. Other manufacturers fall in line below that line.
Acer Aspire One – Perfect for Children
I was around at a few different stores over the weekend and saw a few things that I didn’t expect to see (or at least know about). One I didn’t know about was the Sony Reader being at Target for sale. Not that it’s odd, I just haven’t seem them in a store. There was also a NetBook there, the Asus Eee PC with a $349.99 price tag. One that I took a picture of that really made an impression was at Wall-Mart. They are selling the Acer Aspire One in the blue and white configuration. The display was fully targeted at adults to make the purchase for their children. The display is in the picture, but look at the wording - “Give your kids a fun and exciting way to experience the Internet” and “A child’s perfect first computer”. Kind of an interesting ad campaign if you ask me! But, IMO, this kind of eliminates a whole slew of people that might be a great fit for this platform.
eMachines eMD620 – 14” and $429
Man, can the notebooks get any cheaper? Acer’s eMachines has just debuted their 14” notebook for a surprisingly low $429 and sporting a 1.6ghz AMD processor. You’ll be able to buy them at BestBuy on November 1. Read the following press release for more details:
IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 30, 2008 – The eMachines eMD620-5777 debuts today, giving consumers all the essentials of mobile computing at the incredibly affordable price of only $429.99.
The new notebook combines the latest in popular and useful features with trusted technology, making it ideal for challenging coursework, multimedia school projects, home productivity, research and staying in touch.
“The new eMachines is a great way for customers to get everything they need in a notebook at a really exceptional price – something that’s welcome in today’s challenging financial climate,” said Ray Sawall, senior product manager for Acer. “The new eMachines eMD620-5777 notebook is ideal for students, families, small business professionals and anyone on a budget who wants to enjoy the benefits of mobile computing. Plus, the new eMachines eMD620-5777 notebook gives families an affordable way to get an additional PC in their home, without having to set aside a dedicated space for it.”
With a fast AMD Athlon™ 2650e processor (1.6GHz, 512MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB) and a full 1 GB of DDR2 memory, the eMachines eMD620-5777 is ready to perform on the go. It also features integrated ATI Radeon x1200 graphics, with up to 1919MB of ATI’s HyperMemory, so video and graphics look great.
The notebook’s size is designed with portability in mind. Its 14.1-inch widescreen display is perfect for watching DVD movies and viewing multiple applications at once, yet the chassis is still compact enough to comfortable carry in a backpack or book bag. Also, staying in touch on the go and is a snap with the notebook’s 802.11b/g WiFi wireless that connects to hot spots and wireless networks on campus, at home and at many popular restaurants and hotels.
After projects for home and school are complete, students and their families can enjoy digital media hobbies, entertainment and games. The Super Multi-format DVD-R/RW drive plays DVD movies and can burn music, video, photos and other content to DVDs or CDs using the preinstalled Corel WinDVD and NTI CD/DVD Maker software. Consumers can store and share their digital media with the notebook’s large 160GB hard drive and a Super Multi-format Dual-layer DVD-RW drive.
Listening to music and movie audio is enjoyable with the notebook’s high-definition audio support with two built-in stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack and microphone jack. Plus, two USB 2.0 ports make it easy to connect popular peripherals and digital media devices, such as MP3 players, cameras and camcorders.
Useful software abounds on the eMachines eMD620-5777 notebook. It comes with Windows Vista Home Basic for fast handling of applications. The notebook also comes preinstalled with eMachines GameZone – a sampling of popular online games as well as Adobe Reader for reading PDFs, and Microsoft Works 8.5 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial for productivity. To keep customers safe, the notebook also comes with a 60-day trial of Norton 360 Version 2.0.
Pricing, Availability and Warranty
The eMachines eMD620-5777 will be sold by Best Buy beginning Nov. 1, 2008 at the price of $429.99.
Acer CEO Confirms Gateway Netbook
Acer continues to make some Netbook noise with the Aspire One Netbook, and it looks like Gateway and Packard Bell, both acquired by Acer, will be releasing Netbooks. The news was confirmed by Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci. This could end up being a branding thing, or it could mean different machines, but then how different is one Netbook from another really.
Via Liliputing
Will NetBook Prices Continue to Fall?
Yesterday’s news that Acer had cut the price of the Aspire One NetBook line by $50 was seen by some as a shocker. I think Acer was feeling the heat of Dell’s supposed $299 price tag. Dell was rumored to announce one of the NetBook world’s worst kept secrets yesterday but hasn’t yet. (Side note: in a way that makes sense. The first of the week is usually the normal time to announce new products.)
But back on topic, The New York Times Bits Blog picked up on the price cut news and is running a post that says we might see prices as low as $249 by the holidays, with $299 being a norm. The post quotes Envisioneering research director Richard Doherty with the speculation.
Anyone who has been following the NetBook scene will understand that the nascent market is really just beginning and that we’ve seen more announcements than you can count. On one hand, it would be a fascinating development if the prices all settled in around the same low price point as that would force the manufacturers to look elsewhere for differentiators between their respective models. On the other hand, with prices at impulse buy levels, the key might become who can get these small devices into potential customers hands the quickest through sales channels.
GBM Podcast#57: Truc Revs Up
New GBM Team member, Truc Bui, is revving up to produce some great content here for GottaBeMobile.com (not to put any pressure on or anything) and I’m excited to see what he comes up with. I’m especially excited to see his Back To School InkShows. Want to know what he’s thinking? Give a listen to GBM Podcast #57 and you’ll get a sneak preview. We also talk about a range of other topics as well, including EverNote, Truc’s initial impressions of the HP tx2051 (can it give you a headache?), what we’re thinking might come out of IDF, HP’s new 2730p Tablet PC, and why I returned the Acer Aspire One, among other topics.
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Download GBMPodcast #57 here. (44.6MB 48.45 minutes)
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All GottaBeMobile.com InkShows and Podcasts are sponsored by TechSmith.
Looks Like the Acer Aspire One is Getting Returned
Well, my wife has been working with the Acer Aspire One for a week. It looks like it is getting returned. Three issues comprise the reasoning here.
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She loves the keyboard but hates the mouse buttons that are on either side of the trackpad. “It drives me nuts” is the quote there.
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She’s not a fan of smudges and this case is a smudge magnet.
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I think we got a lemon with the network card. This morning she tried to connect but couldn’t. She went to the Network settings icon but could not get any response by clicking on it. After shutting down, pulling the battery, and then trying to hook up with a LAN cable, I’m sure the network card is bad. That’s not really an issue as I’m sure I could simply exchange the device for another one. Thinking it might be a software fault, I thought I would try a system restore. But, unlike the Asus Eee, it appears you need to hook up an optical drive to restore the OS from a disk. The Asus takes a little more than a heartbeat to restore the system from on on board restore. Having to hook up an optical drive isn’t an optimal solution for these devices in my opinion. I may be wrong here, but I can find no way to restore this system except from an optical drive.
Her reaction to the failure of the network card is an interesting one that I think OEMs bringing these devices to market should take to heart. After explaining to her that sometimes things do go wrong and some computers come with faults, especially in the early releases of new devices she said, “That’s ridiculous. If they can’t make it work, what’s the point? I can’t believe you and your geek buddies put up with that kind of thing.” That’s actually a paraphrase as I’ve edited her reaction for family friendly reading.
Ah, well, off to Circuit City we go.
tnkgrl Continues Her Modding Ways with the Acer Aspire One
tnkgrl just keeps on modding and, as she promised, she’s put up a post about swapping out the SSD for a 60GB 1.8” PATA drive. Check out the pictures and her process on tnkgrl Mobile and stay tuned for modding session number 3 when she promises to show off how to add internal 3G. If you didn’t catch part I, here’s a link to that.
Is OS Implementation a NetBook Differentiator?
Good friend Kevin Tofel is offering a good hypothesis in his thinking about the land of NetBooks (or whatever you want to call them.) Simply put Kevin thinks that the hoops a typical out-of-the-box user has to jump through to install additional applications other than what is included by the OEM might be a big differentiator when it comes to sorting out which NetBook(s) might become popular with users. I think he’s right.
I haven’t had as much hands on time with the Acer Aspire One as Kevin has. My wife won’t let it go and our schedules are at cross purposes these days as we have two shows running in two different theatres. But, Kevin’s point is a real one for users such as my wife. While she can unbox the device, get connected and create some documents, what happens when she (or any other user) wants to add an application to the device?
I’m guessing this is going to be a boon for Microsoft once general knowledge of this starts getting around as folks will opt for the more familiar XP options. I’m also guessing that perhaps this might be some hidden subtext in Intel’s Paul Otellini’s recent comments that “you’re dealing with something that most of us wouldn’t want to use.”
Here is one possible way I can see this playing out. Not only could this situation be a differentiator between different NetBooks, but it could become a key differentiator between NetBooks and the more traditional Notebook. The inclusion of XP on NetBooks could certainly mitigate that, but I can see a marketing argument being made that if you want to easily install your own apps like you can on a desktop it will cost you a little more. That would be an interesting upsell. That said, if the recent predictions of 50 million units on the market in 2012 are to be believed, I would assume that all kinds of things will be different if we are to see those kinds of numbers become real. Ease of use would certainly be one of them.
Acer Aspire One: Let The Modding Begin
Well, I haven’t seen the Acer Aspire One since my wife unboxed it as she’s using it constantly but I doubt she’ll go as far as tnkrl who is already deep into modding Acer’s NetBook (or whatever you want to call them.)
If you want to see how to pop the Aspire One open and add a BlueTooth Module and upgrade the RAM, check out tnkgrl Mobile for pictures and video. She promises more to come, so for those of you who just drool over these sort of naked innards pics enjoy.
GBM InkShow: Thomasin and the Acer Aspire One
Well as I posted on Saturday I did pick up an Acer Aspire One Netbook or whatever you want to call them) at Circuit City, and I finally managed to convince my lovely wife, Thomasin, to take some time after her busy performance schedule this weekend to shoot an unboxing and first look InkShow, which we did last night.
Thomasin has been using the Asus Eee PC for quite some time and also checked out the HP Mini-Note so I thought she would be an excellent candidate to give the Aspire One a go. Besides her fresh look at these kind of devices are not only a treat, but reveal more than we have a geek look at them. She’ll be working with the Aspire One this week and we’ll report back on how she feels it stacks up after that. But for now, enjoy this unboxing and first look, along with a few comparisons to the Asus Eee PC.
- Download the high res version of this GBM InkShow. (301MB, 39.33 Minutes)
- Check out the GBM InkShow review of the HP 2133 Mini-Note.
- Check out the GBM InkShow of Thomasin and the Asus Eee PC.
Acer Aspire One In The House
Well, as promised, on my dinner break between shows at Wayside Theatre I headed back to Circuit City and I did manage to purchase an Acer Aspire One Netbook (or whatever you want to call them.) Price was $379. I haven’t opened it up yet as I’m hoping my lovely wife Thomasin will be in the mood for an unboxing when she gets home from her show tonight. (If you’ve been keeping score you know we’re running two shows in two different theatres at the moment.)
Intriguingly when I went into the store there were still no Aspires to be seen on the shelves. When I asked the manager about this he said they had them in the back. I asked why they weren’t on the shelves and his answer was that they were too small to fit under the laptop locks that keep folks from stealing. So, I guess when it comes to small devices like Netbooks, the big boxes are either going to need to retool their displays or consumers won’t get much opportunity to put their hands on one before a purchase. Of course in my mind that means that is a less than satisfactory way to market something where the size and weight are key components.
Ah, well. We’ll see if we can’t get that unboxing InkShow up soon.