We know Computex will involve nothing less than a deluge of new laptops, but if we believe Bloomberg, it's going to be a Windows 8 tablet-topia as well. Hot on the heels of the Windows 8 Release Preview, it's claimed by the ever-present "people with knowledge of the matter" that Acer, ASUS and Toshiba will all be showing tablets with the new OS at the Taipei show. ASUS will reportedly get the star treatment at Microsoft's keynote and show off Transformer-style Windows 8 tablets that we suspect are hinted at in ASUS' slightly cryptic trailers. Processor loyalties could be split across the wider group, though: ASUS is said to be spreading the love by showing both an Intel-based tablet as well as one using NVIDIA's ARM-powered Tegra line, but Acer's previously rumored tablet is poised to go the Intel-only route, and Toshiba's may exist solely in a TI OMAP-based ARM camp. It's not apparent if anyone else will join the Windows 8 tablet frenzy, although Qualcomm is expected to show yet another Snapdragon-running test device. We'll be on the ground at Computex next week, so you can be sure that we'll give you the full rundown on Windows 8's opening salvo.

Tips have Acer, ASUS and Toshiba showing Windows 8 tablets at Computex, color us unsurprised originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The summer months are home to one of the most bittersweet events in gaming: the Electronic Entertainment Expo. E3 flaunts the year's biggest news in video games, exciting players with peeks at upcoming titles, glimpses of new consoles and soul-crushingly distant release dates. Need something to kill time with? We can help. Sony and Microsoft may not be unveiling next-generation hardware at this year's expo, but there are still a few things you can do to put yourself on the bleeding edge without a console. If you simply can't live without dedicated gaming hardware, however, you still have some options -- though you'll have to wait until the fall or beyond to get your hot little hands on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U. Read on, and we'll see what we can do about subduing your post-E3 anxiety.

Continue reading Engadget's summer gear guide 2012: gaming

Engadget's summer gear guide 2012: gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GameStop selling Android tablets in-store isn't anything new, but we've been curious to see how well the initiative would take off following a soft launch at 200 locations last November. Things seem to be going swimmingly, as the company now has "more than 1,600 locations" stocking the slates. If you'll recall, the devices all come with pre-installed titles of the retailer's choosing, with models from the likes of Samsung, Acer, ASUS and Toshiba. There's still yet to be any word about whether you'll eventually be able to trade-in your own, but it would seem like a logical next step -- aside from becoming an AT&T virtual carrier. Hit up the source link below to see if a store in your area is part of the lineup.

Continue reading GameStop gives in to its sweet tooth, stocks Android tablets at over 1,600 stores

GameStop gives in to its sweet tooth, stocks Android tablets at over 1,600 stores originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 May 2012 06:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer has been known to celebrate the Olympic Games with special-edition tech, so we weren't exactly surprised when the company launched a festive version of the Iconia Tab A510 this April in anticipation of the Summer Games in London. Now that the event is just two months away, the Tab is preparing to make its UK debut. According to the Inquirer, it will be available through Carphone Warehouse in June. To jog your memory, this version has the same specs as the original Iconia Tab A510, including a 10.1-inch IPS display, Android Ice Cream Sandwich and a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 CPU. There's also the same 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of onboard storage. The main difference, of course, is that this version sports an engraving of the five Olympic rings, and Acer also pre-loads a trial of Eurosport channels so users can get coverage during the Games. When the Iconia A510 Olympic Tab launches next month, it will reportedly go for £350 (about $552) without a SIM.

Acer Iconia A510 Olympic Tab to launch in UK next month originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 02:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NPD DisplaySearch is declaring Apple to be the undisputed champion of the mobile PC business for the first quarter of the year. The fruity phone flinger shipped (shipped, not sold) 17.2 million mobile PCs in the time, a figure that contentiously includes the iPad. Second place was taken by HP, which packed off 8.9 million units -- enough to put it at the top of the Laptop-only chart.

It's a familiar story over on the tablets leader-board, too. Cupertino pushed out 13.6 million iPads to maintain first place, while Samsung took the silver medal after packing off 1.6 million of its numerous Galaxy slates. Surprisingly, Amazon only needed to ship 900,000 Kindle Fires to take third, although given that the bookseller never discloses its numbers, we have to take that last number with a dash of disbelief.

Continue reading NPD Q1 2012: Apple still king of the mobile computing hill thanks to iPad

NPD Q1 2012: Apple still king of the mobile computing hill thanks to iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 May 2012 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there individually, we've gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of approval over the last week. Enjoy!

Continue reading FCC Fridays: May 18, 2012

FCC Fridays: May 18, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 23:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Needless to say, Ivy Bridge is here to stay -- at least until Intel takes us on a different road. That being said, Acer just announced a business-oriented machine of its own with Intel's latest chips onboard. Part of the outfit's TravelMate lineup, this 14-inch (1366 x 768) P243 rocks some pretty standard features, including a Core i5, Ivy Bridge processor, an HD webcam for all those Skype calls and a USB 3.0 port. As expected, depending on configuration, you'll also be able to choose up to 8GB of RAM, as well as NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M graphics if you don't mind shelling out the extra cash. Speaking of, Acer's pricing the TravelMate P243 starting at £339 (about $536) once it hits UK shelves -- though, there's no word on when that'll be. In the meantime, you can check out some additional eye candy after the break.

Continue reading Acer outs Ivy Bridge-packing TravelMate P243 notebook series in the UK

Acer outs Ivy Bridge-packing TravelMate P243 notebook series in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 20:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Tegra 3-touting tablet from Acer known as the Iconia Tab A700 hasn't made the rounds since CES, just over four months ago. It's finally hit the federal stage, with the WiFi-only version getting the seal of approval from the FCC, which tells us that its absence from the public spotlight doesn't mean Acer has stopped preparing it for its eventual (and still unannounced) launch date. Sadly, the docs are pretty limited in details, but there's plenty of reason for us to be excited -- the ICS-running tab should ship with a 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA SoC and a 10.1-inch 1080p display. Let's hope this is followed up with some news out of Taiwan sometime soon.

Acer Iconia Tab A700 hits FCC approval process head-on, comes out victorious originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As spring reaches full blossom, it's not just the flowers that are beginning to show -- so are the new slates heavy hitters teased back at CES. So, what does that mean? It means it's high-time that we cast a fresh glance over the tablet landscape, took in a deep breath of slate-infused air and exhaled a hearty Engadget tablet buyer's guide. We've been running the smartphone equivalent for a little while now, so we thought it only fair to give the now-mature tablet category one of its own. We're going to look at the main categories of fondleslabbery and carve out what we think are the finest offerings on the market right now. It doesn't matter if you're looking for something big, small, just good enough or so powerful that it could replace your laptop: we've collected our favorites and shepherded them safely into this one humble guide. Of course, if you want to cast your net a little wider, you can always check out our tablet review hub, but if you struggle with indecision, head on past the break to see what's hot right now in Tablet Land.

Continue reading Engadget's tablet buyer's guide: spring 2012 edition

Engadget's tablet buyer's guide: spring 2012 edition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's mid-May -- do you know where your Ice Cream Sandwich update is? Six months after Android 4.0 made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, millions of owners of legacy Android devices are still anxiously awaiting the day the new firmware gets downloaded on their own electronic real estate. At least the scene today is much more pleasant than it was just a few months ago, as ICS is finally rolling out to several popular devices. But if you're shopping for a phone or tablet, how can you possibly keep track of which device has what version?

Amidst the confusion, we've put together a handy list of the legacy devices (read: didn't ship with Ice Cream Sandwich natively) that have already been updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as the ones that are promised an upgrade at a future date. Of course, many phones and tablets have ICS ROMs, leaked builds and other unofficial versions of the new firmware available, but we'll only discuss official downloads here. We plan to amend the list as the update rolls out to more devices, so be sure to check back from time to time. Head past the break to see how much of a reach Ice Cream Sandwich has.

Note: If your device is listed as "available" but you're still waiting for that update to come through, keep in mind that many firmware upgrades are rolled out slowly, over a period of several weeks.

Continue reading Which devices have been updated to Ice Cream Sandwich?

Which devices have been updated to Ice Cream Sandwich? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bandwagons, trains and Tranes. Can't say that these three have a heck of a lot in common in most regards, but one thing's for sure: trying to stop this trio would be a Herculean task. And so it goes with laptops -- once upon a time, it was good enough to have something that resembled a portable tower, but these days, the ability to even see the chassis at all feels like a negative. I exaggerate, of course, but the proverbial race in the laptop world is hardly about price; it's about thinness. Intel's unstoppable quest to plaster the Ultrabook term as far and wide as possible has led to a change in the way consumers are viewing portable machines, and Apple's devilishly thin MacBook Air certainly played a role, too. What we're left with is a very curious priority list, and I'm wondering if too many OEMs have stopped to wonder if the "obvious" is indeed the "right."

I'll be the first to confess that I love the look of thin. Samsung's Series 9 and Acer's Aspire S5 might just be two of the sexiest machines to ever be built, and Dell's original Adamo was primarily of interest due to one thing: its jaw-droppingly thin frame. But there's some saying about putting form before function that seems to apply here, particularly when keying in on battery life. I've no doubt that the marketing and research teams for PC makers far and wide understand the realities of the market place, and perhaps the average consumer really doesn't need more than four to six hours of life on a single charge. Five years ago, squeezing that much life from machines under an inch thick would've required some sort of wizardry that exists only in a rarely visited corner of West Hollywood. But today, I'm a dreamer. And I'm dreaming of a laptop with "all day battery life" -- something that could be screamed from the rooftops, and honestly, something that could probably be accomplished tomorrow if our laptop options weren't on such a diet.

Continue reading Editorial: Thin laptops are the new mainstream, but what about battery life?

Editorial: Thin laptops are the new mainstream, but what about battery life? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer made something of a splash when it trotted out its Timeline Ultra series of Ultrabooks at CES; those waves are just now hitting the shore with a full-on release in the UK under a tweaked Aspire M5 name. Both the 14- and 15-inch models are now known to be packing Intel's Ivy Bridge-era third-generation Core processors, and the "dedicated" video we heard about in January is NVIDIA's Kepler-based GeForce GT 640M, which we saw in the Timeline Ultra M3. Either new PC is still under 20mm (0.8 inches) thick with the option of an SSD, like the M3, but slapping the M5 badge on top means a much narrower display bezel, a backlit keyboard and other more upscale touches that show where your money's going. Picking the 15-inch model adds an optical drive along with a keypad for number-crunching. Mum's the word on exact specs and that all-important pricing, but those questions will be answered by the time the M5 hits British shops in mid-June. Now all that's left is to know when the new Aspire reaches the other side of the Atlantic.

Continue reading Acer ships Aspire M5 Ultrabook to UK in June, Ivy Bridge and Kepler chips in tow

Acer ships Aspire M5 Ultrabook to UK in June, Ivy Bridge and Kepler chips in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Itching for the details of AMD's latest Accelerated Processing Units (APUs)? Then get ready to scratch: Trinity has arrived and, as of today, it's ready to start powering the next generation of low-power ultra-portables, laptops and desktops that, erm, don't run Intel. The new architecture boasts up to double the performance-per-watt of last year's immensely popular Llano APUs, with improved "discrete-class" integrated graphics and without adding to the burden on battery life. How is that possible? By how much will Trinity-equipped devices beat Intel on price? And will it play Crysis: Warhead? Read on to find out.

Gallery: AMD reveals Trinity APU

Continue reading AMD reveals Trinity specs, claims to beat Intel on price, multimedia, gaming

AMD reveals Trinity specs, claims to beat Intel on price, multimedia, gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer's Liquid series phones only occasionally reach the FCC, so it's with some surprise that we've just spotted the still-fresh Liquid Glow getting the US agency's approval under its E330 model name. Details are scarce as to whether or not there's been any changes made to the Android 4.0 phone on its way out of Taiwan, however: there's no telltale signs like cellular frequencies or carrier badging. If anything, Acer is hoping to keep information hush-hush by stamping a 180-day confidentiality seal on the manual and photos. It's entirely possible that this is the international GSM model with no 3G support for North American carriers, so we wouldn't get worked up about local release plans. Even so, knowing Canadian carrier Rogers' tendency to offer Acer phones, there's still a possibility that a version of the Liquid Glow might go on sale this side of the Pacific.

Acer Liquid Glow hits the FCC, keeps its secrets originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Most laptops being updated to Intel's Ivy Bridge processors have come from international brands, so it may be some relief to European PC buyers that Acer's local Packard Bell badge has made the leap as well. The 15.6-inch EasyNote TV and 17.3-inch LV will each use the new 22-nanometer processors both to push performance that little bit farther as well as get a middling five hours of battery life. NVIDIA graphics in GeForce GT 620M and 630M flavors will spruce up the gaming side, however, and Packard Bell is delivering a 20 percent more responsive multi-touch trackpad, dedicated music / social keys and a bamboo-like lid pattern to add a little dose of style. The duo will surface in Europe during June at prices starting from €499 ($656). Acer has sometimes brought Packard Bell PCs to the US as roughly equivalent Gateway models and vice versa, so Americans shouldn't be surprised if they get counterpart laptops before long.

Packard Bell EasyNote LV, TV laptops bring Ivy Bridge to speed-hungry Europeans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 06:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Well, Apple's reign atop the list of the world's top PC makers was short lived. After clawing its way into the lead, if you counted the iPad as a PC, HP is back atop the heap -- even with Cupertino's tablet-inflated numbers. According to Canalys, the Palo Alto company shipped 15.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, barely sneaking passed Apple by 40,000 computers. Of course, remove Apple's 11.8 million iPads, and it's not even a competition. Lenovo, Acer and Dell rounded out the top five, with the total market shooting up 21 percent over the same time last year. However, there is plenty of reason to believe we won't see client PC fly out the door at such an incredible rate. Amazingly, according to Canalys, tablets accounted for 40 percent of all PC shipments in the US. For more details check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading HP reclaims top spot in PC sales, market as a whole climbs 21 percent

HP reclaims top spot in PC sales, market as a whole climbs 21 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer Iconia Tab A510 hands-on

Acer Iconia Tab A510 with Tegra 3, Android 4.0 arriving in the US and Canada for $450

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 review

We'll stop just short of quoting Top Gun here, but if it's speed you crave, these next thousands of words could have you emptying your wallet. How's that for an opening line? To be honest, it's been quite some time since any of us Engadget editors booted up a brand new device and immediately let loose a stream of expletives -- all expressing unbridled delight, of course. Such was the beginning of our meet-cute with Acer's Iconia Tab A510, the company's first Tegra 3 slate, and the second to ship with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Apart from that 1280 x 800 TFT LCD display, this 10-incher looks, feels and performs nothing like its predecessor, the A500. Turbocharged with that quad-core CPU and 1GB of RAM, this Android 4.0 tablet joins a crowded category with a generous 32GB in built-in storage and a reasonable $450 price tag to match. So, does that excellence lose its luster with more extensive use? Is your money better spent on any of the other umpteen tablets running ICS? Will the lack of a higher-quality display prove too much of a con for your exquisite tech tastes? Follow on as we probe the A510 for answers.

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A510 review

Acer Iconia Tab A510 review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of April 23rd, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of April 23rd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Patience, they say, is a virtue. Try telling that to a tech-savvy tablet owner, whose friend already got an ICS update. Acer started pushing out an Android 4 update to lucky Iconia 500 owners earlier in the week, but for those who've yet to receive it, all is not lost. The tablet maker has taken the unusual step of releasing an app dedicated to getting you the upgrade asap. Can't wait a moment longer? Point your slate at the Play store and search for "Acer" and then simply look for the free Iconia Tab Update Enhancement app. Virtues are overrated anyway.

Continue reading Acer releases app to hurry the ICS-ification of Iconia slates (video)

Acer releases app to hurry the ICS-ification of Iconia slates (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Want a 2.1GHz Ivy Bridge Core i7 in your next media laptop? Mmm, yes please. And a 1080p LED backlit display to devour movies on? Well, of course. Then keep looking, because the Acer Aspire V3 maxes out at just 1366 x 768 -- despite being equipped with a Blu-ray spinner and Dolby Theater v4, and also despite the eye-popping competition. Then again, at 15.6-inches that resolution might not be a total deal-breaker, plus our hands-on taster at CeBIT (before we even knew about the Ivy Bridge internals) wasn't totally unpleasant. The HD 4000 graphics should give you the odd gaming snack, even if not a full meal, while a 750GB HDD, up to 8GB RAM and a ton of I/O options take care of the back room. The V3 will hit Japanese shelves on April 29th for around $1,100 -- but watch out for a 17-incher too (which will do 1080p) plus cheaper Core i5 variants coming later.

Acer Aspire V3 coming to Japan for $1,100 with right processor, wrong ppi originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, Acer announced that Ice Cream Sandwich would make its way to Iconia Tabs A100 and A500 in Canada and the US starting April 27th, but Phone Arena reports that some owners of the 10.1-inch A500 are getting the option to update a day ahead of schedule. If you're one of the lucky few to be in on the early upgrade, you should be ready to rock with Android 4.0.3 after a 30-minute install. The one potential downside to getting ICS ahead of time? You'll have to wait for the Acer Ring hub, which didn't make the cut for this update.

Some Iconia Tab A500s getting Ice Cream Sandwich early, Acer Ring is MIA originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer's Q1 financial report reveals that the fourth biggest PC maker in the world is feeling weak after posting a very modest profit -- three months after it declared a $212 million loss for 2011. Turnover for the first three months of this year was NT$113 billion ($3.8 billion) and profits after tax were NT$331 million ($11.2 million). To put that in context, it made a $40 million profit in the same quarter last year -- so this is a spectacular collapse of 72 percent year-over-year

Reuters is suggesting that the problem is in part due to increased hardware costs caused by the Thailand floods, but the company isn't giving anything away. Instead its terse announcement just advised that the company grew its global PC market share by 0.8 percent to 10.9 percent, while in the EMEA region it grew 2.4 percent to 13.5 percent, adding that it is the only one of the "big five" that's seen any increase at all. You can read the scanty details for yourself, after the break.

[Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Continue reading Acer's Q1 2012: World's fourth biggest PC maker made just $11.2 million in profit

Acer's Q1 2012: World's fourth biggest PC maker made just $11.2 million in profit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Now that the Ivy Bridge cat is out of the bag, you can expect to see a deluge of press releases from PC makers over the coming weeks, each of them saying that this computer or that is getting refreshed with Intel's latest processors. From Acer, at least, we expect multiple announcements: it's only ready to talk about a couple of desktops today, with news around laptops and Ultrabooks coming later. Right now, you can choose from several configurations of the Predator AG3620 gaming tower, with the top-shelf $1,200 model packing a 3.4 GHz Core i7 3770 CPU, NVIDIA GT630 graphics, 16GB of RAM and 2TB of storage space. On the budget end, the $799 Gateway D4860-UR14P will feature a 3.1 GHz Core i5 3450 processor, 6GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Both are available now -- you know, if you've been waiting for precisely this sort of thing.

Gallery: Acer Predator AG3620 and Gateway DX4870 / FX6860

Acer dips its toes into Ivy Bridge, refreshes two of its desktops with new processors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With April nearly over, it's high time Acer came clean on when exactly its promised Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for the A100 and A500 would land. Today the company did just that, revealing that US owners of either tablet can opt-in for their frozen makeovers starting on the 27th. Bad news if you're rocking AT&T's variant of the latter though, as the listing on the company's support page for the A501 says "no update planned." Those not tied Ma Bell can expect Acer's skin -- including that ring launcher -- grafted onto Google's latest, much like the A200's ICS upgrade back in February. Already pumped? Go ahead and bookmark that source link. Do it, we won't judge.

Acer's A100 and A500 tablets getting Ice Cream Sandwich on April 27th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ah, Acer's Olympics-themed Iconia Tab A510. If you'll recall, after months of staying quiet about its A500 successor -- which was already viewable in public -- Acer finally made the 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) slate official when it went up for pre-order last month. Fast forward to today, and the company's US website is now listing the tablet as in-stock and ready to ship. Notably, the A510 is Acer's first tab loaded with NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 SoC and Android Ice Cream Sandwich (slightly modified) -- a duo of delicacies seldom found together in tablets up for grabs as of late. To refresh your memory, its $450 price tag also gets you 32GB of storage with 1GB of RAM, your choice of a white or black bezel and other goodies, including a 1-megapixel front-facing camera and an auto-focusing 5-megapixel shooter on back. Not too shabby for device that can reportedly handle 12 hours of video playback. Sweet tooth tingling? Hit up the source link below for all the details.

[Thanks, Daryl]

Acer Iconia Tab A510 now available, 10.1 inches of Olympian ICS and Tegra 3 for $450 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chrome OS update pushes Aura desktop UI to devs

Chrome OS update pushes Aura desktop UI to devs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Acer's C120 pico projector goes on sale, ready to be powered by your PC

Acer's C120 pico projector goes on sale, ready to be powered by your PC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This recent announcement that Dell would not be pursuing new smartphones for the time being following the retirement of its Venue Windows Phone devices raised the spotlight on PC companies -- at least those other than Apple -- and why they have struggled so mightily in the US smartphone market. Virtually every major PC company, including HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and ASUS, has either passed completely on entering the domestic market or released only a handful of models without much carrier support behind them. HP, of course, made the largest investment in mobile with the purchase of an ailing developer of devices and operating systems. But even before that Palm slapped its forehead, HP had only casually flirted with smartphones, releasing a few token Windows Mobile smartphones.

PC companies have been fighting the battle with some heavy handicaps.

To be fair to these companies, the investment demands of the ultra-competitive smartphone market have proven formidable for many companies, including many, like Motorola, Nokia and RIM, that were once considered masters of the game. Even companies that have not seen such a prolonged decline, like HTC, can find the tables turned on them in the course of a financial quarter. But PC companies have been fighting the battle with some heavy handicaps.

Continue reading Switched On: Not weaned from Windows

Switched On: Not weaned from Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When Acer's Aspire Timeline Ultra notebooks made their first appearance at CES, these 14- and 15-inch laptops seemed like little more than the successors to Acer's TimelineX series. Thin-and-light laptops, complete with optical drive and some likely reasonable prices. While there's no mistaking that DVD burner and mainstream screen size, we now know a few things we didn't then: the 15-inch version you see up there packs NVIDIA's next-gen Kepler graphics... and Acer's calling it an Ultrabook.

Acer's branding that there Ultra M3 as an Ultrabook because it's less than 20mm (.8 inches) thin, but given that 15-inch display, numpad, optical drive and graphical horsepower, it's hard to think of this as anything other than a mainstream laptop. If you accept Acer's marketing scheme, though, this is the first so-called Ultrabook to ship with discrete graphics. (We're expecting to see more -- many more -- of these.) As of this writing, at least, we don't have a confirmed price, though Acer has said the pricing for the Ultra series should align with current TimelineX notebooks (which is to say, we're hardly expecting this to be a $1,500 machine.) Until we know for sure, it'll be hard to say how sweet of a deal this is, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about what it actually does. How does the performance stack up against regular 'ol 15-inch laptop? Does it pummel your garden-variety Ultrabooks like you'd expect it to? Join us past the break where we break down exactly what this 'tweener can do.

Gallery: Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 review

Continue reading Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 review

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of March 19th, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of March 19th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer Iconia Tab A510

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A510 with Tegra 3, Android 4.0 arriving in the US and Canada for $450

Acer Iconia Tab A510 with Tegra 3, Android 4.0 arriving in the US and Canada for $450 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer Iconia Tab A200 review

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A200 review

Acer Iconia Tab A200 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 brings an NVIDIA Kepler GPU to the ultrabook party originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Acer brings five monitors to the US, prices range from $139 to $329

Acer brings five monitors to the US, prices range from $139 to $329 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer Aspire V3 hands-on

Continue reading Acer Aspire V3 notebook hands-on (video)

Acer Aspire V3 notebook hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer Aspire V5 hands-on

Continue reading Acer launches Ultrabook-like Aspire V5 series, we go hands-on (video)

Acer launches Ultrabook-like Aspire V5 series, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer Allegro hands-on

Acer Allegro hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Mobile World Congress 2012: best of show

Mobile World Congress 2012: best of show originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Mobile World Congress 2012: smartphone roundup

Mobile World Congress 2012: smartphone roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC2012

Continue reading More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video)

More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.