ViewSonic and Acer to pay Microsoft royalties for Android products

While Windows Phone 7 may not be doing as well as Microsoft had hoped, unlike Apple, Microsoft has been more or less content with sitting by the sidelines and try to make money off their competitors through royalties and licensing. One such example is where HTC is currently paying $5 to Microsoft for every Android handset that they sell, and now it looks like Microsoft has added more companies to that pool.

Microsoft has just confirmed that they have reached licensing agreements with both ViewSonic and Acer, companies who are probably best known for their tablets – the ViewPad and Iconia Tab series respectively. The deal will see both companies paying Microsoft royalties on sales of their Android handsets and tablets, and will also cover future Chrome OS devices made by either company.

It was not disclosed as to how much either company will be paying to Microsoft, but personally this seems like a smarter way for competing companies to deal with patents, as opposed to chasing their competitors all around the world seeking injunctions against their products.

Article: RSS via UberGizmo

Tags: Acer, Android, Microsoft, Patents, Smartphones, Tablet PC's, Viewsonic

Posted in Acer, Android, Microsoft, Smartphones, Tablet PC's | No Comments »

Acer postpones Iconia Tab A100 launch to second half of the year

Looks like Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 has opted for a fashionably late entrance. We’ve just been informed by the company that its Honeycomb-sporting, Tegra 2-powered slate will not be arriving, as had been expected, right around now, but will in fact make its debut in the second half of 2011. No reasons have been given for the move, other than to say that the device has been postponed. The thing that prompted us to query Acer’s PR team was a report out of Poland suggesting the A100 had been cancelled. Acer’s UK reps are adamant that’s not been the case, but anyone who was looking forward to grabbing one soon will be disappointed either way.

Article: RSS via Engadget

Tags: Acer, Android, Android 3.0, Honeycomb, Iconica Tab A100, Tablet PC's

Posted in Acer, Android, Tablet PC's | No Comments »

Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15

After two years of development, the first Google Chrome OS notebooks will make their worldwide debut June 15.

Samsung and Acer will be the first companies to launch Chrome OS devices. Samsung’s device will sport a 12.1-inch screen with an 8-hour battery life, while Acer’s device will be a 11.6-inch display and a 6.5-hour battery life. Samsung’s device will retail for $429 for the Wi-Fi version and $499 for the 3G version. Acer’s more portable notebook will start at $349 and up.

Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai said during Wednesday’s keynote at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco that both Chrome OS notebooks will be available starting June 15. It will launch in the U.S. on Amazon.com and in Best Buy stores nationwide, but the United Kingdom, France and other countries will get the chance to buy Chrome OS notebooks at the same time.

Google has been testing Chrome OS in the wild through the CR-48 notebook, but those devices sport unstable developer versions of Google’s web-centric OS. Since then, Google has fixed most of Chrome’s bugs and made it compatible with Intel’s dual-core processors.

Chrome OS is the search giant’s attempt to create a cloud-based operating system. Unlike traditional desktop operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X, Chrome OS only runs web-based applications through a modified version of the Chrome browser. As a result, Chrome OS can start up in a matter of seconds and has a longer battery life.

Originally designed for netbooks, the rise of tablets has forced Chrome OS to evolve into a notebook OS and could even make its way onto tablets and other form factors.

Article: RSS via Mashable

Tags: Acer, Chrome OS, Chromebooks, Google, Google I/O, Notebooks, Samsung

Posted in Acer, Google, Notebooks, Samsung | No Comments »

Acer’s 3G-equipped Iconia Tab A100 up for pre-order on Amazon UK for £400

When we first caught wind of the pending release of Acer’s Iconia Tab A100 WiFi version, we were amazed by its Amazonian pre-order promise of Android 3.0 for a mere £300. Now, a second version of the seven-inch slate has hit the same site with a May 14 release date, a sprinkling of 3G, and the cut-rate cost of its cousin has been replaced with a £400 ($660) price tag. Unfortunately, the extra hundred pounds takes the A500′s 3G baby brother out of the bargain basement, but you didn’t think you’d get all those G’s for free, did you?

Article: RSS via Engadget

Tags: 3G, Acer, Android, Android 3.0, Honeycomb, Iconica Tab A100, Tablet PC's

Posted in 3G, Acer, Android, Tablet PC's | No Comments »

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Now Available for $450

Acer’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet has arrived on schedule, bringing an interesting array of features for a very competitive price.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 features a 10.1-inch screen 1280×800 TFT WXGA screen, an Nvidia Tegra 250 1GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash storage (with the possibility of extending the storage capacity up to 32 GB via a Micro-SD card). It’s got a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front one for video chats, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a USB 2.0 port and a battery that should last around 10 hours if you’re using the device for browsing the web.

While those specifications sound very similar to those of another Android 3.0 tablet, the Motorola Xoom, Acer’s tablet does have the advantage of a brushed aluminum back and a much lower price.

The Acer Iconia Tab is available at Best Buy.

Article: RSS via Mashable

Tags: 1GHz, 5 Megapixel Camera, Acer, Android, Android 3.0, Best Buy, Bluetooth, Dual-Core, Honeycomb, Iconica Tab A500, MicroSD, Nvidia, Tablet PC's, Tegra 2, USB, Wi-Fi

Posted in Acer, Android, Tablet PC's | No Comments »

Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 priced at £300 in UK, launching April 20th

Boy oh boy, these Taiwanese companies are seriously gunning to take the bottom out of the Honeycomb tablet market. After we saw ASUS stride forward with very competitive pricing on its 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer, we’re now being treated to Acer’s riposte, an eminently reasonable £300 ($483) price tag attached to its 7-inch Iconia Tab. Nothing is really skimped on here, you get the dual-core Tegra 2 and Android 3.0 one-two punch of hardware and software that’s become so popular lately, and of course the RAM is 512MB, not KB as indicated on Amazon’s listing. Perhaps the 8GB of storage will be a little on the light side, but given the price, we consider that a most forgivable shortcoming. Amazon notes the release date as April 20th in the UK and we doubt the rest of the world will have to wait much longer either.

Article: RSS via Engadget

Tags: Acer, Amazon, Android, Android 3.0, Honeycomb, Iconia Tab A100, Tablet PC's

Posted in Acer, Android, Tablet PC's | No Comments »

Acer Iconia Tab W500 specs revealed

We know that the Acer Iconia Tab W500 will be released later this year after its announcement at the recently concluded MWC 2011, and it is nice to know that the Taiwanese computing giant has finally revealed its specifications for the tablet device. Tipping the scales at an extremely lightweight sub-1kg level, you will be able to enjoy a 10″ multitouch display, Windows Home Premium as the operating system of choice, 2GB RAM, UMTS support and a docking station – all for 599 Euros. Of course, the major downsides to this would be its relatively low battery life as it won’t be able to achieve what current generation netbooks can (say 8 to 12 hours), while toting around the docking station will add a significant amount of weight to it. If you’re thinking of bringing this with you on your travels, we would advice you leave the docking station back home.

Article: RSS via Ubergizmo

Tags: Acer, Iconica Tab W500, Multitouch, MWC 2011, Tablet PC's, UMTS, Windows 7

Posted in Acer, Tablet PC's, Windows 7 | No Comments »

Acer Officially Launches 4.8-Inch, Super-Widescreen Iconia Smart

Acer has officially launched the 4.8-inch super-widescreen Iconia Smart after unofficially launching it back in November. Iconia is also the name of the company’s dual-screen laptop.

With a 1024 x 480 resolution that works out to a cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio, the Iconia Smart S300 runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz single-core Snapdragon processor, and offers such media-friendly features as DLNA wireless streaming and Dolby-certified audio. An eight-megapixel rear and two-megapixel front camera are also on board.

Pocket-lint reports a May 1st UK launch, and last we heard, Acer was in negotiations to bring this unique phone to a US carrier as well.

Article: RSS via Pocketnow

Tags: Acer, Android, Android 2.3, Iconia Smart S300, Smartphones

Posted in Acer, Android, Smartphones | No Comments »

Acer Liquidmini colourful Froyo handset

CES 2011: Curvy and compact

It’s amazing how quickly the tech world evolves. Just a couple of months ago, we would all get super excited if we spotted a new Froyo touting handset, but nowadays (we call it post-CES 2011 syndrome) if a device isn’t rocking at least Android 2.3, then it’s going to struggle to make us sit up and take notice.

But if you release a Froyo handset in al the colours of the rainbow then it’s going to make it stand out, and that’s what it looks like Acer has done with the Acer Liquidmini.

We’ve been impressed with the gorgeous looks of the Acer Liquid range in the past (especially the cool-looking Acer Liquid Metal) and the Liquidmini looks like adding to that alluring group – albeit within a compact, curvy frame.

The Liquidmini measures in at 110.4 x 57.5 x 13 mm, with a 3.2-inch HVGA display, and weighs just 109g, so is more than pocket-friendly. It might also be budget-friendly too as the hardware isn’t all that high end. It does have a Qualcomm chip, but it’s the 7227, 600Mhz one.

However, it does pack DNLA compatibility, a 5-megapixel camera, 480p video recording, an FM radio as well as connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS.

Coming in a wide range of colours including jet silver, royal blue, piano black, lime green and light pink, and with a raft of social networking apps sitting on top with the Acer UI this phone is clearly aimed at the teen-market, with one-click sharing allowing easy updates of pictures and movies to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Pricing is yet to be confirmed, but we do know that the Acer Liquidmini will hit UK shops in April.

Article: RSS via Pocket-lint

Tags: Acer, Acer Liquidmini, Android, Android 2.2, CES 2011, Smartphones

Posted in Acer, Android, Smartphones | No Comments »

Acer tosses out new Revo 100 media PC in the UK

Acer has some cool little computers in the Revo line that are aimed at media fans looking for a compact system to stream video and performance other tasks. Acer has announced a new Revo 100 computer that looks really cool for the UK market that also has some interesting features. Like next generation NVIDIA Ion graphics and lots more.

The machine runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and has an AMD processor inside. That processor is the Athlon II Neo dual-core and that CPU is combined with an nForce 520LE chipset. The machine can be fitted with up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz. It has an integrated Blu-ray super multi optical drive and has a memory card reader inside as well.

The optical drive inside the machine supports 3D Blu-ray playback and the little computer can be fitted with up to 750GB of storage. The sound on the machine is Dolby Home Theater v3 HD and there are lots of connectivity options. The machine has HDMI out, dual USB ports, Ethernet optical audio out, and a pair of mini PCI Express slots. It also has a wireless touchpad with keyboard functionality for controlling the rig from across the living room. The MSRP for the computer is £599.99 including VAT.

Article: RSS via SlashGear

Tags: Acer, Acer Revo 100, Computing, Nvidia ION, Windows 7

Posted in Acer, Computing, Windows 7 | No Comments »