MANILA, Philippines—Thanks to Apple’s iPad and its ilk of touch slates, the notebook PC is again undergoing a significant change.
This time around, it is taking on notable characteristics, such as the multitouch user interface and rich Web-friendly 3D animated apps that respond intuitively to touch.
One interesting new touchscreen device is Acer’s Iconia 484G64ns—a full-featured notebook that boasts of not one, but two touchscreen displays.
With the Iconia, the keyboard area has been deliberately taken out and replaced with a touchscreen glass display, where a virtual keyboard and rich graphics-enhanced control/management icons may be tapped or swiped for input and access to the notebook’s features.
Acer officials say the Iconia is both an “evolution” and “revolution” of the notebook design.
Referring to it as a “touchbook,” a new category of the traditional notebook, Acer officials say the Iconia boasts of full-touch features that provide users with enhanced content consumption and a different level of infotainment that no other notebooks can offer.
Iconia has a dual 14-inch multitouch, high-definition and high-brightness (1366 x 768 resolution) LED-backlit TFT LCD screens that support up to 10-finger touch.
The LCD screens are also durable because they are made of tempered glass with a scratch- and fingerprint-resistant face. The screens are manufactured by Corning, a renowned manufacturer of tough glasses.
Video support for the notebook is handled by Intel HD Graphics, with 128 MB of dedicated system memory that supports Microsoft DirectX 10.
With the elimination of the hardware keyboard in Iconia, how can a user effectively manipulate the laptop?
In answer, Acer introduced the Ring Control Interface. It is the intuitive entry point that launches Acer’s touch applications and handy built-in features and controls.
To launch the ring control interface, one has to lightly tap the keyboard/touch display area with all fingers and, immediately, a “ring” icon appears.
Rotating the ring icon via more circular finger gestures will allow access to tasks and apps.
Using the ring, one may access the Gesture Editor, which lets customization of touch gestures in launching other tasks, like opening of websites, viewing the desktop, or even simple locking of the PC.
A tap of the Windows Manager will allow users to organize their applications on the dual touchscreens or even an external display.
Another noteworthy Iconia feature is the virtual keyboard, which has adaptive typing intelligence and predictive text input, similar to those found in touch smartphones.
As a full-featured notebook, the Iconia is powered by first-generation Intel Core i5-480M processor (3MB L3 cache, 2.66GHz with Turbo Boost of up to 2.93GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz 35W) that supports Intel 64 architecture and Intel Smart Cache.
It is also fitted with 4 GB DDR3 memory and 640 GB storage.
Also, Acer introduced its slate PC called the Iconia Tab W500.
The Iconia Tab W500 is a 10.1-inch Windows 7-run multitouch slate.
I
t boasts of an AMD C-Series C-50 (1MB L2 cache, 1 GHz, DDR3 1066MHz, 9W) processor, an AMD A50M Fusion Controller Hub chipset, and up to 2GB DDR3 memory chip with a 32GB SDD (solid state drive) capacity.
What sets the Iconia Tab W500 apart from the rest of the slates out there is the addition of a dockable keyboard that allows a user to type onto real hardware keys.
Similar to the Iconia touchbook, the Iconia Tab W500 comes with a nice range of applications like the multitouch Acer Ring control interface, touch optimization interface and a Device Control console, allowing for a total touch control experience.
One advantage of a Windows-run slate is its ability to become a great device for unified communications—or the so called voice over IP (VOIP) communication solutions.
The Iconia Tab W500, which features a webcam, can be used for video calls powered by Microsoft Lync—a cloud-powered Microsoft service that links up Microsoft Outlook/Exchange users. It allows for fast video calls, voice calls, or mere chats via secured wireless connections.
The Iconia touchbook will retail for P79,900, while the price of the Iconia Tab W500 is still to be announced.
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