Sure, the Acer Aspire 1820PT and 1820PTZ tablets haven’t actually hit the streets yet. But that hasn’t stopped Acer from giving these convertible tablet style 11.6 inch notebooks a minor facelift.

SaveOnLaptops is reporting that the new models will be called the Acer Aspire 1825PT and 1825PTZ. Both will have 11.6 inch capacitive touchscreen displays and run Windows 7 Home Premium.. The Acer Aspire 1825PT will reportedly be the higher end unit, with 4GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor.

The Acer Aspire 1820PTZ will be a little cheaper, and will have a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 processor, 250GB hard drive, and 3GB of RAM.

And no, I have no idea what, if any differences there will be between the Acer Aspire 1825 series and the 1820PT/PTZ that we’ve been hearing about over the last few months.

via Netbook Choice

Remember that shiny new Acer TimelineX 1830T thin and light laptop I told you about yesterday? It’s still not for sale yet, but Acer’s gone ahead and added an official product page. While we’d been hearing that it would sport a Core i5 chip, Acer says this is the laptop will be powered by a Core 2 Solo CPU — which doesn’t really do much to differentiate this model from the Acer Aspire 1410/1810 notebooks that are currently available

The new system will support DDR memory though. And I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a Core i5 version down the road — probably for a higher price.

Here’s a rundown of the specs:

• Display: 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixels
• CPU: Core 2 Solo
• Graphics: Intel HD graphics with 128MB dedicated memory, DirectX 10 support
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows Vista Home Premium,
• Memory: Ships with up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM (supports up to 4GB of DDR2 or DDR3 memory)
• Storage: SATA hard drive
• Connectivity: 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, optional Bluetooth and 3G modem
• I/O: 5-in-1 card reader, HDMI, VGA webcam, 3 USB ports, mic, headphone
• Battery: 6 cell, 5800mAh, 63Whr
• Dimensions: 11.22″ x 8.03″ x 1.10″
• Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Color options: Black, brown, red, silver

It looks like the new model is a fraction of an inch thinner than the Acer Aspire 1410/1810. But otherwise, it looks physically quite similar.

There’s no word on pricing yet, but SlashGear notes that Acer has posted product pages for new 13 to 15 inch TimelineX models with Core i3, i5, and i7 chips. They could start shipping as soon as next week.

What do you get if you rip out the guts of an Acer Aspire Timeline 1810 laptop and replace the CULV processor with a newer, faster, Core i5 chip? Apparently what you get is the Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T.

Macles has uncovered the first photos and details about this upcoming notebook. It will reprotedly have an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and an Intel Core i5-520UM processor with a clock speed that ranges from 1.06GHz to 1.86Hz depending on use. The graphics core has a clock speed of 166MHz to 500MHz and should be able to handle HD video playback, although it may not be powerful enough for some games with 3D graphics.

According to Macles, the rest of the specs are pretty much the same as you’d find from Acer’s existing thin and light notebooks: 802.11b/gn WiFi, HDMI, SPDIF, 3 USB ports, and optional Bluetooth and 3G modems. The battery should be good for about 8 hours.

The only thing that we don’t know yet is the price. Macles says Acer will make an official announcement in late March. If Acer can manage to upgrade the processor without dramatically boosting the price of the Aspire Timeline 1810 series, I think the company has a real winner on its hands here. On the other other hand, if the faster processor bumps the price up above $700, it will likely limit the appeal of this laptop.

Update: Wireless Goodness reports that the laptop has also made a visit to the FCC, where it’s also known as the Acer JV10, Acer Aspire ONe AO721, and several other names.

MSI dual screen netbook

If there’s one thing I know about longtime readers of this web site, it’s that you love to complain about large screen bezels. Sure, netbook bezels have come a long way since the Asus Eee PC 701 with its bezel that was almost larger than the screen itself. But when you’re looking at a tiny laptop, it’s kind of hard not to wonder how much larger the screen could be if there wasn’t all that plastic surrounding it.

Well, it looks like we may get to find out later this year. DigiTimes is reporting that Acer plans to launch a notebook later this year that’s all screen and no bezel. Instead of a traditional laptop lid, the cover of the Acer laptop would be printed right onto the back of the glass display panel.

DigiTimes says the laptop will also have a touchscreen keyboard, which will also be thinner and lighter than a traditional keyboard. Overall, the concept sounds a lot like the MSI dual screen netbook that I saw at CES — only without the bezel or lid.

The design will help keep the laptop super thin and light — and possibly rather fragile. I’d hate to drop this thing on the floor.

Acer has introduced a new 11.6 inch laptop with a 1366 x 768 pixel display, Celeron 743 ULV processor, GMA 4500MHD graphics, and up to 4GB of RAM. If that sounds like the Acer Aspire Timeline 1410 which is already available, that’s because the new laptop is virtually identical to that model. But it has a new name: Acer Aspire One 752.

I’m guessing the new name is Acer’s attempt to associate the Aspire One 752 with the company’s budget line of netbooks rather than its higher end thin and light laptops.

The Acer Aspire One 752 will have a 320GB hard drive, HDMI output, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 5 hour battery. And unlike the 1410, the new model will apparently have optional 3G mobile broadband connectivity.

The laptop weighs 3.1 pounds and measures less than 0.9 inches thick. It will be available in black, white, blue and red when it hits the streets in May. No word on pricing.

via Pocket Lint

Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Zotac are among the first companies to announce products sporting the just-announced next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics platform. We already knew about the Acer Aspire One 532G 10 inch netbook which was announced at Mobile World Congress last month. But here are a few more products that will come with next-generation ION graphics.

Asus is introducing an updated version of the Eee PC 1201N, called the Eee PC 1201PN, which is shown above. It will also be available in silver. You can see another photo in the gallery below.

The company also has a new all-in-one PC and a new nettop in the works.

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When Google announces it was working on an operating system for netbooks and other devices, the company said netbooks with Chrome OS would start shipping in late 2010. But it looks like Acer may be fast-tracking its first Chrome OS netbook for a mid-2010 launch.

We already knew that Acer was working on a machine with Google’s operating system. Now Digitimes reports that it could ship by the middle of the year. It’s not clear whether this means that Google plans to push up its launch date for Chrome OS or if Acer plans to release a machine running beta software.

This isn’t Acer’s first foray into a Googlecentric netbook. The company also offers a mini-laptop that dual boots Google’s Android operating system and Windows 7. But Android is an OS designed for smartphones (and increasingly for low power tablets), while Chrome is specifically designed for devices with larger screens and faster processors.

If you can’t wait for Acer and other netbook makers to start preloading machines with Chrome OS, you can download pre-release builds of Chromium OS today. Chromium is the open source, beta version of Chrome OS. It’s still a work in progress and under heavy development. But it already supports a pretty wide range of netbook hardware.

I’m pretty certain that eBook readers are about to take off big time over the next year or two. I’m less certain that hardware-based eBook readers like the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Sony eBook Readers are going to be runaway success stories. Instead, I see Amazon, B&N, and other companies releasing eBook applications that can run on desktop, laptop, and tablet computers as well as smartphones running mobile operating systems.

Amazon has already released versions of its Kindle eBook reader for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and PC. And I’m pretty sure the company would be perfectly happy if customers started buying books on those platforms in large numbers and stopped buying Kindle hardware. And ultimately, I think that’s the most likely scenario, because why spend hundreds of dollars on a device that only reads eBooks when you may already have a phone or tablet that can do the job nearly as well?

So I’m not surprised to see a report today that PC maker Acer has decided to drop its plan to build a dedicated eBook reader. Dozens of companies had dedicated eBook readers on display at CES in early January, but I don’t expect very many of these devices to make it to market given the relatively low consumer demand.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some advantages to devices like the Kindle. They offer a higher contrast reading experience that feels more like paper — and have battery life that’s measured in days or weeks rather than hours. But despite what your parents told you, staring at a digital screen all day isn’t going to make you go blind (as long as you look away occasionally to reduce eye strain), and there are some advantages to reading text on an LCD display. You can read in bed in the dark, display full color pictures, and avoid the slow screen refresh times that you have with e-Ink displays.

via Fudzilla

Windows 7 includes a number of touch-friendly features including support for tap-and-drag, pinch-to-zoom, and other gestures. The new taskbar is nice and big and features large icons for launching applications. And the on-screen keyboard is designed for tapping with your fingers rather than a stylus. But PC makers Asus and Acer seem to think that Microsoft hasn’t gone quite far enough, and they’re bundling their own suite of touch-friendly applications with their convertible tablet-style notebooks.

The Asus Eee PC T91MT and upcoming T101MT have the Asus TouchGate software. And Notebook Italia spotted an 11.6 inch Acer Aspire 1820P convertible tablet at Mobile World Congress, sporting the Acer TouchPortal software suite. Basically, TouchPortal looks like Acer’s answer to TouchGate. I’m not entirely convinced that anyone needs either application, but here’s what you get with TouchPortal:

• A full screen user interface
• A touch-friendly music, movie, and image player
• A handful of touch-friendly video games

Yeah, that’s about it. You can check out the hands-on video after the break.

via Netbook Choice

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It looks like Acer is getting ready to break the mold with its upcoming Acer Aspire One 532G netbook. Sure, it will look virtually identical to the standard Aspire One 532H which is already available. But the 532G will be one of the first 10 inch netbooks with NVIDIA ION graphics. Oh yeah, and we’re talking NVIDIA ION 2 here.

As far as I know, NVIDIA still hasn’t officially introduced the ION 2 platform, but with Acer putting out its press release for the Aspire One 532G, it seems likely that NVIDIA will make an announcement soon.

The Acer press release doesn’t specifically refer to the chipset as ION 2, but it does mention a “next-generation NVIDIA ION GPU with dedicated 512MB memory. NVIDIA’s current ION technology uses an Intel Atom processor and replaces Intel’s integrated graphics with an NVIDIA solution. That’s not possible on computers with Intel Atom Pine Trail chips like the Aspire One 532G, because the graphics and processor are on the same piece of silicone. Instead, ION 2 will pair the Atom N450 chip with a switchable graphics card that will let you watch 1080p HD video on the netbook.

There aren’t a lot of additional details about the Aspire One 532G, but I’m pretty sure it will have a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 HD display, since the press release mentions playback of 720p video on the display and 1080p through an HDMI output. Update: Blogeee reports the notebook will have a 1024 x 600 pixel display. But that’s based on a tip from a “source,” so let’s take it with a grain of salt for now.

Sascha from Netbook News.de apparently got his hands on a demo model briefly this morning, and he posted an image of the device manager to TwitPic. And Notebook Italia has a hands-on video of the laptop playing HD video. You can check it out after the break.

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