Acer ICONIA tablet features a dual-touchscreen, and lots of other envy-producing features.
Acer today announced a dual-touchscreen Windows 7 tablet dubbed ICONIA. It could be the ultimate envy producing, gesture recognizing, all-point touch tablet devised yet. Does the concept look familiar? It’s extremely reminiscent of the Microsoft dual-screen Courier that caused a frenzy last fall.
Acer ICONIA looks a lot like the famed Microsoft Courier
Microsoft supposedly killed the tablet and then rumors surfaced again this summer that the Courier might come to life after all. Acer’s press materials carefully credits Intel for help in developing. But note that the device runs Windows 7. Today Acer also announced two Android tablets, 7-inch and 10.1-inch, and a 4.8-inch screen Android smartphone (to do battle with the Dell 5-inch Streak).
But the ICONIA is far-and-away the coolest device of Acer’s massive new product line. Instead of a start button, it features the “Acer Ring” which will appear “by placing five fingers on the screen and making a grab gesture.” From the Ring you can start applications or launch a virtual keyboard among other tasks.
ICONIA will feature the Acer Ring as its main navigation tool
The “touchbook” comes equipped with a bunch of Acer developed applications including the TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto, TouchMusic, TouchVideo each enhanced with the gesture library. Likewise it includes the apps SocialJogger, My Journal and Scrapbook.
More apps will almost certainly come because Acer also today launched its own apps store, alive, and its own media streaming/synching service, Clear.fi.
Acer didn’t mention the price or release date, except to confirm that it too will be available by Q1 2011. I’ll update this post when I confirm that information.
Here are the full hardware specs on the ICONIA from Acer. I’m glad I haven’t bought a tablet yet. Can’t wait to read the reviews on this puppy to see if it performs as great as it looks.
ICONIA Specifications | |
Operating system | Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit1 |
CPU and chipset2 | Intel® Core™ i5-480M/i5-560M/i5-580M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.66/2.66/2.66 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93/3.20/3.33 GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture, Intel® Smart Cache Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset |
Memory2, 3, 4 | Dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM support:
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Display | Dual multi-touch screens 14″ HD 1366 x 768 resolution, high-brightness (200-nit) Acer CineCrystal™ LED-backlit TFT LCDs, supporting all-point finger touch Tempered glass with fingerprint-resistant coating Mercury-free, environment-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio |
Graphics | Intel® HD Graphics with 128 MB of dedicated system memory, supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 10 Dual independent display support 16.7 million colors External resolution / refresh rates:6
WMV9 (VC-1) and H.264 (AVC) decoding HDMI® (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support |
Audio | Optimized Dolby® Home Theater®7 v3 audio enhancement, featuring Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Pro Logic® IIx, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Natural Bass, Dolby® Sound Space Expander, Dolby® Audio Optimization, Dolby® High Frequency Enhancer technologies8 High-definition audio support S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface)9 support for digital speakers MS-Sound compatible Built-in microphone |
Storage | Hard disk drive: 320/500/640/750 GB or larger1, 10 |
Webcam | Acer Video Conference,2 featuring:
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Wireless and networking | WLAN:2, 12, 13
WWAN:2, 12 UMTS/HSPA at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, upgradable to 7.2 Mb/s HSDPA and 5.7 Mb/s HSUPA (for 3G models) LAN: Gigabit Ethernet, Wake-on-LAN ready |
Privacy control | BIOS user, supervisor, HDD passwords Kensington lock slot |
Dimensions and weight2 | 347 (W) x 248.5 (D) x 19/31.9 (H) mm (13.53 x 9.69 x 0.74/1.24 inches) 2.8 kg (6.18 lbs.)14 with 4-cell battery |
Power adapter and battery2 | ACPI 3.0 CPU power management standard: supports Standby and Hibernation power-saving modes 3-pin 65 W AC adapter:
Battery life: 3 hours15 ENERGY STAR® |
Input and control | Multi-touch virtual keyboard with standard QWERTY layout and international language support, featuring:
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Input and output | Two USB 2.0 ports USB 3.0 port HDMI® port with HDCP support External display (VGA) port Headphone/speaker jack with S/PDIF support Microphone-in jack Ethernet (RJ-45) port DC-in jack for AC adapter |
Software16 | Productivity: Acer eRecovery Management; Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1; Adobe® Reader® 9.1; Barnes & Noble Desktop Reader (US only); Bing™ Bar; Device Control; eSobi™; Gesture Editor; Microsoft® Office 2010 preloaded (purchase a product key to activate)17; Microsoft® Office Starter 201018; New York Times Reader (US only); Norton™ Online Backup; Virtual Keyboard; Window ManagerSecurity: McAfee® Internet Security Suite Trial19 Multimedia: My Journal; Scrapbook; TouchMusic; TouchPhoto; TouchVideoCommunication and ISP: Acer Crystal Eye; Acer Video Conference Manager2; Skype™; SocialJogger; Microsoft® Silverlight™; TouchBrowser; Windows Live™ Essentials2 Web links and utilities: Acer Accessory Store2 (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK only); Acer Identity Card; Acer Registration; Acer Updater; eBay® shortcut 20092 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, UK, US only);Netflix shortcut2 (US only) |
Options and accessories | 2 GB / 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz soDIMM module 3-pin 60W/90 W AC adapter External USB optical disc drive External USB Lite and LSI modem |
Warranty | One-year International Travelers Warranty (ITW) |
