However, Acer’s products tend to have some more polish and better aesthetics than Asus products. So they have successfully carved out a niche for themselves that is slightly above the Asus price range. Still, performance-wise, they are at more or less the same level.

Acer has already announced the Z5610 all-in-one quite some time back but live pictures of the device have been scarce to the point of not being there. But now that it has been spotted in the omlette du fromage land, we are quite impressed by it.

It has been about one week since Acer announced the product and now we have live shots of the device courtesy a French tech blog called ‘Le Journal du Geek’. Cool name you guys.

The Acer Z5610 is a touch enabled Windows 7 system whose claim to fame is its 24” HD multitouch screen. With 4GB memory, 320GB Storage and ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 graphics, it is not going to kill the Sony Vaio line of all-in-ones but it is good competition for the rest.

Looks like it has other points of attraction as well, now that we have seen the live shots. The ambient lighting and the round edges look pretty good to me. I won’t go as far as Acer who calls it a “timeless piece” in their promo. But I am ready admit that it has the right looks and it looks like Acer is stepping up the design game as well. With an MSRP of $899, the price is just right too. It will of course sell for about $800 once it gets out but that’s what MSRPs are there for in the first place.

Acer has more up its sleeve though. It has been working on tablet PCs for quite some time now and we have been through the usual – rumor followed by leaked images followed by live images followed by official announcement. So what are these new devices?

Actually, if you weren’t told you would think you are looking at multiple units of the same model. But no, Acer has decided to bring out, not one or two, but three 11.6” netbook-tablet convertibles that look like copies of each other. They are called 1420P, 1820PT and1820PTZ. The point here is that this type of convertibles haven’t really caught on yet and there are good reasons behind that.

In the beginning, the software wasn’t up to scratch for a proper touch-based UI, the hardware was weak. Now that we have Windows 7, we will probably have better UI but the fact remains that tablets are still considered to be niche devices that are meant for the professionals. And the hardware is still not all that powerful to appeal to the professionals. Besides, they want a digitizer mostly, not just multitouch.

People might be looking for a nice multitouch surface that is bigger than their touchphones but the fact remains that these tablets are not what they have in mind. They are more of the MID crowd who are looking for better mobility and a more compact form factor. Taking it out, turning it, folding it, using it, unfolding it, twisting it back and stowing it away – too much work to get some quick reading or emailing done in the car or the bus. So it remains to be seen how Acer’s marketing team intends to push these devices.

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There were many reasons behind it failing and they were there because the concept was way ahead of the available and affordable consumer technology at that time.

So now that we are on the brink of another tablet from the company, I would like to tone down all our expectations a little and give you a dose of practicality in this post.

• The OS Problem – The tablet will be a very unique device. It is exactly halfway between the iPhone and the MacBooks. So there are two choices for Apple – scale up the iPhone OS or scale down OS X. Logically, scaling down the full sized OS X would pose a lot of problems in terms of expectations and engineering. Scaling up the iPhone OS makes much more sense. But then, what do you tell the app devs? Here’s a new iPhone OS resolution and specs, make apps for it? The third choice is making a whole new OS. But that would mean forcing users to learn something new and making things more complicated (three OS’ to maintain). We are lazy people.

• The Portability Problem – Would you really like to carry around a 10.6inch glass tablet? I thought not. It will fracture all too easily. This structural problem can only be overcome by making A) a tough lid for it or B) a touchscreen built out of shatterproof, bulletproof, extra tough glass that can take a straight punch to the face and stay intact. The second option would make the device far too expensive and the first would make it the lid an almost redundant piece. Detachable or not, it would not be very helpful about the portability and usability.

• Weight And Battery Life – All that screen space and whatever the processing power is, requires power. And everyone knows that more battery power means more weight. So what would you rather have? A 3-cell battery that does not last long or a 9-cell battery that makes it impossible to carry the device for too long? And let’s not talk about the screen brightness. Forget working under direct sunlight; let’s see this device remain workable in a brightly lit room without dying in an hour.

• Processing Power and Performance – With battery life already an issue, one must  wonder – how much processing power would this tablet have? Something around 600MHz like the iPhone 3GS just won’t cut it for this large a device. You need to have something fairly muscle-bound, like an Intel ULV or Atom at the very least. Now think of a netbook and think of the frustratingly sluggish performance. Apple would probably need to artificially block multi-tasking on the tablet as well. Bummer.

• Usability – Will someone please tell me how the hell am I supposed to use this tablet? I am almost certain that I can’t hold in one hand because it will be too heavy. Besides, I would really like to use both hands on a 10.6inch touchscreen. Also, Apple would be loath to include a kickstand on the device, which would totally destroy the aesthetics of the curved and polished back that it apparently has. So the only remaining way is to keep it on a flat surface parallel to the ground and bend over to use it. As a blogger I already spend too much time sitting badly and getting backaches. I could live without more. So unless Apple makes this thing levitate in mid air, this does not look very useful to me.

Of course, knowing Apple and dear Stevie, each of these reasons has already caused a total reset. So hopefully, we will see another masterpiece from Apple early next year. And if it fails, you read about it at gHacks!

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One of the more popular form factors to have incorporated a multitouch enabled surface is the all-in-one desktop. After Asus and Sony, now it’s Gateway’s turn to churn out an all-in-one system for the mass market. The form factor that was popularized by Apple iMacs, is now seeing a sudden upsurge in the market. From the comparatively lower cost solutions like Asus’ Eee Tops to high-end systems like Sony’s Vaio L series, you can see this form factor in almost every segment.

So now we have two more such systems in the pipeline and this time they are from Gateway. The two models are numbered as ZX6800 and ZX4800 respectively. The former is to have a 23-inch display and a 1920×1080 resolution while the latter is to have a 23-inch display and a 1600×900 resolution. Both their displays will be multitouch equipped and both will be running Windows 7. Gateway won’t be shipping these devices with just the OS either. They will be putting in custom applications for photos, music, videos, etc. that are designed to take advantage of the touchscreen.

They will be quite powerful too. The Zx6800 will be powered by a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor with 8GB RAM, 1GB ATI Radeon HD470 graphics, 1TB HDD (storage only) and a 64GB SSD (for the OS and the applications). Connectivity will be through the WiFi (b/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet while everything else would take care of by the eSATA and DVD super drive. It will also come with a hybrid TV tuner and 5.1 surround sound audio output.

The ZX4800 will be the lower powered version, hence also the cheaper. It will have a 2.1GHz Pentium dual core processor with 4GB RAM, Intel GMA X4500 graphics and 750GB of storage. Everything else remains the same as the faster model except the TV tuner and SSD.

The ZX6800 and Zx4800 are expected arrive shortly after the worldwide launch of Windows 7. So they should be here by early November.

Another form factor that uses multitouch is the tablet. May be I should say will be using because there aren’t that many true tablets (not those convertible ones) with multitouch around. We are all hearing the rumors about Apple’s tablet and there is the Crunchpad, but they are nowhere near the consumer market. But still, there are smaller companies that are planning to bring out their own tablets before the big cats do. One of them is LBook and theirs is the T9 multitouch slate.

This slate has a spacious 8.9inch touchscreen and will be running Windows 7. It will be powered by the Intel Atom and there is word on market that it will carry 2GB of RAM and 120GB of storage. But the main talking point is the price.

There have not been any official announcements so far but a price range of $350-$375 was received by the folks at the UMPC Portal. If LBook can really get the slate in to the market for that price with may be an optional 3G connectivity, it is likely to become quite a popular device. Given of course that the touchscreen works as it is expected to.

The device has a webcam and multiple USB ports too and also something that from the picture looks like a memory car reader.

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Modbook has been treating Apple users to tablet PC’s for ages (mainly because of Apple’s lack of plans to bring a tablet Mac to the market), but to be honest there has been no real players in the tablet Windows field. Most tablet computers have some type of keyboard attached and that makes them kind of bulky. The idea of having a tablet PC for use on the go is an amazing idea that Archos is just beginning to catch onto.

All the former models of the Archos line have been Linux powered and carried little to none productivity capabilities. That will all change when the Archos 9 Tablet goes on sale later this year in the UK (a US date is yet to be decided). A tablet like this would fit very nice into a carry on bag or handbag and could easily be used to check up on emails, weather, stocks as well as providing the whole entertainment pack while waiting for the bus, train, plane or any other situation where a keybaord is not practical and a cellphone is just too simple.

That said, the Archos 9 tablet features an 8.9-inch 1024×600 pixel resistive touchscreen display. While there have been rumors of multi touch support, that has not been confirmed by Archos as of yet and frankly from what I know, it seems pretty unlikely. The device is only 16mm inches thick and carries a host of features such as Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g WiFi, an 800MHz or 1.2GHz Atom Z515 processor as well as a SIM card slot for WLAN. Hard drive space is either an 80GB HDD or 160GB model. So far no word on an SSD option but as we all know that would be an arm and a leg.

So far from demos and FAQ’s the system seems pretty capable to run a stripped down version of Windows 7, but it would be a lot nicer if we could get a Core 2 Duo option. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to be able to play WoW on the go or test out Photoshop while miles in the sky. Secondly we’re hearing that it will be fitted with the integrated graphics thingy from Intel. There is no need to go over the fact that NVIDIA’s Ion platform would have been a much better choice.

According to Archos the device can be navigated pretty well VIA the touch of a finger but for some tasks the included stylus would be a better choice. For this reason I doubt it carries multi-touch.
Recently Archos released the pricing for the system. For the 80GB version it will run you £449.99 which is the equivalent of $735 USD. The doubled hard drive space (160GB) will run up the cost to £499.99 or the equivalent of $816 USD. The launch date is set for September. That’s nice and all but this comes in direct conflict with the October 22nd launch of Windows 7. So unless Archos is cutting a special deal with Redmond, or that date is for pre-orders, we think someone at Archos French HQ has their facts wrong or it’s a typo.

In any case, the idea of a full tablet PC without a keyboard that carries the processing power of a netbook is a nice one indeed. My only concern is if the price tag will be the biggest hurdle the Archos 9 has to jump.

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The second reason was that when I used to work with a mouse daily I started to feel quite serious pain in my forearm through the last few months and that required some changes. I finally decided to buy Wacom’s low-end device called Volito2 and I must say I really like it.

For the very low price you get a nicely featured equipment with pleasant specs. At the beginning I thought that a 127×92mm wide active area is too small to work on but when I actually held the stylus (pen) and had to move my hand around the pad, I found out that it’s actually big enough. Despite all the positive aspects tablets are not suitable for all applications (i.e. some types of games) but they’re still very handy for common navigation.

A very good thing about Wacom’s products is the “Penabled” technology which means that there’s no battery needed inside the stylus. Therefore the pen is really lightweight. It also has 2 programmable buttons on it meaning that you can choose what functions you want them to have (from a sufficient amount of functions included in the list).

You also don’t have to lay it down when you need to type something on keyboard. 512 pressure levels are quite enough for all programs that are able to use them. After few weeks of using a tablet instead of mouse I don’t feel pain in my arm so much and I’m satisfied with it although it requires some level of skills and practice to use it efficiently.

If you want some change and are willing to invest a little effort into learning how to handle this type of device I would suggest that you consider getting it. If you choose one of Wacom’s products, you’ll also get a free piece of software from ArcSoft as a bonus gift. And the design is like perfect – take a look yourself.

If you have any questions about my device, don’t hesitate to ask them.

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