Ever wanted a laptop that seamlessly transforms into a media tablet? Well then your in luck because Acer has designed just that. The Acer Aspire 1820PTZ is a netbook in which the screen can be turned 108 degrees and set flat to become a working digital tablet. Everybody wants their netbooks to be compact and easily transportable. The Aspire comes in weighing 1.72kg and is a little thicker than many netbooks. But then again other netbooks don't have a tablet built into them. The battery in the back causes the machine to prop up in the back and that combined with the slight heaviness of the screen will cause the device to tip over if the screen is tilted back too far. Full dimensions for the Aspire come in at 11.22 x 8.22 x 1.12/1.36 inches.
The overall feel of the Aspire is solid which is good considering the whole thing is plastic. Reports show that there doesn't seem to be any keyboard flexing and everything appears aligned when the lid is closed. Some concerns with the screen rotation and flipping hinge have arisen with people concerned about how long the small piece of equipment will be able to handle the slightly heavy screen. But that is all just speculation for now.
Keys on the keyboard are slightly large and completely flat. This doesn't allow for much space between the keys which will take some getting used to. However, the overall feel of the keyboard will be usable for many users. The trackpad is slightly small though it did the best it could with the space it had to work with. The trackpad seemed to be quite responsive
The Aspire's screen the layer on top of the screen is very firm, most likely because of the digitizer. However, reports of poor color and contrast seem to be related to the top layer. Reports of bad viewing angles, especially in portrait tablet mode, have also been seen. A high pixel density gives the screen a nice, sharp look and while the default color profile is lacking, it can easily be fixed with some calibration.
The Aspire also comes with a multi-touch screen which supports both your fingers and a stylus. The device even tucked away a stylus for you in a slot below the screen. You are technically supposed to switch your tablet between finger and stylus mode depending on which on you are using but the Aspire doesn't seem to have any problems differentiating between both though your finger works best in finger mode as does your stylus in stylus mode.
The screen itself can only be rotated in one direction, indicated by a directional arrow on the central hinge. However, once you put the Aspire into tablet mode, the screen is rotated into the correct orientation by an accelerometer. Screen rotation can take anywhere from 1 to 3 seconds depending on the number of windows you have open at the time. Two magnets have been added to the device to keep the screen in place while in tablet mode which seems to be very helpful.
Considering the Aspire is small, the built-in sound is also small. But unfortunately the sound is also very soft, even when turned up to max volume. However, the sound does appear to be fairly good in a small room or office. The spdif out works very well based on other reports.
Performance wise the Aspire seems pretty quick and good for general use. It comes with Windows 7 64-bit pre-loaded. As far as video performance goes, the Aspire does pretty good. It runs standard definition videos with no problems and even high definition videos with no problems. The Aspire comes with a built-in webcam and mic which work decently. Built-in 802.11n WiFi works well and the Aspire even has Acer's Signal-Up technology which helps boost WiFi range.
The battery life on the Aspire seems to last a very long time, probably somewhere around 7 or 8 hours and the processor runs at 1.2GHz most of the time. There isn't a lot of heat distributed by the machine and some heat does resonate out of the vent located on the left side of the device but it isn't anything to worry about. Some slight whirring comes out of the aforementioned vent but it is nowhere near intrusive or disruptive.
Overall the Aspire 1820PTZ comes with tons of stuff loaded onto it and runs really well. The ability to transform into a fully-functional table makes it all that more useful and especially handy for people who need a good business device for traveling. If working on the go is something you do a lot, you may want to check out Acer's Aspire 1820PTZ.
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Last night, Dell gave a sneak peek at what is thought to be a major addition to the Vostro line of netbooks. Now Dell had been teasing a new Vostro for the low price of $450 to US media groups but like all secrets somebody slipped up and spilled the beans. In this case it was Dell Singapore who instead of telling about the device just went all out and launched the netbook as the Vostro V13 with complete specs.
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Earlier today, Nokia announced it's new product, the Nokia 6788, which is the first device from the company for TD-SCDMA, China's domestic 3G standard. When you have the world's largest mobile phone operator collaborate with a company like Nokia, the end result is the 6788. 
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Word has been out about Verizon's upcoming HTC Whitestone for some time now but now we finally have some specs and images to put with the name. Some other news that leaked was about Verizon's HTC Mega and some more news on the Tachi.
The next piece of leaked intel comes in for the Verizon HTC Mega. Until recently, we haven't known a whole lot about the HTC Mega. We knew it had new TouchFlo 2D and some other low-range specs but that's about it. But now we have some new information and it comes as follows. The HTC Mega will have WM6.5, 256MB ROM/256MB RAM, GSM/GPRS Edge/HDSPA, gpsOne, Qualcomm 7225 at 528MHz and a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera. As you can see, the HTC Mega isn't the greatest thing to come out, but it is obvious that it is geared more towards the low-end of the market, and even so it isn't bad for that group. 
The only new news on the Tachi is this picture of it's design. The biggest noticeable difference is that the d-pad doesn't have as much chrome on it. But that is basically it so far. One thing we can almost be sure of is that the Tachi will more than likely not be available in the U.S and instead will be available in China.
On a recent vacation to Put-In-Bay, Ohio, a small town on South Bass Island in the south west of Lake Erie, I was pressed to find a solution that would allow me to stay connected to my office while still being 250 miles away. I, of course, always use remote desktop for working in the evenings and on other trips I’ve taken, the problem with this vacation was the location. It wasn’t exactly in a metropolis where WiFi connections are abundant. The solution was tethered internet access through my BlackBerry Storm.
With the recent release of the iPhone 3.0 software update there are many hidden and undocumented features popping up now that people have had time to play around with the new iPhone OS. Here is a compiled list from PC World of the top 10 unknown features of the new operating system and some of my thoughts.
Everybody loves seeing new things at a great price. Take the Palm Pre for instance. Sprint is offering it at a decent price of $200. But wait! There is a catch. In order to receive this price you have to pay $300 and send in a $100 rebate. Rebate!? Yes everybody hates rebates. Waiting and waiting for your money to come in the mail is a pain and nobody wants to do it. But what if I told you that you could get the rebate price without sending in the rebate? Would you believe me? Well it is most certainly true. 
Last month on April 27, 2009, Samasung became the first company among the global top three mobile phone manufacturers to reveal an Android-powered mobile phone. This new cutting-edge smartphone is known as the Samsung I7500 and features a 3.2" AMOLED full touch screen, blazing fast 7.2Mbps HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), and WiFi connectivity. What especially makes this phone great is that the user will be able to access all of the Google mobile services as well as fully browse the web, all thanks to the Android mobile OS. 
New from MSI is a laptop that looks to revolutionize the mobility aspects of wireless notebooks by offering 9 hours of battery life from a 6 cell batter. This laptop model achieves such low power consumption by using the 1.6gHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU as well as several other power management features.
