Acer launches Predator Z850 - a projector for gamers

Acer on Wednesday expanded its Predator line of gaming products with a new projector. The Predator Z850 was first unveiled at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last September and was named a 2016 CES Innovations Award Honoree earlier this year. Now, it’s available to purchase for those with deep pockets.

The Predator Z850 is said to be the world’s first ultra-wide HD laser projector designed specifically for gaming. It offers a 24:9 aspect ratio at 1,920 x 720 resolution which is far wider than traditional 16:9 displays. The unit’s laser diode lasts up to 30,000 hours and delivers images up to 3,000 lumens with an impressive 100,000:1 contrast ratio.

The projector features a top-mounted lens and mirrorless ultra-short-throw technology that allows it to cast 120 inches of goodness at a minimum distance of only 18.5 inches, allowing for use in rooms that might otherwise be too small for a traditional projector.

Acer says the Predator Z850 can be packed up immediately after use without requiring a cooling period.

The projector is equipped with a plethora of connectors and can be paired with an optional wireless kit to enable 1080p lossless streaming without the cable clutter.

The Predator Z850 is available in the US as of writing priced at $4,999. That’s certainly a lot of money to part with, especially considering 4K-capable monitors and televisions can be had for a fraction of that price but it does afford a level of portability that you simply can’t obtain with a 60-inch TV.


Source: Techspot

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Acer continues its widescreen crusade with new, more affordable 34-inch monitors

If you want a monitor that takes up almost your entire field of vision, Acer has you covered: they’re rolling out two new 34-inch monitors this week.

The Acer B346CK, with QHD (3,440 x 1,440 @ 60Hz) resolution will cost you $799.99, while the comparatively low-density Acer B346C with FHD (2,560 x 1,080 @ 60Hz) resolution has a $599.99 MSRP. With those resolutions neither is quite a 4K monitor, these ultrawides are competitively priced considering the size.

Acer is promising a viewing angle of 178 degrees, and high color accuracy — 100 percent sRGB and 6-axis color adjustment. The target audience here is apparently office workers. Acer’s press releasefocused on viewing multiple design projects or spreadsheets simultaneously.

“Our newest ultra-wide displays were designed for those who want the convenience of viewing graphic intensive content in sharp detail and without having to scroll to see the entire picture,” Ronald Lau said on behalf of the company, giving you an idea of the focus here (Productivity, not gaming).

The monitor comes with a stand that allows you to tilt the screen 25 degrees up or -5 degrees down, turn the screen 60 degrees to the right or left, and adjust the height up to 5.9 inches up or down. The monitor can also be mounted on your wall, if saving desk space is a priority.

There are a few features beyond just display Both lines come with built-in speakers, for example, as well as a USB 3.0 hub. This could be useful for laptop users, who can connect their device to the monitor and all peripherals with just two plugs.

Acer also mentions picture-in-picture capability, which lets you impose a virtual display over your current one. The monitors both come with a three year warranty, and should be available soon at major retailers.

Source :Digital Trends 

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Acer Unveils Aspire Z3-700 All-In-One With A Battery

All-in-one desktop solutions are great if you’re after a space saver for the desk. However despite their somewhat compact nature, they need to be plugged into a power outlet in order to be used, unlike laptops which runs on batteries. We suppose this is expected since AIOs are basically a desktop.

However Acer wants to shake things up a bit with the announcement of the Acer Aspire Z3-700 AIO. This is an AIO desktop computer that actually comes with a built-in battery, meaning that if for whatever reason you need it to be portable, you don’t have to worry about finding a power outlet. Or in the event you lose power, at least you have the battery as backup.

So what can we expect from the Aspire Z3-700? For starters it will feature a 17.3-inch display that sports a Full HD resolution and a multitouch screen. Under the hood, it will come in multiple configurations like an Intel sixth-gen Core Skylake or Celeron CPU, an SSD or HDD for storage, and will support up to 8GB of RAM.

It also weighs about 2kg so bringing it around shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, and as for battery life, Acer has stated that it will last for about 5 hours which is pretty decent. Acer will begin selling the Aspire Z3-700 by the end of the year in Europe where it will be priced at €599.

Source : Ubergizmo 

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Acer's Revo Build is the Project Ara of PCs

Acer has announced the Revo Build M1-601, a super-small Windows 10 unit that can be expanded and customized with a series of stackable blocks. So, in the base unit you'll find a super small form factor PC that only occupies 125 millimeters square on your table and comes with a low-power Intel Pentium or Celeron chip. Then, if you wanted to expand the machine's 32GB storage, you could plonk on a 500GB or 1TB external hard drive in a case that sits perfectly on top. Each block connects to the one below using magnetic coupling and pogo pins, and enables you to create a PC that looks like a tower of single Duplo bricks the more powerful it becomes.

In one way, this hardware is a less exciting variant on Razer's Project Christine, which made every component modular in the hope of ending the days of buying new desktops. This version does similar, but you'll still be expected to shell out for a replacement base unit every few years, even if that will keep the costs down somewhat.

As Acer's Eric Ackerson told me, it's still early days and there are plans afoot to develop external graphics units that'll help bolster the core's limited insides. In addition, users can only stack five units at a time to avoid things becoming too awkward, although at that point you'll probably need a more powerful unit. Adding a drive is effortless, since all you need to do is plonk your new drive down upon the stack and the magnetic coupling (and pogo) pins do all of the rest.

The company hasn't gone too deep into how expandable the system is, but a rogue spec sheet has mentioned external storage, audio modules (for using Cortana), projectors and a wireless charging plate that pulls double duty as a mobile battery. Unfortunately, we're fairly sure that Acer's not going to be able to sell these devices as cheaply as their USB equivalents from Amazon. That's a shame, since the idea has some merit and it'd be great to see modular computing make it to the home. We'll probably find out much more about this device closer to the launch, which is in October in EMEA and December in China, with prices starting at €199 and Y1,999, respectively.

Source :Engadget 

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Acer is making a phone with a deca-core processor for gaming

Acer is pushing all the limits at IFA 2015 this year. They already announced a new insane gaming tablet and now a gaming phone to go with it. Both the phone and tablet look awesome with a black and red color scheme.

The phone is called the Predator 6, and where it really shines is the specs. The Predator 6 is for hard core gamers and has to have the power for them, which it does. We don't know all the details just yet, but it will feature a MediaTek deca-core (10-core) processor with 4GB of RAM and dual haptic feedback motors for rumble. It also has a large 6″ HD display and obviously runs Android. The camera is 21-megapixel and it rounds things off with dual front facing speakers. Since it was just announced, there is no word on pricing or a release date at the moment.

Source: Engadget

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Acer founder declares company would welcome a takeover bid

From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, Acer, the low-cost Chinese OEM, rose like a rocket. It spun off multiple successful companies like BenQ and Wistron, while company revenues rose from $4.9 billion in 2003 to $11.31 billion in 2006. Nine years later, however, the company is in a shambles. Its honorary chair and founder, Stan Shih, who began the company with $25,000 in capital in 1976, has announced that a buyout or takeover bid would be welcome.

Acer lost $90 million in the first half of its current financial year. Bit-Tech reports that sales have fallen 33% in the past month and its share price stands at half of where it was in April. Despite these massive headwinds, Acer remains the fifth-largest PC OEM in the world — a stunning reminder that the bottom has fallen out of the PC business to such a degree that even the largest vendors aren’t making any money.

When Shih was asked if Acer would be interested in entertaining any offers that companies like Dell or HP might make, Shih told reporters that such interest would be welcome. What’s a bit more puzzling, however, is that Shih went on to say that any company that bought Acer would pay dearly for purchasing an “empty shell.”

“U.S. and European management teams usually are concerned about money, their CEOs only work for money. But Taiwanese are more concerned about a sense of mission and emotional factors,” he said.

Shi’s remarks were later confirmed by a company spokesperson, but I’m wondering if some nuance of context isn’t getting lost in communication. Acer may have taken a beating in recent months, but the company still reported revenue of $1.94B in its Q2 2015 report. That’s no small amount of revenue, even if it’s not in the same ballpark as what the largest OEMs typically make. It’s enough cash to make it unclear why the founder of the company would characterize it as an “empty shell,” especially when such phrasing would harm the chances of a successful sale or merger.

Last year, Acer’s CEO, Jason Chen, declared that Acer would bet the future of the company on the ascendence of Chromebooks and hybrid 2-in-1 devices. Judging by the company’s latest sales results, those initiatives have failed. Acer’s problems are a perfect representation of the deep issues facing the entire PC business. While hundreds of millions of devices continue to ship on a yearly basis, PC margins have fallen to the point that only a handful of companies can earn money in the business. What that means for the future of the entire industry is unclear, but consumer PC sales are no longer expected to recover until some point after 2019.

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