ComputerTV (Tiger Direct) has this pretty in-depth review of the Acer basking shark sized Aspire AS8930-6247 Notebook PC. I’d really prefer to post a video by someone who actually bought this model but until I find one, this will do very nicely thanks.

The Acer Aspire AS8930-6247 Notebook PC, with a 18.4″ Full High-Definition CineCrystal™ widescreen display, lets you enjoy HD content with realism and precision. Watch movies in HD with vivid detail using the built-in Blu-Ray/DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive. A dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT graphics processor, with up to 2303MB of TurboCache™, delivers astounding HD playback and 3D features to enable visually-intense applications and games. With the power of an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor and Centrino 2 Technology, you can enjoy the most demanding applications and experience the ultimate in entertainment. Glide through multiple memory-thirsty programs and power through games with the responsive performance of Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit and 4GB memory.

All joking aside, the marketing company helping Acer in the USA obviously has some pretty cool contacts and for the first time, we’ve had products placed in a music video.

Lil’ Kim’s latest track is called Download and if you look at what she uses, you’ll see she’s got a Tempo smartphone and an Aspire One netbook to play with her and T-Pain’s urFooz cards.

For the record, urFooz is part of the FuHu family which includes a really cool widget-based applications called Spinlets. Remember this name – you’re going to be seeing a lot more of them in the near future (hint hint).

This might not be breaking news for the majority of you but it’s like a quantum leap for Acer’s branding efforts. If you’re reading this Lil’ Kim, I’m really happy our paths crossed like this. If you want to know what this Grammy award- winning singer is up to, check out her latest video.

This is the first “real user” review of the Acer Aspire 3935 so you can tell what it’s like in the “real” world. For the record, and just to clarify this point, I have done no editing to this article. What you get is what I received.

So again, many thanks Peter, let’s hope you kick start the user review section again!

I received my new Acer Aspire 3935 this Thursday (June 11th), and unpacked it at work… Working in IT, I could play with my new computer without arousing attention, other then the admiring looks and comments from co-workers. The case has such a nice copper color, brushed on the outside, textured on the inside portion. The keyboard’s keys appear to float, a visual effect you get with higher end Sony and Apple brands. The speaker band runs the length of the machine, adding texture and visual relief to the machine. As many have reported, the screen has beautiful edge to edge glass that you would expect on higher end machines.

All in all, it is the visual stunner I remembered from J&R Music a month or two ago, when I first saw it.

So, is my attraction skin deep? First, let me say that the US spec machine has a tray CD/DVD, where a slot loading version would have been more appropriate on a system like this. I had my hopes up when someone posted such a device, and I wish it was available… A moment of disappointment, but one of the few.

Booting up was quick, and setting the finger swipe login was painless, and has worked flawlessly since. The screen, as noted by others, is beautiful when viewed dead on, but loses luster quickly as you move off center. Sharing a movie may be difficult, but so is sharing your private information. Is the glass half full or half empty???

I have had no issues with all basic computing, with plenty of speed and great wireless strength from distances from the WAP that made previous laptops go silent. I am currently listening to Pandora and gamecasting the Mets/Yankees game across a good distance from where our wireless B WAP is located, and it is giving me “Excellent” connectivity. Music played for a few hours as I waited for servers to install updates, and surfing the web was speedy – making me appreciate both the screen and keyboard. Word and Excel load quickly and without issue, even with many tabs and programs and music running. The battery ran for about 4.5 hours of mixed use before I plugged it in, and seems to be about what is estimated for the machine. Streaming video did put a dent in the run time, though I did not specifically test. I did not use the Eco mode, which dulls the screen and saves power, so I assume you could get more from the machine if you need.

Although standard programs run without a hitch, heavy hitters tend to bog the system down. I loaded Adobe Photoshop Elements, and it isn’t as speedy as I would like. It does do the work in a timely fashion, but not as crisp as one would like for a new machine not yet saddled with a bunch of software and cookies and adware… I tell myself the facts: it isn’t a desktop, and it isn’t a 7 lb. desktop replacement either… You shouldn’t expect the power of the 16” slabs of plastic you can get for the same money. You don’t get the 3D gaming (I am not much of a gamer at my age), or the big computing power – or the 167 degree laptop base cooking your lap, or the 3 extra pounds, or the aforementioned plastic, or the sore shoulder from your computer bag, or or or. I guess I am telling you what side of the fence I fall upon. I like a desktop with power. I like a laptop to go with me. This does goes with me, and does so with style and substance.

Movies play nicely, without delays or skips, and with good sound though the speakers. Speaking of the speakers, they do have a nice surround sound-ish feel to them, though they lack the bass punch. Do you expect base from your 13” laptop speakers? I didn’t, but I do love the clarity that these deliver.

Want more? Hook up a good pair of headphones.

A lot has been made of the touchpad and buttons on the 3935… Ok, it is more style than function, with a smallish square for gestures (I do love the gesture feature, as I live in an iPhone world), and smallish buttons. Know what? It is easy to get used to, and is incredibly more attractive then your standard touchpads. Typing allows wrists to rest comfortably left and right of the square, with no edge to rest your palm upon. If your hands hitting the buttons or touchpad is an issue, a small button turns off the touchpad while you type, but I just don’t see it as necessary with the space allowed. Should I care about design and look of the touchpad more than the function? When the function is easy to learn, and design will make me happy looking at the machine for years to come, yes.

I saw that this machine won a green rating from PC Mag. Don’t care about green awards? Well, do you care about the great battery life with the smaller battery? How about being able to extend the battery life even more with a simple button press, bringing you to Eco-mode? Do you care about the energy bills at home, when prices begin to rise for power again. It is nice that it is mostly recyclable too, but you don’t have to care about that if you don’t want to – but in 6 years, recycle it anyway…

So, my final thoughts? I love my new toy. It goes with me where I go, because it is light, because it boots quickly, because the keyboard fits my hands, because it looks stunning (and NO, it is NOT BROWN), and does all that I need, when and where I need it. It does so at less money than the competition – there is not much real competition at this price. Too much style, too little weight, too much power, too little name/cost inflation – sounds unique to me…

It is not perfect, and it is not for everyone. Some will want to spend a few dollars more for the incredible new MacBook; this is not a Mac-Killer. If you love Mac, this is just another pretty MS based machine which you will hate because it wasn’t created by Steve Jobs… Some will spend less on a bigger, more powerful slab of plastic; because of the gaming, or the huge screen for movies, or the fact that the machine will sit on a desk 24/7/365. For me? For my lifestyle, my wallet, my needs? This is a great companion.

According to Digitimes, “The notebook features built-in software which can convert regular 2D movies to 3D, and will also directly support 3D movies. The notebook will also come equipped with Windows 7 and therefore Acer will not make an official announcement until Microsoft launches the OS”.

Trust Engadget to bring us down to earth with a bump by reminding us that “unfortunately, viewers must wear those bulky, stereoscopic glasses for the full experience.”

So far I’ve seen two 3D movies at the cinema and it’s absolutely amazing. Not sure how the experience will convert to the small screen but I for one will be keeping my eyes open for the product presentation.

Watch this space.

I’ve been looking at articles all over the web about one of the latest arrivals to the Acer Aspire line up: The Aspire 5935. Not because I’m an uber-geek or anything like that but was wondering if the online sites had picked up on one of the more interesting characteristics of this notebook.

It has two graphics cards.

UPDATE 11/06/2009: This feature is also available on the Aspire 8935!!

That’s right. Word is – remember I have my contacts on the inside – the Aspire 5935 and 8935 can be specified in two versions: Integrated Intel + ATI or Integrated Intel + nVidia cards. Basically, when you’re at home and it’s connected to the mains, you get the full-on ATI or nVidia graphic experience. Whip out the mains and it automatically switches over to the more energy efficient integrated card from Intel to max out battery life. Smart eh?

So far no-one’s picked it up. But now you know…

Staples Canada has got the Timeline models in stock and demo’d and all other locations for Staples in the Vancouver lower mainland area should have them out as well by now. They’ve got what appears to be a top end variant with all the bells and whistles. Retailing for $829.96 cdn.

Plus: staring June 10th and going till June 23rd Staples Canada will be lowering the price of their Acer Timeline AS5810TZ-4429 from $829.96 to $779.96. It is not currently listed on their website but it will be in time for the sale. Here’s the link (The price on the website includes the mandatory $5.00 government recycling fee). You can also see and purchase the laptops instore. The SKU will be 798040. There may be the occasional store that doesn’t have it in stock but if you mention this SKU it will enable the people at their local staples to see which stores have it and transfer the laptop in.

Acer AS5810TZ-4429
Intel Core 2 Solo SU2700
1.3Ghz – 800Mhz FSB
4GB-DDR2-RAM
320GB Hard drive
DVD Super-Multi Drive
Wireless B/G/N
HDMI output
Intel 4500MHD Graphics
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
5.3 lbs.

Thanks to Peter for this info (and hard work).

Noticed the pretty icon and the pretty background comparing to this old one (I had to manually make the Arcade Button image which replaces the old internet button image)

Some highlight features:

**BEST FEATURE**

-Power Plan Toggling via e button pressed (Similar to Stealth Mode in Alieanware)
-The Arcade button can now be reprogrammed
-Bluetooth Key can now be programmed to enable/disable the device you desired(just replace the device id in the following files: C:\BT\enable\BT.cmd and C:\BT\disable\BT.cmd)

Other features:

-Simple installation
-Pretty icon that fits Vista and 7
-Compatible with XP/Vista/7 both 32 and 64-bit
-Fixed the Acer MediaTouch compatibility with WinAMP
-Enable user’s On Screen Display preference

Patching is simple, download and run the latest exe from here http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0758238508904ba275a4fc82078ae6c89dd6ef8e5b10b641c95965eaa7bc68bc it will auto detect 32 bit or 64 bit, it also closes the program before the installation for you, I have gone through many trouble to finalize the installer to perfection!

Here is the change log, it is also embedded in the installer and saves a copy in the program folder

V10.0

-Auto detection for 32 or 64 bit Operating System

-Full auto installation

-Replaced the application backgound

-Support for Windows 7

-New image to indicate the new key binding

V5.0

-Fully compatible with default 64 bit installation

V4.2

-Automated installation with complete installation message

V4.1

-64bit edition

V4.0

-Fixed Volume wheel problem.

-Added OSD user controls

-Binded Arcade key to the Internet key, making it user defined

V3.0

-Version disgard

V2.0

-Fixed Winamp multimedia key support

-Disable auto launch of Windows Media player upon play/pause key is
pressed (both touchpad and keyboard)

-Fixed Disabling Volume control decreases Volume increments

-Reconfigured Internet Browser button to remap-able with OSD “Internet
Browser” instead of “WWW”

-**Blue “e” button toggles from “High Power” to “Power Saver” vice
versa**

-**Bluetooth button now is automatically binded to toggle bluetooth on
or off**

-New window title to “Morris’ Custom Launch Manager V2.0″

-New font for all the OSD to Mistral scale to 24

-Combined installer of previous LMcustomized.exe and USB Bluetooth.exe

Notes:

-Blue “e” button is currently unremap-able in the Launch Manager Configuration panel(can be done is registry)
-Bluetooth requires user to enter their own hardware ID’s in C:\BT\current\bt.cmd, C:\BT\enable\bt.cmd, C:\BT\disable\bt.cmd

V0.01Changes:

-Improved taskbar icon

-Remapped Bluetooth button to browser button in LM

-Disabled green OSD for touchpad on/off, Fn Mute on/off, and volume
wheel +/-

-New background to acknowledge user this version is customized

Notes:

-Default browser button should still work correctly, but not remap-
able by LM

-This is work-in-progress version

Enjoy!
Morris Lee

Morris is as many of you know the real Acer Guy. When I re-designed the site, I wanted to give more people more say in the content that gets published here and Morris has had more say than anyone

It’s fair to say that if Morris hadn’t been so generous, this site might have died a friendless death. Acer owes you their thanks Morris, although I wouldn’t hold your breath… Having said that, this is a great occasion to send you mine.

Happy Birthday again, from all of us.

The thing is, when something grabs all the attention, inevitably something else slips beneath the radar completely unnoticed.

Which brings me to the Aspire 3935.

The Aspire 3935 is a notebook that my colleagues at Acer marketing really should push a little more. OK, I understand that the sheer cost of product launches means you have to choose which ones are more likely to make money on the investments you have to make and sacrifice the others, but this really is a looker.

Here’s a quick story you probably didn’t know – when we first saw the Aspire 3935 in the product brief we mistakenly thought it was what became the “Timeline” series and actually proposed the name “Aspire Hero” instead. But this isn’t a Timeline model – Laminar Wall Jet Technology isn’t featured on this one – and it’s much less of an extreme-efficiency notebook as a result. Having said that, a battery life of 6 hours isn’t exactly peanuts.

It’s not brimming with everything Acer could have thrown at it either, although with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (P8700 – 2.53GHz) a gorgeous 13.3″ WXGA Acer CrystalBrite HD display (1366×786), 4GB DDR3 RAM and 128GB Hard disk it still ticks my boxes.

No, the thing that strikes you about the Aspire 3935 is the way it looks. The features are all there but the details are hugely different. The brushed aluminium case is pure style and the colour is undescribably cool. Not cool in a nerdy look-at-me way; no this is way beyond that. It’s cool in the way truly classy objects never, ever need to try. Like some unwritten world order, you don’t mess with the best – it’s just the way things are.

One thing I didn’t notice when I rushed my video together was the frameless screen. Normally you get a couple of centimetres of plastic around the edges which takes the style out of the best of them. The glass on the Aspire 3935 runs all the way to the side of the lid, making the screen look like a sort of mimiature high-end plasma TV. Way cool.

Last night I watched the BabylonAD DVD (truly awful film BTW) on it and the most obvious difference between this and anything else I’ve sat on my lap is the temperature. I swear if it weren’t for the (very silent) fan you wouldn’t know it was on. It’s like room temperature beneath it. Incredible.

So it’s got major thumbs up performance-wise, plus the wife (and everyone else I showed it to) loves the way it looks. I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve been tempted to hang on to a notebook. Do you think they’d notice if it didn’t go back?

For more pictures of the spire 3935, check out my Flickr pge.

The article’s on it’s way.