You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
This week a touch and type combination notebook from Acer has appeared in the first product-toting teaser video spot for Star Trek Into Darkness that’s appeared in what’s set to be a several weeks-long dual-brand campaign. While from what we’ve been told Acer does not plan on having any products appear in the film itself, this cross-promotional teaser will benefit both Acer and the folks behind Star Trek. The film Star Trek Into Darkness is about to be released both in the United States and internationally, while the device appearing in the teaser is set to be revealed in full on May 3rd.
The setup for the release at hand has had its stage set by a series of three devices from Acer, each of them appearing in the home for this campaign: Explore Beyond Limits (dot com). This site has several wallpapers with a Star Trek theme and also shows the Acer Iconia W510, Aspire S7, and Aspire V5 Touch. With these three devices in mind, the trailer for Star Trek (with Acer device inside) should have you wondering what the future holds.
The notebook in the trailer above will once again be taking the touch-friendly interface created by Microsoft’s Windows 8 to an ever-so-slightly different place than Acer has gone before. From what we’re seeing here, this notebook will be coming with extended drag fins (or bumpers below the back of the bottom of the base), as well as a display that lifts up beyond the average limit of a notebook’s face.
It would appear that this machine’s touchscreen display and top hood lift up and turn back on a second hinge, allowing the entire notebook to become something that looks similar to the hero spaceship in the Star Trek movies and original Star Trek television show. This machine will have the capabilities of a tablet, a notebook, and some sort of in-between oddity, without a doubt.
This video also adds an interesting twist to the release schedule for Star Trek Into Darkness – let us know if you’re finding this particular push pleasing to your science fiction-loving mind, or if you prefer the regular plain-old trailer set instead?
Touch and type Acer notebook appears in Star Trek teaser is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Microsoft has repeatedly told us that we’ll see smaller Windows 8 tablets, but all that talk has amounted to precious little walk. If the latest rumor is accurate, though, Acer might be the first to take action: French site Minimachines claims to have images and details of the Iconia W3, which could be the first 8-inch tablet on Microsoft’s newer platform. The slate wouldn’t be a barnstormer with a 1.8GHz Atom Z2760 and 2GB of RAM, but performance also wouldn’t be its selling point — the W3 would be small enough to fit in one hand while carrying the full software support of a PC. It will reportedly include front and rear cameras as well as a possible microSDHC slot, and the accessories we see in the purported leak involve both a tiny keyboard dock and a cover that doubles as a kickstand. We don’t know if there’s any truth to claims of a launch around the back to school season in September, although that would certainly be appropriate timing for what could be a welcome backpack companion.
[Thanks, Pierre]
Source: Minimachines.net (translated)
Our eyebrows are officially raised. Acer has revealed that it’s going all-in with a promotional connection to Star Trek Into Darkness, and it’s hinting at the May 3rd unveiling of a “unique” laptop that it believes would be at home in Captain Kirk’s universe. We doubt that many people will still use Windows 8 in the 23rd century, but there may be some truth to the claims of novelty: a brief clip shows a clamshell design whose display can tilt outward like that of a desktop monitor, most likely to improve the comfort of touchscreen input without going the full convertible route of PCs like the Dell XPS 12. We’ll know soon enough whether or not Acer’s PC is the stuff of sci-fi or remains firmly grounded in reality.
Source: Acer
If you’re in the market for a small new Windows laptop, today may be your day. The Microsoft Store has slashed the price of Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire S7 to $900—a hefty $300 saving on the standard price. More »
Acer Japan will launch a new desktop PC for the mass market, the AT3600-H78F. Powered by a 3.40GHz Intel Core i7-3770 processor, the system is packed with an Intel B75 Express Chipset, an 8GB DDR3 RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a DVD Super Multi Drive, a multi-card reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 + HS and runs on Windows 8 64-bit OS. The AT3600-H78F will begin shipping from April 12th for around 95,000 Yen (about $959). [Acer]
If reporting that the entirety of the PC market weren’t enough of a punch in the gut for Microsoft from the analytical group IDC, the suggestion that their newest operating system is to blame really, really is. What you’re about to witness is the continued downfall of the PC industry in the charts of the IDC, this most recent quarter’s report being much worse for ware than we’re sure any of the manufacturers listed would have liked. When your only job is to create PCs and you hoped Windows 8 was going to bring the industry into a shining light, you’re probably not too happy right about now.
As this most recent IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report shows, the first quarter of 2013 was not extremely kind to the likes of HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, ASUS, and the rest of the bunch. With a total average drop in PC shipments of 13.9%, it’s not appearing too positive for the near future in next-level PC production. That 13.9% drop is compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, while year-on-year the decline was a rather similar -12.7%.
“At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market.” – Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, Clients and Displays
You’ll find that Lenovo – good ol’ Lenovo – was the only vendor to have stayed flat from the quarter before this one to the one we’ve just completed. Their market share also went up a couple of percentage points while each of the other top-5 groups decreased by at least .2 points of a percentage – that’s Dell hanging in there as well. HP remains on top of the stack with a 15.7% share of the market but was hit hard with a 23.7% drop over the past year.
“While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market.” – Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, Clients and Displays
According to the top 5 vendors chart of United States PC Shipments, Apple reaches in for a piece of the pie – as does Toshiba. Here we’ve still got HP up on top, Dell not far behind, and Apple butting heads with Toshiba and Lenovo. Here you’ll find Lenovo once again the only brand of the top five to not have lost market share over the past year with a 13% gain from Q1 of 2012 to Q1 of 2013.
Of course when you average the collection of the top 5 vendors of PCs in the United States, you still get a cool 11% drop this quarter compared to 2012′s Q1. Apple on its own also lost 7.5 points year-on-year in this market, still running strong with an estimated 1,418 units shipped in Q1 2013.
Have a peek at the timeline below for other recent IDC reports to see how the mobile and desktop PC universes are making their time here as we roll into the spring of 2013.
[via IDC]
PC market tumbles as IDC points at Windows 8 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If Windows 8 is the ticket to a bounce-back in PC sales, it’s going to be a long, slow recovery. At least, as long as you ask IDC. It estimates that worldwide computer shipments in the first quarter of 2013 fell 13.9 percent to 76.3 million, which is the steepest quarterly drop the research firm has recorded since it started tracking PCs back in 1994. While the exact factors at work aren’t clear, IDC blames it on a mix of customers spooked by Windows 8’s unfamiliar interface, the continued rise of mobile devices, and the decline of the netbook. This isn’t helped by the higher typical prices of touchscreen PCs, or by restructuring efforts at computing giants like Dell and HP.
Who’s reigning in this apparently declining PC empire, then? Worldwide, it’s a different picture than it was a few months ago: HP is back on top at 15.7 percent, followed by Lenovo, Dell, Acer and ASUS. The American climate is somewhat more familiar, with HP in front at 25.1 percent while being chased by Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo. With the exception of Lenovo, however, virtually all of the manufacturers involved saw at least some decline in their PC shipments. To IDC, that’s a sign that vendors and Microsoft need to find an antidote to the crazes for smartphones and tablets — and find it quickly.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Apple, ASUS, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo
Source: IDC
Yes, it was just yesterday when we brought you word that there is going to be a new tablet for the folks over at Acer, and this particular tablet would be of the 7.9” variety and will be known as the Acer A1-810. As most have realized in the hardware specifications, the AU Optronics panel that will see action in the Acer A1-810 also happen to be an exact twin of the panel that sees action on the current generation iPad mini, including its much maligned 1024 x 768 resolution. This would mean that Acer is certainly serious about making a dent in the tablet market, but other than sharing select similar specifications with their main rival, what other steps can be done?
Pricing, of course, will determine a whole lot whether there will be an uptake of the new devices of course, and it seems that Acer might actually want to slash the price of the Acer A1-810 from $249.99, dropping it all the way to $149.99. The Acer A1-810 is set to be manufactured by Wistron from April later this month, with a progressively increasing number of units produced each month.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Chrome for iOS Offers Full-Screen Browsing, Web Page Printing In Update, Google Play Store Receives Redesign To Help Discover Content Easier, 
Now here we are with yet another rumor swirling around, this time round it would be a tablet that hails from computer manufacturer Acer. So far, Acer already has introduced their fair share of Windows 8 powered tablets to the general masses, where among them include the Acer Iconia W510 tablet that will be powered by an Intel Atom Clover Trail processor, in addition to the higher-end Iconia W700 that sports a Core i5 processor and 1080p display. Well, here is the Acer Aspire P3 that has been touted by some to be the next generation Windows 8 tablet, according to Hungarian site Tech2.hu at least.
I understand that the name change from Iconia to the Aspire brand does point towards the very real possibility of the line between the tablet and notebook market being blurred. Rumored specifications of the Acer Aspire P3 include an 11.6” display at 1600 x 900 resolution, an Intel Ivy Bridge processor, and a choice of internal memory options that range from 32GB all the way to 128GB.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Chrome for iOS Offers Full-Screen Browsing, Web Page Printing In Update, Acer Tablet Could See Major Price Cut, 
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