Never the one to sit back and contemplate past achievements, Acer took the opportunity, offered by its Global Press Conference, to announce several new products to help consolidate its position as third in the total PC market and second with regards to worldwide notebook sales.

click image to enlarge Acer Aspire 2930 One of the first companies to take advantage of the new technology behind the Centrino 2 processors is Acer. The company has launched various business and consumer models in the TravelMate and Aspire ranges. Several enhancements have been made to the TravelMate range of business notebooks.

How small is small?  Some would think that an atom is small enough to satisfy even the most demanding when it comes to the lack of size classification.  I mention this because the Atom is the name that Intel has bestowed on its new purpose built lower power mobile processor.  An Intel Atom processor N270 (1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB and 512KB L2 cache) sits at the heart of Acer's new Aspire One product which is described as being the company's first Internet device.

click to enlarge The Acer Ferrari 1100-704G25Mn weights a tad over 2 kilos, it is 30x22.5x3cm and totally matt black apart from the silver Acer name and of course the yellow Ferrari logo on the lid. The screen is 26.5x16.5cm giving the diagonal 12.1 inch screen measurement. A quick tour round the unit finds two USB ports, Express Card slot and an Ethernet port on the left side. The rear has AC adapter input, VGA output and a PS/2 port.

click to enlarge A total of eight new notebooks aimed at the home market and for the first timer from Acer there are fingerprint readers on consumer products. Two entirely new screen sizes 16inch and 18.4inch, these are so the 16:10 ratio on earlier offerings can be changed to suit the current DVD's and TV that want 16:9. All have variety of NVIDIA graphics cards with 512MB of RAM plus extra shared RAM.

Assigned the role of the Aspire flagship product is the Acer Aspire 5920 laptop.  This model features the new design concept produced by BMW Designworks, entitled Gemstone, aimed at adding more than a touch of style to Acer's normal combination of power, usability, performance, with an aggressive price point.  Lets consider first the various aspects of the Gemstone approach.

The arrival of Intel's Santa Rosa Centrino Pro technology has provided manufacturers with the ideal opportunity to refresh their current range of notebooks with some new attractive models.  Not surprisingly, with its position as a leading notebook manufacturer, Acer has taken the lead with some new products that include the .

Acer has been rather quiet of late.  But, as I was to discover, this lack of news did not mean that the company had been resting on its laurels.  Instead it had been busy designing and developing new models to enhance its range of notebook products.  Details of these new offerings were revealed in what the company described as a "Design Launch".

The unit is small at 10x6x2cm and weights only around 120grams, it easily fits in the palm on my hand. Doing basic things is easy, however making changes to the defaults is not, the PDF manual may be helpful for those wanting to use it as an MP3 player, Photo viewer or even viewing your Contacts. However for changing settings when in Navigation mode it is not good.

It is 30x22x3cm and weights only 1.7kilos. The screen size is 26x16cm giving the diagonal viewing size of 12inches. The screen resolution is 1280x800, given that you tend to sit quite close to a notebook it is quite readable. First surprise it is not notebook grey but cream, when I got it others had already used it and there were a few marks on the keyboard that would probably not show if it had been grey.

Joining Acer's ever-expanding collection of digital still cameras is the CP-8660 which currently sits at the top of the company's range with its 8-megapixel capability.  Stylishly decked out in silver and black, the camera has a reassuring solid feel to it and sits comfortably in the hand.

Although notebooks are central to Acer's company strategy and responsible for a greater part of its success, the company does produce other types of kit that appeals to users.  Desktop systems, servers, LCD monitors, high-definition television and cameras all play their part as do MP3 players; various bags for portable devices and the new Mnemonick device.

Acer has been sounding its own trumpet with recently posted results that put some of the others in the shade as Acer has shown a 35.7% growth in the Global PC market during the second quarter of 2006.  This has resulted in Acer consolidating its overall 4 position worldwide in the PC market.  This position rises to 3 when just notebooks are taken into consideration.

The previous review ended on the second day of the Open this did the final two days and now it's working well for the early European football games as well as the European Athletics. It's just a shame there are so few worthwhile programs on for those of us who dislike reality TV such as Big Brother, Love Island, Find a New Maria, X Factor etc etc.

The technology behind digital cameras continues at such a pace that it is easy to become confused by the range of specifications that are on offer. There are so many different aspects that need to be considered when making your choice. Some say that the higher the camera's megapixel rating the better and this can affect the quality of the image. However other factors have their part to play.

The is 11x7x1cm, the thickness is probably nearer to 1.3cm in the centre but only 1cm at the edge. The weight is less than 150grams. It is predominately black with silvered edges and to me - a style dummy - looks smart. The screen is 7.5x5.5cm and works either in portrait or landscape at 640x480. Acer N310 pocketPC The operating system is Windows Mobile 5.01 software for Pocket PC Premium Edition.

Acer has recently added the C200 series to its range of TravelMate family. Unlike the other models in this range, which adopts the traditional style of notebook, the C200 series is a Tablet PC. While the general shape and size (315 x 238 x 35.3mm (W x D x H)) is notebook-like in appearance, this particular series is easily disguisable by its top mounted touch screen.

The notebook is 35x27x4cm and weights around 3kilos. I would probably say this was a desktop replacement as it most likely be too large for most to carry around regularly.   It has a 15.4inch screen and the default resolution is 1280x800, there is a ATA Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics chip, the unit can support dual displays and there are both analogue and digital outputs. The screen surround is 25.5x35.