Even though it was the first carrier to bring Android to Canada, Rogers has always had a bit of a tough time convincing Canadians to ditch their beloved BlackBerrys and iPhones in order to get their Google on. Recently it released the Acer Liquid e, a curious little device that many people know nothing about. We managed to snag one shortly after launch and gave it a spin, so if you are curious to know our thoughts on it click on through to  check out our Acer Liquid e hands on!

First and foremost, let’s get one thing out of the way. This isn’t a phone that’s intended to be a flagship or hero device, and that’s immediately evident when you pick it up. Made entirely out of plastic and measuring out at 115mm x 64mm x 12.75mm and weighing 135g, the phones does feel quite cheap in the hands. Not poorly built; just cheap.

On the whole, the device performs very well. This is despite the fact its Snapdragon processor has been underclocked from 1GHz to 768MHz. Acer did this to help preserve battery life, but it appears to have made little difference. It really only took one work day to drain the battery, and even then we only touched the thing a handful of times.

Call quality is above average, with not a whole lot of background noise and minimal hiss whether using the earpiece or speakerphone. The phone has great reception and consistently pulled down data at just over 3Mbps in during our speed tests. Those two things are great, right? Yup. They sure are. Except that it in no time at all the phone gets so hot that you could fry an egg on it.

The Liquid e ruins Android 2.1 aka Eclair with the assistance of a few customizations. Some of them, such as the bookmark and photo album widgets, are useful, but for the most part they’re complete and utter crap. Sorry, but we just don’t see a reason why anyone should have to have a phone with junk like urFooz (look it up) pre-loaded. Thankfully not lost in all of this customization nonsense is the ability to install non-Market applications.

The 3.5″ WVGA display should please most people. Text is very sharp and there is no shortage of vibrancy to images. This isn’t to say it is without its share of issues. During our time with the Liquid e we noticed something that we feel we shouldn’t have: 112 dots which happen to be the sensors responsible for mapping where your fingers are. Granted not everyone will have good enough eyesight to notice the sensors (they’re fairly small), but if you do, it will irritate you to no end. Our device also had a dead pixel straight out of the box.

And then there’s the camera. It has a 5 megapixel sensor with autofocus. In ideal lighting, the camera does a good job with pictures with fairly accurate colors, if not a bit heavy on the red. The autofocus is fairly fast and you won’t need to wait a lot of time between pictures. If you find yourself in a lot of low-light environments, you might as well bring a pencil and sketch book because the photos the Liquid e produces without an abundance of light is quite horriffic. The Liquid e also has video capture capabilities. The resolution of the videos is only VGA, though they’re pretty decent.

Normally we fret over what to say in our conclusion knowing that our word carries a lot of weight. But in this instance, it’s not hard at all. Instead of signing up for a 3-year contract and getting the Acer Liquid e, we strongly recommend that you take that $49.99 and put it into something more exciting like a Government Savings Bond. Yeah.

It’s not surprising since we told you this would be the case, but today Canada’s Rogers Wireless today announced the immediate availability of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G and Acer Liquid e. While they’re both obviously quite different handsets in that the Liquid e runs Android 2.1 and that the Pearl 3G is, well, a BlackBerry, both are available for $49.99 on contract and $424.99 off. The question is: Do you prefer a BlackBerry with SureType keypad and 3.2 megapixel camera, or Snapdragon-powered Android smartphone with a 5 megapixel camera? Decisions, decisions.

Read [Pearl 3G] Read [Liquid e]

Sure it might not be as sexy as the HTC Legend headed to Bell or the HTC Triumph aka Desire headed to Telus, but last night Rogers informed its employees that the Acer Liquid e has launched. Running Android 2.1 (for now), the Liquid e possesses a 3.5″ WVGA capacitive display, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, Wi-Fi, GPS, tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA and a Snapdragon processor under clocked to 768MHz. With the device currently en route to dealerships, the Liquid e should arrive within the next few days. The price? $49.99 on a 3-year contract with voice and data or $424.99 outright.

Thanks, anonymous!

Acer has just made the high powered Liquid Stream official via a press release. Acer describes the Android 2.1 device as a, “high-end multimedia smartphone, optimized for watching movies, listening to music and enjoying web browsing like at home,” and judging by the specs sheet, it looks to fit that bill. Here is the official skinny: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB of RAM, 3G+ HSDPA @ 7.2Mb/s, 3.7″ WVGA touch-screen display, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), GPS, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video recording, HDMI out, and a microSD card slot with support for up to a 32 GB card. Availability and wireless carrier are currently unknown. What do you think? Are you impressed, or have you see an Incredible stat sheet like this before? We’ve got the official press release and a video ready for you after the break.

Acer Stream

the Perfect Entertainment Machine

2010-05-27 – the Perfect Entertainment Machine

Powerful. Spectacular. Cutting-edge technologies. State-of-the-art connectivity. Ultra-fast. Highly sensitive. These are just some of the words that best describe Acer Stream, the latest technological jewel of the Taiwanese company. Defining it a smartphone would be reductive. In fact, Acer Stream is the utmost expression of technology, design, performance and entertainment.

Acer Stream is a high-end multimedia smartphone, optimized for watching movies, listening to music and enjoying web browsing like at home. Perfect for most demanding users who look for the best in entertainment.

Elegant and minimalist in design, Acer Stream is made from highly resistant materials and offers truly outstanding user interface and technical features, all in just 11.2 mm, ensuring users a unique and unrepeatable experience.

The completely brand new user interface has been totally redesigned in order to focus on what is essential to users and guarantee a simple and quick access to what matters to them.

- Enjoy smooth animations and fine graphics: surf between photos and video thanks to the stunningly fluid 3D interface and unlock the phone by a ‘peeling’ gesture, assure a cool but very functional detail!

- Read information straight from the lock screen widget: accessing ambient information on the idle screen gives the user what he needs before he even asks for it.

- Quickly start your favorite applications with one tap: the status bar appears as an innovative divider between logical spaces. It shows all the essential information, providing shortcuts to most frequently used settings and its position allows a very easy access to the settings or notifications.

- Easily switch applications with the History panel: the top part of the Home screen has been dedicated to applications history, with the benefit of reducing complexity and providing significant cues for navigation.

- Reorder applications across several pages at their convenience: Apps can be moved around from one page to another or easily uninstalled by simply dragging them to the bin.

- Customize the phone according to specific needs:a simple customization page accessible from the Home screen will be a pleasant surprise, enabling customers to tailor their smartphone through wallpaper and sound personalization.

Coupled with three types of predictive keyboards, a smart dialer and a redesigned contacts list, the Acer user interface makes using the smartphone an efficient and delightful experience.

Social and entertaining: All the most popular applications are pre-installed: Nemo player to enjoy multimedia content to the fullest, Acer UrFooz to create your virtual “look-a-like”, add your profile and bookmarks and post it to your social networks, Facebook™ and Twidroid perfectly integrated into the address book.

And for music addicts Acer Stream features Spinlets™, a completely free streaming service that lets you browse and listen to major music labels and record companies for great music and instantly post what you find to your favorite Social Networking sites.

Main features:

Superb display quality: the touch screen with Amoled technology boasts 1.67 million exceptionally bright colors, through a generous 3.7” WVGA display. Furthermore, its incredible contrast (superior 2000:1) makes for clear images and perfect legibility in any environment and light condition. Moreover, this type of display consumes less energy to help increase battery life.

Ultrafast connectivity 3G+ for streaming: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps in download, Bluetooth and WiFi n, enabling faster transmission of multimedia content than ever!

Power and performance: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, with its 512 MB RAM, makes the Acer Stream one of the fastest and most reactive phones on the market. The operating system behind Stream is Android version 2.1, better known as

Éclair.

Unique and high-quality multimedia features, enabling the recording of HD videos up to 720p. Listening to your favorite music or the radio with RDS has never been so pleasant; enjoy the Dolby Mobile quality, with powerful bass and crystal-clear clarity for an unparalleled purity of sound. UPnP technology enables content sharing with other devices. Furthermore, a 5MP photocamera and integrated GPS system allow photos and videos to be geotagged. Last but not least, you can connect the Acer Stream to your home TV with HDMI port and watch a movie on a larger screen.

2GB of internal Flash memory is ideal for downloading tons of applications and 3D games, while an 8GB memory card as free bundle and a micro-SD card slot support up to 32GB enables users to enjoy their favorite multimedia content at all times.

Read – Press Release

Read – Video

It appears as though the newly discovered Acer Liquid Stream — trying to disguise itself as the Acer S110 — has made its way across the FCC’s desk. The Android 2.1 smartphone, which was just discovered just last week at Google’s IO event, is a GSM 850/1900 MHz offering complete with: 5 megapixel camera, 720p recording, Snapdragon processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1400 mAh battery, and HDMI out. We’ve got the original IO shots of the Liquid Stream, courtesy of Phandroid, for you after the break. What do you think of the name?

Read – Phandroid [image]

Read – FCC S110

Back in January, Acer’s president of IT Products division Jim Wong revealed that Acer was shooting to become the first manufacturer to produce a Chrome OS powered device. According to the latest rumor from Venture Beat, Acer will be delivering on that promise at the upcoming Computex Taipei trade show by debuting these aforementioned Chrome OS devices. Details are sparse on the nature of these devices, but the initial disclosure from Wong suggests that one may be a netbook and the other may be a tablet. If this early June unveiling comes to fruition, let’s hope that during the intervening months of product development Acer has taken its design cues from Apple and not Foleo BlackBerry.Read

Being the carrier that first brought Android to Canada, Rogers’ current Android line-up is extremely weak. Looking to change this, Rogers will soon be launching the Acer Liquid e and the Motorola QUENCH. Similar in that they both run Android, have 5 megapixel cameras, support 7.2Mbps 3G and have a candybar form, the two devices are quite different almost anywhere else you look. The Liquid e, which has Android 2.1, roars along with Snapdragon processor underclocked to 768MHz, while the QUENCH with Android 1.5 with MOTOBLUR chugs along with a MSM7200A that clocks in at 528MHz. When it comes to displays, the Liquid e’s 3.5″ WVGA screen handily trumps the 3.1″ HVGA affair found on the Motorola. Look for the Liquid e next month for $79.99 on contract, preceded by the QUENCH next week for $49.99.

Read

In a very uncharacteristic move, Acer and Rogers Wireless jointly announced that the Android 2.1-powered Liquid e will be headed to Canada’s largest wireless carrier sometime this Spring. The early announcement is more than likely a result of TELUS’ recent launch of the highly-anticipated Motorola MILESTONE which will no doubt will end up locking plenty of Canadians to 3-year contracts. At this point in time we’re thinking Rogers might be in store for some more lacklustre Android sales just like it had with the HTC Dream and Magic, but who knows — the allure of a Snapdragon processor (under-clocked to 768MHz as it may be) might prove to be too much to pass up.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

Read

Looking to diversify as it seeks to advance its position from the #2 to the #1 PC manufacturer in the world, Taiwanese manufacturer Acer has laid out a long list of ambitious products slated for launch in 2010. The list includes a new tablet device powered by Windows or Google’s Chrome OS, a netbook powered by Chrome OS, a six inch monochrome e-reader with European distribution as well as an application store for its Android and Windows Mobile-powered smartphones. Acer has a bit of a distance to make up if it wants to occupy the #1 slot as the worlds largest PC manufacturer — it currently has a worldwide PC market share of 13.5% and lags behind leader HP which commands a 19.8% market share. Though they’re hoping this expansion into diverse markets and, in particular, its tablet and netbook offerings will help to propel it forward as it seeks to overtake HP by 2013. Dream big, Acer, dream big.

Read

There’s absolutely no guarantee it will find a home with AT&T (or even Bell, Rogers or TELUS, for that matter), but Acer’s Liquid aka A1 has been spotted in an FCC filing complete with 850MHz and 1900MHz bands of HSDPA. Much has been made in the past about the device thanks in part to its Snapdragon processor — unfortunately underclocked to 768MHz — and in recent months rumors that would see it carried by AT&T have been on the uptick. Not speaking directly to the matter, one Acer exec went so far as to say that AT&T and T-Mobile would be foolish to not pursue a strong relationship with the Taiwanese company. As for whether or not such a thing would ever materialize is up for debate, but perhaps this is the first of many regulatory precursors needed for a full-scale smartphone invasion.

[Via UnwiredView

Read

Attention Mac users: Drop whatever it is you’re doing and run Software Update, because OS X 10.6.2 has been released by Apple. Coming in at a rather large 499.9MB, the update contains a considerable amount of bug fixes with the most notable righting the big ol’ scary guest user bug that threatened to delete your precious data.  We’ve got the entire change log after the break, but let’s not kid one another; you’re gluttons for punishment and will install whatever updates your system tells you to.

General operating system fixes provided for:

• an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
• an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
• Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
• the reliability of menu extras
• an issue in Dictionary when using Hebrew as the primary language
• shutter-click sound effect when taking a screenshot
• an issue with the four-finger swipe gesture
• an issue adding images to contacts in Address Book
• an issue in Front Row that could cause sluggish or slow frame rates while watching videos
• creation of mobile accounts for Active Directory users
• reliability and duration of VPN connections
• general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
• overall improvements to VoiceOver performance
• this update addresses video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) computers that may occur in some situations while AirPort is turned on

Fonts fixes provided for:

• an issue with font spacing
• an issue in which some Fonts are missing
• font duplication issues
• an issue with some PostScript Type 1 fonts not working properly

Graphics fixes provided for:

• an issue when connecting monitors to DVI and Mini DisplayPort adapters
• an issue in which the brightness setting may not be remembered on restart
• addresses functionality with specific display models
• general reliability and performance improvements when using some applications

Mail fixes provided for:

• a situation in which Mail’s unread count may not update properly as messages are read on another computer
• an issue in which deleted RSS feeds may return
• an issue in which Mail cannot preview or Quick Look attachments when composing a new message
• an issue that can cause Address Book and/or Mail to stop responding when opened
• an issue in which email messages received from an Exchange Server are not formatted correctly
• an issue in which Mail reports “Account exceeded bandwidth limits” for some Gmail accounts

MobileMe fixes provided for:

• performance when accessing files from iDisk via the Finder and syncing iDisk files
• an issue in which syncing iDisk files does not proceed beyond “checking items”
• reliability and performance when syncing contacts, calendars, and bookmarks with MobileMe (syncing with iTunes and iSync are also improved)
• an issue that prevents some users from logging into MobileMe via the MobileMe System Preference pane

Network file systems fixes provided for:

• compatibility with third-party AFP servers
• file synchronization for portable home directories

Printing and faxing fixes provided for:

• automatic printer updates improvements
• Print dialog allowing you to enter and send to more than one fax recipient

Safari fixes provided for:

• a graphics distortion issue in Safari Top Sites
• Safari plug-in reliability

Read

Windows Mobile fans take note — 30 new handsets powered by your mobile OS of choice will supposedly be debuting before you again sing a drunken version of Auld Lang Syne. Benjamin Tan, senior director of the GCR Mobile Team Unit at Microsoft China, let loose the rumor that an avalanche of new Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Acer, Toshiba, HP and more will be released in the waning months of 2009. Carriers who have jumped on board this Window Mobile bonanza include AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMO, Softbank Mobile,  SKT, Telstra and Telus. Bottom line: no matter where you are located or what you prefer in a smartphone, there will apparently be a Windows Phone to suit your needs in 2009.

Read

Acer’s long awaited high-end Windows Mobile handset is rumored to finally be ready for launch on October 6th. Not coincidentally, this is the official roll out date of Windows Mobile 6.5 as you well know by now, and it looks like Acer wants in on the action just like everyone else. As a refresher, the F1 will feature a 3.8-inch WVGA display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, GPS, FM Tuner, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s expected to debut for £295 ($482USD), making the F1 an extremely wallet-friendly option as far as full featured Windows Phones are concerned.

[Via PhoneArena]

Read

Acer’s upcoming handsets made their debut at Computex in Taiwan and well, we just don’t ever seem to get tired of seeing “Snapdragon” listed in a handset’s specs. The F1 is the top of the line model featuring a 3.8-inch WVGA display, the coveted 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 300MB available storage memory (ROM), 89MB available program memory (RAM), 5 megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, GPS, FM Tuner, 3.5mm headphone jack and Windows Mobile 6.5. The L1 and C1 are entry level smartphones with the L1 being a slider and the C1 a full touchscreen device. The L1 features a 2.8-inch 240×400 touchscreen display, a 5 way navigational button, 12 key numeric keypad and Windows Mobile 6.5. The C1 also features 2.8-inch 240×400 touchscreen with handwriting recognition, 528MHz processor, 2 megapixel fixed focus camera, microSD expansion, built-in stylus, and Windows Mobile 6.5. All three handsets are slated for release later this year. Hit the jump for some snapshots of the L1 and C1.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

Read

There were rumors going around not long ago about more subsidized netbooks making their way over to AT&T. Well, it looks like AT&T is about to start offering the Acer Aspire One 10.1″ netbook complete with integrated AT&T 3G access via a partnership with Costco. Costco employees are currently being trained for the launch and according to the info we received, the preparation comes to a head on May 8th. As for the netbook itself, it will become availble beginning May 11th. We’re pretty sure the Acers will be available from both AT&T retail stores and Costco electronics kiosks, just like Radio Shack’s current AT&T netbook. No word yet on pricing but look for it to line up just above the 8.9″ model currently available from Radio Shack.