The Acer Guy

Quick post this one.

Over on TheAcerGuy YouTube page, several people have written comments asking how good the Gemstone Blue notebooks are for gaming.

For example, panzeram wrote this:

…is this thing any good for gaming, the one available in my area has an Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT 512MB, but will the huge resolution cause any problems?

I refuse to answer these questions as I’ve never seen a game on either the 6920 or 8920, so who am I to say??

But I know that some of you have, so I’m asking you: How good is the Gemstone Blue for games?

I’m looking around for user reviews/discussions and so far have come up with these:

Acer Aspire 8920G 18.4-inch Display Notebook–Hot Times in Brooklyn - The Acer Aspire 8920G was recently introduced at a local discount store. A salesman at the store knows what a fanatic I am for innovation. We are on a first name basis and when it came in, he called me.

Need help on buying Blu-ray Laptop - I am looking forward to buy my first Laptop and have researched alot but I am confused whether Acer Gemstone 8920, Sony Vaio AR or Dell XPS M1730… what would be the right choice for me…. :- Mostly I would use it for Complete Home …

Acer Aspire 8920G (AS8920-6671) Review - Acer’s new Gemstone Blue line—more specifically, the Aspire 8920G—breaks the mold in more ways than one. Its 16:9, 18.4-inch screen offers true 1080p widescreen resolution; it’s the first notebook to break the True 5.1 Dolby sound …

Acer Aspire 8920-6671 - With Blu-ray and a true 1080p display, the 18-inch Acer Aspire 8920 is a…

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Haven’t written anything for a while because I’ve been behind the scenes preparing for the next wave of Acer products.

I’m finishing the text for the mini-sites that will then have to be rapidly translated into a million languages so the pressure’s on. Never a dull moment…

We’re thinking of doing our own videos this time although in true AcerGuy style, I wish I could get you guys out there to make your own.

Tell you what, if you send me a video of you saying what you’d like Acer to make, if you’re right I’ll edit them into one long string of requests that we could use as a viral video.

You could do it with your OrbiCam, or sign up to Seesmic, or YouTube or wherever you like.

The sentence you have to finish is this:

You’re going to have to be quick as it’s just around the corner but it’d be amazing to see the results.

Any offers..? ideas..?

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Don’t know about you but every now and then I need to remind myself publicly that this site’s worth developing.

Over the past year and a half I’ve *met* more Acer customers than in ten years writing for them. I’ve learned more about what does - and doesn’t - work than I could have possibly dreamed of. And I’ve come to love the conversations we have.

As a matter of fact I think I’d go as far as saying I now write better marketing material because I know who I’m writing to.

That’s right, although I’m still paid to give products names and create, develop and push through what the Cluetrain Manifesto rightfully refers to as “mass produced messages”, those same messages are now written with the same care and consideration as any one of these posts.

I know Christopher Locke would laugh (or worse) but they are no longer faceless, they are primed with the conversations I’ve been having with you since this blog started.

A quarter of a million conversations to be exact.

I challenge anyone to say they’ve had a quarter of a million conversations with customers and not to feel any different about what they do.

Even if I’d really like to develop these conversations further in more places online and in different formats, what I do for Acer is particularly important right now and will continue to be so for the near future, and I’m happy and proud to be a part of that.

Yet there’s a really big difference between online and offline realities.

One of the most controversial things I think I can say here is that while it’s positively enlivening to have conversations with the outside world, every now and then it’s really, *really* difficult to find the same kind of openness and collaboration inside.

Today I was bullied by a senior product manager who doesn’t entirely agree with my way of re-writing Acer’s values. Although they haven’t been officially released, the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted some repeating patterns in the mini-sites of the latest products.

I don’t mind people disagreeing with my opinions, if anything it’s a great opportunity for discussion and a priceless occasion for improvement, particularly if you’re on the same team.

But when the disagreement is absolute and phonecalls are made to powerful offices because power used like a bludgeon is the only instrument that gets things done, what hope is there for advancement?

Going back to Acer’s values, what we’re trying to do is simplify the way we talk but that inevitably means that the faceless, techno-babble of the past is replaced by real language, real emotions and, hey, real benefits.

Sounds like it came straight from the Plain English Campaign and in a sense it is, as the shift from the Acer you knew to the Acer you’re going to love is all about simplification.

And although shift happens, sometimes as today’s phone call just goes to prove, it’s painful(ly slow).

Yet TheAcerGuy is place where conversations have been very real from day one. It’s reached a point where, thanks to people like Morris Lee, you now talk amongst yourselves. I couldn’t have wished for a happier ending…

A quarter of a million thanks to all of you for participating.

A quarter of a million conversations has also brought this site popularity. No I’m not talking about women’s knickers thrown through the car window on the way to work, but it’s been picked up by a television network.

A few weeks ago I started getting mails from people who’d seen me on The Lab with Leo Laporte.

And who said mainstream media still didn’t count? I must have received at least 30 more visits. Joking aside, I finally tracked down the episode and in the hope I don’t get a cease and desist order, have put it up for all to see.

As David Churbuck artfully put it the other day, FIDO

Hope someone in Acer sees this. Some more than others….

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Any of you own a Gemstone Blue 8920?

Have you found a bag for it?

In an amazing oversight , Acer seems to have forgotten that people actually like to lug portable computers around and don’t have a custom bag big enough for it (yet?).

I’ve been getting requests from customers about this and can’t come up with anything. My only suggestion was Timbuk2 but apparently they don’t make one big enough either.

If you have found something big enough for the 8920 can you post it on the comments section here please? It’ll help a lot of people avoid a lot of scratches.

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