The Acer Guy

No, I haven’t been abducted by Hungarian Apple-fans.

I’ve been busy going over and over the wireframes of the new site as I don’t want the forum to disappear off the front page and also want to give (some of) you guys the freedom to add articles of your own. I’ve mentioned the fact that the goal of this site is to build a bridge between Acer and the outside world and the outside world and Acer a number of times in the past and in designing the new and improved Acer Guy site, I’ve kept my word.

So the problem looks a little bit like this:

But the simply brilliant Peter over at The Blog Studio is a man on a mission and understands how to weave these loose ends into a coherent whole.

It looks like it’ll work. Or at least I think you’ll agree it’s worth a try. So expect to see an update soon. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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It’s coming up to 5:30am on Friday and the Global Press Conference has now come to a close. I’m (understandably) very tired but it’s all been worth it. I personally think it was a resounding success but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Clearly this year, the fact that there are now three companies (and four brands – Acer, Gateway, Packard Bell and eMachines) under the Acer “umbrella” makes whatever story Acer has to tell a lot more interesting.

The name we gave the event, was “Shaping the Future”. The point here was not only to illustrate Acer’s idea of its products and the impact they have but also to talk about how these four brands can coexist and “shape” a common future together.

So one of the hot topics was what Acer calls its “Multibrand Strategy”. Essentially, Acer has no intention of shutting down or merging the brands into one massive whole. Rather the idea is to develop specific products for specific targets in specific regions.

In other words, Acer could, say, become a “technological” brand with products made to satisfy specific needs, while Packard Bell and Gateway would occupy another market segment with, for instance, more fashion-oriented products, Packard Bell in Europe and Gateway in the US (including Canada and South America) and also in Asia.

I invite you to read the press release on this subject if you want to official version of what they have in mind.

In the afternoon there were individual sessions with each of the three brands exploring their own specific role within the group. I got to meet some wonderful people including the ever-friendly Hugues Gontier, Marketing & Communication Director for Packard Bell, Mark Hill, vice president of U.S. channel sales and Gary Elsasser, former vice president of Gateway computers and now Vice President of the stationary Business Unit, IT products and Global Operations who not only was a really friendly guy but also gave a great presentation of products I’m sorry we wont see in Europe. Blame it on strategy…

Then all hell broke loose.

Once the main event had finished, of course we were free to let out hair down and enjoy the gala dinner. Usually these things are the most boring, soul-sapping events but this evening was organized in the old railway museum in Budapest and to get there we had a short ride on the Orient Express which was I must say pretty damned amazing.

I was lucky enough to find myself at the table with some amazing people including Denis Vitchevsky from Walla! Computers and Gal Nedivi, both from Israel, Roger L. Kay from Endpoint Technologies Associates, and Rob Enderle from the Enderle Group who not only were wonderful dinner companions but also gave some pretty good advice on the future of the Acer Guy. Roger in particular, was instrumental in me deciding that I need to get my “house” in order. Don’t remember the last time I had so much fun at dinner.

Tomorrow (in a few hours - actually) we finally get some time to see Budapest and then it’s back home. Great event. Great evening. Great people.

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Hello everybody.

If you’re wondering where on earth I’ve been lately well I can start showing you.

Tomorrow morning at 10am there will be the 2008 Acer Global Press Conference here in Budapest and in addition to the weeks of planning and writing (and re-writing), we’ve spent the best part of today getting everything ready.

It’s been an exhausting day but it’s a lot of fun too. I got to meet a bunch of people (journalists) who dissed me about this site both on the plane and at lunch so it’s not all roses. Great thoughts though…

OK, I thought I’d post a couple of backstage pics to show you what’s in store tomorrow. It’s not finished yet but we’re up at dawn (6am) tomorrow to make final adjustments. When we left at midnight, the technicians were still mounting the stage lights…

If you want to see more, head on over to my Flickr page and check out the Budapest Set.

Oh, and I promise I’ll get round to answering your mails once this week-end’s over…

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In the first of the “How to…” series of videos, I look at how to set up a Recovery Flash Drive from the Aspire One’s Recovery DVD and then how to do the actual recovery.

Before any of you comment, no I don’t have the fastest-booting Acers on the planet - the boot up/down times have been edited to fit into the video.

Hope it helps.

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Of all the video reviews I’ve published, Morris’s have been the most in-depth.

Morris came from absolutely nowhere (well Canada) and has, I think many of you agree, helped as many people as Simone has. He’s tireless, extremely informed and a total geek

However, once the Aspire One was launched, we ran into a problem. Suddenly, very specific questions were being asked and Morris couldn’t answer them because he didn’t have an Aspire One.

Well, thanks to some serious help from Peter at Staples Canada and an unhealthy dose of generosity on my part, I bought him one, as much to thank him for all he’s done for TheAcerGuy and to give him the raw material he needs to continue being so damned helpful.

I think you’ll all agree he deserved it.

So, once you’re through with his review, feel free to bombard him with questions

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While I try to get my head (and camera) around making these “How to…” videos and upload them into the all-new Acer Guy site which I’m rushing to get published, I came across this amazing site which any of you thinking of tinkering with your Aspire One should definitely bookmark.

Thanks to lornajane for bringing it to my attention in the first place and kudos to Jorge Barrera Grandon for putting it together in one, easy-to-read page.

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I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do this and I think this is a good place to start.

Several people have suggested that the new version of TheAcerGuy have a section called “How to…” with detailed instructions on how to perform particular tasks (setting up recovery disks, installing applications on the Aspire One, etc.) with printable instructions, that sort of thing.

OK, today I had a long and very pleasant conversation with Simone and the way we see it, we have to draw a line (albeit a thin one) between what Acer can officially sanction (the How to… section) and all the other weird and wonderful tweaks that exist out there but blow your warranties out the window. (the forum section).

So where do we start? Well, I’d like you to help me draw up a list of your favourite applications that you can’t live without.

What I find happening from the many mails I’ve received asking for help is that people are buying the Aspire One and want to set it up the same way they have their laptops. That means the same programs, same plugins and because the Aspire One is not exactly a friendly environment to install new stuff on (I’m talking about Real player plugins), well, that’s where we might be able to help.

Which brings me to this list. I have a few programs that I want and need to install on my Aspire One and am going to find out whether it’s possible. If it is, I will make a video showing you how I did it so that you can do the same.

But as this is all about you and not me, I’d also like to hear about the applications you think it needs. Again, I’ll do the homework and then post the results.

Here’s my shortlist so far:

- Skype
- Vodafone Mobile Connect (3G connectivity)
- Real Player
- VLC player
- SHOUTcast broadcasting software

What do you need?

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Found this great video showing how to get into the advanced mode on the Aspire One.

Please remember these words of warning, however, as the description to the video states:

Walkthrough of how to activate the “advanced mode” in the Linpus OS on the Acer Aspire One. Proceed at your own risk, it is easy to mess up settings if you play around with them a lot!

Thanks to denial for posting the link (and for all the other tips).

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I’ve received a few mails from people who haven’t yet bought an Aspire One who are being put off by reports that the wireless connectivity is a little flaky.

In particular, the concerns regard an article posted on the Acer Aspire One User Forum.

I asked Simone for his input on the subject and his reply was:

On the one reported occasion when this happened, it was resolved by performing a Live Update, yet the forum says that after recovery with CD / USB key the system no longer sees the wireless connection or doesn’t allow it to work, so this is another issue entirely.

In any case I believe the problem will soon be brought to the attention of Acer.

For now, I can’t add much more. Here in the lab I have preload Version 1.0.3.E in Italian and have never had this problem and the 4 samples that have come and gone functioned perfectly.

I would ask, however, all clients of the Aspire One to have the following information on hand when they contact Acer:

1- BIOS version
2- Operating System version (both are in “Settings” “Information”)
3- Proof that Live update has been performed: this can be done by clicking on the search icon and entering “*.log” and then selecting “desktop”, hit “enter” or click on the icon to start searching.
On the search results page, select “file system” unless it’s not already loaded and click on “search”
Among the many files there’s one (usually the second from the top) called: installed-success.log

This file records all the updates performed by LiveUpdate and it’s EXTREMELY USEFUL for us to have a copy of this file or a copy of the content.

Important:
Some users will have found inconsistent or even different contents when comparing their Aspire One installed-success.log files to others. It all depends on what language the operating system uses and the version of the operating system used in the preload. That’s why Mr. Rossi in Italy will have one patch while Mr. White from the UK does not and vice versa.
The moral of the story: YOUR OWN PERSONAL LOG FILE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS.

So Live Update seems to be working overtime at the moment and obviously the learning curve for perfection is pretty steep but it’s good to know that the Acer has every intention of improving this product on a daily basis. Fingers crossed this issue gets cleaned up definitively in the next few days.

For the record, both the pre-production model I “borrowed” and the one I bought have not had these problems at all. In fact, in a video I’m still editing you can see me take the Aspire One out of the box, attach the battery and cables and go online within 5 minutes.

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I’ve been getting mails from Aspire One users who are unable to log in to Messenger with their Aspire One.

I’ve asked Acer support for an explanation and there is one.

“Microsoft has changed the protocol to login to their servers and our application needs to be updated - it should be ready in the next three days. Updates will be available from the Live Update service”.

So keep your eyes open for an update, OK?

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