WIth their Blu-ray-playing AX3200 desktop PC and accompanying 24-inch, 1080p monitor, Acer just released two affordable, HD-friendly products at a combined price that sits just over $US1000. With the compact dimensions of around 10"x4"x14", the AX3200 desktop has 2.1 GHZ AMD Phenom X3 8450 processor, HDMI-out, Dolby Home Theatre 5.1 sound and nine USB ports. A 640 GB HDD, multi-card reader and 4 GB RAM round out the internal specs for the Windows Vista machine.

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The WiMax Acer Aspire One hasn't even been announced yet (UPDATE: actually, it just was), but Laptop Magazine got their hands on a model and got to poke and prod it to their hearts' content. So how did browsing the web on a tiny WiMax notebook work? Pretty decently.

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Sprint's Xohm WiMax network got extra super official today with a party and all, so laptop makers are tossing out confetti in the form of WiMax-enabled notebooks. Here's what you've got to pick from. Acer dropped a pair of Aspire cheapies in 14- and 16-inch sizes, while Asus's 14 and 15-inchers are a bit mo' better for a bit mo' money. Oh, there's more.

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Now that the Baltimore's XOHM network is up and running, companies are scrambling to release WiMAX-enabled notebooks to capitalise on faster-than-EVDO internet. One of the first out the door is Acer, with two new WiMAX sporting Aspires. The Aspire 4930 comes with a 14.1-inch 1280x800 resolution CrystalBrite screen, 3GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a webcam, and retails for $900. The 6930 is all that (including the $US900 price point), but with a 16-inch screen instead. Both use Intel's Centrino 2-based WiMAX/Wi-Fi modules. Happy on-the-go downloading!

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Nine of the top ten selling notebooks on Amazon right now are netbooks. (The other spot is taken by Apple.) Call them underpowered, complain about their screens, but there's a reason why every PC manufacturer in the world has jumped on the netbook bandwagon.

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According to BGR, The 8.9" Aspire One netbook is expected to be available with integrated 3G starting this November in Taiwan. The upgrade will cost an additional US$95 over the standard model, but there is no word on when we might see a similar bundle arriving in the States. However, integrated 3G was always part of the plan, so with any luck we won't have to wait too long. On a related note, jkOnTheRun spotted a Japanese newspaper flyer that appears to offer a similar bundle with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and the HP 2133 along with a US$370 subsidy when users sign up for a two-year 3G plan with Emobile. [BGR and jkOnTheRun]

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Acer's Aspire One was already one of the most affordable 8.9" mini-notebooks on the market, but now they've gone and dropped the price further while adding a 6-cell battery version to the mix. The Windows XP version (120GB hard drive and 1GB RAM has been reduced US$50 from US$400 to US$350. Their Linux system (8GB SSD and 512MB RAM) dropped US$50 as well from US$380 to US$330. Oh, and those of you wanting the 6-cell system can pick it up for the old price of the 3-cell, US$400. So is Acer worried about the competition from a potentially US$300 Dell system? We don't know, but we sure do like seeing prices going down for once. And for the time being, the Aspire One is probably the best deal in the mini-notebook market. [Laptop]

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This is quite possibly one of the meanest looking computers you will ever lay your eyes on. The Aspire Predator from Acer is their top of the line gaming machine, meant to aid you in your quest to destroy anything and everything that stands in your way, from Alien hordes to Danny Glover.

The front panel mechanically rotates up to expose the glorious innards, from hot-swappable HDDs to USB ports. Behind the connections (in the belly of the beast, perhaps?) you're inundated with the highest possible tech available, from the 4TB of hard disk space to the 8GB of RAM. The entire thing is powered by an Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor with 1333MHz FSB, while a two-way enabled NVIDIA SLI takes care of the graphics.

There's also liquid cooling and dual Gigabit LAN technology to completely eradicate lag from your fragfests.

Needless to say, all this tech will cost a pretty penny, and that pretty panny adds up to be $4,500. But if you're serious about your PC gaming, how can you really afford to not own one of these machines?

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Last weekend we wrote about MSI's now available 6-cell battery laptop, the Wind, so it seems only fitting that one week later we bring news of Acer's new Aspire One battery (also 6-cell). The battery is not available just yet, but a forum member at Liliputing found a picture and a price: US$120. As Liliputing notes, that's almost 1/3 as much as the computer's US$380 price tag. Pretty steep for more battery life on a super cheap laptop, but we're with Lilliputing in hoping Acer offers a future version of the Aspire One that comes bundled with the 6-cell, for a more reasonable price. [Liliputing]

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Gateway will now no longer be selling its PCs through Gateway.com and has shut down all its direct PC sales to become a 100% retail channel PC company. The move is only somewhat surprising--its newish parent company Acer has always focused on offering its goods through resellers. But seeing how Gateway was one of the original success stories for the selling PCs directly to consumers model, the shuttering of its online store is a little like the death knell of an era. [Cnet]

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