Adobe Ditches Macworld Expo

“‘Adobe has decided to shift its focus at the Macworld trade show this year,’ the company said in a statement given to Macworld. ‘Macworld is a valuable industry show and we will still be an active part of it with members of our product team involved in Macworld tracks, including a full day of CS4 demo sessions with Adobe evangelists on Wednesday, January 7.’” [Link]

Microsoft "I'm A PC" Ads Made On Macs

John Hodgman and Justin Long in Apple Mac ads

“Turns out that phase two of the ‘I’m a PC ‘ advertising counterattack against Apple was… created on a Mac. … The offending evidence was metadata found in the images of the PC user featured on the ‘I’m a PC’ web site. The data exposed the fact that the images were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3.” [Link]

Acer Unveils High Def Gemstone Blue Laptops

Acer on Wednesday launched a radical overhaul of its Aspire notebook line targeted at the high-end notebook market normally occupied by companies such as Apple and Sony. Nicknamed the Gemstone Blue, the new design centers around a deluxe media console known as the CineDash: the touch-sensitive control lets users navigate music, videos, and menus without having to resort to the trackpad. Each system also sports a unique “weave” finish and an advanced speaker system that generates virtual Dolby 5.1-channel surround, including a 10-watt subwoofer. The two systems being released today are also the first notebooks anywhere to ship with a true 16:9 ratio display. Both the 16-inch Aspire 6920 and 18.4-inch Aspire 8920G can output at the same 1080p (1920×1080) resolution of Blu-ray or an HDTV tuner (options on both models) and are fast enough at 8ms to avoid the ghosting artifacts that surface on many notebook LCDs. [Link]