In addition to letting us get our hands on all its IFA announcements today, Acer pulled back the curtain on a concept device. The Acer Extend prototype works similarly to the ASUS Padfone, letting you connect your smartphone to a clamshell-style dock with a display, keyboard and a 6,000mAh battery to recharge your handset.
For the purposes of the demo, a modified version of Acer's Liquid E2 smartphone was connected to the Extend dock via an MHL cable, though company reps said a market-ready version could include a retractable cord. Even more compelling, though, would be a wireless, Bluetooth-based solution.
In addition to offering much more screen real estate than a phone, the dock solution nets you a full-size, tactile keyboard, and Acer's optimized this island-style layout to work with a smartphone's operating system. To that end, there are buttons for Mail, WiFi, Bluetooth and more -- more or less the options you'll find in and Android phone's Settings menu. Though the keyboard is tailored to a smartphone interface, the Extend lets you view apps such as Gmail in tablet format, meaning you'll reap the full benefits of the larger display. There's also a full-size touchpad on board.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/03/a...&ncid=rss_semi
Acer Extend concept is a smartphone workstation
4th September 2013, 08:12
Acer Extend concept is a smartphone workstation 
