Acer has introduced a new line of multimedia laptops with a feature I haven’t seen before: You can remove the touchpad and use it as a touchscreen remote control.
The Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G and 5951G are big, expensive laptops. They’re not the sort of computers we typically mention on Liliputing. But the touchpad/remote concept is so cool I had to share it.
There’s a orientation sensor built into the touchpad, allowing you to hold it in landscape or portrait orientation. The remote has on-screen buttons for controlling media playback including what appear to be play and pause buttons and icons you can tap to bring up on-screen menus and other features.
If you’re sitting right in front of your computer, a removable touchpad that doubles as a remote might seem a bit silly. But if you plan to hook up your computer to an HD display, it could certainly come in handy. Then again, the Aspire Ethos 8951G has an 18.4 inch, 1080p display, so maybe you could just set it up across the room, sit down on your couch, and use the laptop as your home theater, no external display required.
via PC World
On the MediaRemote there is no way to disable click-to-tap, making this a very difficult laptop to use.
If you only want to play media, buy a TV. If you want to type, buy a different notebook than the Acer 8951G.
Range, battery time, supported OSes?