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Acer will release a new laptop to coincide with Thursday’s Windows 7 launch that can display movies and games in 3D while allowing everyday applications to appear in their usual 2D format.

The Aspire 5738DG has a 15.6-inch 3D screen, as well as software and special glasses from a company called TriDef to enable the 3D experience. The laptop, a powerful desktop replacement, delivers images “that literally pop from the screen,” according to Acer.

The TriDef system displays 3D content such as movies and games, and can also take standard 2D content and make it appear 3D, Acer said. TriDef also sells software called TriDef 3-D Experience through its Web site, which makes programs like Google Earth appear in 3D.

To make watching 3D movies more compelling, Acer has built Dolby surround sound into the laptop. Users can also run common applications like spreadsheets and e-mail programs in 2D.

Since its introduction at movie theaters decades ago, 3D has made its way into TVs, webcams, binoculars and other products. Nvidia offers a product for PCs called 3D Vision, a hardware and software package that brings 3D images to desktops.

Acer’s laptop weighs a hefty 6.16 pounds (2.79 kilograms) and runs on a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor, with 2MB of performance-boosting cache memory. The TriDef 3D screen has a special coating that reduces the need for a separate graphics card to process 3D content.

Instead, the Acer laptop has integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics with support for 512MB of dedicated video memory. It runs on Microsoft’s new Windows 7 Home Premium OS, which is launching Thursday. It comes with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networking and supports up to 4GB of RAM and 320GB of hard-drive storage.

The laptop will be available through retail stores on Thursday, Acer said. It didn’t announce any plans for international availability.

Next week Microsoft was supposed to be in the spotlight with the launch of Windows 7, but the way it’s shaping up Apple could steal the limelight. With Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch only days a way, sales of Apple Macs are by far outshining those of Windows PCs, according to two leading analyst firms.

In spite of a bleak economy, overall PC sales in the United States are actually finally starting to bounce back a bit, stepping up 2.5 percent from September of 2008 to last month, according to numbers released by the Gartner Group. IDC came up with a slightly higher number of 3.9 percent.

But sales of Apple Macs are up higher, to the tune of 6.8 percent, according to Gartner. IDC paints a rosier picture reporting Apple sales up 11.8 percent.

Is the Mac’s purported stronger security helping to spur sales? Did the celebration of the Mac’s 25th birthday back in January have anything to do with this? Are Mac loyalists simply more affluent or recession-resistant than other PC users? Even the analysts are baffled as to why.

But apparently, Apple plans to take full advantage of its resurgent status with a marketing campaign set to coincide with the official release of Winows 7. According to Apple Insider, the upcoming blitz will harp on the upgrade process from Windows XP to 7, while also portraying Macs as less prone to viruses.

It wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if Microsoft anticipated Apple’s attack. After all, back at the end of September, Microsoft gave a green light to small PC makers to start selling Windows 7 PCs on October 13. Hey, that was two days ago

Sony has unveiled the official specs for its super-slim Sony Vaio X series laptops, which the company was showing off last month at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The specs are pretty close to what was predicted, but there are a few surprises–including a lower-than-expected price. Sony also detailed its upcoming Vaio CW series laptops, which are less expensive than the X series.
The Sony Vaio X is sure to turn heads, with its carbon fiber body weighing in at 1.6 pounds. At only 0.55-inches thick, the new Vaio X is a little bit thinner than the recently announced Dell Latitude Z, and a lot lighter than most ultra-slim notebooks.
You will have to make some trade offs for the Vaio X’s sleek chassis, though, starting with its puny 11.1-inch LED backlit screen with 1366 x 768 resolution. By comparison, the MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch diagonal screen and the Dell Latitude Z sports a whopping 16-inch display. As for the processor, Sony will only say it’s a 2.0 GHz Intel chip. Early speculation said the Vaio X would come with an Atom processor, which would make the Vaio X’s processor the Atom Z550, but that is only speculation.
The Vaio X ships with Windows 7, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 64GB solid-state drive, multi-touch trackpad, Memory Stick Duo and SD card slots, GPS (works in the U.S. and Canada only), Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluetooth connectivity, 2 X USB 2.0 ports, and MOTION EYE Webcam. The Vaio X also comes with built-in 3G capability, which requires a Verizon wireless broadband subscription. Available colors include black and gold. The Vaio X’s body is made of carbon fiber, but the top case around the trackpad and keyboard is aluminum.
Sony Vaio X pricing starts at $1300, which is much lower than Sony’s claim last month that they Vaio X would be priced under $2000. The Vaio X will start shipping in November and can be found on Sonystyle.com right now.
CW Series
For something a little cheaper you can try the Sony Vaio CW on for size. This laptop runs Windows 7, and features an optional Blu-ray drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce dedicated graphics card, 320GB hard drive and HDMI out, which Sony says will allow you to playback high-definition content on your big screen TV. Available colors include fiery red, poppy pink, icy white, jet black and indigo purple.
The Vaio CW series starts at $780, but looking around on Sony’s Website, the cheapest version I could find of the model described above started at $800. The CW Series will be available at the end of this month, likely after the Windows 7 launch on October 22