I was invited to a pretty unique media/blog tech event in May. This was the Manila launch of Acer’s Aspire Timeline series which was held last May 25 while cruising on board the M/V Spirit of Manila in Manila Bay. Well, it’s not often that you get a chance to ride a boat and see Metro Manila from the sea so I grabbed this opportunity (taking a half-day leave from the office in the process). The pips from Acer joked that they did the cruise idea so that they’re guaranteed a “captive” audience. Heh.

The Aspire Timeline series

For this post, I want to focus more on the event rather than the product that was launched. If you really want to learn more about the Aspire Timeline series, there’s tons of information on the Web so there’s no need for me to parrot the specs and all. But one thing I will mention is that I really like this series of laptops!

Before going to the event itself, I researched a bit about the laptops and found that the reviews were generally quite positive with the 8-hour battery life being the most touted feature. During the event itself, I got more acquainted with these babies and learned that the 14.0″ (4810T) and 13.3″ (3810T) models in particular both cost less than 50k pesos. Since my current laptop set me back about 47.5k back in 2006, I think that Acer has a winner. My laptop was on the lower end of the specs spectrum in 2006 while Acer’s laptops seem to be on the higher end, so at that price point, my objective assessment is that the Timeline laptops are definitely drool-worthy.

A sunset cruise down Manila Bay

Compared to the ASUS media event I attended the year before, Acer definitely knows how to wow its audience. The launch happened in the late afternoon so we got to have pretty nice snaps of famed Manila Bay sunset. One thing I was surprised to discover is that cross of the Mt. Samat Shrine is quite visible from Manila. Who would’ve thought?

Shown to the right is the map of the path the M/V Spirit of Manila took along Manila Bay. Being the map geek that I am I used my GPS-enabled phone to record the movement of the boat. The trip started at Harbour Centre/Manila Yacht Club at the CCP Complex, went down south all the way to SM Mall of Asia then went back north. Since the event wasn’t finished when the boat got within the vicinity of the Yacht Club, we took a loop northwards towards the American Embassy.

Before the presentations began, we were regaled with songs from the hired band. Unsurprisingly, somebody requested “Careless Whisper”. I recorded the second half of the song on video, but thought that it was too corny to upload it on YouTube. Just holler if you want me to upload it anyway.

After the songs and some dinner, Acer gave short presentations about their products. Intel Philippines was also there to talk about their CULV (ultra-low-voltage) processors which powers the Acer machines and which is the main reason why they have long battery lives. (I wanted to ask the reps from Intel about the closure of their Philippine manufacturing operations but I chickened out.) So in a sense, this launch was a joint Acer-Intel affair. Some reporter coyly asked Intel what other laptops—Acer or otherwise—will be launched with their CULV processors but they evaded the question. Hehehe.

Articles elsewhere

I’ve collected below all of the links to other articles on the Web that I can find that were directly related to this blog/media event should you wish to get more varied perspectives.

• “ACER Timeline Launch: The Ultrathin Battle is Joined”, blog post by Jayvee Fernandez.

• “Acer Aspire Timeline Is Part of My Wish List”, blog post by Sharlyne Ang

• “Acer Aspire Timeline”, blog post by Karla Redor

• “At the Acer Timeline Cruise event…”, photoblog entry by Markku Seguerra

• “Acer Timeline laptops unveiled in Manila”, actual article by Markku

• “Let me play on an Acer Aspire Timeline!”, blog post by Joel Tan, who couldn’t make it to the event

• “Acer launches Aspire Timeline laptops in the Philippines with Intel’s CULV processor”, blog article by David Gonzales

• “Acer Aspire Timeline revolutionizes laptop landscape”, PC World Philippine feature article

Crappy cellphone photos

Below are some pictures I took that day. The rest can be found in Flickr.