Acer has released European versions of its new Palm OS devices. And with Palm OS 5-style high-res color screens, expansion cards, mp3 playback, and voice recording, boy do they look slick.
Acer has released details on their newest Palm OS devices, this time in English. Acer is currently the only Palm OS licensee to make Chinese language devices, but has also quietly released English versions of many of their devices. And now they've done it again, with European versions of the new s50 and s60, already available in Chinese.
 | The Acer s60 has more audio features than any other Palm OS device
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The s50 and s60 have identical dimensions, measuring 122 x 78 x 13 mm and weighing only 153 grams. Both devices are built around a 33 MHz Dragonball VZ processor, 16 MB of RAM, and 4 MB Flash ROM to hold the OS. The screen is a 320x320 pixel 12-bit color TFT display. Despite being Dragonball-based, the s50 and s60 will apparently be the first devices to use the new Palm OS 5 HighRes API, which is different from Sony's HighRes API. It also includes a scroll wheel, auxiliary button on the side, and a Sony Memory Stick slot. Acer is the only non-Sony company currently using Memory Stick flash cards. The s50 also include removable Lithium Ion battery packs, the first Palm OS devices to do so since the HandEra 330 debued last year. It does not appear to accept AAA batteries, however, just removable LiIon batteries. The battery for the s60 is not removable.
Both devices run Palm OS 4.1, and come with the usual assortment of Palm OS applications as well as Intellisync Lite. HotSync support is provided via USB, through Acer's own serial port design.
The s60 also includes more audio features than any other Palm OS device on the market today. Many of Sony's CLIE devices include mp3 playback, and the newer ones also include an enhansed speaker capable of playing mp3 audio. The HandEra 330 includes a voice recorder capable of recording voice memos. The S60, however, include all three features; voice recording, high quality speaker, and mp3 decoding, making it the most audio-capable Palm OS device available. The s50 does not include the audio support.
Both devices use a ROM image that will allow the user to select English, French, German, or Italian language when the device is first activated. No shipping date has been announced yet, nor is the price known.
A high resolution picture of the s50/s60 is available on the following page.
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