Hoping to steal a march on Apple Computer Inc in the fun-and-games department, Acer Group of Taiwan has introduced the Personal Activity Center in the US, claiming that it unites computing and consumer electronics features into a single, integrated system for office use and communication, education and entertainment: it combines telephony, facsimile, stereo system features and a CD-ROM drive and other multimedia functions with a host of pre-loaded office applications, on-line tutorials and reference guides on CD-ROM in an 80386SX-based personal computer; functions include digital answering machine, built-in telephone, facsimile, data mode, AM and FM receiver, eight-channel mixer and alarm clock – what, no microwave oven? – and a StartSmart feature automatically switches the thing on to receive a facsimile or a phone call, and switches it off again in completion; SaveSmart captures data when the machine is being used and stores it for instant recall when the system is turned off, returning to the point where it left off when the user switches on again; it has MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, Microsoft Works for Windows, Multimedia Edition, integrated office software and audio tutorial, Microsoft Bookshelf with the American Heritage Dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, Hammond Atlas, Concise Columbia Encyclopaedia and Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Prodigy viewdata software, a set of Microsoft’s games, Delrina Corp’s WinFAX software for sending and receiving facsimile messages all bundled; the built-in 2,400bps modem is compatible with those of Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc, and the Group III-compatible fax feature sends at 9,600bps and receives at 4,800bps; it uses a 20MHz processor and comes with 4Mb and 130Mb disk, and is expected to cost $2,300 to $2,700.
