Regan Kaczon blog

Acer's Biggest Problem: Invisibility

s trouble brewing at . stepped down Thursday as president and CEO of the Taiwan-based computer giant, which is struggling with declining revenue and sagging interest in its products in the key US and Western Europe markets. Analysts say the company needs to focus less on conventional PCs and more on where the action is:smartphones and tablets, two categories in which Acer is woefully trailing the pack.

An April 1sthas a stunning statistic:Apple had a 21.5 percent profit margin in its last fiscal year, while Acer's was a measly 2.3 percent.

This shows that Acer, like its Windows PC counterparts, is competing mostly on price in the consumer laptop arena.(It also suggests that folks who pay $2,500 for a top-of-the-line, 17-inchare getting seriously fleeced, but that's a story for another time.)

What can Acer do to distinguish itself?Being less boring would be a good start.I own an Acer laptop.It's a reasonably fast Windows 7 model with 4 gigs of memory, a 2.1GHz AMD processor, and a 320GB hard drive.I bought it on Amazon for $580--a great price.

My Acer laptop works just fine.That said, it's a generic piece of hardware that fails to stand out in a crowded market.Cover up the corporate logo with a piece of masking tape, and there's little to distinguish most Acer portables from similarly-priced Dell or HP machines.

Acer's decision to focus on netbooks--another generic, low-margin category--when consumers were snapping up iPads certainly hasn't helped the bottom line, either.

Where's The Cool Stuff?

It's not fair to call Acer boring because the company is building some innovative hardware.The problem is, you haven't heard much about it.

After dragging its feet in the tablet market, Acer this week finally introduced its Iconia Touchbook, a dual-screen tablet/notebook hybrid that will sell in the US and Canada for $1,200.Early reviews are mixed; PCWorld's reviewer , which lacks haptic feedback, but added that the Iconia was easier to type on than the iPad.

But hybrid products are a tough sell:too often they do multiple tasks poorly.And the Iconia's steep price tag won't sway customers shopping for a $500 tablet.

As for smartphones, yes, Acer makes them. At the Mobile World Congress in February, the company announced the , a high-end handset with a .It's unclear when the phone will ship, however, or what it will cost.

Acer expectsglobally this year, including the stylishand lower-costmodels, but it remains an also-ran in the North American smartphone market.

So maybe Acer's problem is that it's really bad at marketing.Its generic, PC-maker image isn't cutting it, and the company needs to make some bold moves to change course.With this week's managerial shuffling, it appears that's already happening.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter ) or at .

New ‘Superman’ Movie To Be Filmed In Chicago

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CHICAGO (CBS) Chicago has already stood in for Gotham City, and now it will also stand in for Metropolis as "Superman" comes to town.

With an estimated budget of $175 million, the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film is sure to give the Chicago area a boost, just like the city got from last summer's filming of "Transformers 3" and the Batman movies shot in Chicago in recent years.

Citing industry sources,that "Superman: Man of Steel" will be filmed in the Chicago area over the course of two or three months starting in August, and production will be centered in the Kendall County town of Plano.

You may remember most of the 2008 movie "The Dark Knight" and part of the 2005 movie "Batman Begins" were shot in Chicago. "The Dark Knight" added about $40 million to the local economy and went on to earn more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office.

Last summer, the shooting of "Transformers 3" turned downtown Chicago into a hot destination. The movie generated a $20 million impact to the local economy.

"They love our locations," Betsy Steinberg, Managing Director of the Illinois Film Office, told CBS 2 back in October. "They know we've got the infrastructure, and the tax credit seals the deal."

The fictional Metropolis was originally based on Toronto, the city which, ironically, stood in for Chicago in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and the musical "Chicago."

In the 1978 "Superman" movie, Metropolis was shown to be New York City, down to appearances by the Statue of Liberty, while in the 1990s television series "Lois and Clark," Chicago landmarks such as the Jon Hancock Center, the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower were often spotted,

In the 2006 movie "Superman Returns," Metropolis was depicted as a cross between New York City as it appeared in the 1930s and as it appears in the present-day.

Unlike Chicago, Metropolis is divided into six boroughs, centered on the borough of New Troy which is based on Manhattan. But like Chicago, Metropolis has a suburb called Park Ridge.

So who will play Superman? Taking over the role made famous by the great Christopher Reeve is 27-year-old British actor Henry Cavill, who is best known as Charles Brandon in the HBO series "The Tudors."

Image: Christopher Reeve's costume from "Superman" is seen on display at an auction at Christie's auction house December 16, 2003 in London. (Credit: Ian Walton/Getty Images)

Highlights of House GOP spending cuts

Budget proposals released Wednesday by House Republicans:

• Program eliminations:

AmeriCorps — was $373 million in 2010

Police hiring grants — $298 million

High speed rail — $1 billion

Family planning — $317 million

Corporation for Public Broadcasting — $531 million

• Reductions:

Food aid to pregnant women and their children — $407 million cut, or 6 percent

NASA — $103 million, 1 percent

Environmental Protection Agency — $1.9 billion, 18 percent

IRS — $106 million, 1 percent

Legal aid for the poor — $60 million, 14 percent

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — $894 million, 13 percent

Food and Drug Administration — $61 million, 3 percent

Community Development Fund — $600 million, 13 percent

Agricultural research — $246 million, 10 percent

• Increases:

National Science Foundation — $362 million increase, 6 percent

FBI — $292 million, 4 percent

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — $470 million, 10 percent

Global Debt Registry Releases White Paper by Daniel J. Langin Esq. on Verification of Debt Ownership

Attorney Daniel J. Langin looks at changes in court rules, regulations, and statutes driving Issuers and Debt Buyers to improve verification of debt ownership and reviews a solution being offered by Global Debt Registry.

Wilmington, DE (PRWEB) January 27, 2011

Global Debt Registry (GDR), a provider of accounts receivable titling solutions, announces the release of a free white paper “Introducing Certainty to Debt Buying: Account Chain-of-Title Verification for Debt” written by Attorney Daniel J. Langin.

As a result of changes in court rules, regulations, and statutes that require Issuers and Debt Buyers to prove ownership of accounts with greater documentation, the once predictable process of collecting charged off debt has now become less predictable and more uncertain. In this white paper, Attorney Daniel J. Langin outlines current legal challenges and provides insight on necessary changes and solutions. A must read for all issuers and buyers of debt.

To download the free white paper visit:

For more information contact Greg Ousley, CEO, Global Debt Registry at 866-660-2341, or visit .

About Global Debt RegistryGlobal Debt Registry delivers significant consumer protections as well as measurable ROI benefits to all participants in the Accounts Receivable Industry by providing the nation’s only proven, patent-pending AR titling solution. GDR’s customizable platform provides a comprehensive Data Integrity, Chain of Title, and Turnkey Media Management solution. GDR maintains the integrity of traded data and documentation (validates debt); maintains accurate ownership (account-level chain of title); and provides automated access for media lifecycle management. The Company offers a customizable platform both in the performing and non-performing ARM industry markets.

About Attorney Daniel J. LanginDaniel J. Langin is the principle of Langin Law Firm, LLC with more than 22 years of experience in private and corporate practice. Experience includes positions as General Counsel of two technology companies (GeoAccess and INSUREtrust.com), Global IT Law Manager for USF&G and St. Paul Insurance Companies, and several years as a trial lawyer. He has spoken and published on issues of technology and commercial law and policy in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel, and has been quoted by CNN, USA Today, CIO, Computerworld, Boardwatch, and the Boston Business Journal. He is a former member of the Aspen Institute’s Internet Policy Project. For more information, seeor contact Daniel at (913) 661-2430 or dlangin(at)langinlaw(dot)com.

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Greg Ousley, CEOGlobal Debt Registry866-660-2341Email Information

Virtual combat game helps treat stress disorder

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US doctors are treating soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by plunging them back into combat, using a virtual reality game that simulates battle scenes from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The therapeutic game, called Virtual Iraq or Virtual Afghanistan, was developed from the X-Box game Full Spectrum Warrior, a combat tactical simulation game launched with funding from the US Army.

Virtual Iraq or Afghanistan uses images delivered via a head-mounted display panel to plunge soldiers back into combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan and recreate the traumatic experiences they had while at war, the project's lead researcher Albert Rizzo of the University of Southern California said.

"At first blush, it seems counter-intuitive: why would you make somebody go through an approach where one of your goals is to make the patient feel a little bit anxious as they revisit their traumatic experiences?" Rizzo told reporters.

But researchers have found that by progressively raising a patient's feelings of anxiety up to a moderate level while simultaneously encouraging the patient to mentally process and talk about their traumatic experience, they can bring down anxiety levels and decrease PTSD symptoms.

Those symptoms include recurring nightmares and flashbacks, emotional numbing, avoidance of places that stir memories and manifestations like hyper-vigilance, which can be a protective mechanism in a wartime setting but is often disruptive when the soldier returns to civilian life.

The game uses visual, audio and even smell stimuli to realistically recreate what the soldiers would have experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A sensor on the head-mounted monitor causes graphics to update each time the soldier turns his or her head, giving the illusion of being immersed in the environment.

The sound of a Humvee armored vehicle motor comes through as vibrations and virtual bomb explosions are felt in the distance. A smell machine pumps out scents reminiscent of Iraq or Afghanistan -- gunpowder, diesel fuel, burning rubber or spices.

Previously, therapists had to walk patients "through in imagination the things they're fearful of or have been traumatized by," said Rizzo.

But that had its inherent pitfalls, including that therapists had to trust that the patient was genuinely visualizing the situation.

"But some people aren't good at visualizing, and we know that one of the symptoms of PTSD is avoidance," said Rizzo.

Virtual reality therapy could also remove some of the stigma from seeking treatment for PTSD because the generation of soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan grew up playing video games and might be more open to seeking care for the mental disorder if it's delivered in a video game package.

An estimated 20 to 30 percent of soldiers who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan come home with PTSD, according to US military estimates.

PTSD has been linked to a rise in the suicide rate among veterans, which claimed the lives of a record 309 servicemembers last year, up from 267 in 2008, according to Pentagon numbers.

Three randomized control trials of the virtual reality therapy games are currently underway, and a couple of other studies are testing the simulation game to see if it can be used as a tool to assess whether soldiers returning from war have PTSD.

In yet another study, 16 of 20 soldiers who were treated with the simulator game developed by Rizzo and others at USC's Institute for Creative Technology no longer met PTSD criteria at the end of therapy, which was developed in 2003 -- the year of the US-led invasion of Iraq.