Acer MID patent discovered
David Gonzales from Electronic Pulp wrote in to share a patent he found in the USPTO database revealing an "ornamental design for a mobile internet device" from Acer. The patent, filed in December 2007, includes a handful of sketches showing the slim-looking slate from various angles.
Other than the absence of hardware controls on the thick/wide bezel, which suggests that the device will be touch-based, the drawings don't give away much else in terms of specifications or features. Some of the button/ports on the top and bottom of the unit could be interpreted in other ways, but what I see are a volume rocker, headphone jack, covered USB port, slider switch (either wireless on/off or power/hold), stereo speakers, some other button whose function I can't guess, and a proprietary connector. Frankly, this looks more like a WiFi-enabled PMP, which many consider to be MIDs in the non-Intel sense, to me.
What do you think?
