A new smart companion

Toshiba’s AC100, launched in Johannesburg last week at the Masterpiece Tour Exhibition, is the perfect companion to those who wish to combine the best of netbooks and the best of smartphones. Like a smartphone, the AC100 is always-on, simple to use and can be highly personalised. Running the Andriod operating system, consumers will be able to download some of the tens of thousands of applications that have been written for the Andriod operating system.

Toshiba have entered the mobile internet device market by introducing the Toshiba AC100, which is designed with a clamshell form factor. Its slimness and light weight coupled with its always-on capability makes it the ideal device to consume media, browse the Internet and view and edit documents, emails and other messages while out and about. The AC100 can remain in standby mode for up to seven days.

The best out of two worlds

‚Our smart companion, the AC100, is a member of the mobile internet device segment that combines the best of two product categories: like a smartphone, it is always on, whilst offering the convenience of a clamshell netbook with a bigger screen and a full size keyboard,‚ says Andre Rossouw, Regional General Manager for Toshiba South Africa. It is targeted at users who utilise several devices but still desire an easy-to use, slim and light smart companion that can be taken almost everywhere and that offers superior usability to that of smartphones.

No need to recharge every day

The Android based system takes less than a second to switch the AC100 from standby to full activity mode whilst supporting a smartphone-like ‚always-on’ capability. The Toshiba AC100 can go for up to seven days without having to be recharged. When being used intensively, it can provide at least eight hours of mixed browsing and video playback on one charge.

Simple-to-use and easy-to-personalise

The black and orange coloured AC100 is intuitively usable and offers the possibility to personalise the device by downloading applications and widgets. The AC100 ships with a number of applications pre-installed, amongst them Documents To Go®, for viewing and editing Microsoft Office files, an E-mail Client with POP3, IMAP and Exchange support, a messaging client, Opera Mobile for browsing the web as well as Toshiba Media Player for playing and viewing video, music and pictures.

Users can also deploy up to five home screens on their Toshiba AC100, which can be configured to change automatically depending on their location as indicated by the SSID. For example, an owner could set short-cuts to work-related applications, widgets and ‚live-files’ to appear on the home screen when they are in their office, personal applications and widgets when they are at home and entertainment-orientated applications and widgets everywhere else.

The Toshiba AC100 is available in South Africa from October 2010 at a recommended retail price of R4999.00.