It appears like CES 2012 is going to be an event mainly intended for the thinnest this and thinnest that, just like last year. The newly-unveiled Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook, which is the successor to the company’s Aspire S3, is the thinnest of its kind and it’s definitely going to turn more than a few heads at Las Vegas.

The Aspire S5 measures in at a mere 15 mm at its thickest point and weighs less than 1.35 kg. The device comes equipped with a 13.3-inch LCD display, Onyx Black colored magnesium-alloy cover and palm rest, an Intel Core processor and uses SSD internal storage.

Similar to the Aspire S3, the S5 features Acer’s Green Instant On technology which promises a fast boot and resume experience of just 1.5 seconds.

The machine also comes with Acer’s Always Connect which will allow you to access AcerCloud for managing data stored on the S5, even if the device is in the sleep or hibernate mode. With the feature, you will be able to instantly view updates on your Facebook or Twitter accounts whenever you resume your S5. There won’t be any need for refreshing the web page.

One of the coolest features on the Aspire S5 is what Acer is calling “MagicFlip I/O”. With the special mechanism, the HDMI, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt (20Gbps) ports remain hidden. You just have to press the MagicFlip key to open the port cover panel and get access to the ports.

Other features include Dolby Home Theater v4, a PowerSmart battery pack that provides three times longer battery life, and a chiclet keyboard. No word on pricing, but we do know that the S5 is coming sometime in Q2 this year.

Check out the video below, which comes to us courtesy of Netbooknews, to take a peek at the ultra thin design compared with a Vaio and you will also get to see how the MagicFlip works.

[ PR ]

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If you have dropped your phone in the toilet, sink, swimming pool, or pond, you’re going to love Fujitsu. The device in the photo above is being is a new waterproof smartphone from Fujitsu, dubbed the ARROWS ES IS12F.

The ARROWS claims to be the “world’s thinnest smartphone”, and thin it is, measuring in at just 6.7mm.  That beats Motorola’s RAZR sitting in at 7.1mm but just a bit thicker than Huawei’s newly revealed at 6.68mm  P1 S.

Although being waterproof and thin, the device does come with decent specs. The ARROWS runs the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, comes with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655 processor,  4 inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 × 800 and 100,000:1 contrast ratio and the front of the device is cased in Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

Other features include 1GB ROM, 512MB of RAM, a 5.1 MP CMOS camera, Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity, DLNA support and a microSDHC memory card slot. And all that is packed into a body that weighs in at only 105g.

Just in case you are wondering, the handset could withstand water up to 1.5 meters (4.5 feet) for up to 30 minutes.

The Fujitsu ARROWS was unveiled in Japan in December, and is now being shown off at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It is currently intended only for the company’s home market, but is expected to hit some carriers from around the world sometime in the near future. We haven’t got any hints regarding pricing; we will let you as soon as it’s available. So, stay tuned.

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Here’s a list of what I saw. I’ve provided links for each item and brief comments.

Enjoy!

ToolGuard – a loud, battery-powered alarm for your tool box. Not listed on their site yet, but it’s from Dynamco of Australia.

Album is a portable digital-photo storage in a 7-inch display. Stores up to 40,000 photos.

Laptop to HDTV – watch your movies on your flatscreen.

GPS transmitters to maintain tabs on your loved ones or employees.

Bluetooth headphones and in-ear pieces.

Podcasting microphones from BlueMic – they make the Snowball, the Snowflake and the Yeti.

Sync and share your computer, mobile and the cloud.

Boxee means videos and more on your TV, live streamed from your computer or similar device.

Evaluate your own car – just plug it in. CarMD.

Case-Mate has protective film that needs very little prep. They also introduced the HUG, the first real iPhone osmosis charger.

Collaborative authoring tool – Fast Pencil – for your book. Use the Web to get input and feedback.

Thermal imaging from Flir. It’s neat, but I’m not sure I’d know how to use it as a consumer – unless I was going to use a surface to surface missile to take out a skunk or a pesky rabbit.

The i-Mate is like a smartphone toughbook. Waterproof, drop-proof and built to meet military specs.

The QUE is another content reader with cool partnerships and a nice design.

Pocket Radar. Why? I say why not? It’s a neat way to judge speeds. Use it for outdoor sports, baseball and even for calibrating your scooter’s notoriously bad speedometer. Handheld.

Computer backup software. Partnered with Seagate…for the PC.

One of my favorite headphone companies. I have a pair of traditional Sennheiser on-the-ear headphones for most of my podcasting and leisure use…I love them.

Radio to your smartphone via Slacker.com.

My regular column, The Cut List, will be returning as soon as I sort through the evaluation units I got from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). If you ever have questions about these gadgets or just want to communicate with us, leave a comment on any of the posts. We read them and respond.

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