Acer Alive store and clear.fi sharing debut

Acer's live event today brought with it plans to emulate Apple's app and media stores but also introduce a new media sharing feature for PCs. The store, nicknamed Alive, will give computers and mobile devices a "real-time" reaction. As users buy or download titles of any kind, the store will use a Genius-like recommendation system to suggest content and refine results.

Games and other apps will be in the store along with e-books, movies, magazines, newspapers and music. The platform will be cloud-based and let users access content from any compatible device without having to copy it first. Some of the initial partners providing content will include 7digital, Acetrax, Adobe, APogeo, AudioGo, CMS, Intel, Kowalski, La Republica, Muzu.TV, URRA and Zinio. About 2,000 movies, 15,000 music videos, eight million songs and "thousands" of book titles will be available from the start.

Alive is due to launch in Italy and the UK on December 20. The Americas, Asia and Europe will get it sometime in the spring. Only Windows 7 will have access at first, but different platforms and devices like Acer's new Android tablets should have access by the end of the winter.

News of the store comes just weeks after Apple unveiled the Mac App Store but suggests that Acer should accelerate by incorporating both an iTunes competitor and an app store into a single platform. Windows typically hasn't suffered from low app discovery prospects, but most media purchasing on the platform has been left to iTunes.

More original for Acer is clear.fi, a new method of sharing content across computers on the same network. Based on DLNA, it uses the concepts of sources and destinations: the app can pull available music, photos and videos from one list and share content out to another device in the destination list. It can also share any available media to Flickr, Facebook and elsewhere, though YouTube is currently only known to be a source.

The app will work over any Wi-Fi network and should incorporate mobile devices in its platform, but Acer hasn't said when it becomes public or whether it will be available outside of Acer hardware.

By Electronista Staff

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Intel, computers, industry, software, iTunes, Acer, Android, Adobe, App Store, DLNA, Zinio, Apple, 7digital, Acetrax, Mac App Store, Alive, clear.fi, Muzu