Acer has announced a sustainability-focused laptop as part of its CES 2025 lineup called the Aspire Vero 16. It’s a carbon-neutral PC designed to be easily repaired. The chassis is made with 70% post-consumer recycled plastic and bio-based material from oyster shells. In other words, Acer is giving the term “clamshell PC” a whole new meaning.
The laptop is powered by Intel Core Ultra 200H processors with configurations available up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. It also has built-in Intel Arc graphics, a 1440p webcam with a privacy shutter, a fingerprint reader, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an HDMI 2.1 port. The display is 16 inches with 100% sRGB color gamut support and slim bezels.
Remember, this is more of a midrange budget laptop, so we shouldn’t expect the highest-end specs.
The 65W X-cell Li-ion battery provides up to 10.5 hours of battery life, which sounds pretty disappointing compared to Apple silicon and Snapdragon PCs that can last over 20 hours. Acer describes the PC as a “green but mean” machine — though it would be a lot greener to extend carbon-offsetting to its entire range of PCs rather than just a few special ones.
The design of laptop embraces the “recycled” look with specks of dark gray and green visible across all of the chassis. On the bottom of the hinge, you can also see the phrase “For planet Earth” etched into the device.
It’s also worth noting that while the oyster shell material is interesting, according to the small print, it only comprises about 1% of the chassis. With such a small amount, it feels a little bit like the company just mixed it in there for marketing purposes — but maybe there is a better reason that has yet to be mentioned. Hopefully, the “easily repairable” aspects of the design go a little further, but there are no details yet.
Either way, the PC has been named a CES Innovation Award Honoree for offering a sustainable design without compromising on power. It will be available in the U.S. in April, starting at $800.
Acer has also announced some new all-in-one and compact PC options, as well as an impressive-sounding new gaming monitor.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).