The little computer company started by Ted Waitt in a farm house near the Iowa-South Dakota border and later made the Fortune 500 has had an impressive 22-year run is now being sold to Taiwan’s Acer for a reported $710 million. This move appears to be a win for both companies as Gateway, although still ranked as the 3rd largest PC maker in the US (tied for 3rd), hasn’t had their best sales this past year. Also, Acer will now have a chance to have an instantly larger presence in the US market and plans to keep the Gateway and eMachines brands alive (we’re not sure about the dairy cow boxes).

The acquisition is expected to be completed by December of this year pending the standard international closing conditions. According to Acer this move will further increase the buying …

Hoping to attract the users looking to upgrade their monitor now that they have Microsoft Vista installed, Acer America has rolled out five new LCD monitors in its xSeries line, all Vista certified. The company states that any one of its xSeries screens are perfect for the latest multimedia, gaming or video applications and are priced affordably.

The lineup consists of the traditional resolution 1280×1040 17-inch x171s ($179.99) and the 19-inch x191sd ($189.99) models. These two units offer 700:1 contrast ratio and 300 cd/m2 typical brightness. The widescreen Acers include the 19-inch x191Wsd ($279.99), the 22-inch x221Wsd (279.99) and the 24-inch x241Wsd (599.99.) The first two WS models offer 800:1 contrast ratio (bumped up to 100:1 for the x241Wsd), 5 millisecond response times and 300 cd/m2 typical brightness (upped to 400 cd/m2 for the x241.) Last but not least, …