Acer laptop hot to jot with digital pen

Acer this week announced a new notebook PC that allows consumers to write, file and store notes with digital pens.

The TravelMate 250PE TabNote comes with Intel's Pentium 4 processor and offers Wi-Fi wireless networking technology. It has a 60GB removable hard drive, a built-in floppy drive and a media bay that can operate a DVD/CD-RW combination drive, a DVD-rewriteable drive or an extra battery.

The notebook runs on Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC operating system software. Several companies have debuted new systems, since Microsoft launched its new tablet software late last year. Fujitsu on Monday announced a convertible notebook PC that's loaded with the operating system and earlier introduced a traditional tablet that uses the OS.

Acer's new system is available now and starts at $1,499.

In July, Acer launched a lower-priced Centrino notebook. The business-oriented TravelMate 290 line, which weighs 6.6 pounds and includes a drive bay for devices such as CD burners, features Intel's Centrino chip family for wireless connections. The price of the machine starts at $999.