It's Acer, but I as far as I know almost nothing it Acer specific -- it's a Windows 8, all OEMs must accept what MSFT wants, plus the concept of third party additions, plus the Intel technologies. I'm surprised how little coverage there is on this all aspects.
The discussions of kernel-level "giving up control" existed in Palladium and "technologies formerly known as Palladium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-Generation_Secure_Computin...) even 10 years ago but with Windows 8 they start to be ubiquitous and nobody even notices.
I like iPad and iPhone as they are. Apple devices don't come with random crud from the third parties preinstalled. Windows computers have problematic things even in BIOSes: different software from companies that claim to "protect" your computer but can even provide remote access for third parties.
The discussions of kernel-level "giving up control" existed in Palladium and "technologies formerly known as Palladium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-Generation_Secure_Computin...) even 10 years ago but with Windows 8 they start to be ubiquitous and nobody even notices.