Direct2Dell

There's any number of studies that show that consumers trust product opinions from friends, family members and other customers more than they trust what a company says about its own products.. Since 2006, we've added the Ratings and Reviews functionality in multiple countries and added the ability to share them in other social media sites. Many customers have told us that these reviews are helpful during the shopping process.

Since the early days, we've amassed thousands of reviews written by people around the world, sharing thoughts about what was great, what wasn't ideal and so on.   We appreciate those who take the time to write reviews, and want to encourage more people to submit new ones. So if you're one of our customers who have read reviews or used them to compare products, we're hoping you will take that next step and write one! Now it's the right time to finally grab the old pen and paper (or keyboard in this case) and put your words to use for a chance to win.  Share your opinions on anything and everything from the Studio 17 to the Wasabi Photo Printer or even non-Dell products that we sell through the Electronics and Accessories area on Dell.com.  Give us your thoughts, photos or submit a video review for all of the dell community to see.  

From July 2 - September 4, everyone that submits a review will be entered for a chance to win one of three $500 gift cards.  Write as many reviews as you want on each Dell product you own to increase your chance to win.  And remember, when you're writing your review, think about all the things you wanted to know about the product and tell people how you use your product in real life.  

To rate a product, you can visit www.dell.com/ratings or go to any of our product pages and sign in to write a review.  Dell uses your reviews in action across all of Dell.com.  The most useful reviews are selected to be Customer Spotlight Reviews (need to find that D2D post I wrote to link about the customer spotlight) which many customers have told us help them when they are making up their minds on what to buy.  We want to put you and your review in the spotlight! Share your pictures, your stories, your thoughts with the community not only just for a chance to win but for a chance to be heard by all at the Dell community!

For more information, check out our official rules for our Ratings & Reviews Sweepstakes.

Last week I had the pleasure of emceeing three contests on Twitter for two Alienware M17x laptops and other prizes. I was simply amazed by the sheer number of responses I received. The M17x is a very popular item judging from the responses, and with good reason. It is an amazing machine, simply put.

While conducting the contest I received a personal message on twitter from co-optimus.com owner bapenguin, letting me know he had ordered an M17x to review for his site, and his order had been delayed for several weeks.  A quick perusal of the internet showed others are experiencing similar delays as well. I knew something was up when I got a direct message from another twitter friend, csharpzealot, who wrote: "Seems like the popularity of the M17x has landed Dell/Alienware in a bit of a parts problem :) oops..victim of your own success."

I decided this deserved a little looking into.

Here's the scoop: due to popular demand, there's been a slight hiccup in the supply LCD panels for the M17x, so csharpzealot isn't too far off with his statement. These aren't just your average LCD panels, but some of the highest quality LCD panels available, so just substituting any old panel to fulfill the orders just won't do. This part shortage is the root cause of most M17x delays, and the system's popularity is a major cause of the parts shortage. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the supply problem is well on the way to being conquered, and while we can't say when the shipping delays will subside, we know they soon will. If you're one of those waiting for your M17x to ship, you can be assured that when your system is built, it will be built specifically for you with the highest quality parts available.

Hang on to your hats, folks! Your M17x's are on their way!

I would like to share some details on an important update for the Drivers & Downloads application on Support.Dell.com. Recently, we completed the launch of the new Dell Driver Download Manager. This new functionality, which is available globally across all of Support.Dell.com, has been created to improve your experience when downloading files from Dell.  

The big change you will see when using the new Driver Download Manager is an improvement in download speed. The time taken to download files using the Driver Download Manager is a lot shorter, up to a 30-40% reduction, depending on your internet connectivity.

The Driver Download Manager also offers a number of improvements to help you through the process of downloading files from Support.Dell.com. You can now pause and resume your downloads. The progress of your download can be saved via an icon on your desktop which you can restart at any time. You can also restart your download should your internet connection get cut off in the middle of a download, as the Driver Download Manager saves your progress ensuring that you don't lose out.

To use the Driver Download Manager (Fig 1 above), you will need to complete a once off install of the application on your system.

Please take some time to visit your local Drivers & Downloads site and check out the Driver Download Manager. Hopefully you will find this new functionality useful and that it helps improve your download experience. I look forward to your feedback.

With the recent buzz around the forthcoming TomTom navigation app for the iPhone and recent report that demand for GPS devices is expected to grow steadily over the next few years, there's no question that there's a lot of interest in the technology. We're betting that location services will be a hit in netbooks as well. Starting next week in the United States, we're offering the Dell Wireless 700 location solution for our Mini 10 netbook that is a combination of hardware and software.

The hardware part is an internal GPS card with built-in Wi-Fi locationing.  These two technologies work in tandem, which means the technology works both indoors and out. In other words, it can calculate your position using Wi-Fi access points or using GPS satellites. The Dell Wireless 700 is powered by Broadcom's A-GPS and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi position solutions.

I asked our wireless team for a bit more about the underlying technology, and here's what they told me: The Dell Wireless 700 uses Wi-Fi access points and Long Term Orbit (LTO)-based Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology to determine location information. It provides a fast, accurate and reliable location source to applications and services by leveraging the strength of each underlying position technology.

 And here's how the wireless team explained Wi-Fi positioning:

The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can determine the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices. All Wi-Fi Access Points broadcast a signal beacon known as a MAC address, notifying nearby devices of their presence. WPS refers to the mapped locations of millions of Wi-Fi MAC addresses to pinpoint the device location. WPS is complementary to GPS. It works best indoors and in urban areas, while GPS is limited by physical obstructions of ceilings and tall buildings.

On the software side, the Dell Wireless 700 location system features CoPilot navigation software to provide turn by turn directions. I offers things like 2D and 3D map views, lets you save up to 50 addresses for one trip, offers trip optimization to provide the most efficient route, can provide instant detour information when you encounter expected delays and provides continuously updated information about the trip.

Another piece of the location-based services that we're bringing to market is a location aware portal. For it, we've partnered with Skyhook Wireless and Loki.  Loki is a browser plugin that comes preconfigured for Internet Explorer and Firefox. It works with Loki-supported sites to improve local search functionality by providing you details from nearby restaurants store locations and your friends' location information from supported social media sites like Flickr, Loopt and  BrightKite.

In the OS department, initially, it will support Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 support will come later. The Mini 10 is the first system that we'll offer with the optional Dell 700 Wireless location solution. Stay tuned for more details about more supported systems, accessories and more regions.

You’ve heard a lot in the past few weeks about Dell’s new enterprise solutions for small and medium businesses. At the other end of the spectrum, we’re also helping redefine the way small businesses think about mobile computing.

Business is no longer restricted to the office environment, and entrepreneurs need the flexibility to work wherever and however business requires – especially in today’s tough economy. For most small businesses across the globe, laptops continue to be the most critical tools that keep day-to-day business going and growing. That’s why we offer the industry’s broadest lineup of small-business laptops to meet the diverse needs of our customers on the go.

You may have already seen this sneak-peek, but let me give you some inside perspective on today’s announcement (insert link) of the new Vostro 1220 ultraportable 12.1” laptop – the industry’s only 12” designed especially for small business that packs the punch of a full-size laptop into a small package. Our competitors can’t make that claim nor do their small business systems offer the security options of the Vostro line – mobility solid state drives, fingerprint readers and encrypted hard drives.

We first launched a 12.1” Vostro in Asia in late 2007 with incredible success, and now the 11-12” panel size is growing in popularity among commercial customers everywhere. From the launch of our first Vostro 12.1” system to today, we learned a lot from our customers in Asia and made critical improvements based on their feedback and technology advancements that will now benefit customers worldwide. The biggest improvements since the last generation include:

• Improved performance with the latest generation Intel processors;
• Up to 8GB of memory and faster HDD options;
• More ways to secure your data – encrypted hard drives, solid state drives;
• Video conferencing;
• Faster connectivity with gigabit and wi-fi options, and
• Up to 9 hours of battery life.

Finally, let me add that this is just the beginning of what Dell is innovating for our small business customers! We’ll have more exciting news to share soon, so stay tuned to Direct2Dell for the latest scoop.

For more images of the Vostro 1220, check out the set on our Flickr page.