November 2007 - Direct2Dell

If I've learned anything from surfing customers' blogs over the last year and a half, I've learned one thing: customers do have a voice at Dell.

When you meet people for the first time, usually the conversation drifts towards what each of you "do for a living". When it does for me, I am never surprised to see a "knowing look" when I tell people I work at Dell. Being the kind of guy I am, I hit that look head-on more often than not. I explain that rather than working at a "big, faceless corporation" as a "drone", my job is proof that the customer has a voice. When people find out I surf and respond to blogs for a living, that "knowing look" usually melts right off of their faces. "Dell actually pays people to do that?"

In my day to day experience, I am constantly getting feedback from customers, and forwarding that feedback along to the appropriate groups. Customers are always telling me "wouldn't it be great if Dell would do <yoursuggestionhere>". I usually refer people to IdeaStorm, unless their suggestion is break/fix related. IdeaStorm is a great place to share your ideas, but sometimes our product engineers could use some specific feedback while putting together a new product design. Now is one of those times.

We have used the same AC adapters for all Dell notebook lines since 2003. In that time, notebooks have undergone some fairly significant changes, and also during this time, virtually no changes were made to the AC adapters being shipped with our notebooks. Four years is a lifetime in the computer industry, so it's safe to say these adapters are quickly becoming yesterday's technology. They have worked well, but there's always room for improvements.

There is at least one AC adapter in circulation for every notebook we sell, so not only is it the most common piece of Dell equipment, it is also probably one of the products we receive the most feedback about. Given these facts, our engineers have decided to focus on the AC adapter to try and determine the best ways to improve its design. This gives us a golden opportunity to give feedback at a critical time in a product's life:

AC Adapter Survey

Our engineers want to know how you use the AC adapters with your notebooks so they can take these scenarios into consideration during design. Being that this is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of Dell equipment, this is a chance for us as customers to tell the designers themselves how wecollectively use their product, so that they can improve the design and make an AC adapter designed to meet our needs. The survey is yet another way the customer has a voice at Dell.

I've already filled it out, and I hope you'll join me.

Today, the XPS M1530 is available for order worldwide. It features all of the design elements that have made the XPS M1330 a success, but it also brings a larger 15.4" display and a more powerful graphics card option—NVIDIA's 8600M GT with 256MB RAM with Direct X 10 support. Initially, the 15.4" display will support WXGA resolution, or 1280 x 800. 

Update: 12/21—Today, we began offering higher resolution display options to customers in the United States. In addition to the original 1280 x 800, display, customers can now choose 1440 x 900, or the WSXGA+ panel that is capable of  a maximum resolution of 1680 x 1050.

 

I've received e-mails and comments from customers requesting a 15" XPS notebook, and user lilredfoxie submitted an idea called 15.4 size XPS system on IdeaStorm. The XPS M1530 inludes standard features like an integrated webcam, touch-sensitive multimedia controls, a travel slot remote, brushed aluminum accents and a fingerprint reader.We'll offer a slot-loading Blu-ray disc player option (something we don't yet offer on the XPS M1330), and the system also features an HDMI output. Like most other other Inspiron and XPS notebooks, the XPS M1530 can be outfitted with built-in mobile broadband, with a choice of carriers.

Here's a picture that compares the M1330 (on top) with the M1530 (on bottom):

In this vlog, Mike Horn from the XPS Product Team discusses the features in more detail.

Take your pick... you might have seen some notices on Engadget, Gizmodo or Crave that the XPS One was available for pre-order. If you missed those, you may have seen the PC Magazine review, where it earned a 4.5 star rating and an Editors' Choice award. Well now it's official, we have officially launched the XPS One. It's our first-ever all-in-one system, which means the computer, the flat panel, the speakers and the integrated 2 megapixel camera and microphone are all integrated in a single piece.The XPS One will initially be available to customer in Japan and the United States.

Update, 12-6: Just saw we posted the XPS One commercial on Dell.com. Lots of old computers blow up in a stylized environment and there's a song playing in the background. Kinda cool.

From a design perspective, it's more symmetrical than many of our competitors' all-in-ones. It looks more like a standalone flat panel display. The 20" widescreen features an edge-to-edge temepered glass for an uninterrupted, seamless look. The strong yet sleek aluminum stand feeds into the smoked-glass base of the unit. Another cool feature is the motion-sensing multimedia buttons on the right side of the unit. If you move within a foot of the buttons, they light up for just a few seconds before they turn back off. The slot-loaded DVD drive also lights blue so you can see where to insert a disc. Bottom line, you can insert a DVD without turning the lights on. Soon after you start the movie, the lights fade from view so you can wach the movie undistracted.

Just like some of our competition the XPS One can be plugged in with a single power cord. It supports multiple wireless technologies, including 802.11 a/b/g/ and draft-N for WiFi connectivity. The wireless keyboard and mouse utilize Radio Frequency (RF) technology. We chose to support RF so we could make it easier to set up—RF technology does not require pairing like Bluetooth does. However, the all XPS One units come standard with Bluetooth 2.0 support, so if you have headphones, a headset or other Bluetooth peripherals, those will work with the system as well.

Update: RF Technology does indeed require pairing. We do this in the factory before shipping the system.

Like some designs of our competitors, the XPS One only requires one cable to power the system, display, speakers, and the integrated camera and microphone. Things like the internal analog/digital hybrid TV tuner will add at least one cable, but regardless of how many cables you will use in your setup, they can be easily routed through clips on the base.

Graphics-wise, you have two options: integrated video or the optional ATI Mobility Radeon 2400 HD. That card features an HDMI output and also supports DirectX 10. Just don't expect to be playing DX10 games at high resolution with this system... it's not designed to be a high-end gaming box. However, with the optional Blu-ray disk player (optional only in the United States at this point) (standard in Japan) and analog/ digital TV tuner, it does make a pretty slick high-def system. Since I usually get asked about this, the hybrid analog/digital tuner supports over-the-air HD. Connecting to a satellite or cable box requires a break out box and an IR sensor. Cable Card is not supported with the ATI 2400 HD hybrid tuner. One other note is that the maximum monitor resultion for the 20" flat panel is 1680 x 1050—that means that 1080P is not supported, since it requires 1920 x 1080.

Note from Lionel, 11/19—I incorrectly linked to the desktop version of the ATI Radeon 2400HD card—I have updated it. Please note that we support the mobility version of the card, which does not have HDMI out. Also the analog/digital TV tuner is a separate card, not part of the ATI 2400 HD graphics card like I had said in the previous sentence. My apologies for the inconvenience.  

Like the XPS 420, the XPS One comes with Adobe Elements Studio, which is full versions of these three Adobe applications:

• Premiere Elements 4-For video editing
• Photoshop Elements 6-For digital photo organization and editing
• SoundBooth CS3-For audio editing and sound design

In this vlog, Mary Miller from the XPS product team goes into more detail about what kind of customers we designed the system for, and takes you through some of the key usability and design features that make this product unique.

Some of you have been asking me about the Inquirer's recent story that we were dumping support for Ubuntu in the U.K. Let me just get this out of the way—the Inquirer was wrong. Now to be fair, the Inquirer did publish an update story after speaking with Dell—more on that in just a bit. What really happened? For a short time yesterday, the link to the Inspiron 6400n was broken on the Dell UK Ubuntu page. That broken link was fixed early this morning, so UK customers can go here to order an Inspiron 6400n with Ubuntu. Sorry for any churn this has caused.

What's most interesting to me is how this situation combined traditional PR with social media. Here's the chain of events.. soon after the original story broke, phubert brought it to our attention by posting an idea called KEEP OFFERING UBUNTU. Soon after seeing the idea, dell_admin1 contacted our counterparts in EMEA to fix the broken link. Matt Domsch weighed in on the IdeaStorm discussion thread to let folks know the initial Inquirer story was wrong. Once it was clear to phubert that we wen't dumping Ubuntu, he reached out to the Inquirer and edited his original idea, saying that they should print a retraction and that the Dell admins should delete the idea. Our PR colleague followed up with the Inquirer to reiterate that we remain committed to Ubuntu. In the end, the Inquirer posted an updated story—albeit a somewhat cynical one.

Thanks to phubert and the IdeaStorm community for bringing this issue to our attention. If you don't mind, we'll leave your idea thread up for a while.

Over the weekend, both Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm will get a facelift.  With this change, we will join the Dell Community Forum and StudioDell in sharing a new design for a more consistent look and feel across your Dell community experience.  These changes will affect Direct2Dell English, Chinese and Spanish blogs as well as Dell Shares.  I would describe this as another step in the evolution of our community sites. 

Update 11/19—Over the weekend, the decision was made to delay the visual updates on both Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm. I expect that the changes will go live within the next couple of days. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Several of you on Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm have made the case for more consistency across the sites, and the IdeaStorm folks even asked for a new design (check out davmcn's idea to give IdeaStorm a new look).  The consistent design, and the recent addition of IdeaStorm's Ideas in Action and Talk with the Moderator pages to Direct2Dell, are all a part of our effort to better integrate our communities.

Beyond that, taking a page from the search engine optimization (SEO) guru Matt Cutts, we're updating the subhead of Direct2Dell. Now it will say, "A blog about Dell products, services and customers."

I know that's something we should have done a long time ago, and for the folks that ask me what kinds of mistakes to avoid, this would be one of the lessons: If you want people to find your blog easily, then SEO matters—especially in the early days. Save the creative stuff for the content itself.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about the changes.