November 2008 - Direct2Dell

With the holidays about to get into full swing, today we’re unveiling a new group called Gift Rap. It’s no surprise that a lot of folks are looking to buy technology for loved ones this time of year. And for many of those customers that means lots of questions… how in the heck do you make sense of all the options that are in front of you?

 With Gift Rap, we’ve worked to put all the resources you need in one place. Think of it as a place where you can get the answers to all kind of technology topics from Dell employees and community members alike.

What are the must-have gadgets this year? Do you need a desktop or a notebook? How much RAM or hard drive space makes sense? What hardware matters if you’re buying a PC for editing videos? What about a decent gaming machine that doesn’t cost big bucks? Those are just a few of the kinds of discussions you can expect to find there.

You’ll hear from Dell experts as you would expect, but we’ll also be featuring content from Walmart’s Elevenmoms community to give you helpful perspective. Most importantly though, Gift Rap is a place where you can have discussions with other customers who are part of the Dell community.

Beyond discussions, you’ll see holiday-related articles from third-party sites that may be of interest. Of course, the latest deals from Dell will always be a click away. And we’ll tweet a little bit of everything from www.twitter.com/DellGiftRap.

So, how do you get started? If you haven’t registered to be part of the Dell Community, that’s the first step. From there, you can click on the Groups section and look for the gift logo just like the one featured at the top of this post.

From there, click on the blue button like the one in the image below to join the group and that should be it.

In these recessionary times, upgrading your PCs may not seem like a viable option. Luckily, there are upgrades available that can go a long way to improving and extending the life of your current systems, and they're not expensive.

· Speed up your PC performance - If your PC’s performance is slower than you recall from its first day on the job, the fix is easier than you may think. With a simple upgrade that adds 1 GB, 2GB or 4GB of memory, you can increase your system performance by up to 26% on average. The cost can be as low as $30.

· Increase your PC’s data storage - Your data storage needs don’t decrease just because your cash flow might. You can safely store important files like customer information without slowing your PC performance. Just increase your hard drive storage space with an external USB hard drive. For around $200, you can add 1 TB of storage capacity to your current system.

· Tune up your PC - If buying new machines isn’t an option right now, add new life to your older ones by keeping them running at peak performance. For less than $30, you can buy Dell’s PC Tune-Up diagnostic tool to help optimize your PC’s performance and maintain your security.

These are only a few examples of the many ways you can maximize your productivity. Look for additional tips from the desktop to the data center and please share any upgrade ideas or requests with us here or on IdeaStorm.

If you own an XPS machine, or a Dell Precision workstation, it should be a little easier to find appropriate drivers for your system because we recently added global functionality on support.dell.com that limits the drivers listed to the ones that are applicable to your configuration.

We started rolling out this functionality back in July for some Inspiron laptops. Then in October, we expanded it to several lines of products including Inspiron, Latitude, Optiplex, Dimension, Vostro and Studio systems.

Though we might have been a bit too late to help customers like Neville Hobson out, hopefully this will be useful to other XPS or Dell Precision workstation customers who need to update a driver or two over the holidays.

One of the first questions people have been asking me after hearing that Google was shutting down Lively is “do you think this will have a negative impact on virtual worlds?” Well, I had never really seen Lively as a true virtual world; but, did think it was a nice addition to the 3D space.

My answer to the question, is “no” though because many of the things I mentioned on this blog before still hold true as reasons that virtual world platforms will continue to thrive past the hype they garnered a couple of years ago.

It was nice to see many similar theories put forward in a report released last week by ThinkBalm, an independent IT industry analysis and strategic advisory services firm co-founded by Erica and Sam Driver. Prior to ThinkBalm, Erica was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where she launched the company’s Web3D coverage as part of her enterprise collaboration research.

The ThinkBalm report puts forward that virtual worlds, learning simulations and 3D business applications offer businesses the chance to deeply engage workers and customers. Erica discussed it in more detail with itWorldCanada recently.

As part of ThinkBalm’s Innovation Community, I had an opportunity to get a sneak peak at the report; and, while I am listed as a contributor, there was very little feedback for me to add because so much of it rang true to my own observations. The near future will see internal collaboration as a driver for more virtual world adoption within corporations, and once those users become familiar with the technology, they will in turn think of new applications for an immersive internet experience for their business customers.

Another analyst covering this industry, Steve Prentice at Gartner, seemed to concur in a recent Computer Weekly article where he said “he believes the main use of the technology over the next few years will be in so-called 'intraverses' or virtual world environments that either sit on companies' own infrastructure or their service provider's, behind the firewall.”

So, while I do think there is much opportunity lost with the very early closure of Lively, it is not likely to hold back the advancement of virtual worlds. They may be in the “trough of disillusionment” according to Gartner’s Hype Cycle, but that simply means they are that much closer to true user adoption instead of overhyped expectations.

As Prentice concludes in the Computer Weekly article, “it's now time to get down to the hard work because this is a people issue not a technology one."

Earlier today, Lionel announced the launch of www.smallbusinessadvice.tv – a new web TV channel designed exclusively for the needs of UK small businesses and entrepreneurs in other areas of the world.

We partnered with British Chambers of Commerce, in collaboration with Intel, on www.smallbusinessadvice.tv to provide expert commentary and advice to give you the edge in business. Hosted by Sean Walsh, former CNBC anchor and senior producer of BBC TV News, each show will be broadcast live, which is then available to download and watch in full.

We’ll cover the things most important to you as a small business owner – such as accounting, financing, marketing, human resources and technology. There will be a wealth of expert opinion from industry leaders and special guests. Plus you’ll be able to access successful customer case studies, a range of useful links, downloadable ‘how to’ videos and join conversations and communities with other small business owners.

Our first episode airs at 1pm UK time on Friday 28^th November – and we want to hear from you! Joining Sean on the sofa will be John Dunsmure, Managing Director of the British Chamber of Commerce. John will be on hand with valuable advice on how to work your way through the current climate. If you would like to submit a question, please click here and we’ll do our best to answer them live during the show.

And don’t miss our second episode at 1pm UK time on Thursday 4^th December, which is an exclusive interview with Michael Dell. Tune in to hear invaluable entrepreneurial insights and experiences from our founder and CEO, including his advice to small businesses in the current climate.

We’re keen to hear your feedback too, as well as any topic suggestion you might have. Feel free to share your thoughts on the show on our new forum board, Small Business Advice.

This new resource is in addition to the information that Dell already has online for small businesses and will be shared across Facebook ,SMB 360 ,StudioDell, and of course, here on the Small Business Blog.

Don’t miss our first episode this Friday!