July 2009 - Direct2Dell

Since I blogged about our Driver Download Manager functionality last week, some customers like mattroberts, nigel1999 and terryko and others made it clear they did not want to have to download an app to get driver downloads. To be clear, the Driver Download Manager was meant to be optional.

Customers like kittykat21589 rightly pointed out there was a bug in our opt out functionality. Yesterday we made a configuration change on the site to fix this. The opt out to download via Browser without the Driver Download Manager is now working correctly. We apologize for any frustration this has caused and will be closely monitoring the site over the coming days to ensure it continues to work as expected.

Here's the option you should see the next time you download a file from support.dell.com:

And for Firefox users like keepsloanweird who reported that the Driver Download Manager app doesn't work properly, take a look at my comment for clarification. The short answer is that the app requires both Microsoft .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 and the Microsoft .NET Assistant 1.1 to be installed.

It was never our intention to force users to install and use the Driver Download Manager. Although some of you may choose not to use the Driver Download Manager I would hope that at some stage you may give it a try to see the benefits it can provide.

Thanks again to our customers for the direct and honest feedback. If you have more to share on the topic, let me know with a comment below.

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  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.

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.

Editor's Note:  Eoghan has posted an updated blog post at this link.   To make sure everyone gets the newest information possible we're turning off comments to this post.  Comments are still welcome on the newer blog post, so please click on the link above to find the new post.

One of today's top entertainment laptops, the Studio XPS 16, just got better. We've recently added a new graphics option, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 1GB ($100), one of the best mobile graphics solutions out there before you enter the high end gaming graphics realm. 

Today's laptop PC has expanded it horizons beyond a road warrior's badge of honor, keeping them productive in airport terminals and hotel rooms. They've become the primary PC in a lot of homes, and more importantly a primary consumer electronic device.  Whether its watching movies, downloading, storing and listening to their music library, catching up on missed episodes of favorite TV shows(in HD), creating YouTube masterpieces, or even standing in as a Blu-Ray player connected to an HDTV, the laptop has become the home entertainment command center.

Graphics solutions play a large part in how all of these entertainment tasks are handled. And in the future, with the transition to Windows 7, graphics processors, (GPUs) will have the opportunity to shoulder even more of the performance load with GPGPU (thanks Giz Explains!) technology. This new technology enables specially written software to repurpose the GPU to perform other parallel processing tasks traditionally handled by the CPU. What does that mean? It means you can do more stuff at the same time. In other words, you can still use your laptop to update your Facebook status  or tweet, or work on a Word doc while GPGPU technology cranks away on other processor-intensive activities like:

• Media: Encoding, Transcoding, Upscaling, real time quality enhancements, etc.
• Gaming: Physics effects, game play enhancements, Advanced AI Processing
• Natural Interface: gesturing, enhanced facial recognition 

I do need to mention that right now, there's only a small number of GPGPU apps out there, but there will be more on the way soon.

Bottom line, to quote Emeril, we've taken it up a notch on the Studio XPS 16, which already includes a impressive collection of standard cutting-edge features and technologies, including:

• Premium 7-watt speakers and integrated subwoofer with 5.1 Dolby Digital output
• Edge-to-edge 16:9 HD (720p) WLED display, with 8 millisecond response time for crisp, clear resolution
• The optional full HD (1080p) RGB-LED LCD with 100% color gamut has been recognized as a unique stand out feature.
• Back-lit keyboard and touchpad buttons, capacitive touch multimedia buttons
• 2.0 megapixel webcam with dual digital array microphones
• Plethora of ports including 1394a, HDMI, DisplayPort, 2 USB, 1 USB / eSATA combo with PowerShare

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!