Direct2Dell

Multi-Touch Comes to Dell's Studio 17

DELL-Anne C — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:50:00 GMT

As some may have seen in blog posts from sites like Electronista or SlashGear, Yesterday, we added a really cool option to the Studio 17—a multi-touch display. This is the first Dell laptop to offer a multi-touch display option. Some of you may not get excited at the thought of running your fingers all over your laptop’s screen (this is one of my husband’s pet peeves – Do.Not.Touch.My.Display), but I am here to tell you, once you start using multi-touch, it becomes second nature in how you interact with your PC.

For most people, the first introduction to touch was your neighborhood ATM machine. Today’s touch screens are much more sophisticated, able to handle multiple simultaneous touches (the Studio 17 is a true four-touch solution) and gestures, like pinch, drag, rotate and flick. I think you will be surprised at how quickly you will adapt to using touch when the opportunity presents its self. And as Ed Baig at USA Today discussed in a recent column, the arrival of Windows 7 with support for multi-touch in its DNA should accelerate the use of touch in PCs going forward

To help ensure using touch becomes second nature, we pre-install a suite of touch software applications on the Studio 17 with multi-touch display. For example the Dell Touch Zone lets your fingers do the walking to quickly locate touch applications and media content. You can edit photos or create slide shows or even flick favorite photos to Flickr.com, create music playlists, select, start and stop videos, and leave virtual sticky notes for family members. Note: Click on any of the images in my post to see a larger view, or to see more pictures click over to the Studio 17 Multi-touch set on Flickr.

Youngsters and the young at heart will enjoy doodling and finger painting with YouPaint by Cyberlink. This nifty program will get your creative juices going, with fun activities like coloring, stamping, or modifying favorite photos (It was amazing fun taking a favorite picture of my two dogs, outfitting them with stylish hats and introspective thought bubbles.)

For the truly imaginative, there is the TouchCam application also from Cyberlink, which allows you to add in all kinds of amazing video effects things while you are using your webcam. For example, add a hat to your image (reminds me of the day in the park in Mary Poppins), or celebrate with an animated confetti parade, frame your image in roses, or go incognito and use an avatar. And, you can capture and upload these Oscar-deserving efforts to YouTube for posterity.

As you’ll recall we unveiled the new and improved Studio 17 in conjunction with the launch of Intel’s mobile Core i7 quad core processors. It has an impressive 17.3-inch HD display and an excellent array of entertainment features, like JBL branded audio solution, which makes it an ideal choice for a desktop replacement. For those who don’t require the four-on-the-floor power of Core i7, we have expanded the processor selection to include Intel Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo processors, and adjusted the starting price to $699.

For those of you who are interested in how the watch is made, yes, GottaBeMobile.com, we teamed with N-trig to add the multi-touch display option on the Studio 17. Their DuoSense dual-mode digitizer solution uses a highly accurate capacitive sensing system that delivers quick and responsive multi-touch capability – true hands on computing as they call it.

You may have gathered from this blog post that I might be a fan of multi-touch capability on the PC. I am. I anticipate that sooner rather than later one of my morning rituals will be scrolling through my local paper on a PC with a multi touch screen in my kitchen versus racing my husband for the sports section. For those of you who are interested in getting your hands on* a unique laptop, check out the Studio 17 with a multi-touch display, starting at $899. (Note: the multi-touch display will be available with Core i7 systems in a few weeks).

*Pun Intended

Dell Supports Goals of the Conflict Minerals Act of 2009

Gil_Casellas — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:15:00 GMT

Dell today commended U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott on the introduction of the Conflict Minerals Trade Act in the House of Representatives. Dell supports the goals of this bill and has long embraced transparency and procurement from a socially and environmentally responsible supply chain. We have also been encouraging industry dialogue in an effort to eradicate atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It will take more than one company, more than one industry, to have an impact in the DRC. The power of a collective multi-industry push is the catalyst that will make the change possible. Dell is committed to working with other industries, the Government and non-governmental organizations to reach agreement on a solution to purchasing conflict-free minerals and to help implement this solution.

Minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold are used in numerous products including those in the aerospace, automotive, electronics and jewelry industries. These minerals are extracted from the DRC, and only a few other locations in the world. In our industry, the mining of these minerals takes place many layers before a final product is assembled, making it difficult, if not impossible, to trace the minerals' origins. It is easy for entire industries to abstain from thinking that this is their problem because of the indirect nature of minerals. But that is not the thinking we encourage of socially and environmentally responsible organizations. Rather, we must use our collective knowledge and resources to ensure that we co-operate and eradicate human rights violations in the DRC and that no layer of our supply chain contributes to these atrocities.

We will continue to lead the conversation, proactively seek solutions and encourage everyone who has a final product that contains these minerals to join us in this endeavor.

Packaging in the Limelight

DELL-Michelle m — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:30:00 GMT

It’s been a big week for packaging – and let’s face it, packaging doesn’t get many big weeks...

Amazon has taken its frustration-free packaging initiative to the next level by launching a certification program. If your product’s packaging is certified ‘frustration-free,” you know you the packaging is easy to open and recyclable. I thought this video demonstrated the concept pretty well.

You might have seen on sites like SlashGear that our Dell packaging engineers got to show their stuff this week, too, with the introduction of bamboo packaging. We’re using it to form the cushions that cradle our Inspiron Mini 10 and 10v inside a box made from 25 percent post-consumer material. You’ll see bamboo incorporated into more of our product packaging early next year, and our engineers are investigating other agricultural materials into our packaging portfolio.

I never thought I’d be one to get excited about packaging, but you have to hear Oliver Campbell, our lead packaging engineer, talk about it. His passion for this stuff is infectious (see Oliver herein the YouTube video in Todd Dwyer's post from last year). I can see why he's excited, especially when you look at what makes bamboo such a great alternative to the paper, foam and corrugate that’s often used for packaging.

It grows fast. Bamboo is among the fastest growing woody plants in the world. It can grow up to 24 inches per day and reaches full harvesting maturity in three to seven years, significantly faster than hardwoods.
It’s strong. How’s this for surprising? Bamboo’s tensile strength is similar to that of steel, so customers benefit from really strong packaging protecting their new computers in transit. (Bamboo’s strength is also a reason it’s often used for scaffolding in Asia).
It’s easy on the environment. Bamboo helps promote healthy soil. It has a deep root system that protect against land erosion, and when harvested correctly, it doesn’t require replanting after harvest.

Oliver and his team are also working hard to ensure all processes associated with the bamboo’s production meet the highest standards. For example, we source our bamboo from a forest that follows Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles and criteria, and the bamboo forest is located far away from pandas’ known habitats. See the map below (click on it to see a larger version):

The bamboo is processed mechanically, not chemically, and we’ve worked with our packaging provider to reclaim all the water used during processing. We’re also working with Unisource Global Services (UGS) to secure FSC-certification for the bamboo’s full chain of custody, from the forest to the manufacturing facilities (which are right there in China), and partnering with Unisource Global Services and Environmental Packaging International to certify the packaging for recycling.

So in summary, our bamboo packaging is good news for customers, products, pandas and the planet. You gotta admit... that’s kind of exciting.

Tim Griffin on Dell's SMB Services Strategy

DELL-Kara K — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT

While SMB customers are most familiar with Dell as a provider of warranty support services, many of our SMB customers turn to Dell for help managing their IT as well. In this vlog, Tim Griffin, VP of SMB Global Services talks about how Dell helps SMB customers by managing their IT so they can stay focused on managing their business.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Dell, DPC Latency, and You

DELL-John B — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:12:00 GMT

You may have seen some chatter recently about an audio issue on the Alienware M17x on Engadget, NotebookReview and Dell’s Community site. The discussions revolve around deferred procedure call (DPC) latency, and its affect on audio performance. We are aware of the issues customers are reporting, and are currently working to address them.

Some folks are using tools to measure DPC latency, and while measuring it is one thing, it may not actually cause performance issues. The few customers who have symptoms are reporting the following:

Audio stutters, clicks, pops, and drops
Frame drops while watching videos
Audio/Video desync during video playback

DPC latency is not an issue that is specific to Alienware or Dell. This is a complex problem to address, and there are no simple solutions. DPC latency can be caused by numerous issues including the system BIOS, a sound card or audio chipset, drivers, the operating system itself or a combination of those things.

We will continue to dig deeper into this. As we make progress on this issue, I'll report it here.

Patient Info Where and When It’s Needed: Bridging the Digital Divide in Healthcare

DELL-Craig S — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

There's been a lot of focus in healthcare on the need to digitize patient information using EMR so that healthcare providers can share information and better coordinate patient care. Digitizing patient info is the first step, making sure that hospital medical professionals have it when they are diagnosing and treating is patients is the next step.

Today, Dell is introducing a virtual desktop solution for healthcare that simplifies info access for hospital medical professionals and management for IT and helps improve info security, staff productivity and care quality. Early adopter Silver Cross Hospital has been able to reduce application updates to their 200 desktops from 80 hours to 20 minutes with MCC. Their medical professionals are also more productive. MCC has helped their medical professionals reclaim nearly 20,000 hours for patient care this year alone.

Dell continues to bridge the digital divide at healthcare's frontline to help the medical community harness the power of information for better patient care.

Listen to Jamie Coffin, vice president and general manager of Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences, describe MCC's value to hospitals and let us know how we can continue to improve the value of IT for medical professionals.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

ATI Introduces One “Godzilla” of a Graphics Card

DELL-John B — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

If you’ve kept your ear to the ground, you’ve probably noticed the signs of an upcoming ATI graphics card, and you may have seen write-ups about the card here and here, but if there’s anything constant in the world of cutting-edge gaming hardware, it’s that things are constantly changing. When you’re in the industry, you almost become numb to it. The ever-increasing numbers in the spec sheets begin to blur into each other, and the changes almost begin to lose significance. Every once in awhile something appears on a spec sheet that brings everything back into perspective.

A few weeks ago a colleague of mine asked if I would like to write a blog about the ATI Radeon HD 5970, and I happily consented. She sent over the tech specs, and after asking our engineers a few questions about the card, I was still a little overwhelmed. Then I saw a little tidbit in the spec sheet that completely blew my mind:

• HD Gaming – 4 teraFLOPS deliver the graphics power you need to play the most demanding games at extreme HD resolutions with the settings cranked to the max.

To help explain why this was so mind-blowing, check out this recent story written by my friend Sylvie Barak. Just a few short months ago, customized PC manufacturers were making news by offering personal supercomputers with 4 teraFLOPS of processing power, and now? Now ATI has brought that much horsepower to bear upon the gaming world in one Godzilla of a graphics card. That’s 4 times the number crunching power of this supercomputer from 1997:

Even more impressive is that the Alienware Area-51 and the Area-51 ALX will have the option of carrying two of these amazing graphics cards, giving gamers a “quad-GPU” graphics solution I’ve been told will make “zombies come out of the screen in Left 4 Dead 2 that will eat your brains”.

For those interested in the rest of the spec sheet, here are a few numbers to munch on:

• 2 GPUs clocked at 725MHz

• 2GB of DDR5 Memory clocked at 1000MHz

• 256MB of memory data width

• 2048x1536 VGA resolution, 1920x1200 HDMI resolution, 2560x1600 DL DVI resolution

Numbers like these make me wonder if Ray Kurzweil may be on to something.

Adamo XPS Now Available on Dell.com

Lionel_Menchaca — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:10:00 GMT

If you're the kind of person who reads about laptops and mobile devices on the web, you've probably already seen some online reactions to Adamo XPS. In the initial post about the latest Adamo laptop, Michael Scheschuk addressed linked to some of the blog activity and provided an overview.

Today, Adamo XPS is available on Dell.com both in the US and in several countries around the world. In the US, the starting price is $1,799. Here are the default specs for that config (click on it to see a larger version).

To mark the occasion, Alex Gruzen, Dell's Sr. VP in the Consumer Product Group wanted to take a few minutes to share his insight into the product and Dell's goals behind it. Here's the video:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Take a look at www.adamobydell.com/xps for more information. And if you want to see more images of the lastest Adamo, visit here on our Flickr page. I've added a few new pictures there. Click this page below to see Adamo XPS on Dell.com:

Dell Linux Engineering to participate in UDS-L (November 16-20)

DELL-Amit B — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I'd like to announce that Dell Linux Engineers will hit the road to Dallas, TX to participate in the upcoming Ubuntu Developers Summit for Lucid Lynx (UDS-L) from December 16 - 20 Correction: November 16 - 20.

Lucid Lynx is the code name for the upcoming release of Ubuntu, versioned 10.04. This is a significant release for Canonical and Dell as this it will be an LTS (Long Term Support) meaning it will be supported by Canonical for three years on the Desktop and five years on the Servers. UDS is the forum where the Ubuntu Linux Community Developers and System Integrators (like Dell) come together to discuss and hash out the feature roadmap for the next release of Ubuntu Linux. Issues that need fixing, features that need developing are all spec'd out, prioritized and based in this week-long marathon of discussions and brainstorms. At the end of the summit, the final Blueprints are published. These Blueprints are reflective of what to expect in the next release of Ubuntu Linux. This sort of "transparent" planning is what differentiates the open-source projects such as Ubuntu Linux from their "closed-source" counterparts.

Mario Limonciello will be hitting the road with me. We both work in the core Ubuntu Linux engineering team at Dell responsible for delivering Ubuntu Linux on various desktops, notebooks and netbooks globally. Making guest appearances on random days of the summit will be Doug Anson who works for the Office of the CTO responsible for architecture of Client Linux across Dell as well as John Hull who is the Engineering Manager for the Linux team at Dell.

I will be leading a plenary on "Preloading Ubuntu" on the second day of the summit right after lunch hour. In addition, we will all be participating in many different sessions that span across several different tracks such as Desktop, Kernel, QA, Community etc. So, come out and join us or remotely participate.

Hello… Dell’s Getting into the Smartphone Business

Lionel_Menchaca — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Today, I get to put the all the rumors to rest—Dell confirmed that we’re entering the smartphone business. These initial Mini 3 smartphones will roll out first in China and Brazil through partnerships with two of the world’s largest mobile operators: China Mobile and Claro.

So, why are we starting in China and Brazil? Besides size (China Mobile has over 500 million subscribers, and Claro serves more than 42 million), we have existing telecom partnerships with them. Back in April, we were the first to embed China Mobile’s technology into our Mini 10 netbook. And if you’ve been watching, you know Dell has agreements with lots of other providers like Vodafone in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. We’ve partnered with AT&T and Verizon in the United States to offer mobile broadband on different products, and we have agreements with other carriers in Asia.

Here's a picture of Michael Dell and João Cox, President of Claro, showing off the Mini 3 smartphone:

Our entry into the smartphone market is a way to extend the power of the Internet beyond netbooks, laptops and desktops into smaller products. Lots of options there.

The other thing can confirm is that the Mini 3 smartphones run Google’s Android platform. I’m pumped like a lot of others out there about where Android is heading. With Android, we’re designing these initial Mini 3 phones to provide power, flexibility and customization to both our customers and to carriers around the world.

I’ll let others blog about the details of the upcoming Mini 3 smartphones and Dell’s broader mobile strategy here on Direct2Dell soon. To see the first official pictures, take a look at the Mini 3 set on our Flickr page.