Laptops

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

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.

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.

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:

 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:

You might have seen some of the online buzz about the Adamo XPS on sites like Gizmodo, CNET and Engadget since our recent announcement.  I wanted to take moment and provide some insight into this addition to our Adamo product line-up. Like Lionel mentioned, the Adamo brand has always been about providing cutting-edge innovation, premium design, craftsmanship, and luxury to the high-end consumer. This started with the original Adamo Thirteen which utilized authentic materials throughout including an aluminum frame and glass display assembled with Swiss watch-like craftsmanship. With the original Adamo, we worked to deliver this at a mere 16.4mm high and that helped make it the world's thinnest laptop at the time.

 We wanted to build on that. That's why we decided to take some of the knowledge gained during the Adamo Thirteen development and push it even further. The result is the Adamo XPS a laptop that is 9.99mm. To give you an idea of how thin 9.99mm is, most cell phones today are thicker. The current iPhone is 12.3mm thick and a common USB port, found on most computers these days, is 7.5mm.

To arrive at a product this thin, we had to really start from the ground up. The traditional 'clamshell' laptop design just would not work. Over lots of late nights brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping we finally arrived our unique hinge design which results in an angled keyboard that is similar to a traditional desktop keyboard.

This angled keyboard allows for more efficient cooling, improved acoustics, and most importantly it folds into the display essentially disappearing when the laptop is closed. When you want to open the system again just swipe your finger across the cover and the keyboard pops open. Very cool and very James Bond! I've seen that GottaBeMobile.com mentioned that the latch does require power to open, which is true. If you find yourself needing to open the system for some reason without power (or if there's a technical issue with the battery and AC adapter), we've provided an override tool that does the trick. We've also included a 'hot swap' feature that allows you to switch batteries while in sleep mode without turning off your system.

The engineering team needed to be really creative in order to maintain the 9.99mm height. Lessons learned from Adamo Thirteen included unique mounts that allowed us to remove the metal casing surrounding the Solid State Drive. The team also split the motherboard into multiple pieces to allow the other components to be in the same plane. That is, in a traditional laptop the motherboard sits at the bottom, the keyboards and other component sits on top. All of this was too tall for the Adamo XPS so we effectively put the keyboard, and other components at the same level as the motherboard to minimize height. The team also needed to relocate the I/O ports (USBx2, audio, Display Port, and power) to the LCD since the palm rest was thinner than the ports.

Beyond making it thin, we didn't want to compromise on hardware. It sports a Core 2 Duo 1.4GHz ULV processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD drive and a slick 13.4 inch HD display. If you want to see more photos, Brian Solis posted some good ones on his blog, or you can check out the Adamo XPS set on Dell's Flickr page.

With its ultrathin yet sturdy design, aluminum enclosure, diamond cut logos, metal keycaps, and wing-inspired design accents we set out to make the Adamo XPS simply breathtaking. A lot of effort went into designing the next product under the Adamo brand.  We hope you like the Adamo XPS.