Archive for the ‘dell’ Category

Dell’s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple’s iPad

Say the words “tablet computer” and ten bucks says it’s Apple’s iPad that springs to mind. But that doesn’t mean other companies aren’t busy building their own version of a touch-enabled, multimedia-sporting, slab of portable computing goodness.

Dell’s first effort at a tablet will be the Mini 5 (a name that is still in beta) — a slice of plastic and glass with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen that according to Michael Dell will debut “in a couple of months.”

The Mini 5 will sport a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor. The 5-inch screen also means it will be be closer to the Sony PSP in its form factor than the longer legal notepad design of the iPad.

The Mini 5 will run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0 or higher. And instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad, Dell’s tablets will support the 16:9 ratio. Widescreen films anyone?

“It’s a device optimized for media consumption,” Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com. “It will offer the full web-browsing experience so you have something that you are holding in your hand that replaces everything the smartphone does and takes on quite a bit of the features of a laptop.”

The Dell 5 Mini will also just be the first in a series. “We are going to have a family of tablets,” says Choubey. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”

That means future versions of the Mini 5 could have larger screens that will be closer in size to the iPad.

Dell wouldn’t comment on pricing, beyond saying it will be “competitive,” or when it will launch this year. Apple’s iPad ranges from $500 to $830.

With the launch of iPad in January, the tablet PCs are going through a renaissance. Though PC makers have offered slates and convertible notebooks for nearly a decade, consumers haven’t bought them in droves. With its 9.7-inch display, sleek design and Apple’s relentless hype, the iPad could alter the way we experience mobile computing. And Dell knows this.

Three years ago, Dell started expanding its product line to include mobile products. Dell smartphones are now sold in Brazil and China and it hopes to bring a version to North America. Meanwhile, the company set up a tablet division, and three weeks ago Choubey joined Dell from venture capital firm Venrock.

As he sees it, the Mini 5 will offer the apps that are available on smartphones, a set of specialized tools and programs for business users, a strong movies and music experience and web surfing — flash and all included. Take that, iPad.

Along with the apps on the Mini 5 users will have quick access to e-mail, YouTube, Amazon’s MP3 store for music, as well as spreadsheet, presentation maker and documents. It will also support voice recognition.  And these are characteristics that will be common to all tablets from Dell.

Still it will be a hard sell to consumers, says Van Baker, an analyst with research firm Gartner.

“If all you are bringing to the market is another media-playing or handheld-gaming device, then it’s not going to work,” he says. “It’s all about the services you have behind the device.”

And that’s where the iPad scores, with its strong developer ecosystem and 100,000 apps, along with iTunes and iBooks, says Baker.

Dell is betting it can offer that and add a compelling value proposition for business users: a promise that its tablet won’t just be a coffee-table device but instead a powerful productivity tool.

“There’s no reason why you can’t use the tablet to take notes in class,” he says.

Dell will also offer services such as syncing that will allow users to move music, documents and other data between their PC and tablet easily.

“At a very basic level, you would have a service that will share content across the devices seamlessly and have it in the cloud,” says Choubey.

Dell also hopes to draw on the Android ecosystem by offering developers the opportunity to port their Android apps to the Mini 5 and its successors.

For the Mini 5, though, its PlayStation Portable-like form factor could be a big drawback, says Baker. The Dell Mini 5 is closer in its looks to gadgets better known as mobile internet devices or MIDs, a category that has been languishing despite products from companies such as Lenovo and Archos.

“If the Dell Mini 5 is this small and it is pocketable, then why isn’t it a phone?” asks Baker. “If I am going to carry a second device, it better have something that’s a significant advantage over what I can do with my phone. With the iPad, the value proposition is a much larger display.”

But Choubey says the innovation is not just in the form factor but also in the business model. Dell will work with carriers to bundle inexpensive data plans for the Mini 5 and other tablets.

“That type of model — the way iPad was able to do with AT& T — will become more prevalent with these tablet devices,” he says. “It allows the carrier to increase number of devices per user.” Apple introduced a $15 for 250 MB, or an unlimited $30 a month, no-contract data plan for use with the iPad.

See Also:

• Dell Plans Its Own Smartphone, Analysts Say
• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Can Apple’s iPad Save the Media After All?
• Hands-On With the Apple iPad
• Designers Unearth Apple Tablet Prototypes — From 1983

Photo: Dell Mini 5 (ndevil/Flickr)

You can install Chromium OS on your Dell Mini 10v right now

You can now run Chromium OS, the open source developmental version of Google Chrome OS, on your Dell Mini 10v. Don’t have one? Neither do I, so don’t feel too bad.

It make take some time to set up. For one, the download (an image file), as put together by a few of Dell’s Linux guys, weighs in at 7.5GB. Not only will that take a while to download, but you’ll also need a flash drive with at least 8GB of free space on there—another thing I don’t have. You’ll also need access to another Linux-based computer (well, any computer that can run the “dd” command) to get everything up and running.

Beyond that, it does appear to be fairly painless to instal. You download said image file then copy it from the Linux computer using “dd” to the flash drive. You take this flash drive, stick it into you Dell Mini 10, and away you go!

What’s your reward for going through all that? Running Chromium OS, of course. Think of it as Google Chrome OS, but way alpha.

I’m going to file this under the “Why would you bother doing that? Because you can” category.

via Liliputing

Dell’s Latitude XT2 XFR rugged tablet gets official

Continue reading Dell’s Latitude XT2 XFR rugged tablet gets official

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Dell’s Latitude XT2 XFR rugged tablet gets official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell and Envision Solar refashion parking lot into clean energy farm, EV recharge station (video)

Dell has added a shiny new feather to its cap today with the announcement of a freshly completed Solar Grove renewable energy installation. The system is composed of 512 solar panels, which provide shelter for 56 cars, and are capable of harvesting 131,000 kWh of energy per year. This power will be primarily used in the adjacent Round Rock HQ, but CleanCharge stations will also be available should you wish to juice up your electric vehicle on Mother Nature’s finest. No matter how much Dell might have splashed out to bring this integration together, we can’t help but suspect that the smug satisfaction of getting free energy — both in pecuniary and ecological terms — must be priceless. Video awaits after the break.

Continue reading Dell and Envision Solar refashion parking lot into clean energy farm, EV recharge station (video)

Dell and Envision Solar refashion parking lot into clean energy farm, EV recharge station (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s New Solar Parking Lot [Solar]

Think about how hot your car gets on a sunny day. Dell decided to harvest all that wasted energy by installing these solar panels in their parking lot. Now they’re keeping cars cool and putting that sunlight to good use.

The structure generates 130 kilowatts of solar power, enough to offset 145,000 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions annually. There are even charging terminals available for electric cars, but only two can be charged at a time. Seems like a pretty smart way to keep drivers comfortable and harvest some spare energy on the side. [Dvice]

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