Dell Announces OS X Emulator and Video Chat for its Studio Laptops

Posted 06/26/2008 at 6:32pm | by Pulkit Chandna

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Rein in your fancies, for Dell isn’t that audacious to bundle an OS X emulator for Windows with its laptops. But the Dell Studio notebooks are going to feature a launcher application, Dell Dock, which will replace the conventional Windows Vista desktop with a customizable OS X-esque layout.

The Dell Dock will serve as a task-organizer allowing users to access their applications from a simple taskbar. Dell’s bright idea is that this will not congest the desktop with myriad of program icons. This application will classify installed applications based on their utility; for instance, all internet related application will be accessible through a single taskbar icon.

It has also announced Dell Video Chat, powered by SightSpeed, for the Studio family of notebooks. The communication client is a bit like Apple’s iChat client and is especially targeted at the “socially wired” and business users. The client is debuting on the Studio range as other business notebooks from Dell don’t currently feature webcams. Each Dell Studio buyer will receive 5 minutes of free phone calling and absolutely free 4-way group chat - for which SightSpeed otherwise charges $9.95/month.

Although this is a huge breakthrough for SightSpeed, it will be only after a few days that we will know of Dell Video Chat’s fate. It will all come down to whether a sizable chunk of users would give up or ignore Skype and venture beyond the 5 free phone minutes on offer.

Image 1 Credit: Gizmodo, Image 2 Credit: TMCNET