Here's something that might help with your holiday shopping, so long as you're willing to wait until January. Dell has gone and slashed the price of its 16GB streak to $400, a nice $180 discount over what it was previously selling for. The caveat? Dell's listing an estimated ship date of January 10, 2011.
The OEM also knocked $180 off of its 32GB Streak, bringing it down to $500. Both of these units are unlocked, though only the 32GB ships with Android 2.2 pre-installed. The 16GB model comes with Android 1.6, though Dell says you can upgrade to Android 2.2 right away via an Over-the-Air (OTA) update.
We've been intrigued by Dell's Inspiron Duo convertible laptop ever since we first spied it several weeks back, and now it's here. Dell announced the funky notebook yesterday, which sports a flip-hinge design so you can use it as a traditional netbook or as a tablet.
"Dell is changing the shape of computing, with products that usher in new experiences and allow people to stay connected to each other and the content they love from almost anywhere," said Sam Burd, vice president, Dell Consumer, Small and Medium Business Product Group. "The new Inspiron duo’s dual purpose delivers one-touch access to great content and yet offers the functionality of a full keyboard for more intensive applications. We’re excited to offer such an innovative and unique design to our customers."
The Inspiron Duo sports a 10.1-inch capacity multitouch screen (1366x768), Intel Atom N550 dual-core processor, 2GB of DDR3-800 RAM, 250GB/5400RPM or 320GB/7200RPM hard drive, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, headphone port, 1.3MP webcam, optional Audio Station sock with 7-in-1 card reader, JBL speakers, and two more USB 2.0 ports, and Windows 7 Home Premium.
I’m guessing the vast majority of our readers read the headline, smacked their foreheads and said “duh!”, but believe it or not component prices dipped even faster in the pervious quarter then analysts were expecting. Dell executives were the first to admit that core components such as memory and LCD screens were significantly less expensive than expected, and this had a hugely positive impact on profits.
Healthy OEM profits are great for shareholders, but when asked about when these reductions would start being reflected in end user pricing Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden admitted it would probably take a few quarters for the price reductions to make its way through the supply chain. “There will be some areas where I think it will bottom out a little bit in maybe LCDs and hard disks as we see those markets play out”.
Either way you can expect to see lower prices going into the holiday season, and its only get better going into 2011.
Dell showed off a prototype of the Dell Inspiron Duo convertible netbook a few months ago, and it admittedly looked pretty pie in the sky. But Engadget is reporting today that the device will be available for purchase in the first week of December for $549. Customers will be able to add a special speaker dock for $100 extra, and a larger HDD is also an option.
The Duo appears, at first, to be a regular netbook. The 10.1-inch screen folds down to make it a convertible tablet, but the mechanism is unlike any we've seen before. The screen rotates within the frame, then the hinge closes normally with the screen now facing out. The internals are standard for a netbook these days. You're looking at a dual-core Intel Atom N550 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a Broadcom Crystal HD GPU, and Windows 7 Home Premium.
The computer's screen is a capacitive multitouch display, and rotating it into tablet mode will bring up the more finger-friendly Dell Stage UI. This attention to detail might actually make this a desirable product. Will your mouse be hovering over the 'buy' button come December?
Microsoft re-introduced Windows 7 Family Pack in October to coincide with the first anniversary of the launch of the operating system. If you don’t already know, the family pack gives you three upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for $149.99, when a single upgrade license alone costs $119.99. But if that sounds like a great deal to you, just wait till we tell you about the limited-time discount Dell is offering on the family pack. The family pack is available for $119.99 – three upgrades for the price of one – from Dell’s online store. However, only when you add Windows 7 Family Pack to your cart does the discount reveal itself.
The notebook that Dell claims is “the most powerful 17-inch gaming laptop in the universe” is approaching yet another revision, according to Notebook Italia. The site claims that the world will soon be face to face with Alienware M17x R3, which will come with the option of a 3D display and a much wider choice of graphics cards. Customers will be able to choose from either AMD’s upcoming Mobility Radeon HD 6000 series or NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460M. Further, it will be capable of sending wireless HD videos to a TV thanks to a SiBEAM chipset.
TmoNews.com, the unofficial T-Mobile blog, reporting that Dell plans to ship its Venue Pro smartphone tomorrow and has an internal image to prove it.
The Venue Pro is Dell's much anticipated Windows Phone 7 device. The sleek looking phone sports a 4.1-inch WVGA AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, full portrait QWERTY keyboard, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5MP camera, and Gorilla Glass to help prevent you from scuffing it up.
There's still no word on price, but according to the internal image, Dell will sell the device in Microsoft stores tomorrow and on Dell.com on November 15th.
The hits just keep on coming for RIM as Dell has apparently decided to encourage their employees to use phones the company actually makes. The Wall Street Journal reports that about 25,000 Dell employees will be moved to devices like the Windows Phone 7 equipped Venue Pro, and various Android handsets. Like most business decisions, this isn't just about keeping up appearances. The move will let Dell eliminate their Blackberry servers, saving about 25% in mobile costs.
Dell is in talks with T-Mobile to purchase phone plans in bulk for employees. The Dell Venue Pro runs on T-Mobile's AWS 3G band. RIM for their part is not amused, calling the change an attempt to get "Free publicity". RIM would contend we have cunningly fallen into their trap. A RIM spokes person went on to say he expects Dell to lose money in upkeep costs.
You can't blame Dell for looking to use their own products now that they actually have some. Companies without mobile products might not be so quick to leave, but the market is shifting. Could this be just the start of enterprise finally ditching RIM?
One of the coolest gadgets that was shown off at IDF earlier this year was Dell's Inspiron Duo, a hybrid netbook/tablet with a funky twistable screen. The Duo has the potential to be a big hit, offering the best of both worlds with a 10.1-inch screen and hardware keyboard.
Unfortunately, we still don't know much more about this potential game-changing device, such as when it will launch, how much will it cost, and what hardware it will come with. What we do have, however, is a teaser video that Dell put out showing the Inspiron Duo from a variety of angles, as well as shoved into a JBL speaker dock.
Here's something we don't see very often. According to a report in Chinese-language Liberty Times, the Taipei Court is holding Dell responsible for mis-priced monitors that appeared on the company's website and is forcing the OEM to fulfill orders already placed.
These weren't minor pricing mistakes either, but a major blunder on Dell's part. The OEM advertised a monitor worth NT$8,700 (US$285) for NT$1,700 ($55), and another worth NT$7,999 (US$262) for NT$999 (US$33).
On the bright side for Dell, the flub-up shouldn't cost the company too much cabbage. Only around 31 customers in Taiwan have so far have filed a suit, and the decision applies specifically to this case and not others like it.
maximumpc: Episode #203 of the No BS podcast is up - this time around we discuss the GTX 780 and answer your questions: http://t.co/aWaHpQfIbd7 hours 56 min ago
maximumpc: Microsoft hopes Xbox One developers make games unplayable offline - what???? http://t.co/jzVz3PtCcD via @DailyTech15 hours 36 min ago
maximumpc: @R3ality_Ch3ck Thx for the RT!16 hours 2 min ago
