Dell - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Dell throws itself into rugged notebook market

  With the arrival of new Dell Latitude ATG (All Terrain Grade) notebook there is now a smaller and lighter alternative to the well-known Panasonic Toughbook.

• Dell notebook delivers the goods

  I’ve been seriously underpowered, computerwise, for over a year now after a Sony Vaio I had overheated and died — just out of warranty, of course.

• XenSource expands its virtualisation capabilities

  A new version of the XenSource virtualisation hypervisor, released on Monday, now works on servers running the Windows 2000 operating system from Microsoft.

• New Dell division will design Web 2.0 datacentres

  Dell has launched a division to design customised datacentres for companies that rely on servers to run their businesses, such as Web 2.0 firms and internet search engines.

• More boldness needed in Dell's desktop Linux foray

  Thanks to Dell, it will soon be easier than ever to order a brand-new desktop or notebook PC with Linux pre-installed. But whether Dell’s new programme will really have an impact on the rate of Linux adoption in the enterprise is unclear at best.

• Dell releases all-in-one printer

  Dell launched its first printers into the local market last week and, for this reason, sent us a printer to test.

• Cosy dealings with Intel set to cost Dell dearly

  I wrote a column in 2005 called How will Dell Offset the Loss of Intel’s Generosity? In it, I asserted that Dell needed to overhaul its strategy and focus to make up for the coming loss of Intel’s ... oh, call it what you like, price supports, subsidies, loyalty bonuses, or what business calls MDF (market development funds).

• TOYBOX: Big screen bliss

  When people ask me what’s better than their current monitor, I usually say “two screens” or “a larger one”.

• Dell laptop fire destroys Maine home

  A fire that destroyed a single-family home in Biddeford, Me. last week has been blamed on a Dell laptop that was plugged in and re-charging while sitting on a living room couch.

• Dell back at Dell helm as Rollins resigns

  Two and a half years after handing the chief executive title to his hand-picked successor, Kevin Rollins, Michael Dell is again running the company he founded.

• Dell launches its first AMD-based notebook

  Dell launched its first notebook PC powered by a processor from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) instead of an Intel chip.

• Dell’s dilemma in the post cheap PC age

  The recent burst of bad news from the once all-conquering Dell — disappointing earnings, executive departures, customer service problems, battery recalls, MP3 market withdrawal, SEC inquiries etcetera — brings to mind the huge cyclical swings that have always characterised the global PC business and the historical inability of even the strongest vendors to adjust. Each decade has had its own version of this pattern and its own winners and losers. Is history now repeating itself with Dell?

• PC vendors blame batteries – not notebook design

  Following the alarming number of notebook battery recalls this year, a group of PC vendors met recently to seek safer lithium ion cells, and resolved to draft an improved standard for battery manufacturing and quality control by the second quarter of 2007.

• Avoid best practices, says Gartner director

  “If you want your organisation to be the leader in the industry, avoid ‘best practice’ processes,” says Mike Kennedy, Gartner’s senior programme director for executive programmes. Kennedy was speaking at the CIO annual conference held in Auckland last week.

• Dell and Sony knew about blazing battery problem early on

  Dell and Sony knew about — and had discussed — manufacturing problems with Sony-made lithium-ion batteries as long as ten months ago, according to a Sony spokesman Rick Clancy. But they held off issuing a recall until the flaws were clearly linked to catastrophic failures causing those batteries to catch fire, says Clancy.