Products

• 32 Pages of Paper in 17 Boxes

  Fri. Jul. 18, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  Earlier this year, sites like The Consumerist and Gizmodo showed us that we still have a lot of work to do to reduce packaging. Regardless of steps we take to protect the environment, as an industry our work is far from over.
  
  But when the printer company from Palo Alto packs 32 pages of A4 paper in 17 boxes, it deserves a conversation. How did it happen and why?
  
  You may recall that when we had an issue with one of our suppliers, we sent a team to Dallas the next day to sort it out. We also put in place specific steps to address excessive packaging head on. As a result of great customer ideas and feedback, we're planning to reduce packaging by 10 million pounds over the next year. It underscores the value of listening. And green IT is also something lots of folks at Dell take seriously. That's an area where lots of companies can do more.
  
  It's disappointing that HP has yet to respond. We can all learn a lot by listening to customers and uncovering ways we can improve the planet.

  So, let's get to the bottom of it. Send us your pictures of HP's excessive packaging and we'll share them with their head of corporate sustainability.  You can post them here or e-mail them to regeneration@dell.com.   And if you have ways that we can improve, let us know. Let's have a dialogue about why this happened and how we can all work together to improve packaging.

  (BTW, today's incident reminded us of a comparison we did earlier this year between our M-Series blade server and HP's C-3000 "Shorty"...see below for a brief video showing the differences).
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• Select Systems Now Available with Ubuntu 8.04

  Fri. Jul. 18, 2008
  by Daniel Judd, Product Group Strategist

  After months of testing and development we are ready to release Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on select Dell consumer systems. For consumers in the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, United Kingdom and many Latin American countries (like Mexico and Colombia) Ubuntu 8.04 will be offered on the XPS M1330N and Inspiron 1525N notebooks and the Inspiron 530N  Click on any of the country links above or go to www.dell.com/ubuntu to place your order. :)

  In early August, we will also add the XPS M1530n and Studio 15n to the line-up. This is just in time for LinuxWorld where we will participate in a number of the conference sessions. That will be your chance to hear directly about what’s been accomplished over the last year and where we see it going in 2009.

  In her post, Anne Camden mentions some of the new features the Ubuntu 8.04 brings. Beyond that, we took steps to make our Linux images more accessible to a global audience by including the ability to select your language during the first boot process. While this does not mean we’re shipping in every country (yet) it’s a step in the right direction. Stay tuned for a technical details post from John Hull will provide a good overview of the work we did on the new release. Similar post from him on Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 releases have proved to be pretty popular with the Linux community.
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• Latitude XT Software Update is Here

  Tue. Jul. 15, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Since my post about multi-touch coming to Latitude XT customers via a software update. Several sites like GottaBeMobile, jkOnTheRun and Gizmodo mentioned it, and Joanna Stern from Laptop Magazine even published a pretty solid overview and video demo of the new functionality.

  Now let me get to it... the download is now available for Latitude XT customers at the following links:

  • Vista 32 Bit
  • Vista 64 Bit
  • Windows XP Tablet

  If you'd rather get there on your own from the Latitude XT Drivers & Downloads page, the update is called N-Trig - Application in under the Input Device Drivers section. All versions have a date of 7/15, and both Vista versions are 14MB and the XP version is 15MB.

  

  Here's a video where Hans Eilers from the Latitude XT team walks customers through installing and calibrating the update:
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• Multi-Touch Capability Available Tomorrow for Latitude XT Customers

  Mon. Jul. 14, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Since we introduced the award-winning Latitude XT tablet, capacitive touch capability is one thing that set it apart from the competition. Several weeks ago at the Wall Street Journal's D6: All Things Digital Conference, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer highlighted upcoming multi-touch capability that Windows 7 will bring. Chris Flores' post and video kicked off a flurry of conversations in Techmeme, and we were pumped that they used a Latitude XT was one of the machines Microsoft used show off multi-touch in Windows 7.

  But, Latitude XT customers don't have to wait for Windows 7 to use multi-touch. Tomorrow we will introduce a software update globally via support.dell.com for the Dell tablet that will bring multi-touch to both Windows XP and Vista. With this update, customers can use the functionality in several standard apps like Google Earth, Outlook and Microsoft Office, web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7, and XP's Windows Picture viewer and the Vista's Windows Photo Gallery. Take a look at this video from Hans Eilers and Roy Stedman from the Office of the CTO for a demo of how this works.

  I'll add the link to the software update here in this post when it's ready.

  Update, July 16: I forgot to update this post with the links. If you'd like a bit more detail on how the install process works, take a look at this post from yesterday.

  • Vista 32 Bit
  • Vista 64 Bit
  • Windows XP Tablet

  
  
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• The Redesign of the New Dell.com Home Page

  Wed. Jul. 02, 2008
  by Tommy Lynn, Design Lead—Global Site Design

  To add to Fara’s post about the Dell.com redesign, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain how we design for the online user experience here at Dell and provide further insight into ways that Dell is continuing to foster a design-centric environment to benefit our customers.

  Note: Click on any of the images in this post to see larger versions of all of them.

  My team, an internal group of user experience designers, began our redesign efforts back in March with a lot of planning and strategy exploration. During this time we worked closely with internal business partners to define the objectives, requirements, and establish what success looked like to everyone. To build our strategy, we used current-state customer feedback and metrics as well as research and results from our previous design tests. This discovery process illustrated that there were a myriad of design options that we needed to consider.

  Exploring these approaches took a lot of people, time and creative reviews. The initial round of designs included 24 different concepts and over 14 ways to navigate the page. After aligning on the goals for the page, our mission was clear: Beautiful imagery, more targeted navigation, space for fresh content, and more deep links into the site.

  

  As we narrowed down the options, we tested the direction with users from our three main customer audiences (Consumer, Small & Medium Business, and Large Business) to ensure that we effectively captured each group’s needs. The feedback from this research informed some important design changes and reaffirmed the final design direction.

  We know that a positive user experience has a direct correlation to a strong brand experience by allowing users to accomplish their goals easily. The end result of our efforts, which now live in the US with a 50% filter, accomplishes this with a clean and simple way to address the needs of our users by getting you where you want to go quicker.

  

  Like Fara mentioned, we need your help to evolve the online experience at Dell.com. If you have thoughts to share about how to improve, respond to this post, go to the Dell Web Site area of IdeaStorm or weigh in at the Community Pulse page for Dell.com
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• The New Dell.com Home Page: Aiming for Function and Beauty

  Wed. Jul. 02, 2008
  by Fara Howard, Sr. Manager—Global Site Design

  After months of customer research, planning, and design, we are ready to share the new home page for Dell.com. A well-designed home page sets the tone for the entire site experience. When we do our job well, you can easily find a product or information that’s important to you. We worked with this goal in mind.

  Getting the home page right is critically important, and that’s why we started our design process with feedback from the community. In her post last year, Laura Thomas discussed findability, load time and customer input. We focused our efforts on all three. When we spoke with customers this spring about the new home page, 100% of people found the ideal path to products. We learned that the imagery resonated with both our corporate, small business and consumer customers. We also focused on load time by building a page that will enable you to experience our products, and not to have to wait to enter the site.

  Through the collective work of many folks on the Dell team, we’ve worked to create a home page that is easy to navigate and that shows off our products. Hopefully, there are a few key things you’ll notice when you experience the new home page on Dell.com (click on the screen shot below to view a larger image):

  

  1) Clear navigation: With “For Home, For Office and For Data Center” present at the top of the page, it’s easy for you to find the products that are perfect for your needs.

  2) Focus on products: Technology is a huge part of our life, so we should be buying, carrying and using products that we’re proud to own. The new Dell.com home page highlights our products in a more visual way while clearly calling out the functional benefits that are important to you.

  3) It’s more than just shopping: At Dell, we introduce award-winning products at an rapid pace so we’ve allotted space on our site to tell you about them. We are also bringing technology headlines and Dell Deals to you as you start your dell.com experience.

  We started our launch yesterday in Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil and Spain. The US will started with a limited launch yesterday as well (so all of you won’t see it yet; but you will soon!). Over the course of this month, the design will roll out to other regions.

  We hope that the new Dell.com will be a great experience, starting from your first click. Thank you for all of your feedback—we’re always looking for more. So if you got some ideas on how we can continue to improve, you have several options:

  • Respond to this post
  • Submit an idea at the Dell Web Site area of IdeaStorm or
  • Weigh in at the Community Pulse page for Dell.com
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• Dell Studio 15 and Studio 17 Details

  Thu. Jun. 26, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Jay Pinkert published a post about the new line of Consumer systems we unveiled earlier today. Beyond the blog post, you can also see information on the new line at www.dell.com/studio. 

  Click on the image below to see a larger version of it, or click here to see more images in Flickr.

  
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• Dell & Twitter

  Sat. Jun. 21, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Whether we're classifying types of Twitter users, talking about Twitter at the center of breaking news, cool Twitter apps, why we love Twitter, using Twitter as customer service (@Zappos is simply on another level! Check out twitter.zappos.com to see what I mean) or Twitter downtime, seems like we can't quit talking about it.

  Still, for all that chatter, there's a lot of folks that still have questions about it. The folks at CommonCraft have a great introductory video, and Laura Fitton's blog post is probably still has the best big-picture explanation of Twitter that I've come across.

  From a Dell perspective, @RichardatDell told me yesterday that Dell has about 40 folks who use Twitter pretty regularly. We've got RSS feeds of all the Dell blogs and IdeaStorm in the Twitterverse. We also have other places where we sell Dell products in Twitter like @DellOutlet and @DellHomeOffers. Not too long ago, we added @DellSmBizOffers to the mix. Like BusinessWeek noted, we recently surpassed $500,000 in revenue through Twitter, and that number is growing. In all of our Dell brand Twitter locations, you will see one or two Dell individuals that they follow. That way, if you have a question, you have a Dell person to follow up with.

  I got a chance to sit down with Ricardo Guerrero (@ggroovin), who was one of the main folks behind our Twitter activities overall to talk about this stuff in a bit more detail.
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• A Beast of a Card for a Beast of a Laptop

  Tue. Jun. 17, 2008
  by John Blain, Consumer & Gaming Liaison

  You may remember my last post on Direct2Dell, where I had announced the imminent arrival of the GeForce Dual 8800M GTX upgrade kit for existing XPS M1730 customers. In fact, we’ve been talking about this for quite some time. Back in January, Lionel blogged that Dell was offering the 8800M GTX to new customers. Last month, he said we’d be offering this upgrade to existing customers. For customers in the United States, that day has finally arrived!

  The card can now be purchased from our Dell.com, either as a stand-alone part for the slightly more adventurous, or with an installation service for folks that don’t want to do it themselves. I would recommend seeing what is involved in changing your video card before deciding which option is best for you. The service manual for the XPS M1730 can be found here, and we’ll soon post a vlog with Louis Bruno that walks you through the installation process.

  Update: Below is the vlog for customers who will install the 8800M GTX card themselves. If you would like to see a larger version, click on the links to download or view the Windows Media Video file or this version for QuickTime/ iPods and the iPhone.

  For those of you who opt to buy the installation service, here is what you should expect. After you place your order, a work order will be sent to a service provider in your area, who should contact you within 48 hours after you place the order to set up a service appointment for the installation. When the day of the service appointment arrives, your service technician should once again contact you to make sure you’ve received the parts from Dell, after which the technician will arrive at the appointed time to do the installation. After the work is complete, the technician will leave you to enjoy your new video card.

  Also of note, M1730 customers with version 3.3 of MediaDirect will have to install version 3.5 for MediaDirect to work with this new card. The catch? The MediaDirect partition has to be enlarged for the new installation to work, requiring that users repartition their hard drives, and then reformat their Operating System partition and reinstall Windows, drivers, software, and Dell QuickSet. MediaDirect 3.5 will be included with the upgrade kit for this purpose. If you opt for the installation service, the MediaDirect reinstallation will not be done by the service technician. If you want MediaDirect functionality, you’ll have to do the MediaDirect 3.5 installation yourself.

  Despite the complications in bringing this to you, this beast of a video card boosts performance over the older Dual 8700M GT cards by up to an astonishing 49%, and is capable of up to a 13,496 3DMark ‘06 score. Since I’m not a benchmark junky myself, I have to ask, what does this mean for real performance?

  The answer is astounding. Dell Labs noted an average of 43 frames per second in Crysis as opposed to 30 frames per second on an identically configured XPS M1730 with a Dual 8700M GT, and 21 frames per second on an XPS M1730 with the single 8700M GT. The answer, simply put, is that the difference this card should make is DRASTIC.

  So, all of you hardcore gamers out there that jumped on the M1730 when it launched, now you can upgrade your video card and make your machine truly worthy of the nickname “Beast”.
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• Dell Helping Propel the Future of Research in the Life Sciences

  Mon. Jun. 16, 2008
  by Scott Jenkins, VP—Health Care & Life Sciences

  Dell was recently named the winner of the 2008 Life Sciences Industry Award for Best in Class Hardware Supplier. The award is voted on by life sciences companies and awarded by The Scientist magazine and BioInformatics research firm.

  This award is one sign of how Dell’s focus on providing technology that will improve life sciences customers’ research efficiency and collaboration while lowering their cost of discovering new therapeutics is making an impact.

  The cost of developing a new drug or medical device runs upwards of a million dollars a day and can take on average 17 years. Enabling customers to save even one day in this process translates into significant savings. Earlier today, Dell introduced a solution for an Electronic Lab Notebook, which combines servers and support with the Latitude XT tablets and Rescentris, Inc.’s Collaborative Electronic Research Framework (CERF), to create a system to manage research documents and make laboratory records and data available throughout R&D organizations. It’s important to us and that’s why we were the first company to integrate hardware, software and services to provide a solution designed to meet the needs of biotech and pharmaceutical companies ready to launch an ELN project.

  By using an electronic lab notebook, researchers can capture all of their data electronically while experiments are happening. This capability allows scientists to share information across their organization, preventing repeats of the same experiments in different groups and driving better collaboration. Ultimately this can reduce the amount of time it takes to develop and bring a drug to market. The data is stored on a secure network rather than on the actual notebook, protecting the intellectual property and making it easier to store the data for long periods of time.

  Have questions or thoughts about the ELN solution or Dell’s Health Care and Life Sciences business? Post them here.
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