Dell today announced the highly adaptable OptiPlex XE desktop PC for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and retail environments. Designed to withstand challenging conditions such as high heat, dust and 24x7 operations, the OptiPlex XE delivers on Dell's commitment to purpose-built solutions more directly connected with customer needs. The system is easily placed within medical carts, video rental kiosks, retail point-of-sale (POS) solutions and other custom deployments that require easy remote management and long-term system stability options.

Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its Crystal HD technology will be available to OEMs wanting to deliver best-in-class video playback on the new Intel Atom processor platform for netbooks. The Broadcom BCM70015 Crystal HD solution will be offered as an option for OEMs designing netbooks using the Intel Atom processor N450 and Intel NM10 Express chipset platform. Crystal HD technology provides netbook users with a rich multimedia experience by enabling cost effective, quality playback of multi-format, high definition (HD) video and will be featured on select 2010 netbook platforms from top-tier OEMs including ASUS, Dell and Samsung.

Intel Corporation announced new Intel Atom processors today that feature integrated graphics built directly into the CPU, enabling improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs in a new generation of netbooks and Atom-based entry level desktop PCs. Major OEMs have committed to having systems on the new Intel Atom processors and a new companion chipset available within the next few weeks.

The newest Intel Atom platform for netbooks consists of a new Intel Atom processor, the N450, and a new low-power Intel NM10 Express Chipset. For entry level desktop PCs, it consists of either the Intel Atom processor D410 or the dual core D510, also paired with the Intel NM10 Express Chipset. The Intel Atom processor was designed from the ground up for small devices and low power, and remains Intel's smallest chip, built on the company's 45nm high-k metal gate manufacturing process. The overall package, including chipset, just got smaller due to the increasing integration and 45nm manufacturing, which means smaller, more compact system designs, lower costs for OEMs and improved performance.

AMD today announced the flagship installment in the award-winning line of graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest card ever created. The new ultra high-end model joins a growing list of the world's first and only graphics cards to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology.

Designed to support the most demanding PC games at ultra-high resolutions and image quality settings, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 has unlocked overclocking potential, granting access to every bit of power the card has to offer through ATI Overdrive technology. Now shipping from retailers and available in the channel, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.

Dell's recently released SX2210T monitor is one of the first standalone HD monitors to come with multi-touch capabilities. The 21.5 inch display comes to rescue of anyone who wants multi-touch capability several recent all-in-one PCs are mushrooming up with, on their existing PCs. Its display features include a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, 2 ms grey-to-grey response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio, and display input connectivity that includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. With its built in USB hub that connects to the PC, the monitor provides three USB ports, drives the 2 megapixel fixed webcam, and drives the multi-touch touchscreen component. Available for US $469 on Dell's online store, the monitor provides support for multi-touch panning and zooming when attached to a machine with Windows 7.

PC major Dell rolled out its newest business-oriented Latitude Z notebook. The Latitude Z has an ultra-thin chassis, which packs all the mobility and features a businessman would need. This 16-inch notebook can charge wirelessly. The 16-inch display offers a native screen resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels. It has a backlit-illuminated keyboard, a touchpad that is gesture-enabled, an EdgeTouch sensor at the right of display, and a sub-system powered by an ARM processor to drive the Latitude on Linux feature. The main system is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor to run the main Windows environment.

The fixed webcam that heads the screen can auto-focus, and can even 'scan' documents, according to Dell. The notebook weighs 4.5 lbs (around 2 kg), and is priced at $1999. For another $200 to this cost, you get the wireless charging induction stand that lets you use the feature. "We're seeing thin and light spread throughout our portfolio," said Todd Forsythe, vice president in Dell's commercial client product group. It looks like thin is in, for Dell.

Increasing the momentum and industry support for its 3D professional graphics accelerators, AMD today announced its newest solution for content creators and computer-aided designers (CAD) who demand mobility: the ATI FirePro M7740 graphics accelerator, set to power Dell Precision M6400 Mobile Workstations. Designed with digital content creators, CAD, and engineers in mind, the Dell Precision M6400 brings swift real-time graphical rendering and brilliant color representation to the forefront of large model design work, all while giving professionals excellent performance capabilities for multitasking and multi-threaded applications. The new offering provides design professionals with the high performance and reliability that is synonymous with the ATI FirePro family of graphics accelerators.

Dell introduced its first AMD-based mainstream PC lineup in over 18 months. The company had stopped announcing AMD-based products as its CPU lineup were losing in competitiveness. The Inspiron 546, as American-Statesman's Kirk Ladendorf notes, "could signal a shift in the ongoing relationship between Dell and AMD, which has gone through warm and cold spells in recent years." Inspiron 546 represents one of Dell's most important desktop PC SKUs, that is extensively promoted online.

Priced in the US $270~$710 range, Inspiron 546 models come in four main configurations, featuring Sempron, Athlon X2, Phenom X3, and Phenom X4 processors, with ATI Radeon HD 3200 series graphics. The chassis comes with 8 colour bezel types to choose from. It can further be customised with a variety of Dell monitors, HDD capacities, and memory amounts.

When it comes to personalizing a laptop or desktop or getting one as soon as possible, Dell is providing choice and making it the best of both worlds for shoppers. Today, Dell is extending its eye-catching Design Studio customization options to the Inspiron 15, the company's most popular consumer laptop, and is announcing FastTrack, a program that ships select popular pre-configured systems for consumers and small and medium businesses (SMB) out from factories the next business day. Design Studio is an interactive gallery of original contemporary artwork commissioned exclusively for Dell.com that lets people turn their laptops into works of art. The easy-to-use Design Studio, introduced in December for Dell Studio laptops, has grown in popularity. With Design Studio online shoppers can click through a gallery of portraits and select a design, change viewing angles, zoom in on details and read a short bio that explains the artist's work.

Dell today announced the latest addition to its expanding line of Vostro laptops, the 12.1-inch Vostro 1220. This stylish, ultraportable laptop was designed exclusively for business travelers who are unwilling to compromise performance, battery life and security for a thin and lightweight design.
Available in Obsidian Black or Deep Cherry Red, the Vostro 1220 starts at a mere 3.36 lbs, is equipped with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and features up to 9 hours of battery life on a 6-cell battery, making it an ideal travelling companion for on-the-go, global entrepreneurs.

Today's students and young professionals need a versatile notebook that can serve as their workhorse by day and entertainment center at night. The new Dell Studio 14z powered by the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor provides a perfect blend of performance and portability with graphics support for gaming, HD video, and creative self-expression.

The GeForce 9400M in the Dell Studio 14z delivers up to five times faster graphics performance than Centrino 2 notebooks to accelerate image editing, video playback, and video conversion. With vReveal, the Studio 14z can fix grainy, shaky video twice as fast as comparable notebooks, and then let you upload the video to YouTube in minutes.

Super Talent Technology today also adds to the broadest SSD portfolio in the industry by introducing faster and larger capacity upgrade modules for the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook PC. The modules come in two form factors, the standard Half Mini PCIe form factor and Super Talent's innovative Double Wide Half Mini PCIe form factor. Both families of products feature a custom IDE/PATA interface used in the Mini 9 netbook.
"For the first time ever Mini 9 users can upgrade their netbooks with a high performance 128 GB SSD without any case modifications. We installed the hardware in less than 60 seconds and reinstalled the operating system in less than 30 minutes. We started thinking about how we could better solve our customers' problems, when we saw them posting videos online sawing their case apart to put in larger SSDs. So we innovated and invented the Double Wide Half Mini PCIe form factor to make upgrading to a high capacity SSD a whole lot easier."

Dell today brings Latitude 2100 to little students and their activities in class. The new Latitude 2100 netbook is also well suited for any business or public institution that needs affordable, durable, Internet-ready devices for e-mail and collaboration. It harbors traditional netbook internals, with kid-friendly design, along with options for a carrying handle, shoulder strap, antimicrobial keyboard, and even a touchscreen LCD. A 10.1-inch LCD screen, an Intel Atom N270 CPU and a choice of three operating systems - Microsoft Windows XP Home, Vista Home Basic or Linux Ubuntu - give live to the netbook. Standard models come with a 3-cell battery and weight 1.32 kg. The base Latitude 2100 configuration retails now at $369.

Prominent server builder Dell is looking to tap the potential of VIA's Nano processor, in building compact server called XS11-VX8, that will be ready for high-density web-server applications. The compact form-factor, coupled with its energy-efficient chipset made the 64-bit Nano the obvious choice.

Dell intends to make this a "hot-plug" server, which is not much larger than a 3.5" hard drive. Twelve of these servers could fit into a 2U chassis, so power cooling, and connectivity could be shared and managed better. Each server will have room for its dedicated hard drive, and will have up to 3 GB of RAM.

This product will be marketed by Dell's Data Center Solutions group, which targets customers who buy these in thousands of units at a time. There are reportedly 30~40 such companies worldwide. The server also uses low power consumption as one of its biggest selling points. According to Dell, it idles at a mere 19W, and consumes no more than 29W at full-load. The XS11-VX8 will be officially introduced in June.

Thanks to Microsoft's free sneak preview of Windows 7 in the form of its downloadable release candidate. Users world over are enjoying a fully-functional license of Windows 7 Ultimate that will expire in June 2010. In the mean time, Microsoft expects you to get a hang on the new OS, help it with mass-testing, and gear-up for its commercial launch later this year. The pricing of the OS however, seems to have people like Dell's Darrel Ward, director of product management worried. "If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP," he said, in a telephonic interview with CNET.

"In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a strong swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them. I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista. Schools and government agencies may not be able to afford [the additional cost]. Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like," he added. Apart from its pricing, Dell however, feels optimistic about Windows 7. The OS seems to have already built up a lot more momentum, and enthusiasm than what Windows Vista could manage.

Dell has quietly rolled out three new budget LCD monitors, that include the widescreen P2210, plus the standard 4:3 ration E190S and E170S models. The 22-inch P2210 display supports 1680x1050 16:10 native resolution, analog VGA, DVI-D with HDCP, or DisplayPort connections and a USB 2.0 hub with four ports. Model P2210 also meets EPEAT Gold and Energy Star standards.
The 19-inch E190S offers maximum resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, with 800:1 contrast ratio and 250 cd/m2 brightness. Only VGA connection is supported, although the monitor could be used for both business and home use. The device meets Energy Star and EPEAT Gold standards, while integrating halogen-free laminates and using a chassis composed of 25-percent post-consumer recycled plastics.
The E170S features the same eco-friendly design as the E190S, but in a more compact 17-inch screen size. The monitor supports 1280x1024 resolution and comes only with a VGA port.
Dell is now offering the monitors for $240, $130 and $110, respectively.

Intel has everything going its way when it comes to mobile computing, and the processors it sells that power notebooks and netbooks across every segment of the market. Intel uses the common classification of portable computers (consumer segment), using sizes and form-factors to differentiate mainstream notebooks, performance notebooks, ultra-thin notebooks, "larger" sub-notebooks (netbooks), and common entry-level netbooks. To cater to each of these, Intel made things easier by coming up with platforms (sets of processor and chipset combinations), a market approach both Intel and AMD have been using recently.

Starting with mainstream, and performance notebooks (traditionally above 14-inches in size, above US $1200 in price), Intel has the Calpella platform, that marks the entry of Nehalem architecture to the mobile scene. This is slated for 3Q 2009. Intel will simultaneously lower the prices of its current Montevina platform, to let inventories digest. Major hardware manufacturers are preparing their "launch-vehicles" for the Calpella platform, which will make it in time for Q3 2009.

Dell has substantially extended the amount of art available for its Studio notebooks, according to the company's official press release posted yesterday. More than 120 additional art choices are now at your disposal, waiting to be applied to any of Dell's popular Studio 15 and Studio 17 laptops. The artist names that stay behind the new arts are Deanne Cheuk, Maya Hayuk, Jason Holley, TWEEQIM (the design studio made up of husband and wife team miQ and Thuy3), Thailand native Korakrit Arunanondchai, Filth (the nom de guerre of designer and artist Lucas Irwin), painter Robert Hargrave, Peter Stevens, Keith Warner and OBVLN. To make your choice easier, Dell has categorized the art by theme: classic designs, artists, patterns, colors and (PRODUCT) RED. The company will offer the full line of new designs in the US only for now. More info here.

The updated Dell Studio 15 laptop that was rumored for two months, is now finally available for purchase. This newer version comes with improved 15.6-inch LED-backlit display, which packs a native 1366 x 768 resolution, and gets image from the new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics with either 256 MB or 512 MB of on-board memory. The rest of the specs remain unchanged. The machine can still be powered by a range of Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The built-in 2 MP webcam, 5.1 channel sound, HDMI output, plus the optional Blu-Ray drive and backlit keyboard are still present. The Studio 15 is also offered in six different colors including Black Chainlink, Ruby Red, Midnight Blue, Plum Purple, Spring Green and Promise Pink. Base prace starts from the reasonable US $649, all options will bump it considerably.

Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it is boosting security on solid-state drives by bundling data encryption software from Wave Systems' Embassy with drives from 64GB to 256GB.

The drives with encryption software will be available from PC makers, Samsung said in a statement. Coinciding with Samsung's announcement, Dell said it would offer the self-encrypting SSDs with its Latitude line of laptops in the upcoming months.

Full-disk encryption is already available for hard drives, but this is the first time it is available for SSDs, Samsung said. The software automatically encrypts information as data is stored on the SSDs. Additionally, the company claims that SSD performance is not affected by encryption because the drive has no moving parts.

Dell, the world's No. 1 workstation supplier for the last nine years, today unveiled Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 tower workstations. One of the first workstation lines to ship with Intel Xeon 5500 "Nehalem," the Dell Precision T5500 and T7500 deliver up to 90 percent better multi-threaded digital content creation application performance versus previous generation systems. The new systems are purpose-engineered for professionals in engineering, media, entertainment, biosciences, exploration, economic modeling and risk analysis.

Style-minded families, students and teens want to personalize their PCs to meet their performance and lifestyle needs - blogging, chatting, sending photos or running a media center. Highly-stylized products, like Dell's new Inspiron slim and mini-tower desktops, deliver on design and customization, transforming the brand from the "built-for-me" model, into "made-for-me."
Dell's new Inspiron slim and mini-towers expand the design and personalization possibilities for consumers. Available in eight vibrant colors, Dell is the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer such extensive personalization options to reflect individuals' personal style or to complement their bedroom or study.
Inspiron slim and mini-tower desktops debut today in China and are available for purchase through Dell.com, distributor Digital China or retailers Suning and Gome. Starting at $299 US, the systems will be available worldwide later this spring.

Style-minded people who place a premium on precision craftsmanship and design can now add Adamo to their list of must-have items for 2009. Dell today unveiled the world's thinnest laptop as a kick off to the new Adamo by Dell brand.
Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning "to fall in love," will serve as a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design, aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.

Dell today debuted its new multi-touch Studio One 19 PC in Japan. The all-in-one "entertainment PC" comes in a variety of colors to match your kitchen's main accent. The best you can put in the Studio One 19 is an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 4 GB of memory, 750 GB hard disk, 6x USB, integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics, and a Blu-ray player. Of course, you can choose from a number of other parts, and make the final price more affordable. All configurations ship with the same 18.5-inch 16:9 (1366x768) HD display. It is up to you to decide whether you want it with multi-touch capabilities or you want the normal glossy screen. Starting price of the Studio One 19 is ¥149,800 or around US $1,538.

Dell today added three laser printers to its printer product line. The printers introduced today are the two color multifunction models 1235cn and 2145cn, and the budget-priced offering in the black & white category - 2230d. Each printer is Energy Star certified and RoHS compliant.