Dell has begun offering 250 GB 2.5" hard drives with perpendicular magnetic recording technology in two portable computers. The first mobile computers to offer either single or dual 5400 rpm 250 GB drives are the Alienware Aurora m9700 notebook and Dell's fancy XPS M2010 portable computer. For the Alienware model, the high-capacity drive is offered as a $300 upgrade over the standard 80GB hard drive, while the extra 250GB of space in the XPS M2010 will cost $250 over the standard 80GB model. A two disc configuration of 500GB lists for $500, while the RAID option is priced at $525. The Alienware Aurora m9700 is available from about $1600 while the XPS 2010 price starts from $3000.

After 5 years and generally very innovative PDAs at great prices, Dell has quietly removed the last Axim - the x51v from their website. The Axim is still a very high end product, featuring a VGA display, 3D system, 624MHz CPU as well as WiFI and Bluetooth. I had the pleasure of testing on such a device and am rather dissapointed to see them discontinued.

Dell said it is now providing buyers of the XPS M1210, 1710 and the M2010 computers access to LoJack's one year of theft protection service free of charge. After the first year, users will have to subscribe to the regular LoJack service, which currently goes for $50 per year. The LoJack for Laptops service does not require GPS functionality, but works with a relatively simple call-home software. Computers with the LoJack contact the monitoring center of the company when connected to the Internet. If a notebook is reported stolen, the device is placed on "high-alert" and it will try to call home every 15 minutes, allowing the LoJack recovery team to track down its position. The company claims that it can recover three out of four stolen laptops.

After a months long survey Dell finally came up with a great solution. As this survey revealed more than 70% of the participants would use Linux as their OS of choice. Now Dell expands its Linux factory installed options to selected desktop and notebook systems. What systems exactly this will include is unclear, Dell will provide an update with detailed information in the coming weeks.
If you look for more information regarding Dell and Linux I suggest you look at Dell's Direct2Dell Linux Website.

Dell this week announced that it will be the first manufacturer in the industry to start shipping computers with the first consumer 1 terabyte (TB) hard drive. Using the Deskstar 7K1000 drive from Hitachi, Dell will begin including the new drives in both its own line of XPS gaming systems and under the Alienware brand. Alienware Aurora and Area 51 systems will be receiving the new 1TB drives first. According to official Hitachi specifications, the new drive is a Serial ATA 3Gbps model with a 7200 RPM spindle rate and 32MB data buffer. Read time comes in at 8.5ms and write times at 9.2ms. Along with the new 1TB drive, Dell is launching a service called StudioDell, which the company calls a "video time capsule". StudioDell will allow subscribers to upload videos, which will be stored at Dell headquarters for 50 years, so that later generations may view them. Dell even indicated that the videos will be stored on the new 1TB drives from Hitachi.

Thanks to recent letters to Dell, we may soon be seeing Dell computers (mainly laptops) without an operating system installed. This has several benefits. The cost of the machine is lowered, because a Microsoft operating system costs a considerable sum of money. The customer also has an option to configure their operating system however they want, be it from Microsoft or a *nix distribution. They also do not have to deal with the large amount of generally unwanted pre-installed software.

After conducting a survey to find out what consumers wanted, desktop and notebook builder Dell has announced that it is planning a new line of computers which have the option of pre-installed Linux. Until now, Dell hasn't been overly keen to provide the open source operating system, opting instead to persuade users towards Windows. However, this new line of user-ready certified desktops and laptops could encourage people buying a new computer to give Linux a try, with SUSE Linux being made available on a number of OptiPlex and Precision desktops, along with Latitude notebooks. The company may eventually choose to expand its range of Linux machines and even offer more distributions, but at present it is only working with Novell.

The lawsuit, brought about by investors, accuses computer maker Dell Inc. of "secretly receiving approximately $250 million a quarter in likely illegal kickbacks payments" from its long time partner Intel. This money was supposedly received in return for an exclusive purchase agreement for Intel's microprocessors. Chip maker Intel claims that the accusations are just a renewal of similar previous complaints by chip maker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices). Dell would not comment on the lawsuit. In the past Dell has only used processors manufactured by Intel, but just last year began buying processors from Intel's competition AMD.

In addition, Dell is also currently under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Justice Dept. for its accounting practices.

Source: CNNMoney

It seems that the recent trouble with NVIDIA's G80 driver is taking it's toll on more than just gamers. Dell was one of the first PC makers to promote the complete move to Windows Vista. However, it seems that all the PC's they sell with a G80 onboard, such as the XPS 7x0 series, still ship with Windows XP. This is a smart move on Dell's part, because they realize that their customers are not going to be happy with a beta driver running their brand new and expensive machine. This indicates one of two very bad things about NVIDIA's relationship with Dell. The first is that NVIDIA doesn't keep Dell "in the loop" about it's happenings, and will give Dell a G80 Vista driver when they make it. The second (and much worse) possibility is that NVIDIA keeps Dell "in the loop", and they themselves do not know when they will have a G80 driver for Windows Vista.

The picture below is Dell's high-end PC offerings, pay close attention to the operating system included.

It certainly seems unlike Dell, jumping into a field predominated by the competition. Dell just last year left the MP3 player field, due to their player's inability to crack the domination of Apple and SanDisk in the market. However, Dell seems very dedicated to making it's own entry into the mobile console market. The most logical way to do this based on current tech is to make a Dell Axim model designed for gaming. If it could boot a version of Windows Mobile, it would certainly have access to a lot of games. However, games take a lot of battery power, something Dell should not take lightly. It will certainly be interesting to watch how Dell moves along with this idea.

How The Register imagines it will look-

Generally speaking, Dell isn't well known for producing beautiful monitors which sit elegantly on your desk, but this new concept design could prompt a change in direction for Dell. The prototype, although this is unlikely to reach the production stage, features an ultra-flat LCD panel encased in a sheet of glass, with a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels. The monitor also features build in speakers and a microphone/webcam at the top. The power supply rests on the floor nearer the mains rather than being enclosed within the case, which allows a much thinner screen. Although this may not be to everyone's tastes, it's certainly a new image for Dell, but you'll probably never be given the chance to buy one.

A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court, which aspires to gaining class-action status, accuses Dell of selling notebooks with defects...that they knew about. The prosecution is claiming that the Dell Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 or 5160 were designed in a way that caused premature motherboard failure due to overheating. A Dell spokeswoman has no comment on this lawsuit.

At CES, DELL introduced the XPS 710 H2C Edition high performance desktop PC. The new flagman is equipped with Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 processor, NVIDIA Dual SLI graphics featuring dual GeForce 8800GTX 768MB video cards, DELL's exclusive H2C cooling, 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory and up to 2TB of storage capacity in RAID 0 configuration. You can also add optional components like the AGEIA PhysX accelerator and Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card. DELL's exclusive H2C cooling system combines a liquid radiator, a thermoelectric cooling module and control circuitry to optimize CPU cooling with minimal power. DELL also introduced new 27" UltraSharp 12ms widescreen monitor. The Dell UltraSharp 2707WFP features TrueColor technology, resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, 6ms (Grey to Grey)/16ms (Black to White) response time, 400cd/m brightness, and 1000:1 contrast ratio. The XPS 710 H2C Edition is available now starting from $5499 with 20" widescreen UltraSharp panel, while the new 2707WFP can be owned separately for $1399.

Earlier we reported that Dell plans to release brand new 27" display with Samsung widescreen panel. Late last week the product page for the Dell 2007WFP (20" widescreen model) was updated with a "new" image of the product. By mistake it was the image of the yet to be released 27" display. Dell representative explained that the image came from a training manual for the upcoming W2707C display. Dell is expected to announce its new display and roadmaps at the Consumer Electronics Show, scheduled to take place the second week of January.

Dell is about to release a new 22-inch widescreen LCD monitor. Dubbed E228WFP, it has already shown up in Japan. The screen has a typical 1680x1050 resolution, 5ms grey-to-grey response time, 160-degrees viewing angles H/V, 300cd/m2 brightness and 800:1 contrast ratio. The new display also includes support for HDCP high definition content protection. The approximate price of the E228WFP is about $560 USD.

The Intel Core 2 Duo T7600G is one of those "Non-roadmap" parts, meaning it was not planned to be released to the public. Dell has decided to change that, and for an extra $275 USD, you can get a Dell XPS M1710 with that processor. The thing that makes the T7600G so valuable: an unlocked CPU multiplier in a mobile processor. What Dell calls "extraordinary system control to tune and enhance performance" is really the ability to change the CPU multiplier in a computer offered by an OEM system provider. However, $275 is an awfully high price to ask for a CPU with an unlocked multiplier.

Dell has now chosen to offer a Blu-ray drive as an optional extra on its XPSTM M1710 notebook, making the first of Dell's models with Blu-ray. According to a spokesperson, the company's view of Blu-ray is "We [Dell] believe it will become the optical drive standard of the future." It's extremely likely that Dell will soon begin to offer Blu-ray across a much wider selection of models.

Executives at Samsung Electronics recently said the company has signed a long-term contract with Dell for 27-inch widescreen LCD monitor panels, according to DigiTimes. Samsung is the only panel supplier of 27-inch widescreen LCD monitor panels at present. The company currently only supplies one kind of 27-inch LCD monitor panels, LTM270M1. The panel features resolution of 1,920×1,200 (WUXGA), response time of 6ms, contrast ratio of 3,000:1 and brightness of 500 nits. Samsung and Dell both will launch new 27-inch LCD monitors in January 2007.