My Dell Mini Forum

Just a quick update, regarding all Mini 10 TV Tuner early adopters, you should have recently recieved this email:
Yes that's right, Dell are patching up their mistake and sending all Mini 10 TV Tuner owners the missing aerial. I just recieved word from an inside source too that this would be happening pronto. HOPEFULLY I shall be getting my external TV Tuner along with my replacement. Updates as they occur...

With the recent buzz around the forthcoming TomTom navigation app for the iPhone and recent report that demand for GPS devices is expected to grow steadily over the next few years, there's no question that there's a lot of interest in the technology. We're betting that location services will be a hit in netbooks as well. Starting next week in the United States, we're offering the Dell Wireless 700 location solution for our Mini 10 netbook that is a combination of hardware and software.

The hardware part is an internal GPS card with built-in Wi-Fi locationing. These two technologies work in tandem, which means the technology works both indoors and out. In other words, it can calculate your position using Wi-Fi access points or using GPS satellites. The Dell Wireless 700 is powered by Broadcom's A-GPS and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi position solutions.
I asked our wireless team for a bit more about the underlying technology, and here's what they told me: The Dell Wireless 700 uses Wi-Fi access points and Long Term Orbit (LTO)-based Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology to determine location information. It provides a fast, accurate and reliable location source to applications and services by leveraging the strength of each underlying position technology.
And here's how the wireless team explained Wi-Fi positioning:
The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) can determine the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices. All Wi-Fi Access Points broadcast a signal beacon known as a MAC address, notifying nearby devices of their presence. WPS refers to the mapped locations of millions of Wi-Fi MAC addresses to pinpoint the device location. WPS is complementary to GPS. It works best indoors and in urban areas, while GPS is limited by physical obstructions of ceilings and tall buildings.
On the software side, the Dell Wireless 700 location system features CoPilot navigation software to provide turn by turn directions. I offers things like 2D and 3D map views, lets you save up to 50 addresses for one trip, offers trip optimization to provide the most efficient route, can provide instant detour information when you encounter expected delays and provides continuously updated information about the trip.
Another piece of the location-based services that we're bringing to market is a location aware portal. For it, we've partnered with Skyhook Wireless and Loki. Loki is a browser plugin that comes preconfigured for Internet Explorer and Firefox. It works with Loki-supported sites to improve local search functionality by providing you details from nearby restaurants store locations and your friends' location information from supported social media sites like Flickr, Loopt and BrightKite.
In the OS department, initially, it will support Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 support will come later. The Mini 10 is the first system that we'll offer with the optional Dell 700 Wireless location solution. Stay tuned for more details about more supported systems, accessories and more regions.

[via Direct2Dell]

Good News Everyone! I have just got off the phone with Dell support trying to get to the bottom of the Mini 10 TV Tuner issues and the Mini 9's battery charging issues.

First off the Mini 9 and the whole Battery-stops-charging-at-100% issue. My initial technical support "agent" was unable to understand what was going on with my Mini 9 and repeatedly claimed that "laptops just do that", after some fruitless explaining I was forwarded to a Technical Support Supervisor. This guy was extremely helpful and managed to grasp what my problem was pretty quickly. Although he was unable to do anything straight away, he acknowledged the problem and I have been instructed to use the unit just off the battery until Monday where he will then give me a call. Not exactly a fix, but I am certainly happy with the progress / recognition.

Now for the Mini 10, this is where things get better. I made the initial mistake of going to technical support, I was quickly forwarded onto Customer Services. I explained that I had just received my Mini 10 with integrated TV Tuner, but I did not get the aerial lead that plugs into the side of the unit. Quickly the agent apologised then popped me on hold for a few minutes, when she came back she told me that I they were going to ship me a brand new external TV Tuner, and that I could simply use the aerial out of that package! This would obviously leave me with an EXTRA TV Tuner which I could use on my other Minis! I can only guess the reason for this is that they do not have a separate part number for the MCX aerial, and that the one they're sending me is the one that Engadget mentioned was coming for the Dell Mini family.

Of course this is great news for TV Tuner'd Dell Mini 10 owners, I'll keep everyone updated with the Dell Mini 9 charging issue
To get the ball rolling yourself, take the first steps at the Dell Support Site.

Please continue discussion in the relevant threads:

Charging Woes
Missing TV Tuner Aerial

It seems like Dell have just shipped out their first batch of Dell Mini 1010s with TV Tuners, as all of a sudden we have a big ol' McFlurry of complaints regarding said configuration.

As first noted in this thread it seems that the integrated TV tuner in the Dell Mini 1010 should have came with an external antenna, but no-one yet has reported receiving one and it seems Dell support does not yet know how to officially handle this.
When first shown on Engadget, the Dell Mini 10 TV Tuner appears to have an external aerial that plugs into the side of the unit, but Dell has neglected to ship this with TV-Tuner Mini 10s! As a result, it's pretty likely that you'll be moaning like everyone else when the Dell TV application replies with "no channels found".

Of course these leads are available online, but should we really have to shell out extra £ for something that should have worked out of the box? Also its not as if these type of aerials are commonplace, chances are you won't find one without going to a specialist PC store, and even then that's pushing it.

On a high note I am enjoying the other aspects of my new Dell Mini 10 with HD screen, expect to see pics and a quick review soon.

If you are experiencing the same problem or have actually received the missing lead with your order, let us know in the comments!

After perusing the Dell Mini 9 Forums, it became apparent I wasn't the only person having some major battery charging issues with my Dell Mini 9, and specifically BIOS A05.

What's happening is that the battery charges as normal when the a/c is plugged in, but as soon as the battery is fully charged, the Mini 9 switches power supply to the battery and the battery won't actually charge the battery again until the Mini 9 has been restarted.
What's more interesting is that once its reached this draining state, it recognises the a/c being inserted/removed as the screen brightness adjusts as you do it, yet it still isn't recognised enough to start charging from it.

As I discovered in this thread its happening across different operating systems (at least XP and OS X) and the common denominator seems to be BIOS A05.

If you think your having some problems yourself, try using BatteryBar to give you detailed battery information, the free one will do everything necessary. If you do have a similar problem, let us know your Mini 9 configuration in the comments.

Looks like the latest 1105 build for the GMA 500 (Z-series Atoms, so Dell Mini 10, not 10v) finally shows some of the potential that was claimed for this chip all along--Aero, full screen Flash, iTunes playback and better gaming performance.

[via Portable Monkey]

Wow, this has to be the most awesome mod I've seen for the Dell Mini 9 out there yet, and during the life of this site, there has certainly been a few interesting ones.
Forum user rich2871 has successfully installed a working fingerprint scanner into a Dell Mini 9 and has documented the whole process bit by bit as he's gone along. The thread starts off with the disassembly of the USB hub all the way to the proud finished product. In true modders fashion, he shows it logging into OS X with the reader too


See more on the fingerprint scanner mod thread.