The company, once the top PC maker, has slashed jobs and struggled to regain market share it lost to Hewlett-Packard Co and its stock has dived more than 60 percent this year.


[via Reuters]

Dell Adamo Coverage

Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:05 am

I'm sure you've seen the rumour/leaks about Dells new ultra portable laptop, built to rival the Macbook Air. There is not a lot of information on the product available yet, but when it does arise, expect to see full coverage here at MyDellMini!

Here are some things to check out for now:

View all the Dell Adamo Engadget Articles

Official Site

Our Dell Adamo Forums.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the PC maker is charging customers with a Dell account $12.95 per month to have access to an American agent or $99 per year for customers who buy a new PC from the company.

Those who don't pay the sum will be contacting center agents in India or the Philippines. But before you start your bellyaching, Dell is sweetening the pot: wait times are guaranteed to be 2 or fewer minutes!

[via CNet]
The Dell Mini 12 has had its configurations expanded with XP and Ubuntu options added. As base package you can now select either Ubuntu or XP, in either low or high-spec, with Vista as an optional free 'upgrade' from XP. Although judging from the reviews, it is strongly not recommended!

In the UK, there is now an Ubuntu version on offer currently for £322, and the existing Vista config at £370. Still only available in black though and no sign of XP!

[via Engadget]
Not long ago the now-defunct WiQuest was bragging about its market leadership in Wireless USB shipment, and its solution was chosen by most notebook manufacturers, like Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Now is never a better time for someone else to fill in the void with WiQuest closing door. Alereon has just sent out a message to global laptop makers that its AL5708 PCI-Express half-minicard just got FCC approval.

Essentially, the chip is ready for use in UWB bandgroups one, three and six - meaning it has met worldwide regulatory standards to operate from 3.1 to 10.6Ghz spectrum. Alereon's CEO has high hopes for the embedded notebook solution, with claims it can hit 140Mbps (17.5MBps) when talking to a native device, and being the only solution to support bi-directional, isochronous data transfers - necessary for proper USB speakers and webcam support. The fabless company will commence shipping the AL5708 WUSB mini card in Q1 2009.

http://www.everythingusb.com/alereon-15847.html

GPS via WWAN Card on Dell Mini 9

Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:08 am

Forum member SorX has just post an in-depth tutorial on how he managed to use the 3G WWAN card in his Vodafone-supplied Dell Mini 9 as a GPS device.

Tutorial is written for window users using only a few simple programs and commands.
This could be considered as an alternative method to the original internal GPS mod for us UK Vodafone'rs.

Read the how-to GPS on Vodafone UK WWAN Mini
Combining 802.11n Wi-Fi, FM and Bluetooth on a single chip, Broadcom employs single-stream 802.11n to transmit and receive data since handheld devices still lack the space, battery power and processing power to support 802.11n implementations with multiple antennas.


Looks to be a viable upgrade for the Mini 9!

[via eWeek]

Consumer Reports netbook comparison

Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:31 am

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electr ... m=netbooks

Apparently, Dell isn't one of the best because
The Dell mini 9 ($425) and HP Mini 1000 ($400) were both very light, thanks to solid-state drives. But those drives are very small at 8GB each and slowed the computer noticeably.


I guess Consumer Reports isn't as smart as I thought they were...