Ahead of predictions Dell put their new micro-gaming system up for preorder last night starting at just $799. Those of us wanting an employer discount had to wait until this morning for it to show up on that dell site. Unfortunately, the preliminary ship date is listed as March 1st so the waiting isn’t over quite yet.
Dell showed off it’s smallest Alienware iteration at CES last month but details were scarce. Now the leaks have been put together here for your enjoyment. There was some anticipation when everyone believed the the pocket gamer would start at $999. However the recent news of a $799 base price has a lot more people interested. Of course Alienware has historically offered a few options to help customers up that base price.
Dell Alienware m11x specs:
The m11x will be the first Intel CULV processor to be matched up to a discrete graphics card AND the first gaming rig in the 11″ form factor.
Get those credit cards ready! :D
So many of you are aware of the trials facing the Kuban clan these days, but for those that don’t my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and my baby niece was discovered to have a brain abnormality.
There is no way I can even summarize all the events surrounding these so I won’t even try – I will simply point people to the web sites dedicated telling of their journey: DanKuban.com and CountingAllJoys.blogspot.com.
Well the ultra-hyped Apple tablet has finally been revealed as the “iPad”. Some are excited about it while others are disappointed. But now that the dust has settled, I think it’s clear that Apple’s real purposes in their “launch” was simply to stall.
Let’s review: As more and more companies looked toward the slate (keyboardless tablet) form factor as the next “netbook market”, Apple began to get worried they would be beaten to the punch. Ironically it was probably the deluge of iTablet rumors that spurred the competition on towards creating the next great device before Apple cornered the market, but the advances made in more powerful and lower wattage processors didn’t hurt either.
As the various tablet designs began to leak out before CES 2010, the iTablet leaks became the norm replacing the wild speculation of the “fan boys”. Apple effectively cast a shadow over CES and had people instead looking toward the Apple event. Unfortunately while the Apple event was attempted to mirror the iPhone launches it failed to deliver.
Consider the following:
I believe that Apple intended to launch the iPad ready to ship with iPhone OS 4.0, full flash and at least limited multitasking this June alongside the next iPhone. Instead, the competition came knocking and Apple acted quickly to stall the market and hopefully gain enough time to finish their product. And if they scared off a few companies that were in the planning instead of prototype stage – all the better.
With Apple’s mythical tablet supposedly being unveiled next week and tons of companies trying to beat them to the punch: a lot of people are talking about the perfect tablet. Here’s my take.
The perfect tablet needs to fill the -somewhat narrow- gap between smart phones and netbooks. The iPhone has a 3.5″ 480×320 display and weighs under 5oz. The typical netbook has a 10″ 1024×600 display and weighs under 3lbs. A tablet will compete with ereaders so those must be kept in mind as well. The Kindle has a 6″ 600×800 display and it weighs 10oz.
So tablet should have a 7-9″ with at least 800×600 resolution up to either a 1024×800 or 1280×720 depending on aspect ratio. It should weigh between one and two pounds with lighter being better except at the expense of battery life. A 2lb tablet with 6 hours of battery life will out sell a 1lb device with just 2 hrs. And battery life is key meaning that the hardware should either a snapdragon ARM or Nvidia’s tegra: both can power HD video at a smart phone level power draw. The screen should be the Pixel Qi as it supports multi-touch and conserve power in e-ink mode. Not to mention helping any tablet compete with the dedicated ereaders. As for OS you have two choices really: windows 7 or Android. Win 7 has the advantage of easy transition from PCs but may bring with that unrealistic expectations. Droid has much promise but is still a tad high on the potential to actual software ratio. Lastly, the perfect tablet should include the most commonly overlooked port in these devices: SD. People bring netbooks on vacation for web or work sure – but also to view/backup digicam pics which is why an SD slot is crucial to utility.
So to summarize the “Perfect Tablet” with currently available hardware:
* dimensions taken from the Archos 9 tablet