May 15
May 15
We don’t know for sure that Dell’s been experiencing the weak demand for Windows RT Samsung’s been so vocal about, but significant price cuts to its XPS 10 tablet hybrid suggest it hasn’t exactly been flying off the shelves. Not only has the $500 tag for the tablet with 32GB of storage dropped to $300, but adding another 32GB now only costs $50 more, instead of $100. Savings have extended to the keyboard dock, too — opting for the bundle used to increase the overall cost by $180, but now that peripheral is only a $50 extra. (Make sure to lead with the bundle though, as it’s $100 if added from the tablet-only customization options). The cost of optional LTE hasn’t changed, however, so that 4G radio still costs an additional $100. While we haven’t reached fire sale territory just yet, the cuts are still a welcome discount for consumers. In the interest of preserving profit margins, perhaps Dell should ask Acer’s president to consult next time it’s cooking up new hardware.
Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Dell
Source: Dell
May 09
Battle for Dell continues as shareholders Icahn, Southeastern partner on an offer
Posted in: Today's Chili
Michael Dell’s deal with Microsoft to buy back the computer company bearing his name hasn’t gone through yet, and tonight two of its largest shareholders joined forces on another option. Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management have both opposed the $24.4 billion / $13.65 per share buyout proposal from the start and have an alternative proposal: a $12 per share dividend, funded by Dell’s $9 billion in cash and $5.2 billion in new debt. If that’s not accepted, the two also claim to be ready to put up a slate of 12 directors ahead of Dell’s annual shareholder meeting, or take their challenge to the courts. Even with the reported withdrawal of a counter offer from Blackstone Group, things remain complicated — we’ll wait and see if any of these threats go through, or if they successfully wrangle a better buyout offer from Dell, Microsoft & Co.
Filed under: Desktops, Microsoft, Dell
Source: Wall Street Journal
May 08
Airbus isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket — or rather, one bag. While it already has a suite of iPad cockpit apps to assist pilots, the aircraft maker is hedging its bet with a deal to use Dell Latitude laptops as electronic flight bags on the A320 family. Crews will get the Latitude E6330 installed as a Class-2 device that can link up with the A320’s avionics; as you’d expect, the PCs will also ship with software for maps, manuals and weather. We’ve reached out to learn just which carriers are going this route, although possible expansion to other Airbus vehicles could make Dell a common sight at 36,000 feet.
Filed under: Laptops, Transportation, Dell
Source: Dell
May 07
Foxconn, Apple’s long time manufacturing partner based in China, is not in the news today for its workers committing suicide or being paid low wages while being made to work 12 hour shifts. Foxconn is now being seen as shifting its strategies to end its reliance on Apple, which has been a big customer for quite a while. Jamie Wang, an analyst at Gartner, says that Foxconn believes Apple’s “aura” isn’t what it supposed to be and that they need more than just Apple’s business if they want substantial growth in the future.
Foxconn also manufactures products for Amazon, Dell, Hewlett Packard as well as other American companies, but Apple by far provides it the most business. Its obvious that decline in iPad and iPhone shipments will result in Apple placing less orders for units to be manufactured. Foxconn reported that their revenue was down 19.2% last quarter as opposed to the same time last year, primarily because Apple’s orders weren’t as high as they used to be. Foxconn’s debut in the consumer product developing niche starts from large, flat-screen HD televisions. The company’s spokesman has said that they’ve sold 20,000 60-inch television sets in Taiwan, surely that won’t rake in as much revenue as Apple brings in for it, but its not exactly like Foxconn is cutting the cord with Cupertino altogether. The spokesman declined to say how many units Foxconn has sold through retail partners. This could be their contingency plan, perhaps we’ll see them venture in to other product lines as well, smartphones maybe?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Stairwell Illusion Will Make You Question The Law Of Physics, Latest Google Drive Update Makes Sharing On Desktop Easier, 
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May 06
The Daily Roundup for 05.06.2013
Posted in: Today's Chili
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
May 06
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we’re using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.
A fleet of fancy cameras deserves a high-end monitor to match, right? And do we really need to explain why an Engadget editor would impulsively buy an arcade-style controller?
May 06
This morning the teams at Dell and Enstratius (also known as enStretus pre-name-change) have announced that the former has acquired the latter in a bid to increase the power of the company’s Cloud Computing sector. Enstratius is a company known as an “early cloud pioneer”, working with cloud management for enterprise groups and delivering services for both single and multi-cloud setups for businesses. This company has made it clear that their “cloud agnostic” abilities make them unique – though how they’ll be working inside Dell’s fold is not yet crystal.
Dell’s acquisition of Enstratius is said to be made to compliment the company’s purchase of Gale Technologies. That particular exchange was made back in November of 2012, Gale Technologies having been folded into Dell’s Active System Manager and added to Dell’s Enterprise Systems and Services group therein.
Enstratius will help provide multi-cloud management from the get-go, adding application configuration capabilities to Dell’s services as well as management tools for multi-component applications across multi-cloud setups. Tom Kendra, vice president and general manager, systems management, Dell Software, spoke up on the acquisition earlier today.
“Dell, together with Enstratius, is uniquely positioned to deliver differentiated, complete cloud-management solutions to enterprise customers, large and small, empowering them with the efficiency and flexibility in the allocation and use of resources.” – Tom Kendra for Dell
This acquisition is one of several in the works with Dell, the most recent being an axed situation in which Blackstone stepped away from a deal back on the 19th of April. In that case it was a possible purchase of Dell, not a Dell purchase. It was also tipped then that Michael Dell wanted his job guaranteed if a Blackstone buyout were to be considered.
[via Dell]
Dell acquires Entratius for multi-cloud computing is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 03
Dell has dropped another touchscreen LCD monitor for the mass market, the S2240T. Adopting a VA panel, this new 21.5-inch 10-point multi-touch LED-backlight monitor provides 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution, 3000:1 contrast ratio, 250 cd/m2 brightness, 12ms response time and 178/178 degree viewing angles, and features DVI-D, HDMI and D-Sub connectors. The S2240T sells for 39,980 Yen (about $410). [Dell]
Apr 29
Dell Vostro 5460 Touted To Be Thinnest And Lightest 14-Inch Notebook To Date
Posted in: Today's Chili
Dell has announced that their most recent addition to the world of ultra-portable notebooks would come in the form of the 14” Dell Vostro 5460. What makes the Dell Vostro 5460 different from the rest would be it carrying the torch of being the thinnest and lightest 14-inch Vostro notebook to date. In fact, it measures a mere 18.3mm while tipping the scales at just 1.54kg, making it deliver far more juice in a supremely portable form factor. Some of the hardware specifications of this notebook include an expansive 14-inch high definition widescreen LED (HD WLED) TrueLife display at 1366 x 768 pixels resolution, integrated stereo speakers and a dedicated subwoofer that is powered by HD audio with Waves MaxxAudio 4.0, an integrated 720HD 1-megapixel camera with microphones, and of course, a full-sized Chiclet keyboard that makes typing out those long reports a cinch.
You will find all of these hardware specifications come encased within a sleek brushed-aluminum chassis in graphite silver or fire red, where a 3-cell integrated Lithium Ion battery would deliver up to 5 hours of battery life. Connectivity options include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a RJ-45 Ethernet port, where those are accompanied by a trio of USB 3.0 ports, an SD memory card reader and a HDMI port. There will be a 500GB hard drive that is complemented by a 32GB SSD, and you can pick up the Vostro 5460 in two flavors – both running on Windows 8, with one being the vanilla version while the other would carry the Ultrabook moniker.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Great LivingSocial Password Robbery, Sony Xperia Tablet Z U.S. Pre-orders Begin, 
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