News Bits: Dell (PRODUCT) RED notebooks, Eee PC with XP, HDX with 8800M GTS

Dell and Microsoft offer (PRODUCT) RED PCs

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Dell and Microsoft have announced that they will provide customers with a new way to make a difference by offering (PRODUCT) RED branded PCs and a printer. The (PRODUCT) RED Dell XPS M1330 and M1530 notebooks will come with Windows Vista Ultimate edition, unique themes, and wallpapers. Dell is the exclusive partner of (PRODUCT) RED. The laptops will start at $1,149 each; Dell and Microsoft will contribute $80 in total from the sale of each. Dell will contribute an additional $5 if a (PRODUCT) RED 948 all-in-one printer is added.

More information on (PRODUCT) RED

Alienware m15x finds its way into the hands of customers

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One of our forum members, mrwater, has received his brand new Alienware m15x gaming notebook. The m15x was on display at CES and proved to be a real show-stopper. We covered the launch of the notebook on November 19 in NYC. It features a 15.4-inch widescreen display, available Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTX graphics, and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors. At present, the m15x is offered in $2,099 and $2,699 configurations, with a $1,499 configuration in the works.

Read More in the forums - The Official m15x Owners Lounge
Product Page (Alienware.com)

HP Pavilion HDX now available with GeForce 8800M-GTS

The HP Pavilion HDX entertainment PC is now available with the Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTS 512MB graphics card option. It is a $250 upgrade from the base 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600XT. Key features of the HDX include a 20.1-inch widescreen display, internal HDTV tuner, and HD-DVD drive.

NotebookReview.com Review of the HP Pavilion HDX
Product Page (HPShopping.com)

Asus Eee PC available in Japan with Windows XP

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The Asus Eee PC has finally been released in Japan, but the models released there are not quite the same as in the US. The Eee PC 4G-X as it is called is the same as the standard 4G model, except that it comes with Windows XP Home edition as standard equipment instead of Linux. A 4GB SDHC card is included with the machine since XP takes up most of the Eee PC's internal 4GB flash memory. The Eee PC 4G-X is available in Japan for about $468 in white or black.

NotebookReview.com Review of the Asus Eee PC
Read More (Engadget.com)

Dell XPS M1330 available with Ubuntu, Spain-only (for now)

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Dell has announced that it will be offering its 13.3-inch XPS M1330 in Spain pre-loaded with Ubuntu 7.10. U.S. customers will have to "hold on a week or so" according to the Direct2Dell blog.

NotebookReview.com Review of the Dell XPS M1330
Read More (Direct2Dell.com)

VIA announces 64-bit Isaiah processor

VIA today announced a new processor architecture, dubbed Isaiah. It was developed by subsidiary Centaur Technology, and is designed to minimize power requirements. It is based on 65nm technology and is claimed to be four times more efficient than the company's current C7 chips. Specifications include 1MB of L2 cache, up to a 2.0GHz clockspeed, and a FSB from 800MHz to 1333MHz. Products based on the new processors will be shipping during the first half of this year.

Read More (HEXUS.net)

 

-What is DEll and Microsoft donating to/for?.... what is product Red
-Glad to see Dell pushing the linux OS...maybe someday linux will be a real competitor to microsoft....then there will be competition and the customer gets to laugh...
-I've never heard about VIA. How would this processor compete with intel or AMD?

 

Interesting news.

Good to see Dell and Microsoft teaming up to help a good cause.

It seems the XPS M1330 with Ubuntu is also available in a few other European markets: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/24/dells-xps-m1330-with-ubuntu-pre-load-in-germany-only/

And it is about time that 20" HP monster gets a matching graphics card. Although it is a very powerful card, I'm sure some people are a bit disapoointed that it is "only" a GTS. The next step should be 8800M-GTX and SLI Heck if you can get a 8800M GTX in a 15" notebook, a 20" monster should at least be able to match that.

 

Dell's second attempt at doing some kind of special edition notebook after the horrid WoW m1730 failure.

 

http://joinred.blogspot.com/2008/01/bill-gates-bono-and-michael-dell.html

Photo of Bill Gates and Michael Dell promoting Product Red.

 

The wallpapers are awesome:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/joinred/windows.aspx
http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/ro...inAfrica_BE60/Flip3d_red_screenshot_004_2.png

Anyone want to share? I'm all for project (red) and have a phone from them, but I'm not spending a grand or more for some wallpapers. lol

 

Nice attempt from Dell and Microsoft.
Wow...I am curious how new processor from VIA and AMD Turion X2 stacked up.
Of course, I doubt it will beat C2D...

 

Come one HP. Don't be shy. Just try a a top tier card like the Nvidia 8800M GTX. It won't hurt. In fact, you may find that you're pleasantly surprised by the acclaim for having done so.

Oh, and try a GT on your 17" notbooks as well.

Why let Dell have all the fun?

 

It was not the better picture to ilustrate the xps with ubuntu. You chose the product red xps to the linux picture.

 

My country (USA) already sends BILLIONS of dollars over to Africa in aid. With all that cash we could use it better here at home helping our own homeless and starving people. We could make slummy cities actually decent and improve the safety, security, and quality of life for everyone. There's a myriad of ways our cash could be used to improve our lifestyle. I'm sick to death of my tax dollars and now regular consumer dollars being thrown away overseas on some sort of aid mission when we can't even seem to help Katrina victims in a timely manner. Having an $80 donation to Africa makes me NOT want to buy a product. I'd rather have $80 off. I really hate it when companies promote these feel-good things. I don't need a forced donation to make me feel good. I feel good when I buy a piece of electronics just like I would feel good buying a Hummer. People have been starving in Africa for centuries! Throwing money at the problem has never fixed the situation and never will. These sort of red things or donations are just a gimmick to me and actually deter me from a purchase. You can call me all sorts of things if you want, but that's the way I think and it's what has been helping me improve my quality of life.

It's nice to see HP and Alienware (among other companies) putting more powerful graphics chips into more and smaller notebooks. HP's move to the top-tier graphics cards has been sluggish, but I'm glad to see them making it there. Hopefully they start developing models that rival the top-end gaming systems from Dell, Alienware, Sager, and others. More competition in the gaming laptop arena is always welcome and very exciting. I want to see these companies push the envelope!

XP on an EEE PC? Very nice! Ubuntu as an option instead of Vista? Also very nice, especially if there's a discount for picking Ubuntu instead of Vista. Ubuntu isn't perfect, but I just can't seem to like or get used to Vista so saving some money on having Ubuntu (and possibly going to XP in the future) is always welcome. I tend to like the saying that you vote by your wallet -- good products are bought, bad products are not.

 

Microsoft can afford to make the donations without asking the consumers to pay. If this report is correct:

John

 

Jeez, Dragon Myr,
you can feed a little kid in africa for 3 days with just a dollar...think about it. The time it took you to type all that post, a little innocent kid might have skipped his breakfast... need just a small, very small amount of your money to survive!!
If you wont do it, don't discourage others from doing it.

 

i sincerely hope you are just young. Because i would hate to be an adult and be that misinformed about the state of our world.

 

Japan of all countries, ruining the Eee Pc.

 

Not that I want to make this into a political debate, but I can't sit on my hands with this one.

I don't know where to start. There are simply so many disturbing elements in what you wrote. It makes me sad and upset at the same time. If more people had the mentality you promote, the world would be an even worse place than it is today. Sure, people sometimes wonder if foreign aid in general is doing what it should - but to disregard it based on ignorance and selfishness is not going to help anything. Quite the contrary.

As for i.e. developing ghettos for the better, aiding Katrina victims and improving general conditions in the US, don't be fooled to think it is just about money. It is just as importantly a matter of political direction, competence and motives, as well as a general mentality. In addition, a lot of money was donated to the US from the international community to help project Katrina. See links below.

Foreign aid is part of the political game as well, and while you may think the US is already spending too much, a large part of the international community has the opposite opinion. Regardless, the US will not be doing itself any favors if it cuts further down on its foreign aid. It already has enough issues when it comes to environmental management issues and other international commitments. Like it or not, the US, just like most other countries in the world, is largely dependent on the rest of the world, and vice-versa.

I will offer you a few links regarding US foreign aid:
http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html
http://www.vexen.co.uk/USA/foreign_aid.html

It should be noted that US foreign aid is usually tied, often making it less efficient/valuable for the receiving country, whilst supporting the donating country.

It is not all bad, but the US government is not the almighty generous spender you think it is. Hence, private initiatives are needed and appreciated.

Regarding Katrina, here is some information about foreign aid to the US:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042801113.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-07-katrina-world_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-05-aid-katrina_x.htm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042907F.shtml

Although you can challenge the way some of the contents is portrayed or the exact numbers, the points remain valid.

There are so many other things to take into consideration when discussing these somewhat complicated issues, but my point is that this is not a one way street and I suggest you look at the larger picture.

 

I don't have a Dell laptop or have any interest in paying a premium for these Product Red ones (so Dell can make more profit), but I want those wallpapers. They look pretty cool. I hope someone posts them on here in the future.

 

If you want to buy into these donation gimmicks, be my guest. I'm just getting tired of it. Every day some charity calls wanting money, some sort of organization (FOP) calls wanting money, or a politician calls wanting money. They even nag you about it at work wanting you to give part of your paycheck automatically! My opinion is that I'm sick of seeing all these donation gimmicks, especially to Africa and other foreign countries that live on free handouts. I'd rather give the starving veteran living in an alleyway not too far from here a meal than some random kid in Africa.

I assure you that I've voted many times, have myself a full-time job, and hold a college degree. I am quite informed about the state of the world. However, my solution to fixing things is at the complete polar opposite point of the spectrum from your solution (and the rest of the donating crowd). There are so many problems that need fixing here at home and I'm tired of us going overseas to fix someone else's problem (Africa, Indonesia, Iraq). Let's spend that money from these red laptops (and other products) on giving those homeless people I see walking the streets each day somewhere to live. Let's spend that money on fixing a 3 lane highway that turns into 1 sharp exit lane instead of having a skyramp. Let's spend that money cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and deploying new energy sources. Let's spend that money finding a cure to AIDS and cancer. There are so many more worthy things out there in my eyes.

People in rural areas in particular tend to have the opinion I'm promoting. However, you don't tend to see it popping up a lot except in personal conversations. You won't find these people running around with red cell phones or red laptops.

Also, I really don't care one bit what the "international community" thinks. It's our country, not theirs. If they were running things we'd lose critically important things like the death penalty among others. The USA has come under harsh criticism for trying to fix someone else's problems in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, that same criticism fails to carry over to places where we dump money into, like Africa and Indonesia, where we are trying to fix their problems too. I do not play political games with the military. When I make a point about stopping all this rediculous aid I mean it globally regardless of if the military is deployed there or not. Right now tax dollars as well as private dollars get thrown away to all these places overseas where the problems never go away--they just cost more and more people put their hands out for free cash.


You all can support these red programs if you want to. I'm not going to stop anyone. However, I'd like to see an $80 discount instead of a donation. Most people don't realize that whether they hand their money over to someone or not, the government (local and federal) is still using tax dollars to donate to organizations anyway. I want lower prices and more power, not another avenue for money to get donated away.

 

You hit the nail on the head... it's a political game. It's not really about altruism. We have starving children in our own backyards that go largely unnoticed. We have homelessness. We also have children in need of adoption. Health care that is hard to access for many. The list goes on. In fact America has some of the worst plights in the Western world.

But it's more chic for individuals to address "Africa's problems" while ignoring the plight of their own in their own backyard. A celebrity adopting a child from Africa appears so much more chic and noble than adopting a African American child languishing as a ward of the state.

Hey, no problem with what people want to do simply because "awareness" has been brought up or to soothe their conscious in a big way. But why not put as much energy into solving your own problems as you do in trying to solve other people's problems?

It smacks of hypocrisy otherwise.

In any event, Dell's donating $80 bucks yet charging a ~$300 premium for this red gear. All the while not really doing enough to reduce their carbon footprint, let alone helping you to reduce yours. On top of that they continue to outsource American jobs. Among other ills.

While everyone is browbeating Dragon, he brings up a good point that is rarely discussed. I mean, how would you like it if your parents were giving out all sorts of goodies to stranger's kids yet neglecting you and your needs?
Sure, his post could of used a bit of moderation. But it is obviously a passionate reaction to the mindnumbing political correctness so prevasive in our society at large.

Ok back to the news and things tech (which of course you have to upgrade more frequently which leads to more and more environmental damage)...

 

I'd be a little more careful about bandying about accusations of being "misinformed."

 

Dell is definitely charging a premium for these Red products. Dell has marked up the price compared to the base XPS One PC; see the breakdown here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/25/dells-xps-one-product-red-a-charitable-rip-off/

For future repliers to this thread, please keep your comments appropriate, non-personal, and be reasonable.

 

So there are problems in Africa and there are problems in the US too, YOU can forgo a tiny little luxury and donate to both instead of insisting that one of them should be stopped. Do you have kids?? I hope you pay a visit to a war-torn African country and look into a kids eyes as he/she dies because of a bowl of rice.

 

Direct foreign aid never has been, and never will be, an efficient use of resources. If one really wanted to "do" something about starving foreigners, one could do no better than by starting at home and by doing nothing more than getting overweaning governmental influence out of the economy and giving poor people the chance to bring themselves up rather than remaining wards of the rich, white western world (and we all thought "Uncle Tom" had disappeared).

This ought to be a particular concern for the left in this country given its fetishism for self-esteem - it boggles the mind how anyone can believe that eternal bondage to foreign aid "generously" ladled out by so-called "progressive" governments is a better self-esteem booster than actually being able to pull yourself up by your own boot-straps and stand on your own two feet as an equal to every other person on the planet. Aid-bondage is simply slavery with a felt lining.

But how, you ask. Try this on for starters: as most of us are probably aware, Jamaica is a relatively poor country. Somewhat fewer of us probably know that sugar-production plays a large role in Jamaica's economy. Still fewer probably know that Jamaica received approximately US$23M per year in foreign aid from the U.S. for the period 2000-2006, and will receive about US$19M in U.S. foreign aid for 2007. See Mark Sullivan, Jamaica: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations, CRS Report for Congress, CRS Rept RS22372 (Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Feb. 3, 2006), available online at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS22372.pdf .

What most of us probably do not know is that, at the same time we're making our more liberal fellow-citizens make themselves feel better about themselves by doling out approx. $20M a year to Jamaicans (a significant portion of which, by-the-by, merely goes to line the pockets of corrupt politicians - of course, if your only real motivation in giving away other peoples' money is to make yourself feel better about yourself, does it really matter who ultimately gets the money? At least you "tried" to make a difference - to your own ego, that is), at the same time we're intentionally impoverishing working Jamaicans by making it next-to-impossible for Jamaica to sell more than a limited amount of sugar in the U.S. market.

For example, in 2006, the U.S. permitted Jamaica to import only 22,000 tons of sugar into the U.S. market - meanwhile, that same year the EU, which had continued to maintain the serfdom originally imposed on the Caribbean in the 1500s through colonialism by means of a guaranteed sugar subsidy, was cutting that subsidy by 36%. See http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news...78_obs_us_increases_caribbean_sugar_quota.asp . Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Now, as a few more of us know, the Jamaican sugar industry is not a model of virtuous, progressive, left-leaning corporate good-citizenship. See, e.g., http://shepherd.wlu.edu/pdf/reinhart423_03.pdf . However, as that same article describes, cultivating sugar does provide a means for poor but honest people to make a living doing very hard, but honest, work. Unfortunately, as that same article all too briefly describes, many tiny land-owners cannot get the necessary capital funding (i.e., small business bank loans) to expand their productive capacity - this is another inefficiency that is typically foisted on a country by its own local government, under which corrupt officials typically regulate banking and lending with more of a view to their own interests (after all, they need someplace to launder (I mean "invest") all of that ill-gotten foreign gain they stole from the government's coffers).

So, while permitting Jamaicans to sell as much sugar as they can in the U.S. market won't instantly turn them all into Long Island soccer moms, with two SUVs in the driveway of their modest split-ranch house, it will permit them to get fair(er) value for their work, and result in less inefficiency than exists with foreign aid hand-outs. Oh, and it will also allow them to build some actual self-esteem, by actually being able to have tangible proof that they themselves can make a difference in their own lives through their own honest hard work (if that's your particular fetish).

As to waste and corruption vis-a-vis foreign aid, see, e.g., Robert Keleher, CAN IMF LENDING PROMOTE CORRUPTION?, (report by the Chief Macroeconomist to the Vice Chairman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, December 1999), at http://www.house.gov/jec/imf/corrupt.pdf , or Dr. Robertico R. Croes and Patrick L. Schmidt, Promoting Tourism As U.S. Foreign Aid: Building On The Promise Of The Caribbean Basin Initiative, 1 J. of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Research (Sci. J. Int'l, 2007), at http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1071.htm .

So, now that the ad-lib essay is over, if you're really concerned about those poor, starving foreigners, the last thing you would do is support any calls for more foreign aid. Instead, you would be picketing Congress and demanding that the U.S. end the last holdovers from colonialism, stop treating poor foreigners like wards utterly dependent on the largesse of Congress, and start letting them make their own lives by, amongst other things, ending U.S. sugar quotas.

Needless to say, it's a very risky gamble to cavalierly throw around accusations of being "misinformed."

 

Thank you. That's exactly what I've been trying to say. It's all a political game perpetuated by both sides and innocent people are getting caught up in it both at home and abroad. I get the impression commonly that many world leaders want people to remain in poverty despite all these donations and aid. I think these feel good "red" and other products featuring donations are just an extension of that.

That's exactly how I feel and see things. It's not that I don't care about these people abroad, it's that donations and financial handouts from both sides of the political realm are not improving their quality of life. Without the donations and handouts I feel that they could stand up and function on their own. It would be grand to see people in Africa stand up and rally against all the negative things there instead of just camping out for the next aid truck only to do an uncivilized rush and fight over its contents. Red/donation-tied products just continue the status quo, which is unacceptable to me. That's why I don't like them.

 

The average country only receives around 10 to 20 cents of each dollar of foreign aid that is spent on them, making 1 billion dollars of aid only around $150 million.

 

I love how Dell is making an $80 "donation" after you have paid several hundred dollars extra for the product.

 

I also agree with Dragon_Myr's original post. Too many people today are using these "donation" organizations as a fad/trend, not having any real altruistic concerns in the first place. Simply handing over money is not a solution, and in some cases, it's actually counter-productive. I'm not suggesting the US stop helping other countries, quite the contrary, I think we should step up the process. And that process includes re-evaluating how much we send in foreign-aid. Many of these governments are just too corrupt to handle these donations that we give, and it's time that we should change this. Changing our trade regulations, especially with China, would be a great step.

Remember when that devastating tsunami hit Indonesia ((2004?)); the US actually sent some Navy ships to help the impoverished people whom the government turned their backs on. I happened to be one of the sailors helping the Indonesians at that time, so I saw how much our military aided these people. These were great, positive steps, and the people we did help have never forgotten it. Yes, the US also sent foreign aid, and most people never even received any. Later on it was revealed that the foreign aid was "mishandled" by....guess who? The country's own government.

Securing jobs back at home by pushing domestic companies to stop outsourcing jobs to foreign countries would also be a good step. This would help the already growing number of unemployed/homeless in our own country. Since when did ignoring our own people, and corrupting others, become so popular?

 

Hmm k. Nobody is forcing you to buy the Red.

 

Could anyone post up the RED Wallpaper and Screensaver. They are so cool. Please

 

Already asked earlier in the thread... I think your request will get drowned out in the bickering just like mine did. lol

 

Actually, the question is a bit premature. Very low probability that anyone should have them already. That's why it hasn't been addressed.

 

Well, according to the news release, the laptops were released this past week. So it's not really premature AFAIK, unless I read it wrong.

 

+low awareness
+Build time
+Delivery time
+Low demand given the extra premium over a non-red...
-------------------------------------------------------
= try asking again in about a month or so.



Here's a wallpaper that might hold you over until then...

http://customize.org/wallpapers/55115

If not, browse though that site using "red" as the keyword. Some cool stuff.

 

Here's some better Red-like wallpapers.


http://seph.ws/lou/desktops/red/

Sample: