Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Available Now: Windows XP $399, Ubuntu $349 [Dell Inspiron Mini 9]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/382989291/dell-inspiron-mini-9-available-now-windows-xp-399-ubuntu-349

The way Dell introduced the Inspiron Mini 9 was pretty inspired, so it's almost been depressing watching the steady stream of leaks deflate it into a now familiar device, even though it's only being released today. As leaked, inside is an Intel Atom Diamondville processor and it has a 1024x600 LED-backlit screen with 4, 8 and 16GB SSD options (plus you get 2GB free online storage at Box.Net) and about three hours of battery life. Only the Windows XP version is available now for $399, in black or white—the $349 Ubuntu flavor, along with the rest of the six-color rainbow are a few weeks away.

MEET YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND: DELL'S INSPIRON MINI 9

Ideal Internet Buddy For Surfing, Shopping and Chatting

·Light, Highly Mobile Device Built For Easy Online Browsing And Entertainment

·Box.net Web Storage Keeps Your Personal Files Safe And Enables Anytime Access and SharingROUND ROCK, Texas, Sept. 4, 2008 –Dell today officially unveiled the Inspiron Mini 9. This small, easy-to-carry device stands ready to connect teens, tweens, travelers and "Tweeters" to their online world be it surfing the Web, chatting with friends, blogging, streaming content, uploading photos or enjoying favorite online videos, music and games.

The Inspiron Mini is an affordable Internet companion that can be fine-tuned to fit users' specific needs and deeds. It is available now on www.dell.com/mini in the U.S., Japan and select countries i! n Europe . Availability elsewhere will be handled on a country -by-country basis.

Solid Construction & Connections

With a starting weight of 2.28 lbs.[i], digital nomads will value the Inspiron Mini's durable design, with sealed keyboard and reliable solid state drive (SSD) memory storage. A bright 8.9‑inch glossy LED display (1024x600) presents most web pages with no left-right scrolling, and the keypads are large and easy to navigate. Standard built-in Wi-Fi means quick and easy wireless internet access to hotspots in the home, on campus, in a local coffee shop, in the office or at a conference. The Inspiron Mini can be further customized with optional technology like:

· Built-in Webcam, bundled with Dell Video Chat, making it easy to stay in touch using video chat, recording and sending video emails, or even PC-to-PC phone calls around the world. DVC even supports four-way calling, making virtual family reunions a reality.

· Built-in Bluetooth® for easy wireless connections to Bluetooth-enabled accessories like a pair of stereo headphones, a mouse, a printer, etc.

Dell has teamed up with Box.net to offer exclusive web-based file storage, access and sharing to Inspiron Mini users, including a free Basic plan with 2GB of remote storage space, expandable to 25GB. Dell's Inspiron Mini will include a direct link to a Dell-exclusive home page on Box.net (www.box.net/dell), providing users with an easy way to add incremental online storage space to easily manage their digital lives. Individuals can safely and securely upload files of any type to their Box, including photos, videos, music, documents and presentations, and then access those files from almost anywhere on any device.

Box.net's world-class service requires no software to download. With its OpenBox platform, Box.net enables people to edit documents and photos directly from their web-browser and post media to their blog or social networks, further enhancing the mobility and user experience on the Inspiron! Mini.

Individual & Intuitive, Simple & Stylish

Individuals can personalize their Inspiron Mini with choice of colors – Obsidian Black or Alpine White – and interaction experience – optional Windows® XP® or Ubuntu 8.04 with custom Dell interface (coming soon). For those looking for a more traditional and familiar experience, the Inspiron Mini with Windows XP Home is available immediately starting at $399.

Inspiron Mini devices featuring an intuitive Dell-developed custom interface are expected to be available in a few weeks with a starting price of $349. The custom home screen is designed to make it easy to find what people are looking for. Intuitive icons link directly to groups of similar applications, like games, Web and entertainment, and favorite web links for quick access. Plus, the home screen can be personalized, putting your favorites front and center.

This highly mobile and fun device can be carried anywhere in style thanks to a full line of custom "Designed for Dell" backpacks, messenger bags and convertible cases from merchants including Timbuk2. Blending high fashion and superior function, the coordinated bags and accessories incorporate subtle design elements and offer Inspiron Mini owners a unique way to express a personalized, integrated style. "Designed for Dell" products currently are available in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Finishing Touches

Dell provides a variety of service offerings and add-on options to help ensure devices are easy to use and maintain optimal performance, including:

· Dell Support Center: Quickly access Dell service and support from an icon on your desktop that provides automated fixes, software upgrades and tools to help keep your system up-to-date and running efficiently.

· DellConnect™ Remote Assistance:[ii] Dell experts help diagnose and solve PC problems via an Internet connection (available only on Windows-based systems)."

[Del! l, < a href="http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=19&kc=6f961&oc=dnpcxw3&x=7&y=8">Dell, Dell]

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Leaked flyer reveals pricing, configurations for Dell Inspiron Mini 9

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382931385/

Filed under: Laptops

It's everything but official, but hopefully the image above will enable you to rest easy knowing that you'll soon be able to order yourself a Dell netbook starting at $349. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (we're assuming that's the final moniker) will apparently weigh in at 2.28-pounds, boast an internal WiFi module and pack an Intel Atom N270 processor. The baseline model ($349) will include Ubuntu Linux 8.04, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD and a black or white paint job. For $50 more, you'll get an 8GB SSD and a 0.3-megapixel webcam, while the $449 version throws in Windows XP, 1GB of RAM and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. C'mon Dell -- you're only fooling yourself at this point.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Toshiba's Super Resolution-infused REGZA HDTVs get US prices / release dates

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382957458/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Toshiba got official with its new RV / XV REGZA families last week at IFA, but now Tosh is debuting 'em along with a smattering of other lines at CEDIA. The main news here is the US pricing and availability, but if you care to get neck-deep in marketing hoopla, we'd be happy to oblige. The company is trumpeting its Super Resolution Technology (now available in the REGZA RV535 and XV545), which purportedly uses a "proprietary processing system" to "improve image sharpness, brightness and color, [thereby] enhancing standard movies, TV shows, camcorder movies and most video games to near HD quality." For details on how much he AV500, RV525, AV502, RV535 and XV545 sets will cost here in America, head on past the break.

[Image courtesy of TWICE]

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LG's KC910 one-ups the Viewty, ships in October

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382957456/

Filed under: Cellphones

LG's cover was blown late last month with the early unveiling of the KC910, but it's hard to ignore that warm, fuzzy feeling one gets when any outfit doles out the official verbiage as confirmation. The self-proclaimed Viewty successor (formally dubbed the LG-KC910) looks mighty fine on paper, with a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera (with Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics and a Xenon flash), geotagging support, Dolby Mobile, video recording, A-GPS, 7.2Mbps HSDPA and integrated WiFi. Regrettably, LG failed to pass along the most pressing morsel of news (read: the price), but at least we know it'll be available somewhere in the world this October.

[Via MobileBurn]

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Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 pops official -- Ubuntu starts at $349 (Update: $99 with purchase of 2nd Dell)

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382975484/

Dell doesn't take its site down when it introduces product unlike some laptop peddlers. The result, however, is shots like this of early pre-release gear like the Inspiron Mini 9 netbook as Dell spins the product up for retail. $449 fully spec'd just like we heard with 8GB SSD, 1GB memory, Bluetooth 2.1, Windows XP, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. We still expect to see a lesser spec'd $349 model running Ubuntu. Shipping on the 16th of September in your choice of white or black though white will cost you a $25 premium. Dell hasn't officially announced the product yet but we're sure they'll get that sorted out in a few hours. For now, happy URL hacking as we dig for more details.

Update: Here's the $349 model running Ubuntu -- the Inspiron 910u. The top-end $449 XP configuration pictured after the break.

Update 2: Starts at £299 in UK and €369 in Germany.

Update 3: Oops, looks like someone broke a press release embargo making all the specs and prices listed above extra, super official and in sync with the exclusive we had back in June. In addition, the take home price also includes a free, b! asic Box.net plan offering 2GB of remote storage. See the full release after the break all you tweens and tweeters.

Update 4: Direct2Dell -- Dell's official blog -- says you can get the Mini for just $99 with the purchase of a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330. Offer ends Tuesday, September 9th. Not bad if you're already gearing up for a back-to-school Dell anyway.

Gallery: Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 pops official -- starts at $349

[Thanks, Shon]

Continue reading Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 pops official -- Ubuntu starts at $349 (Update: $99 with purchase of 2nd Dell)

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Amazon launches Soundunwound, wiki-like music data site

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/381502078/amazon-launches-soun.html

Amazon today launched a beta of SoundUnwound, a website that compiles music-related data from IMDB, Amazon, Musicbrainz and user contributions, Wikipedia-style. Oh, sure, dear reader -- it sounds good, but GREAT. Just what the world needed: flamewars between goth band editors over the hopeless existential futility of NPOV, and shoegazers nominating emo kids for deletion and vice versa ad infinitum. [ citation needed ]. More: And the Lights Go Up on SoundUnwound! (via pho list)

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QUADscreens (4,200 x 1,680) 41-inch uberHDTV

UPDATED: QUADscreens (4,200 x 1,680) -- fka: triplescreens 41-inch uberHDTV (3,150 x 1,680) - 3 x 20" monitors in portrait

for your Thanksgiving football watching -- make sure to check page 5 to add an HDTV card to your computer (NOTE THAT UNLKE THE DVD MOVIES, the TV broadcast will only show on one screen -- this is due to the way WindowsXP displays video). finally found a way to get movies to play in Windows XP Pro across multiple monitors; tried spanning (does not work when monitors are rotated); tried UltraMon, does not work; tried dualhead2go and triplehead2go but does not work when monitors are rotated. here's how to set up a 41 inch (3,150 x 1,680) LCD panel (higher than standard LCD HDTVs at 1920x1080 or 1366x768) for gaming, watching movies, or just being more productive ;-) (pictured, Casino Royale trailer, playing in Quicktime Player)

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Rumor: iTunes 8 Brings 'Genius', A Smart Music Grouping and Recommendation Engine [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/382536680/rumor-itunes-8-brings-genius-a-smart-music-grouping-and-recommendation-engine

It appears that some of Kevin Rose's predictions about iTunes 8 have been corroborated by other tipsters to MacRumors, which says that there's going to be a "Genius" feature that generates playlists containing songs that have similar qualities to other songs. MacRumors calls this unconfirmed because they didn't receive the tip from one of their trusted sources, apparently.

Other Kevin Rose predictions such as a "trippy" visualization with "planet like objects" and downloadable TV shows in HD haven't been confirmed, nor have previous rumors of an iTunes subscription service. But that differently-shaped iPod nano seems to be a lock. [MacRumors]

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Google Co-Founder Expects Chrome-Like Browser For Android [Google Chrome]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/382670723/google-co+founder-expects-chrome+like-browser-for-android

It probably comes as no surprise, but Google co-founder Sergey Brin believes that Chrome will make its way into Android in one form or another (both Chrome and the current Android browser employ WebKit).

"Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," Brin said, pointing to JavaScript improvements as one area."

He also noted that it would most likely take on a new name to indicate its mobile status. Chrome Mobile? Just a thought, guys. [CNET via MobileCrunch via CrunchGear]

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Dr. Frankenstein's Browser: The Strangely Obvious Ancestry of Google Chrome [Google Chrome]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/382661964/dr-frankensteins-browser-the-strangely-obvious-ancestry-of-google-chrome

We've posted our first impressions of Google Chrome, and after extended use most of them have held up. Chrome is fast, feature-rich and stable, not to mention highly usable. But Google's in-house innovations (the multi-threaded engine, Javascript handling and task manager, mainly) make up a tiny portion of the user experience. The rest of the interface features, usage mechanics and touted features have clear and very public parentage—in one of Chrome's four largest competitors.

Now, that's not to say that Google has explicitly "stolen" anything from IE, Firefox, Opera or Safari. They have, as of now, acknowledged that they owe a great debt to some of the other large players in the browser market. After all, they're using Safari's WebKit engine, receive billions of revenue-pumping referrals from Firefox's Google search bar, and have open-sourced much of Chrome. For most users, though, these gestures and acknowledgments will go unnoticed, and features previously incorporated into other popular browsers will be seen first on Google's. I've put together a list of some of Chrome's most interesting features, including the mainstream browsers that "inspired" them.

Feature: Incognito Mode
Who already has it: Safari, IE 8, Firefox w/ extension

Google has cleverly named and advertised this feature as a privacy and safety tool, but we know exactly what it's for. Porn Mode, as we've been calling it, is becoming de rigueur for any! browser that may be used by men, which is to say, all of them except this one. It made a recent appearance in a new IE 8 beta, but it finds its roots in Safari, circa 2005, when it was called "Private Browsing." Naturally, Chrome's implementation is a bit more complete, with more complex cache and history management, as well as the ability to have normal and "Incognito" windows running at the same time.

Feature: Smart Address Bar
Who already has it: Firefox, IE 8

When Firefox 3 dropped, there was much fanfare around its so-called "Awesome Bar" which, as it turns out, is pretty awesome. Strictly speaking, Chrome's address bar is slightly smarter than Firefox's, but I would argue less useful for power users who often need to dig up specific pages out of piles and piles from the same domain. Google has also modified the concept by merging the search and address bars into one, but most other browsers have included search functionality (by default or with modifiers) in their address bars for years.

Feature: Custom Panel Start Page
Who already has it: Opera, Firefox w/ extension

This feature is perhaps the most controversial, as Opera is a commercial, closed-source browser from which Google looks to have essentially lifted one of its most advertised features. Over a year ago, Opera introduced Speed Dial, which allowed users to build customized, panel-based pages that showed up whenever a tab was created. The large thumbnails provided easy, quick navigation to oft-visited pages and were a refreshing substitute for layers and layers of menus to access favorites. Chrome's home page is dynam! ically g enerated, but clearly took conceptual and aesthetic cues from Opera.

Feature: Tab detachment/attachment
Who already has it: Opera and Safari

Chrome, to complement its separate processes for each tab, allows for easy dragging and dropping from one window to another. In other words, you can rip a tab from its parent window to become its own, then drag it back without loss of data. This makes isolating important tabs as well as maintaining single-window mode both much easier, but —you guessed it —neither feature is new. Safari includes a tear-away feature by default, complete with a snazzy animation. Opera can handle tear-aways AND reattachments, in a nearly identical manner as Chrome.

Feature: Resizable Text Boxes
Who already has it: Safari, Firefox w/ Extension

These are fantastic for anyone who creates content, whether it be full-on news stories or the odd racist blog comment. Google's version in Chrome is functionally identical to Safari's earlier version of the feature, which was recently added with version 3.

Feature: Domain Highlighting
Who already has it: IE 8

Seriously. Internet Explorer 8 isn't even out yet and Chrome has managed to crib a feature from it. When the beta was put up for download last week, we noticed that the root domain name was always highlighted, which helps users keep track of what site they're on to avoid phishing attacks with syntactically confusing URLs. Sure enough, this showed up! in Chro me a week later, though there's no telling who was working on it first.

Feature: Pseudo Full screen
Where it came from: Safari

Windows browsers have often included "full screen" modes, which hide interface elements to give as much screen space as possible to content. Chrome finds a happy middle ground between everything-goes full screen and normal maximized mode with its partially, uhh, chromeless look. When maximized, the side and bottom window chrome disappears, but the top navigation and tab elements remain. This feature was found as a default first, strangely, in Safari for Windows. Sure, Safari in Windows kinda sucks (balls, and lots of them), but the slick maximized state stood out as an outstanding feature. Chrome is a marginally more attractive browser, so again, their implementation is an improvement.

As I said before, Google has taken time to acknowledge the debt it owes to other browser projects, but that will be little comfort to the Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE teams if Chrome rises to success on their features. Google has taken the best ideas from the best products, given them a new name, some new guts and a PR monsoon. And, no matter how you feel about it, they've done it well.

Google has taken many (though definitely not all) of the most compelling features from disparate sources and united them in a pretty solid package. This all-in-one approach is much like the one that Opera has taken in the past, with some success. Where Chrome trounces its competition, however, is in polish. I don't mean to say that Chrome is without bugs or room for improvement, but the user experience is fast, simple and intuitive from the start. Each of the features culled from other browsers has been refined to be more obvious, easier to use and more effective in Chrome, which—questionable! ethical implications aside—is all that really matters to the end user. [Chrome on Giz]

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AQUOS D65U / D85U LCD HDTVs get uncovered at CEDIA

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382701829/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Haven't had your fill of Sharp LCD HDTVs yet? Fret not, as said outfit is taking the wraps off of two more families at the Colorado Convention Center. The D65U / D85U LCD HDTVs all pack 1080p panels and range between 42- and 52-inches in size. The D65U line comes with five HDMI inputs, a six-millisecond response time, 176-degree viewing angles and a dedicated PC input to boot. The D85U steps it up by offering 120Hz Frame Rate Conversion and a four-millisecond response time. The sets will be in stores this fall (think October / November) for $1,599.99 and up. Per usual, the full releases are waiting after the break.

Continue reading AQUOS D65U / D85U LCD HDTVs get uncovered at CEDIA

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Limited Edition LC-52XS1U-S / LC-65XS1U-S AQUOS LCD HDTVs loosed by Sharp

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/382701835/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Though making a limited run of LCD HDTVs seems like a curious choice, Sharp is unleashing two of 'em (again) today in Denver. The 52-inch LC-52XS1U-S and 65-inch LC-65XS1U-S both sport newly-developed 10-bit Advanced Super View (ASV) LCD panels and feature native 1080p resolutions, AQUOS Net capabilities, an RGB-LED backlight system and a dynamic contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1. You'll also find a super thin integrated sound system powered by a 1-bit digital amplifier, and the entire set is just one-inch thick at its thinnest part. Of note, these units come bundled with a separate AVC system set-top-box for handling inputs, though WHDI was unfortunately left out. Catch the pair this October for currently undisclosed prices, and peep the full release just after the cut.

Continue reading Limited Edition LC-52XS1U-S / LC-65XS1U-S AQUOS LCD HDTVs loosed by Sharp

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