armando

Also support HD-DVD and Dual-Format Drives

submitted by alwayz 12/29/07

Why does Dell force the customers to use the Blu-Ray standard and does not offer the possibility to choose? 6 Comments »

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Drives in Notebooks and Desktops. Updated on 04-05-07 (Low Cost).
Updated on 07-05-07 (DMCA, to be or not to be that's the question?)
Updated on 09-05-2007 HP Pavillion dv9000t with HD-DVD!!!!

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Desktops and Laptops submitted by oagostinho 05/02/07

I would like to suggest include HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drives in your notebooks/desktop.
I'll pay for it, it it's a sexy price for it!

Orlando Agostinho
Computer Engineer
Lisbon/Portugal 21 Comments »

Automatic Dell driver & software update (maybe even bios?)

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Dell Web Site submitted by prijswij 02/21/07

Like windows and Adobe e.t.c. it would be nice to have dell automaticly update drivers and software instead of me surfing to the dell site to find new updates. 11 Comments »

Region free DVD drive option for laptops/notebooks.

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Service and Support, Laptops submitted by benjesuit 05/22/07

For those of us who travel and have overseas friends and family, the option to have a region free DVD drive would be a great plus when it comes to renting or borrowing DVD's from other regions. 15 Comments »

Solid State Drive as option in Notebooks

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by tablet205 03/28/07 **IMPLEMENTED**

Definition

A solid state drive is primarily a data storage device, for use in computing applications that traditionally use a hard disk drive.

A solid state drive is based on non-volatile memory instead of the spinning platter and mechanical-magnetic head found in a conventional hard disk drive. With no moving parts, a solid state drive eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive.

Advantages

* Faster startup - Since no spin-up required.
* Faster read time – In some cases, twice or more than that of the fastest hard drives.
* Low read and write latency (seek) time, hundreds of times faster than a mechanical disk.
* Faster boot and application launch time - Result of the faster read and especially seek time. But only if application already resides in flash and is more dependent on read speed than other issues, eg. OS bootup that detects devices will not be significantly sped up even with faster seeks & reads.
* Lower power consumption and heat production - no mechanical parts results in less power consumption.
* No noise - Lack of mechanical parts makes the SSD completely silent.
* Better mechanical reliability - Lack of mechanical parts results in less wear and tear. High level of ability to endure extreme shock, vibration and temperatures, which apply to laptops and other mobile devices, or when transported.
* Security - allowing a very quick "wipe" of all data stored.
* Deterministic performance - unlike mechanical hard drives, performance of SSDs is constant and deterministic across the entire storage. "Seek" time is constant, and performance does not deteriorate as the media fills up (See: Fragmentation).
* Lower weight and (depending upon type) size
* Faster than conventional disks on random I/O
Check out the Idea in Action on the SSD enhancements Dell is making.




49 Comments »

Laptop & Desktop Boot in seconds from Flash Drives

Broadband and Mobility, Desktops and Laptops submitted by reg 02/19/07

Have laptops and PCs that boot quickly & quietly from fast internal flash drives,
and run the whole OS and application programs in RAM.
The New Dell PC will boot from internal Fast USB 2.0 flash drives in just a few seconds.
The Hard drive can stay powered down, completely off, unless the user needs to store some extra large files (video, photos).

Laptop Battery life is measured in days, not hours.


Have 2 Recessed USB 2.0 Slots.
Two USB Flash Drives would fit neatly into the laptop.
In this way the whole OS and Apps run in RAM, and stores data files on an 8 GB flash drive.

The 8GB is used transparently as the 'On Line' Storage, with a hard drive acting as secondary storage.
This gives desktops and laptops much greater speed and power savings.

<font> On-Line/Near-Line Storage Model for Laptops</font>
1. OS and App all run from RAM (so the machine should have 2GB+ of RAM)
2. Modified files are worked on in RAM, and stored on the Flash Drive
3. Older (non-system) files, that are 'inactive', get pushed down to the hard drive,

Hard Drive files are stored with on-the-fly hardware compression / decompression (back to RAM), with the flash drive file replaced with a pointer to the hard drive file.
Data is always safely copied down to the hard drive on shut down.



The flash drive is removeable and upgradeable, so later if someone wants to upgrade to a 32GB flash drive, just unplug and plug in the new one.

On-line / Near-Line storage works great on very large data servers, where data is mostly write once, read infrequently.
(Also known as Write Once, Read Mostly - WORM drives.)

It's time such ideas are put into practice for desktops and laptops.


You can run your Dell Laptop TODAY from 100% Flash Drive - Pen Drive using Puppy Linux.



www.puppylinux.org delivers a complete, small, fast Linux Distribution including all major tools in under 90MB. You can add Open Office, GIMP, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc and they all fit right in a USB Flash Drive.
Pupply Linux Applications.
Download Puppy Linux so you Can Try Flash Drive Dell Notebooks Today. 21 Comments »

eSATA Port! Put it in your notebooks already.

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by benjesuit 07/26/07

I mean, let's see...

Dropped the ball with the Inspirons: No HDMI. No 7200RPM drives on the 1720s. No gigabit ethernet.

OK so when you do refresh these things, and I hope it's soon, please add an eSATA port. USB 2.0 for external HD is so last year. 1 Comment »

No more VGA ports / Promote DVI and HDMI ports on laptops

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by jeff_c_brown 02/23/07

VGA is dead why keep it alive? Please provide DVI and HDMI ports on your laptops. 8 Comments »

DVI ports on notebooks and tablets

Laptops submitted by sjss 02/21/07

With modern monitors and equipment shifting more and more towards DVI connections, and the fact that a DVI to VGA convertor is trivially obtained, but there are no VGA to DVI convertors easily obtainable, it makes sense to move notebooks to DVI. Those with VGA monitors can still easily connect them to their monitors, and those with DVI monitors will be able to use their monitors as well. 5 Comments »

DVI for Notebooks

Sales Strategies, Laptops submitted by dellmanfred 02/20/07

I cannot understand why we still have to be punished with these vga plugs build into notebooks. Who's actually buying a CRT monitor these days so that he/she would need a vga plug?!?!
On top of that it must be cheaper too to have a straight digital ouptut without a D/A converter. So please, get rid of the vga plug and put a proper DVI plug into your notebooks. For the sake of our eyes!!!! 10 Comments »

Add E-SATA Ports to notebooks

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by dvt 02/17/07

E-SATA provides a way to add fast external storage with much better performance than USB or Firewire. Adding an E-SATA port would greatly improve the expandabiliy of Dell's notebook computers. 30 Comments »

DVI (incl. DVI-D) for _everything_ please

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by pstader 02/20/07

Too bad our purchasing missed to order the DVI Riser Card with our Optiplex. The guy who ordered extra picked Ultrasharp Displays with DVI input, which we have to use via the analog connection. No warning, no nothing during the order process. Why even sell computers without DVI ? Analog connections might have been alright for everything up to 1024 * 768 resolutions but everything above that really benefits a lot from dvi. So please. Make DVI standard and not optional. Would love to see Notebooks with Dvi connector too. 4 Comments »

HDMI, HDMI, by God almighty, HDMI

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by benjesuit 09/25/07

HP has had it on their notebooks for 1 year now. Come on Dell! What's it going to take to put in an HDMI port? Most of the new LCD TV's today input HDMI.

And I'm surprised that the new XPS 1730 has no HDMI port. DVI is so yesterday and is not forward thinking at all.

Your next generation Montevina based models MUST have HDMI.

And yes, this is a dupe. A dupe of my own post even. But I want to buy a Dell. But without HDMI, it makes it difficult. 30 Comments »

Laptops with webcam and HDMI outputs

Laptops submitted by mvratnam 04/23/07

I would like Laptops with builtin Webcam and HDMI output. I see that highend XPS laptops come with Webcam, but why not with low ends ? TV tuner cards with HDMI please ? Otherwise HP seems to be winning this segment. 3 Comments »

Laptops need to be more Upgradeable

Sales Strategies, Laptops submitted by dwood 10/26/07

Ive always had this idea about laptops being customizable.

Let's say Joe is going into college and only want to buy a 15.4" Inspiron notebook.

Lets say it works, does its job for two years, and for any reason whatsoever the screen on the laptop breaks (being unrepairable). Joe doesn't have $500 to buy a new one and a desktop wont work out for his classes hes taking. He then has to either 1) Beg for money from family members, 2) Skip school and work until he earns enough money enough for the new laptop that fits his needs, falling far, far behind in school, practically ruining that term's gpa .

What if Joe needed a larger screen than before? Or smaller, to save batteries?
This is only one instance when being able to easily replace your laptop screen would have been a better choice.

More graphics cards in laptops should be removable for replacing with ones that also fit the "line" of the notebook, in case a person wanted to play better quality games or movies, without replacing the whole entire laptop.

What if Joe needs a better Cd drive, and doesnt want an external one?

More things in all laptops everywhere need to be replaceable. I dont want to replace my laptop just because the screen broke. I don't go around looking for new computers that have monitors every time mine breaks, I buy a new one. Why cant we just do that with a laptop?

Thank you for reading
Dwood 8 Comments »

Build a Dell Linux Distribution

Linux, New Product Ideas, Desktops and Laptops submitted by jemfisher 02/20/07

With the wave of support for the Linux kernel to power desktop PC's, I think its time for a company with the quality build that Dell has to provide users with PC's that work for them. The adoption of Linux to power Dell PC's would give Dell a greater freedom to move forward with innovation. With the adoption of a Linux kernel Dell would be able to sell PC to meet users' demands. Businesses demand different machines than home users, students demand different machines again, machines targeted at younger users, etc. 100 Comments »

How about HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM for Linux?

Broadband and Mobility, Linux submitted by nil0lab 10/24/07

How about HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM for Linux?

Talk about a decisive advantage! Connectivity everywhere with an OS that is robust enough to be exposed to the internet without a firewall.

And please please please don't just offer it on those crummy last-millenium XGA-rez models- I want WUXGA or better (like I have in my four-year-old Inspiron 8600) 4 Comments »

Linux Support for Mobile Broadband

Broadband and Mobility, Linux submitted by militarygeek 02/26/07

Dell laptops can be customized to include mobile broadband, using either an HSDPA card for Cingular, or an EVDO card for Sprint or Verizon. The only this missing is Linux support for these options. If I were purchasing a new laptop, I would want to be sure that my mobile broadband would be FULLY supported if I chose to use Linux over Microsoft.

Mobile broadband, as well as the use of Linux, is gaining marketshare. Providing Linux support for these devices, as well as the support already provided if using Microsoft, would insure that Dell covers the widest possible market when it comes to mobile broadband. 2 Comments »

wimax a reality

Broadband and Mobility, Laptops submitted by maverickcruise 03/07/07

I would love to see Dell being the first to ship notebooks with Wi-max capability, I'm sure that's the future.. Comment »

Built in/ Express card GPS

Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), New Product Ideas submitted by visiocloud 10/07/07

I love having GPS on my computer but it would be nice not to have to deal with all the wire, I think an express card or an internal gps option would be awesome. 29 Comments »