It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last update. As promised, I’ll be back every 2 weeks to give an overall update. And as penguisa from Australia informed me, a fortnight is a more appropriate term than biweekly when referring to every 2 weeks. So here is your Fortnightly recap…
The New Latitude:
The biggest news last week was definitely all about the launch of the new Latitude notebooks. If you haven’t seen or heard the buzz (or even if you have!), please read on for the recap.
It all started with a live global event held in Austin, San Francisco, and London on August 12th. As requested by jervis961 to Post a video of your Global Mobility Event, you can register and then launch an archived version of the event here. Also available are the slides from the presentations of Andy Lark (my boss) and Jeff Clarke (Mr. Latitude). Of course, my absolute FAVORITE slide was Jeff’s third one that proudly announced how the new Latitude came to be:
- 1 million+ human hours of work in 6 countries
- 100s of ideas at IdeaStorm
- 3,200 prototype test units
- 1,000+ user tests
- 4,000+ customers involved
In his presentation, Jeff remarked many times that a key piece of the design input came from our IdeaStorm community. Here are some of the ideas that helped influence the design and features of our new Latitudes (now with status updates!):
- Backlit Keyboards
- Add E-SATA Ports to notebooks
- System Security – Fingerprint Scanners
- Longer battery life
- Put some attitude into the Latitude (Definitely the winner of BEST Idea Title Award! Thanks jervis961)
- EFI, eSATA, fingerprint reader
- Battery Life
- Keep up with new technology
- Laptops
- Create a 13.3" Ultraportable (Perfect) Latitude Notebook
- 13.3" Latitude
- Upgrade the D420 (Lighter, Faster, and more Expensive)
And while the idea for Power input via USB did not get implemented, I did put a comment about the new Latitude feature of USB PowerShare, which allows users to charge mobile devices via the Latitude's USB ports, even when the system is powered down. Very cool!
And lastly today for Latitude, there have been many follow on ideas since the launch such as – 1680×1050 for new Latitude E 15.4 inches, Offer ATI video cards on the new E-series Latitudes, Vista upgrades for Latitude E should cost less. Keep those ideas and votes coming!
Digital Nomads:
In conjunction with the Latitude launch, Dell also unveiled a new community site called DigitalNomads.com. What in the world is a Digital Nomad you ask?? I think Bruce Eric Anderson’s initial post explains it best. The aim of the site is to foster conversations about the technology trends that enable those who wish to be connected — whenever and wherever.
In honor of the Digital Nomads site, we have added a new category to IdeaStorm. In addition to being voted on in IdeaStorm, we will be feeding the new ideas via RSS onto the Digital Nomads site. Check out krowland’s idea for his RV Lifestyle.
Small Biz Advice:
In my last update, I talked about kara_k sticking with her IdeaStorm roots and helping to get some ideas implemented specific to the needs of Small Businesses. Well, she obviously can’t get enough and came back to IdeaStorm this week to get some feedback from the community. Specifically, she wanted to know what advice Small Business Owners would ask Michael Dell, if given the chance. She posted the top 10 questions in the Small Business category on IdeaStorm for people to vote on. Voting ends today at 5:00 CST, so make sure you get your votes in, if you haven’t already! And of course, check back to the Small Business blog soon to see a vlog of Michael’s responses to the top five questions.
Linux:
As always, john_h is around talking with our avid Linux community. Here are a couple of the ideas where he has joined the conversations with his commentary.
- Improve Dell's Linux repository; Support Ubuntu better.
- Specify the real name of the WifF components not the Dell name
- Can we get Studio Hybrid with Ubuntu?
- Put the XPS M1530 with Ubuntu back on the Dell website
I’ll be back here in a fortnight!