I’m all for PC’s taking different form factors and these look nice (I think) not sure about the wood effect one.

PC Mag has one in for review and give it 3.5 out of 5.

As their review points out this is in direct competition with Apple’s Mac Mini.

The Dell Studio Hybrid can however be configured with a blu ray drive and output HD over HDMI so this becomes interesting for those wanting a tidy/small PC based HD experience.

Link: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326614,00.asp

Good old Om Malik sat down with Michael Dell at last weeks Fortune Brainstorm Conference.

Om Asked Michael about cloud computing, Smartphones, on founding Dell and about the future.

Some of the choice questions were:-

Om Malik: Will Dell ever start offering its own cloud services?

Om: What do you think is the biggest opportunity for Dell?

Om: Any plans for mobile phones or smartphones?

Worth a read for those interested.

Link: GigaOM Interview- Michael Dell, CEO & Founder of Dell Inc

I saw this 14 Page PDF document on the official Microsoft Download Center.

It is well written and would be an ideal introduction to for someone looking at getting better Windows Vista performance.

The topics included are:

• Power Settings on Mobile Computers
• Disable Visual Effects
• Adjust Search Settings
• Use Hardware to Boost Performance
• Make Your Computer Start Faster
• Put Your Computer to Sleep
• Disable Unwanted Start-up Programs
• Remove Unused Programs
• Disable Unwanted Services
• Improving Performance on User Account Control
• Making Your Computer More Reliable
• Defrag Your Disk
• Monitor Your Performance
• Check the Windows Vista Experience Index
• Check Performance with Task Manager
• Using Resource Monitor

Link:

 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ab377598-a637-432c-a3c8-1607ab629201&displaylang=en&tm

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
• Intel 945 Express/GMA950 graphics
• 1GB RAM
• 8.9 inch 1240 x 600 pixel display
• 8GB SSD
• Windows XP or Linux
• 3 USB ports
• 802.11b/g
• Ethernet
• 32 Wh battery
• Card reader
• Black, white and red colors

August still looking likely.

When you ask customers to pay $99 for an online service it better deliver.

Having to report the loss of 10% of the affected customers e-mail over a multiple day period is frankly both shocking and embarrassing for any large tech company.

I think the only way  Apple can turn this around is to make Mobile Me free for six months. Iron out the bugs then let the consumer decide at the end of the term.

As it stands. Avoid.

Link: http://www.apple.com/mobileme/status/