DELL LEAVES NETBOOKS BEHIND

Dell confirmed that it is no longer making consumer netbooks. Not only are the Inspiron Minis being put in the grave, but the company confirmed for us that it will not be releasing new netbooks based on Intel's forthcoming Cedar Trail platform. In other words, it is done with the category.

That said, it did clarify that its netbook / tablet hybrid — the Inspiron Duo — continues to sell well, and although it isn't in stock on Dell.com right now, it would available again before the holidays are over. Of course, Dell is still planning on being a lead player in the mobile laptop space and stressed that it has been spending time developing higher-end, premium laptops like the XPS 14z. Dell's Marketing Director Alison Gardner was very clear about the strategy: "Thin and powerful is where it is at for us." Seems like ultrabooks are indeed the new netbooks

DELL CONSIDERS USING GOOGLE+ HANGOUTS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Michael Dell is toying with the idea of using Google+ Hangouts for Dell’s customer support. The service allows users to initiate a video chat session with multiple people inside their Google+ circles. “I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?” he posted on his Google+ page on Sunday. The idea was an instant success: 556 people had given the comment a +1 as of Tuesday morning and hundreds more left comments in support of the suggestion.

As GigaOm points out, it is currently not possible to start a “Hangout” session from anywhere but from inside Google+ itself. The social network is still in a young invite-only phase, too, so some customers would not have access just yet. Still, Google has said that it plans to offer Google+ for businesses, so perhaps Dell’s idea could come to fruition down the road.

SKYPE INSTALLING CRAPWARE ALONG WITH PROGRAM

It seems that Skype is automatically installing crapware called EasyBits Go without informing or asking users for installation permission.

Easybit produces a number of game apps and is supported by many major brands including HP, Dell, Acer and Skype among others. When installing Skype, the installation also installs the Easybit Go application without the users permission or any notification.

Skype responded to the accusations:

It has come to our attention that concerns have been expressed from Skype users over the update delivered to Skype Extras for Windows by Easybits software.

The software is provided by our partner EasyBits, and is part of the Skype Extras Manager. The Extras Manager has been included in Windows releases of our software since 2006. This latest update from EasyBits included elements of their desktop games organizer in error, but it neither installs nor un-installs correctly. This update has been disabled while we work with them to correct the problems and user experience.

Skype works closely with its partners to ensure that our users receive the best possible Skype experience and is working with EasyBits to ensure this issue does not happen again.

Users are reporting it is a bit of a issue removing the offending software. To remove the software:

• Disable and remove 3rd party access to the easybitgo.exe file in Skype via Options > Advanced > Advanced Settings > Manage other programs’ access to Skype
• Remove the Easybits Go program via the Install/Uninstall panel under your system’s control panel
• Exit Skype and make sure the Skype.exe is not running in the list of running processes (via Task Manager). Also temporarily disable Skype from starting automatically when Windows starts.
• Then restart your computer since the program will still be is use by the system.
• Once restarted, go to [Drive Letter]:\ProgramData or [Drive Letter]:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data and permanently delete theEasybits GO folder.
• Remove whatever shortcuts it may have placed in the start menu and desktop.
• If you are confident enough to dig around in your registry, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and delete the entire EasyBits folder (thanks Christopher)
• Go to the Windows\Prefetch directory and look for the file EASYBITSGO.EXE-364DAFD6.pf and delete it. Also do a search for ezPMUtils.dll and delete them all.
• If you are on Windows 7, delete the go folder in this directory - Users > [YOUR USERNAME] >AppData > Roaming (thanks Lesa)

WINDOWS PHONE 7.1, 'MANGO', COMING THIS FALL

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its forthcoming major update to its Windows Phone platform — Windows Phone 7.1 “Mango.” We gave you live coverage of the event as well a hands-on look at the update, and now that the dust has cleared we can finally sit down and collect ourselves. In short, Mango looks awesome. We’ve seen plenty of promise in the Windows Phone platform right from the start, but we also thought Microsoft rushed the OS to market — understandably — and a lot of key features and functionality were missing as a result. Mango goes a very, very long way in bringing the emerging platform up to date, and Microsoft has named HTC, LG, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu Limited, ZTE Corporation and of course Nokia as partners moving forward. Windows Phone 7.1 will be the launch platform for upcoming Windows Phones from Nokia, by the way, and Microsoft confirmed that Nokia has already built devices running Windows Phone 7.1 that are currently being tested in its labs. Mango will add more robust multitasking support, messaging threads, deeper social integration, a unified email inbox, voice-to-text and text-to-voice support, and about 500 other enhancements to the Windows Phone platform when it launches this fall.

RUMOR: iPHONE 4S TO HAVE CURVED GLASS SCREEN

DigiTimes has been canvassing its manufacturing industry sources again, and today it's managed to extract some intel regarding Apple's typically secretive supply chain. Steve Jobs' team are said to have purchased between 200 and 300 glass-cutting machines, specifically in order to use them to slice up curved glass display covers for the iPhone 4S. This move has apparently been in an effort to accelerate production, with glass makers reportedly showing a reluctance to buy the machinery themselves due to its prohibitive cost.

Lest you think this sense of urgency might accelerate the iPhone 4S from its earlier-rumored September launch, DigiTimes also reports that yields of curved glass are not yet good enough to start using said fancy machines. So the iPhone may be headed for the same curvacious look as we've already seen on Dell's Venue and HTC's Sensation, but as it is Apple's wont, it looks like that will be done with a tailor-made, custom solution. At least those Cupertino designers have a couple of generations of curved iPod nano screens under their belt, giving them a good idea of how to handle the atypical glass frontage.

LEAKED: DELL'S SMARTPHONE AND TABLET LINEUP FOR 2011 AND Q1 2012

WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company's plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here's the full rundown.

Smartphones:

• Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some "additional features and enhancements" which we're pretty sure we can name.
• Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as "Windows Phone 7 Next Gen," and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.
• By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell's Hancock will scoop it onto a a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.
• Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)

Tablets:

• Dell's Streak 10 won't keep us waiting for long: come April, the Gallo will reportedly be chomping away at some tasty Honeycomb. But that's not all -- Dell lists a handwriting update for the Gallo in October or thereabouts. There's also a Streak 7 update scheduled for July -- we imagine that's the point when Dell believes it can shoehorn Android 3.0 onto its older brother.
• Meanwhile, Dell's 10-inch Windows 7 slate, internally known as Rosemount, is slated for June, with a 1366 x 768 resolution that should allow for native playback of 720p video.
• We can't tell you what the Sterling is, but it's likely a mid-sized one, as it's slated to take over the Streak 7's duties in or about October with Android Honeycomb on board.
• Finally, come CES 2012 in January, we now expect Dell to drop three new tablets at once: the Opus One and Silver Oak running Android Honeycomb, and the Peju with Windows 8. (The Streak 10 / Gallo will apparently soldier on.) Numbers on the left of the charge suggest that the Opus will be small, the Silver Oak mid-sized, and the Peju large.

As noted at the head of the slide, all details here are subject to change.

RUMOR: DELL PLANNING TO BUY AMD

Rumor has it that Dell has been looking to buy chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). AMD has been having its clock cleaned for some time now by rival IBM. Senior executives have been fleeing left and right in the last month, with CEO Dirk Meyer departing back in January and COO Robert Rivet also running away from the beleaguered chipmaker last week.

Right now, CFO Thomas Seifert is acting as interim CEO at AMD, but he has asked that the promotion be temporary until a new CEO can be found.

“There is no management team there,” said Patrick Wang, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in New York. He then said there is a “far-reaching possibility” that the company is up for sale, according to “chatter.”

The purchase by Dell would put them in charge of its own manifest destiny, controlling the silicon of both the processors and GPUs that make up its machines.

DELL, MSI AND GIGABYTE PULL PRODUCTS DUE TO SANDY BRIDGE CHIPSET FLAW

Due to Intel's flawed Sandy Bridge chipset, Intel has projected a $300 million hit to its bottom line, and another $700 million to cover repairs and replacements. Intel is now estimating a round $1 billion loss in "missed sales and higher costs." Those missed sales will be coming directly from guys like MSI and Gigabyte, two of the major motherboard makers, who have stopped selling their Sandy Bridge-compatible models until Intel delivers untainted stock, and also Dell, who has nixed availability of its Alienware M17x R.3 gaming laptop. CNET did spot that HP and Dell were still selling laptops with the offending chipset in them yesterday, but we imagine both will get their online stores straightened out in due course. For its part, HP says it's pushing back a business notebook announcement due to this news, much like NEC has had to do. [Engadget]

US PC SALES DOWN, TABLET SALES UP

The last time we got an IDC report on US PC sales it showed generally rosy figures, with everyone other than Dell growing and Apple making a huge jump. This time we have numbers from both IDC and Gartner, and while they don't agree on everything, it's clear things are rather less positive. Overall growth in this quarter is negative (6.6 percent decline for Gartner, 4.8 for IDC) and Apple is now in position number five, dropping from number three, with the other top four comprised of HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Acer -- though Toshiba and Acer swap places as you move from IDC to Gartner. Both reports cite tablet sales (i.e. the iPad) as being at least partly responsible for the decline in traditional computer sales, a trend that's predicted to continue in 2011.

DELL STREAK 7-INCHER UNVEILED

The 7-inch version of Dell's Streak tablet has been rumored and teased for months, but today it's officially official! And what it lacks in size it makes up for in sweet, speedy 4G goodness.

The Streak 7 weighs less than a pound, and comes complete with 5 megapixel rear and 1.3 megapixel front-facing cameras, Nvidia's graphically delicious Tegra 2 processor behind a 7-inch Gorilla Glass WVGA touch display.

Its size makes the new Streak not as pocket-friendly as the five-inch version, and places it in the same portability gray area as the Galaxy Tab. That it's still borderline phone-sized may mitigate the disappointment that the Streak 7 will launch with Froyo instead of Google's tablet-friendly (and pretty special-looking) Honeycomb OS. It will, though, support full Flash 10.1, and it weighs less than a pound. And we've gotten word that it will get the Android 3.0 upgrade soon after its launch.

And let's not forget that 4G! It's the first tablet to hop on a 4G network, specifically T-Mobile's supah-fast HSPA+. [Gizmodo]

RUMOR: CLIQ 2 AND DELL STREAK 7 TO LAUNCH JANUARY 9TH ON T-MOBILE

According to an unconfirmed report, T-Mobile will launch two new Android-powered devices in mid-January. Enthusiast blog TmoNews claims that a source has pegged January 19th as the tentative release date for both the Motorola CLIQ 2 and the Dell Streak 7. The CLIQ 2 was last rumored to feature Motorola’s MOTOBLUR UI atop Android 2.2, as well as a unique QWERTY keypad that has no gaps between the keys. The Dell Streak 7 will reportedly be a 7-inch tablet with dual-cameras and version 2.2 of the Android OS. Neither device has been confirmed to be launching next month by T-Mobile or its respective manufacturer, though both are expected to be announced next week at the Consumer Electronics Show. [BGR]

APPLE TRYING TO PATENT "LOGO ANTENNA"

Embedding an antenna in the external body of a phone? Maybe not such a good idea. Hiding it behind the logo sounds a little more practical, and that's the idea Apple wrote up in a patent application dated June 17th, 2009, back before we knew antennas and gates could be so wickedly conjoined. That was also before we knew about the iPad, which seems to have one of these so-called "logo antennas" within it, as found when iFixit did their dirty thing. The same can be said for iMacs, which also have antennas peering through an apple-shaped hole to avoid any reception issues caused by an aluminum chassis. It looks to be a good solution, but not exactly a novel one. In roaming around the USPTO archives we found a similar 2003 patent from Dell also called "Logo Antenna," the big difference being that while Apple's logo forms a window for the antenna the logo in Dell's patent actually is the antenna. [Engadget]

DELL SHUTTING DOWN MOBILE DIVISION

Dell is shutting down its mobile division and Ron Garriques, Chief Executive of Dell Mobile, is quitting. Not a single one of Dell’s mobile ventures have been particularly successful. The Streak, Dell’s “not quite a tablet, not quite a phone, but uncomfortable enough to be both” device was a poorly implemented concept. Too big to be a phone for most, and too small to be a table for most, plus a lack of a wi-fi option due to Google’s Market procedures. Throw in the software issues during upgrade times, and even those that did buy the device were not likely to want a second. [Geek]

WINDOWS PHONE 7 LAUNCHES IN US TODAY

The long anticipation is now over. Microsoft is releasing its newest mobile OS, Windows Phone 7 (WP7), in the US today. Microsoft has chosen AT&T as their launch partner and AT&T hasn't disappointed with 5 new phones. The list includes the HTC Surround, Samsung Focus and HTC HD7 are already available for purchase and the Dell Venue Pro is rumored to drop later today. The LG Quantum is also available for pre-order from AT&T starting today. Expect to pay $199.99 for any of the aforementioned Windows Phones, though better deals are available through the likes of Amazon.com, as is often the case. [BGR]

RIM RESPONDS TO DELL DITCHING BLACKBERRIES

Yesterday we reported that Dell would be ditching RIM's Blackberry mobile devices in favor of its own Venue. Dell stated they would save a lot of money by making the switch. RIM has released a statement on the issue "We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity" RIM’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing Mark Guibert told Dow Jones Newswires in an email.

The company’s response is short and to the point, though it doesn’t really address the fact that BlackBerry devices often require more expensive data plans than other smartphones. Businesses that use BlackBerry handsets also incur additional costs associated with BlackBerry Enterprise Servers which can dramatically increase the overall cost of using Blackberries. [BGR]

DELL DITCHES BLACKBERRY, WILL SUPPLY ITS WINDOWS 7 PHONES TO EMPLOYEES

Dell will give current employees a Dell device in exchange for a Blackberry. Dell which competes with RIM's Blackberry states they will save money by not having to support Blackberry servers.

Dell’s push to move people from BlackBerry devices to its own line of handsets isn’t just internal, either; the company plans to offer services to its business customers within the next two weeks that will assist them in transitioning from BlackBerry phones to Dell’s own devices. [Geek]

APPLE BREAKS 10% OF US MARKET

Apple continues go gain ground in the latest PC market share report by Gartner and IDC.  Apple's 3Q 2010 standings were at 10.5%, this is a 1.5% increase over 3Q 2009.  HP took the number one spot from Dell, both sliding a bit from their 3Q 2009 numbers.

Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa attributed the drop for Dell and Acer to a softening consumer market. "The third quarter historically is a strong consumer quarter, led by back-to-school sales," Kitagawa said in a statement. "Consumer mobile PC demand, driven by low-priced notebooks, including mini-notebooks, slowed after very strong growth the past two years." [Ars Technica]

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WINDOWS PHONE 7 EVENT

Microsoft has officially announced Windows Phone 7 in a press event held simultaneously in New York and London.  A total of 9 handsets were announced for the launch on November 8th.  All the major US carriers, with the exception of Verizon Wireless, will have a handset available at launch.

T-Mobile:
     HTC 7 Mozart
     HTC 7 HD7
     Dell Venue Pro
AT&T:
     HTC Surround
     Samsung Focus
     LG Quantum
Sprint:
     HTC 7 Pro
No Carrier:
     LG Optimus 7

Windows 7 was built around the idea that your mobile phone should not be all consuming.  The concept as described by Microsoft is "Glance and go".  The user interface (UI) uses tiles to easily find and press the app you desire and the tiles are customizable so the user has control of the interface.

It also comes with the new Bing voice search, which appears fairly impressive and responsive.  Flight information was demonstrated.  The user told the device the flight number and up popped all the relevant information about that flight.

Internet capabilities appear to be brisk and very well done.  Note syncing is built in and there is a feature to find your lost phone through Microsoft's Live service.  Copy and paste will be coming in "early 2011".

The WP7 app store will launch with over 2000 titles and EA games has announced they will have a "suite" of games available at launch like Sims 3.

Steve Ballmer with WP7 launch phones

Screenshot of customizable app tiling interface

Voice Search results for flight information

Internet capabilities

DELL TO SELL 7-INCH TABLET IN NEXT FEW WEEKS

Dell will launch a new 7-inch tablet computer in the next few weeks according to The Wall Street Journal citing Dell's Greater China President Amit Midha.  Midha also claims there will be a whole family of tablets coming from Dell over the next 6 to 12 months, including a 10-inch, a 4-inch and a 3-inch form factor.  All will be running Android, but it is not certain which version has been chosen at this time. [Engadget]

DELL REMOVING WINDOWS XP OPTION

Dell has announced they are halting the option of preloading Windows XP on their PCs beginning this month.  This comes as Microsoft begins the slow (very slow) phase out of the aging OS.  Microsoft has stated that they will stop OEMs from pre-installing Windows XP on October 22nd.

"Per Microsoft guidelines regarding Windows XP, system vendors like Dell will no longer be able to ship systems with XP Professional and XP Home after October 22, 2010," Dell blogger Faith C wrote on Tuesday. "This means that we will stop offering XP as an option for customers starting this month in preparation for next month's deadline. One other important thing to note is that Dell plans to continue Windows XP driver support until December 2012."

Even though Dell will not pre-install the OS for buyers, this does not mean the user cannot install it after they receive the computer.  The user still has the option to manually install Windows XP with media they request from the computer manufacturer. [PC Magazine]