Dell Stories January 2, 2020
Dell laptops will soon be able to sync and mirror the iPhone screen on Windows
Apple offers differentiated integration between the iPhone and Mac, but Windows PC users don’t have most of these features. To change this situation and make its product line more attractive, Dell has announced an update for its laptops that brings new tools to use the iPhone with Windows.
Dell Stories January 5, 2017
Taking a leap forward past the competition, Dell has today announced the launch of its UltraSharp 32-inch Ultra HD 8K Monitor and a massive 27-inch horizontal touchscreen, the Dell Canvas. The UltraSharp 32 is the “world’s first” 32-inch 8K display, packing in a whopping 1 billion colors and a 280 ppi. The Dell Canvas is a “smart workspace” designed as a plug and play system for Windows 10 devices looking to unleash everyone’s creativity.
Dell Stories January 2, 2017
Apple worked with LG on the company’s new UltraFine 5K display, but that’s not stopping other companies from showing off their own standalone USB-C displays. As CES 2017 kicks off this week in Las Vegas, we’re sure to see quite a few companies take the wraps off of new displays, but Dell is getting a head start with its new 27-inch Ultrathin display…
Dell Stories June 20, 2016
9to5Toys Last Call: Apple Watch $49 w/ iPhone purchase, Dell 24-inch Monitor $115, Blue Yeti Mic $100, more
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Dell Stories May 2, 2016
If you own a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and desire extra screen real estate, then a 4K monitor can be a good investment, especially as the price of such monitors continue to dwindle.
Why should you consider a 4K display instead of a cheaper monitor with lesser resolution? It all boils down to clarity. expand full story
Dell Stories April 12, 2015
Apple has expanded support for 4K displays in its recent OS X 10.10.3 release and officially confirmed specifics for using 4K displays with its new 12-inch MacBook.
While previously Apple only officially supported certain Multi-Stream Transport (MST) displays at a refresh rate of 60Hz, it now says that “most single-stream 4K (3840×2160) displays” are officially supported at 60Hz as well following the recent OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 update. That should mean support for a lot more inexpensive 4K displays that don’t include DisplayPort’s Multi-Stream Transport feature.
A full list of Macs that will support Single-Stream (SST) displays with a 60Hz refresh rate include: expand full story
Dell Stories December 23, 2014
So Apple didn’t release a 4K (or 5K) standalone Retina display alongside the new 5K iMac, but you can’t hold off any longer on a shiny new display for your Mac Pro. I found myself in the same predicament not too long ago and decided to put a number of displays to the test in recent months. 4K might offer 4x the resolution of your standard 1080p display, but for the short time they’ve been around, they’ve also cost about 4x as much as the alternatives. The good news: There are a few Mac Pro compatible 4K displays (and UHD alternatives) finally starting to hit more reasonable price points just as recent OS X updates fix some issues early adopters first had with the higher resolution displays.
I’ve been testing Mac Pro compatible displays from Dell, Sharp, Samsung, LG, and others that are officially supported by Apple, and put together a list of my thoughts and top picks for those planning on picking up a new Mac Pro this holiday season. Despite my tests being done mostly on a new, stock Mac Pro, these picks stand for Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook users as well.
Dell Stories November 10, 2014
A new report from Reuters citing sources at Apple familiar with the company’s plans for future corporate offerings has unveiled new details on the Cupertino corporation’s efforts to recruit business clients and software developers. According to these sources, Apple is currently courting companies such as Citigroup, ServiceMax, and PlanGrid (among others) to augment its current IBM enterprise agreement.
The exact nature of the proposed partnerships between these companies hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the general idea is similar to the IBM arrangement. ServiceMax, a company that creates solutions for managing field technicians, and PlanGrid, which allows construction workers to share blueprints with each other, will both agree to roll out Apple hardware with custom software to their clients.
Dell Stories November 3, 2014
9to5Toys Last Call: iPad Air from $339, A Dark Room for iOS goes free, Dell Black Friday ad leak, giveaways, more
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
iPad Blowout sale at Staples, up to $105 off: Airs starting at $339
Some solid deals from Specials.9to5toys.com:
A Dark Room is now available for free on iOS (Reg. up to $3.99)
Mount your iPhone 6 inside your car with Logitech’s new Protection+ case
Small States – Tucker and Bloom: father & son create functionally beautiful bags, giveaway worth $175
Other new deals:
More deals still:
Black Friday:
New products/ongoing promos:
Dell Stories September 15, 2014
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced today that it’s introducing the latest DisplayPort technology that brings support for upcoming 5K monitors and more. DisplayPort 1.3 for audio and video increases the standard to a maximum link bandwidth of 32.4 Gbps and as a result supports 5K displays with resolutions of 5120 x 2880 on a single cable without compression methods. In addition, users will notice enhanced performance for 4K displays in multi-monitor setups over a single DisplayPort connection: expand full story
Dell Stories September 5, 2014
Dell has just announced a brand-new 27inch external display with an insane resolution of 5120×2880. Pixel counts of this magnitude were thought to be several months out, stretching into mid 2015, so Dell’s abrupt announcement has come as a bit of surprise. In summary, the 27-inch panel has 14 million pixels across its surface, resulting in a PPI of 218. This is the same density as a 15inch Retina MacBook Pro, but obviously much much larger.
The monitor is expected to be available by the end of the year.
What’s notable about this resolution is it shows that a Retina iMac is now very feasible. 5120×2880 is exactly double 2560×1440, the resolution of the current 27 inch iMac, in each dimension.
Dell Stories January 31, 2014
If you’ve decided you’ve waited long enough for Apple to update the Mac mini with a Haswell processor, you can always create a Hac mini.
A user posting on the Hacintosh site tonymacx86.com has documented his successful squeezing of an Intel DH61AG motherboard with i3-3225 CPU (55w TDP), 4GB Ram, 128GB mSATA SSD, half mini PCIe Wifi and an external Dell laptop power supply into a 2010 Mac mini case … expand full story
Dell Stories October 15, 2013
Flextronics could be prepping for new US made Mac Pro w/ hiring spree for “next generation desktop computer”
After Apple announced earlier this year that it would soon begin assembling Made-in-the-USA Macs in Texas and later confirmed it would be the new Mac Pro, it looks like Apple’s manufacturing partner Flextronics is currently preparing for the device’s launch later this year. Austin American-Statesman (via MacRumors) reports that Flextronics recently presented plans to government officials in Austin that would see the company hire up to 1700 employees to manufacture a “next generation desktop computer.” While Apple wasn’t specifically mentioned in the report, the report speculates Apple is the likely client after confirming that Dell is no longer building PCs in the US:
In its presentation, Flextronics, which builds computers, smartphones and other products for a range of brands, specified only that the foreign trade zone designation would help it move production of a “next generation desktop computer” from China to Austin.
The presentation did little to identify an exact brand. A spokesman for Dell Inc., which at one time produced desktops and laptops in North Austin factories, said it no longer builds them in the U.S… However, Flextronics’ presentation did add fuel to the ongoing rumors that Apple Inc.’s new line of Macintosh desktop computers could be built in Austin. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in May that the company would spend about 100 million to move its Mac production to Texas, but he did not disclose a specific site.
That would put manufacturing of the new Mac Pro less than a mile away from Apple’s newly renovated Austin campus that houses mainly customer support and sales staff.
There’s no solid proof that Flextronics new hiring spree is for the Mac Pro, but it looks likely as Apple is expected to begin shipping the redesigned Mac later this year. Latest rumors have it that Apple will show off the new Mac Pro once again at its upcoming iPad event on October 22, while a report this morning claimed it could become available to customers as early as November 15.
Dell Stories August 13, 2013
Investor Carl Icahn takes ‘large position’ in AAPL, stock goes up
Billionaire investor, who gained increasing fame in recent months due to his attempted take over of Dell, has announced via Twitter that his firm has taken a “large position” in Apple:
Dell Stories July 26, 2013
Apple wins brand of the year trifecta in first full year under Tim Cook
A Harris poll of almost 40,000 American consumers on more than 1,500 brands across 155 categories saw Apple retain Brand of the Year in three categories.
What really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured – Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone – its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future.
The poll asks consumers to rate brands on Familiarity, Quality, Purchase Consideration, Emotion, Fit, Trust, Performance, Energy, Ubiquity, Future Outlook, Leadership and Popularity.
The top four brands in each of the three categories were:
Computers:
1 Apple Computers – 2013 Computer Brand of the Year 2 Hewlett-Packard (HP) Computers 3 Dell Computers 4 Sony Computers
Tablets:
1 Apple iPad Series – 2013 Tablet Brand of the Year 2 Kindle Fire Series 3 Google Nexus Series 4 Samsung Galaxy Series
Mobile phones:
1 Apple iPhone – 2013 Mobile Phone Brand of the Year 2 HTC Phone 3 Samsung Phone 4 LG Phone
The ratings may provide some comfort for those who feared Apple’s enviable brand popularity would suffer post-Steve.
Dell Stories March 1, 2013
Apple’s iPads are the hardest tablets to fix, but also need repairs the least
iFixit, the repair guide site that has been vocal about the lack of repairability in Apple’s devices, has released a new report that compares the repairability of tablets currently on the market. With the exception of the Microsoft Surface Pro, Apple’s iPad lineup lands at the bottom of the list with a 2/10 repairability score.
Among the issues with repairability for iPads: hidden screws complicate disassembly, excessive amounts of adhesive, difficulty removing batteries, and, for some models, a “high chance of cracking the glass during disassembly.”
The good news? Apple’s iPads are also the most reliable according to several studies, meaning there is much less of a chance that you’ll need a repair in the first place.
Coming out on top of iFixit’s list is the Dell XPS 10 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. iFixit explained its methodology:
A device with a perfect score will be relatively inexpensive to repair because it is easy to disassemble and has a service manual available. Points are docked based on the difficulty of opening the device, the types of fasteners found inside, and the complexity involved in replacing major components. Points are awarded for upgradability, use of non-proprietary tools for servicing, and component modularity.
Dell Stories October 10, 2012
Both IDC and Gartner are out with their reports for PC shipments in the third quarter today. While Apple is not in the top five vendors for worldwide shipments, estimates from the two firms place Apple’s share of the United States market at 12.5-percent to 13.6-percent.
According to IDC’s numbers (above), Apple captured 12.5-percent of U.S. PC shipments in the third quarter. This is up from 11.8-percent in the same quarter last year. Apple faced a year-over-year unit decline of 7 percent, but market leaders HP and Dell posted shipment declines of 18.8-percent and 16 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, shipments for the U.S. market in total were down 12.4-percent.
In comparison, the same numbers from Gartner have the total market decline at 13.8-percent. Apple hit 13.6-percent of the U.S. market, where as it had a 12.5-percent estimate for Q3 2011. Estimates from both firms put Apple’s market position firmly behind HP and Dell, despite IDC estimating fourth-place Lenovo’s growth at over 9 percent for the quarter:
Four of the top 5 vendors in the U.S. market experienced shipment declines. HP maintained the No. 1 position in the U.S. market despite a shipment decline of 19.3 percent (see Table 2). Lenovo was the only vendor among the top 5 to increase shipments. Both Acer and Toshiba shipments declined significantly due to the tough environment in the consumer market. Apple expected to have a PC shipment decline due to softness in the public market, but the company faced a slowdown in the consumer market.
Apple’s recently acquired fingerprint tech exposed as Windows security risk
Apple acquired Authentec in July. It is a company that held the rights to fingerprint-reading technology since 2010, but the tech was originally developed by a company called UPEK. According to a report from ArsTechnica, citing several security researchers, a product that uses the fingerprint technology now owned by Apple, UPEK Protector Suite, has been exposed as a serious security threat for Windows users:
Security consultants have independently confirmed a serious security weakness that makes it trivial for hackers with physical control of many computers sold by Dell, Acer, and at least 14 other manufacturers to quickly recover Windows account passwords…The weakness came to light no later than September, but Apple has yet to acknowledge it or warn end users how to work around it. No one has accused Apple of being responsible for the underlying design of fingerprint-reading software.
Dell Stories July 11, 2012
Gartner report shows PCs have peaked and may begin the long road to obscurity
We are starting to see the “Cars and Trucks” model unfold as PC sales are starting to slip dramatically.
Among the top 5 vendors in the U.S. PC market, all but Apple experienced a decline in shipments according to a Gartner report late this evening. This is not your average “Apple beat the PC industry every quarter for the past 5 years.” It is a dramatic fall. Apple pulled to within 500,000 units of Dell from double that a year ago.
A few notables:
Dell Stories February 13, 2012
Apple’s $46.33 billion dollar holiday quarter and the 73+ million shipped Macs and iOS devices are clear standouts in the newest NPD research note exposing Apple as the only brand to have grown sales in the all-important holiday quarter. The same cannot be said for rivals Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, and Dell, which all experienced missteps in holiday-quarter gadget sales. Five consumer electronics categories (PCs, TVs, tablets/e-readers, mobile phones and video game hardware) drove nearly 60 percent of all sales in 2011. Apple’s share of total revenue across these five important categories rose 36 percent year-over-year, according to NPD.
As a result, Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads, Apple TVs and the company’s other consumer electronics gear accounted for 19 percent of all sales dollars. That is almost twice as much as No. 2 Hewlett-Packard. HP’s, Samsung’s, Sony’s and Dell’s sales dipped 3 percent, 6 percent, 21 percent, and 17 percent, respectively. Apple Retail was No. 3 in terms of revenue, right after No. 1 Best Buy and second-ranked Walmart. Staples and Amazon tied for fourth place to round out the top five—a repeat of 2010.
By the way, did you notice which two consumer electronics categories lack a dedicated Apple offering?
Dell Stories February 7, 2012
Research firm Gartner just released its estimates for PC shipments in the Western Europe region during the holiday quarter, and only Apple and Asus made any meaningful progress, with Apple recording the strongest gains in France and the United Kingdom.
While the Mac maker remained absent from the Top 5 rankings in Western Europe and Germany, it was a sole first-tier PC brand to grow sales in the United Kingdom during the holiday quarter. Specifically, Apple’s Mac business in the country grew 17.2 percent, enough to rank fourth with a 9.1 percent market share.
Everyone else’s business shrunk: Hewlett-Packard (No. 1) was down 27 percent, Dell (No. 4) declined by a whopping 32.2-percent, Toshiba (No. 3) fell 5.4-percent and Acer (No. 5) was by far the biggest loser with a 62.4-percent year-over-year decline. The same story is in France where Apple placed No. 5 by growing 15.3-percent for an 8.2-percent market share. Only Asus (No. 2) grew slightly faster than Apple at 17.4-percent, while shipments of PC desktops and notebooks from HP, Acer, and Dell plummeted.
If you include the iPad, Apple easily beats its rivals to the PC punch across the board.
More notes and charts are after the break.
Shipments of notebook and desktop PCs in the United Kingdom. Source: Gartner, February 2012
Dell Stories January 24, 2012
With the growing sales of Apple’s mobile devices and the ever-increasing popularity of smartphones (analysts projected 30+ million iPhones for today’s holiday quarter earnings call), it is no surprise that the Mac-maker is rising up the chip-purchasing ladder. According to research firm Gartner, Apple is now the world’s largest buyer of silicon parts, spending an astounding $17 billion on semiconductors in 2011 and accounting for a 5.7 percent share of total silicon buying.
That’s a 34.6 percent increase over 2010— enough to jump two spots ahead of rivals Samsung and the world’s leading computer maker Hewlett-Packard (soon to be displaced by Apple). Apple’s rise stems of strong sales of iPads, iPhones and its popular MacBook Air ultra-portable notebook family. Samsung ranked second with $16.7 billion worth of semiconductors in 2011, a 5.5 percent share. Computer makers Hewlett-Packard and Dell and cell phone giant Nokia round up the list of top five chip buyers with $16.7 billion, $9.8 billion and $9 billion worth of silicon parts, respectively.
Dell Stories August 8, 2011
The eye-popping chart above (via Fortune) shows Apple is on course to take control of global market share for portable computers (laptops, notebooks, and tablets) in the second quarter of 2011 – but that’s only as some analysts switch to accounting iPads as computers. Deutshe Bank’s Chris Whitmore, author of the chart, describes his findings:
Within the computing market, we see significant opportunity for Apple to take meaningful share in the second half as the Microsoft / PC ecosystem is relatively stagnant, lacking meaningful new offerings.
Many will be quick to point out the spike is due to taking iPad sales into consideration, a device that many analysts debate shouldn’t be considered as a competitor to notebooks and other portable PCs. However, Apple is steadily gaining ground on Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft even without the iPad. Whitmore explains:
On the other hand, Apple will be competing with an upgraded Mac OS, new MacBook Airs (and other forthcoming Macs) and a new iPad iOS. Within the Tablet market, the iPad remains the Gold Standard as competitors struggle for mindshare and traction (note HP’s price cuts on the TouchPad). Meanwhile, competing PC manufacturers have suggested Ultrabooks won’t ramp in material volumes until 2012 due to challenges driving price points meaningfully below Apple’s Air. As such, Apple appears particularly well positioned for more share gains heading into the back-to- school and holiday selling season.
Dell Stories May 23, 2011
We were expecting a MacBook Air-like device. It turns out Dell’s new product, dubbed “Thinnest 15-inch PC on the planet” isn’t thinner than the 15-inch MacBook Pro I gave up a year ago for an Air. That’s the same one that came out with the Unibody manufacturing process in October 2008.
Dell’s 15-inch XPS 15z is .97 inches thick compared to the MacBook PRo’s .95 inches. It does weigh in at slightly less than the MacBook Pro (which is due for an update soon as well).
Update: Engadget has a comparison gallery:
All of that being said, the XPS 15Z looks like a solid, loaded Sandy Bridge package for just $1000 – except the Windows OS of course. Imagery and video below: expand full story
Dell Stories December 13, 2010
(I checked the date. It says today.) The NYTimes says that Microsoft is going to announce some iPad competin’ Slates at CES:
Next month, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft will present a slew of new slates that it hopes will offer some competition to the Apple iPad, which has quickly become the leader in this market.
According to people familiar with Microsoft’s plans, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, is expected to announce a number of these devices when he takes the stage at C.E.S., showcasing devices built by Samsung and Dell, among a number of other manufacturing partners.
This apparently has been an anual event since 2000. expand full story
