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As we reported yesterday, Dell was supposed to unveil its Asus Eee challenger today and here it is: the Dell Inspiron Mini 9.
On sale now, the little Netbook costs £299, including VAT and delivery, for the model running Windows XP Home. The model running Ubuntu 8.04 and an ‘intuitive Dell-developed custom interface’ will arrive in a few weeks for £269. No funky colours though, just serious Business Black.
The Mini 9 is shipping now in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria, with Spain and Italy to follow in October. It weighs just over 1Kg, has an 8.9in display and is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor.
Jump now for the full specs:
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Back at the tail-end of May, Michael Dell was spotted by our Gizmodo cousins walking around a US show with what looked to be a mini-Dell laptop/netbook/ Asus Eee Killer/Mobile Internet device (MID).
It confirmed plans for such a device a few days later but it’s been all quiet on the netbook front since. But that will all change tomorrow as reports claim that’s when Dell’s Inspiron 910 finally arrives to give the Asus Eee 901 a run for its money.
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I’ve bought a new HD video camera which records in AVCHD. When I looked at the Pinnacle editing software supplied with it, I read that the minimum requirements include an Intel quad core processor running at 2.66GHz. I have consulted PC World, Dell and HP, and none has a home computer running at this speed. What can I do?
Richard Cooke
JS: AVCHD is one of the high-definition movie standards used by Blu-ray and HD DVD and allows for pictures that are 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. It is a highly compressed format, to save space, but as a consequence it requires a great deal of processing power to reconstruct the original image. What the camera salesmen don’t tell you is that just displaying 25 of these large images a second is beyond many PCs, unless they have accelerated graphics. Editing them can be a nightmare, and a common approach (taken by Apple’s Final Cut Pro, among others) is to transcode them into something that is easier to handle. The Wikipedia page on AVCHS lists some of these converters.
Editing native AVCHD is not, of course, beyond reach. However, such powerful PCs are generally not off-the-shelf items, but assembled to order. First, pick your Intel Core 2 Quad processor from Intel’s spec sheet: the Q6700 is the cheap 2.66GHz chip, but there’s a newer, better 2.83GHz version, the Q9550. Next, look for a PC with that Q number, 4GB or 8GB of memory, and 64-bit Windows Vista. An example is the Mesh Xtreme X9550GTX with a Q9550, 8GB of memory, a terabyte of hard drive space, Blu-ray player and 24 inch widescreen monitor displaying 1,920 x 1,200 for £1,199 inc VAT.
On its own, Pinnacle Studio 12 will run OK on a 1.6 GHz Dual Core processor with 1GB of memory, so the problem is down to the videos you want to edit. You could reduce the PC hardware requirements by reducing the size of your videos. Instead of shooting 1,080p, for example, you could use 1,440 x 1,080 or go down to 720p (1,280 x 720 pixels), like broadcast HDTV. However, my experience is that editing MPeg-2 movies is a pig on a fast Pentium, and I’d expect editing MPeg-4 Part 10 (ie AVC) to be much piggier even on a quad core PC. I’d want more power, not less.
I run a small business from home, and send a regular newsletter. I have a TalkTalk phone and broadband package. I now find that I am unable to send more than about 20 newsletters in a block.
Annie Hall
JS: I can’t find any mention of this on the TalkTalk website, but internet service providers usually limit the number of emails you can send at once, to discourage spamming. However, I’d have thought 100 was a more reasonable number than 20. You could try contacting TalkTalk for help, but ISP email services are not a selling point but an overhead that I suspect most would rather be rid of. Larger companies, including the Guardian, often use outside services such as cheetahmail.com and jangomail.com to send out promotional emails. You could try a local supplier such as Subscribed: there must be lots. These companies tend to be hostile towards anything “spammy” as it could affect their business.
What are your top tips for maximising the life of rechargeable batteries?
Richard Brown
JS: Different kinds of battery require different approaches, so it’s a bigger topic than it sounds. However, BatteryUniversity.com provides comprehensive coverage and a handy summary in table form. With the increasingly common Lithium-ion (Li-ion) types, the main advice is not to discharge them more than once a month: try to recharge them when they are on 20% or so. Alas, they are only good for a limited number of cycles and age even if not used. They may need replacing after 18-24 months or 350-500 cycles, but can last longer. It’s always worth checking the device’s manual for information and advice.
Is there a way to search blogs by location?
J Bourtoni
JS: Not really. There are blogs from all over the world sitting on the same servers run by American companies such as Google (Blogger) and Microsoft (Spaces), and there is no easy way to tell them apart. However, there are sites you can try, such as Blogdigger Local, PlaceBlogger.com, feedmap.net and Globe of Blogs. Bloggers who want to be found geographically can make it easier by submitting their sites. In the longer term, there’s a 10-year plan involving 74 nations called Geoss, for Global Earth Observation System of Systems, which should encourage more location awareness. So should Yahoo’s new Fire Eagle.
· Alec Williams was transferring data from an old PC. John Davies says: “I bought Transfer MyPC from Dell to move all my old data across. It did the job very well.” Windows Vista has a built-in program, Windows Easy Transfer, and you can download Windows Easy Transfer Companion to move programs.
· Cathy Matheson wanted a laptop for her son, who is going to study architecture. On the Ask Jack blog, Webweasel said: “As a recently qualified architect, I would wait and see what the facilities are like at the university in question. I would not advise buying any hardware or software until your son is a student, as generous discounts are available.”
· Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@guardian.co.uk
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India’s second largest IT services business, Infosys Technologies, yesterday swooped on UK-based Axon Group with an all-cash offer of £407m as it attempts to strengthen its position in European markets. The deal will see the three men who founded Axon in 1994 walk away with nearly £70m.
Infosys employs more than 90,000 people, with the majority in India. IT consultancy Axon has 2,000 employees and works with firms that use business software from German developer SAP.
Infosys chief executive Kris Gopalakrishnan, one of the original team of seven who founded the company in 1981 with only $250 (£140), moved to assuage fears that the deal would lead to job losses and mass-outsourcing of Axon’s work to the subcontinent. He said there is little overlap between the clients of the two companies.
“It is very important to us that people stay and make the whole thing work,” he stressed. “We are doing this acquisition so we can leverage all the employees.”
The deal, which values Axon at 600p and is being funded from Infosys’s cash pile, has the backing of Axon’s management and its founders who hold just under 17.9% of the business.
The deal will crystallise the fortune of Mark Hunter, the Belfast-born IT expert who stepped down as chairman at the end of last year. He was part of the three-man team who founded Axon back in 1994, and brought it to the stock market five years later. He has been selling down his stake over the past few years and now holds just under 11.5% which is worth £44m.
Co-founder Donald Kirkwood will receive more than £14.4m for his remaining shares while the last of the original team, Paul Manweiler, will get about £10.4m.
Axon has expanded into the US over recent years, buying rival Feanix in 2005 and clinching three further deals the following year. It also has operations in Asia including a base in China.
In April at the company’s annual meeting chief executive Steve Cardell, who Infosys hopes will remain with the business, said “despite the uncertain macroeconomic environment, trading has been encouraging”.
Axon is due to report its half-year results this morning with analysts expecting revenues of about £120m and operating profits of about £20m.
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My son is about to go to university to study architecture. What sort of laptop would you recommend, for up to £600?
Cathy Matheson
JS: The final choice depends on the use, and there are at least three possibilities, so you will need to talk to your son and perhaps to his university. The first idea would be to get a lightweight portable to carry everywhere for note-taking, email and web browsing. A good cheap example would be the Acer Aspire One running Windows XP on a 10-inch screen. The keyboard beats the Asus Eee PC version. A spare battery would be useful.
The second option would be a desktop replacement laptop that he could use in his room. This would provide computer functions plus home entertainment, doubling as a DVD player, sound system, and games machine. There are plenty of portables with 15.4in widescreens from Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba and other suppliers, but aim for a Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB or more memory for Windows Vista. Look for a Kensington lock to tie it down.
The third option would be a portable workstation, intended to run specific software that is used on the course. Unfortunately, the software used for serious architectural work - such as Autodesk’s AutoCAD and Bentley MicroStation - needs lots of memory and a separate graphics card, rather than the Intel integrated graphics chips built into cheap laptops. To handle complex models with AutoCAD 2008, I’d be looking for something like a Dell Latitude D830 with 4GB of memory, 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate, nVidia Quadro or similar graphics, and probably a screen upgrade: Autodesk recommends 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. You might not get much change out of £1,000, and it’s not worth cutting corners: having 2GB instead of 4GB saves £40, and having 32bit XP Pro or Vista Business only saves £34. Before spending this sort of money, your son should talk to his university department and preferably to more advanced students to find out exactly what is required. A simpler and cheaper laptop may well do.
If a course involves the use of specialist software such as AutoCAD, the university will usually provide access to shared computers that have it installed. Students who want to run it themselves can usually obtain an educational version at a reduced price. The cheap LT version of AutoCAD 2008 costs around £1,500, whereas the student version costs about £100 for a 14-month licence.
I am considering an Amazon Kindle. However, I’d like to use it for ebooks freely available in text format, and others in Microsoft’s Reader format.
John Borgoy
JS: The Kindle can handle books in plain text (.txt) plus the Amazon (.azw) and Mobipocket (.mobi; .prc) formats. It can also handle Microsoft Word documents and web pages, but you have to email these to your kindle.com address. Amazon will convert them and send them wirelessly to your Kindle for a small fee. You can convert Microsoft Reader (.lit) files by using a free converter such as ABC Amber LIT.
My DigiFusion Freeview recorder died when its power unit fried after a power cut. Is there any way I can transfer the movies and recorded programmes to my PC from the hard drive?
John Rogers
JS: If you remove the hard drive from the recorder, you should be able to mount it in an external drive enclosure and connect it to your PC via a USB port. I’d guess it’s a 3.5in drive. If you are lucky, it will be in the FAT32 file format used in Microsoft MS DOS and recognised by most operating systems. If you have a proper desktop PC, a cheaper alternative is to fit the drive internally, but this can be a little trickier.
My computer died suddenly and I had to get another. I can read the hard disk of the old machine via USB, but how do I get at emails and the address book?
Alec Williams
JS: You should be able to copy the old data from your backup CDs or external hard drive! Since the hard drive still works, however, you can copy the data to your new PC in the usual way and then import it. You can find the data by running a disk-wide search for the types of storage file your software uses. If you used the Windows address book, search for *.wab (with an asterisk) files. If your email program was Outlook Express, search for the Inbox.dbx and Folders.dbx files and copy that whole folder across. For help, click here and here to read the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
As mentioned in Technophile (August 7), I struggled with the Linpus version of Linux on an Acer Aspire One subnotebook. Alan Cocks comments: “Information forums are appearing. This one might have helped some of your frustrations”.
On copying cassette tapes etc using Audacity software, Tim Gossling points out that it does have track splitting: go to Analyze and select Silence finder to automate the process “with probably varying degrees of success, particularly for classical music,” he says. “Manual splitting is done via Project and Add label at selection: click in the label field and type in a title. File|Export multiple will then generate multiple files, each named with the track label.”
· Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@guardian.co.uk
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Dell’s not known for its artistic looking products but, to be fair, it’s been working hard in recent weeks to shed its grey-tinted business image to appeal to style-conscious consumers.
Last week we had the very colourful Studio Hybrid desktops and this week we have the Mike Ming series of customised, painted Studio laptops. And very pretty they are too.
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If you haven’t been paying attention to the Techdirt Insight Community lately, I wanted to let you know of a fun new project that’s taking place there. It’s new series of expert discussions in the Insight Community, sponsored by Dell, about the various challenges created by the rise of “digital nomads.” With a growing number of people being able to work from anywhere with just a computing device and an internet connection, both companies and individuals are finding a variety of new challenges — from how to strike that work/life balance, to keeping a team on the same page, to dealing with security issues, to just dealing with the basic challenges of carrying stuff around and finding connectivity. We’re putting the best content together and creating something of a living digital whitepaper with input from a variety of folks. If you’re a member of the community, log in and contribute. If you’re not a member, join now and contribute your insight (and maybe earn some money for your efforts).
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Dell has gotten all fancy recently by launching the tiny Studio Hybrid line of fashion desktops which also manage to be Dell’s greenest. That could be aided by the fact that they are significantly smaller than anything else it makes.
Still, there’s no denying that they are slinky and, if you want a close-up look at just how small and cute the Studio Hybrids are, take a look at one of the first unboxing videos after the jump.
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Fans of the excellent Price of Persia series may not be aware that, rather inevitably we suppose, Hollywood has recently started filming a movie of the hit franchise entitled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
It appears to be based around the events of the game with the same name, and as you can see from the recently released photo opposite, a certain Mr. Gyllenhaal seems to have done a sterling job of modelling himself on the good prince.
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