May 6 - 8:25am EDT   Dell this morning said it had added a WiMAX choice for three of its higher-end home notebooks. The Studio 15, Studio 17 and Studio XPS 16 will all have a $60 or less upgrade that offers 4G speeds on either the Clearwire or Sprint 4G networks in Atlanta, Baltimore and Portland. In peak conditions, this lets the portables connect at up to 13Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. Typical speeds are still faster than 3G with downloads between 2Mbps and 4Mbps. [full story]

April 9 - 10:20am EDT   Dell today extended its more exotic cooling options to the XPS 625 and XPS 630. The two now have the option of replacing their fan-based cooling with an Asetek liquid cooling system that reduces the noise of the system while simultaneously increasing the possibilities for overclocking the main processor. Choosing the option is deemed particularly useful for all of the XPS 625 line as well as custom-ordered versions of the 630, as both AMD's Black Edition chips and Intel's Core 2 Extreme are unlocked and allow easier speed boosts out of the factory. [full story]

January 9 - 12:50pm EST   Dell today at a press conference at CES revealed the Inspiron Mini 10 (not yet pictured), its third netbook. While only slightly larger than the Mini 9, the new portable is more advanced than either the smaller model or the Mini 12, including through its display. The namesake 10-inch screen is sharper than on other netbooks and produces a 720p (1280x720) resolution closer to full-size notebooks. The system also incorporates a multi-touch trackpad that not only helps with scrolling and zooming but also the ability to jump to a home screen or automatically scroll the contents of a page. [full story]

January 8 - 12:35pm EST   Dell today used CES to launch its first gaming desktop to use AMD processors in place of Intel's. The XPS 625 mid-tower shares the same custom-lit aluminum case as the XPS 630 but switches to an AMD 790FX-based mainboard and can be equipped with one of several overclockable Black Edition processors up to and including the 3GHz, quad-core Phenom II just introduced at the same time. All video card picks are equally AMD-based and scale up to dual Radeon HD 4850 cards in CrossFire mode. [full story]

January 7 - 8:45am EST   Dell today held an early, low-key launch for its promised Studio XPS notebooks. The 13-inch Studio XPS 13 and 16-inch Studio XPS 16 are both treated as Dell's new upscale competition against the MacBook and come with a new black-and-silver trim as well as new, edge-to-edge display and a revamped keyboard unlike the company's other models. [full story]

December 24 - 2:55pm EST   Averatec's Korean home brand Trigem on Wednesday introduced the LLUON B2, the company's first large-sized all-in-one computer. In contrast to the earlier, Atom-based A1, the new model is targeted more closely at the high end occupied by the iMac or XPS One 24 and carries a 26-inch, 1920x1200 display in an upscale black design. The system uses its extra room to carry a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad desktop processor versus the mobile chips of some challengers. [full story]

November 25 - 4:35pm EST   A product page for the XPS 1340 notebook PC on Dell's website hints at the upcoming release of the laptop, which could happen as early as this week. While the product page is incomplete, it does reveal the notebook will have a 64GB solid-state drive that will fit into the bay sized for traditional 2.5-inch hard disk drives. It's the same SSD as Dell uses in the XPS M1330 in overseas markets, and the XPS 1340 is likely to be an update of the XPS M1330 model. [full story]

November 19 - 7:50am EST   Apple is waiting on a special round of Intel chips to update its iMacs with quad-core processors, according to claims by PC makers. The California company is reportedly hinging its move on a new set of desktop Core 2 Quad processors due in January that are specifically power-optimized for all-in-one desktops, dropping the thermal peak power from a too-high 95W down to 65W. They would have the same performance characteristics as existing processors and include a 2.33GHz Q8200 with 4MB of Level 2 cache, a 2.66GHz Q9400 with 6MB of cache and a 2.83GHz Q9550 with the full 12MB of cache. [full story]

November 17 - 9:35am EST   Dell today quickly seized on Intel's Core i7 debut by launching two new systems, including one completely new line. The Studio XPS upgrades the regular Studio desktop with features friendly to gamers and high-end media with Core i7 processors and dedicated video as the baseline. They further exploit the new Intel hardware with three memory sticks that both up the minimum storage and also the available bandwidth. [full story]

November 11 - 10:30am EST   Dell on Tuesday silently released the XPS 430, the latest incarnation of its mid-range media desktop. The new update to the glossy black tower system pushes it past 4GB of RAM for the first time and gives even the base XPS 430 a full 6GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM (up from 800MHz DDR2) in stock trim. Also new are recent-generation Core 2 Quad processors at the baseline that trade some Level 2 cache for a faster 1,333MHz system bus. [full story]

November 9 - 11:00pm EST   Dell's plans to relaunch into MP3 players have been shelved in what may be a permanent cancellation, according to claims made by the Wall Street Journal late Sunday [subscription required]. Alleged sources say that at least one miniature player scheduled to launch alongside a media jukebox and sharing suite from Zing has been delayed past its original fall target while the software alone goes ahead. The unnamed device is currently postponed "indefinitely" and so may not be released at all, the reported insiders note. [full story]

October 30 - 10:05am EDT   Dell today upped the stakes for all-in-one PCs with the launch of the XPS One 24. The system ups the size of the PC to 24 inches and gives it a new, edge-to-edge 1080p (1920x1080) display with a 16:9 ratio that should make it ideal for watching Blu-ray movies at native resolution. The update also brings a major speed update with a 2.33GHz Core 2 Quad as well as the option of a GeForce 9600M GT for video that makes it a better fit as a gaming system or for heavy-duty HD video decoding. [full story]

October 7 - 9:45am EDT   A design decision from HP could lead much of the notebook business to making small 16:9 aspect ratio displays, according to alleged tips from manufacturers. The American PC builder is purportedly set to focus much of its energy on portables with 13- to 13.9-inch LCDs in the significantly wider proportions starting from the fall, pulling much of the industry with it by making the extra-wide displays common. The shift is said to be prompted by the lower price of making 13-inch screens versus 14-inch equivalents with the same ratio. [full story]

August 13 - 3:15pm EDT   Dell is phasing out its distinct XPS line in favor of its regular brands, the company has revealed today. While not explicitly saying it will discontinue the XPS label outright, the name will now be folded into the Inspiron and Studio systems as a high-end trim level. The stylized Studio line will effectively replace the XPS for most purposes, Dell's worldwide marketing chief Mark Jarvis says. The official doesn't provide a motivation other than to suggest the move is part of "brand consolidation" that trims the number of labels at Dell. [full story]

July 25 - 4:10pm EDT   Dell this afternoon provided a list of its notebooks affected by a chronic graphics chip flaw as well as a firmware fix that should reduce the risk of the problem. The company is the first known PC vendor to do so and says that its new updates modify the fan behavior on each of the notebooks to make sure they remain cooler than normal and thus prevent the heat problems that trigger the failures. [full story]