It’s all over the interwebs already, but in case you haven’t heard, Dell made a pretty big –and colorful – splash today with the launch of Studio—a sleek, colorful and nicely loaded new product line designed to unleash the blogger/poet/novelist/artist/scrapbooker/YouTuber/Annie Leibovitz in all of us.
The first tranche of systems in the new line is two laptops – Studio 15 (15.4”) and Studio 17 (17”). John Biggs at the New York Times notes, “It’s summer, so why shouldn’t one’s laptop match one’s hot-pink bikini?… Optional Blu-ray or DVD recording drives ensure you can watch a movie under your beach umbrella, while built-in Wi-Fi, cellular broadband and Bluetooth keep things connected.”
For a quick overview of these systems take a look at this video with John New from Dell’s notebook team:
Of all the color options (seven different solid lids, plus four graphite with color insets), pink seems to be the most popular callout. The fashionable gearheads at GQ made note of the pink option, but were also impressed with Dell Dock, a simple, customizable task bar that replaces multiple icons on the desktop and sorts applications by category, that’s premiering with Studio. Wilson Rothman’s overview and very nice slide show on Gizmodo even hit the front page of Techmeme. To answer your question, Wilson, you can move the dock around.
For more on the Dell Dock, take a look at this vlog:
After backing in to a compliment about Studio’s “mouth watering colors” and “a few tasty extras, Charlie Sorrel at Wired also gives Dell Dock props and suggests that “The Studio is looking like a nice alternative to the MacBook.” Note to Charlie: Not exactly the way we’d put it, but thanks!
If you think beyond the box when buying a computer – read: if you accessorize whenever you can – don’t miss the color-matched Designed for Dell line of bags, mice/mouses, portable hard drives and other personalization options.
Lots of interesting ground to cover, so look for more on Studio, Dell Dock and Designed for Dell over the next few days.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Looks great. I like the Dell Dock. Will it be available only to new customers?
June 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
It looks nicer than the one on Compaq laptops.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Dell Dock, hmmm… What an ingenious/creative name. I believe the girl misspoke when she said “we wanted to make your desktop experience better, so we’ve “created” this “new” piece of software.” Is the dock idea new? And is it even their idea?
June 27th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hey, they look hot (more pics here http://www.engadget.com/tag/Dell/ ), but the only thing I really care about is “will it come with Ubuntu in my country - Spain, Europe”?
Best,
Anders
June 27th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Gald to see that you have to compensate for Vista being so messy!
But let’s be honest, I’m perfectly satisfied with my Windows Quick Launch Toolbar under Windows XP
June 27th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Glad*
June 27th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Cestuila: Hehe. Good to see that the Windows Quick Launch toolbar gets it done for you. We’re hoping that the Dell Dock makes for cleaner desktops and makes it easier lots of our customers to easily get to the apps that they use most.
From my view, even without any trial software installed… just in Vista–there’s a lot options for customers to choose from. Some customers are fine with lots of choices, but for other users, it can be confusing as heck.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:33 am
clawdad: Sometimes the simplest names are the best. I don’t think Carrie said we “created” anything. She did call it a “new,” as in new to Dell and our customers.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I don’t care who had it first, I’m just happy Dell is doing more to help simplify things for people. I currently use the quick launch area in Vista but the Dell Dock seems to have more function built into it. Well, that and I think it looks nicer too.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Jervis961: I think you captured the spirit of Dell Dock very well. Our intent isn’t to assert “first” or even “best” status, but rather to demonstrate that we listen to customers and are continually adding functionality that enriches the customer’s experience and offers a differentiated choice.
FYI, Stardock (http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/)
developed Dell Dock for us.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
hi Lionel Menchaca
Where can I download the Dell Dock from ?
June 27th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
helmecj01: It\’s not available as a download yet, but we\’re working on it and will announce it loudly when it is.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
AWESOME!
June 27th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Looks very similar to the free Stardock “Object Dock” add-on (http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/ ) that I’ve been using for quite some time… I definitely agree with the de-cluttering your desktop concept, especially if you’ve got a cool background.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
OOps LOL I missed jay Pinkert’s post above about Stardock developing it for Dell.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I’d also like to know where I can download the Dell Dock
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
It’s available for all Dell Computers ! Just go to the Driver-page!
(i tried it on my non-Dell machine, it doesn’t work, expecting a M1330 though..)
July 4th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Basically I like the Dell Dock, however, I am sorry to say that I rather keep my Object Dock and uninstall the Dell Dock as the following reasons:
1. Dell Dock doesn’t povide things like Clock, Date, Weather, which are included in Object Dock.
2. Personally I like my dock locates at the bottom of my desktop. However, Dell Dock doesn’t have that choice for me.
3. Will there be more skin for Dell Dock in the future? The current one looks like a rectangular box, which is sort of…ugly. (Though the color thing is amazing)
Overall, if the next version of Dell Dock contains the features that Object Dock has, it will be the perfect dock for me.
By the way, the category thing is just awesome!