Dell is said to be working on a new device under the code-name “Project Ophelia,” and reports suggest it will essentially be an Android-powered computer on a USB stick. The struggling PC vendor will apparently use Ophelia to help reinvent itself as company founder Michael Dell continues his efforts to take Dell private, and now the computer on a stick is one step closer to launching. According to a recent report from IDG News Service, Dell’s Project Ophelia “can turn any screen or display with an HDMI port into a PC, gaming machine, or streaming media player,” and it is now shipping to beta testers ahead of a public release scheduled for this fall. The device will be priced around $100, IDG claims.
Showing posts with label dell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dell. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Dell ships thumb-sized Android PC to testers
Merely days after Google revealed its Chromecast device, Dell has started shipping test units of its own take on the “computer on a stick” concept. Named Project Ophelia, the Android-powered thumb PC is aimed to be an affordable, lightweight PC alternative, according to Pund-IT principal analyst Charles King.
First announced at the Consumer Electronic Show last January, Project Ophelia is a device the size of a USB stick. Once attached via HDMI, Ophelia turns any screen or display into a personal computer, a workstation, a media player, or a gaming box. Running on Android, Ophelia is able to harness the power of a familiar OS, allowing users to download and install apps, stream movies or play games as they would on their gadgets.
Project Ophelia might be one of Dell‘s measures to address the continued rise of smartphones and tablets that have taken a huge bite from their PC market. The company is hoping that the idea of small thumb-sized computers will catch on as more people take to the cloud for data storage. Priced at $100, Ophelia will definitely not be competing with regular PCs. Instead, Dell will be targeting sales staff, field personnel, or maintenance workers. Ophelia could also be enticing to companies who are looking for more affordable alternatives or who are trying to avoid the cost of upgrading office computers to Windows 8.
Dell plans on developing features that will differentiate Ophelia and make it interesting for enterprise customers. This could include allowing IT administrators to lock down or wipe a device in case of loss or theft. Another feature could be the ability to log and track activities on the device. Once available to the public, Ophelia will be sold through Dell’s website as well as through certain partners.
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Michael Dell plans to stay with company if his buyout bid fails
Regardless of his battle for control of Dell shakes out, its chief executive has intends to stay with the computer maker he founded.
Michael Dell, who is trying to take his namesake company private, told the Wall Street Journalhe will stay with Dell even if his deal doesn't win shareholder approval. However, he said he has no intention of supporting an asset sale or leveraged recapitalization as proposed by activist investor Carl Icahn, who opposes Dell's privatization effort.
"I will not support the kind of recapitalization and sale of assets some shareholders are suggesting," Dell wrote in an e-mail interview with the newspaper. "Given where we are today, I believe the challenges we would face as a public company, including a potential proxy fight, would be significant. But I am ready to fight and I am committed to doing what I believe is right for the company."
Opposing Michael Dell in his buyout bid is Icahn, who owns 8.7 percent of Dell stock. Icahn argues that the privatization plan undervalues the company and proposed last month that Dell buy back 1.1 billion shares at $14 per share. After earlier skepticism about Icahn's proposals, the mood changed after the billionaire announced he had secured $5.2 billion in loans from several banks and institutional investors to finance his Dell buyout proposal.Michael Dell, along with his partner, investment firm Silver Lake, recently announced they would increase their offer to take the computer maker private, paying $13.75 per share, 10 cents a share more than their previous offer of $13.65 per share. However, Michael Dell wants approval of the deal to hinge on a simple majority, arguing that the board's allowance of a provision that shares that are not voted count as votes against the merger is "unfair."
Shareholders were supposed to vote on whether to approve Michael Dell's offer, but that vote was postponed, and speculation surrounding it suggested that Michael Dell and his supporters weren't quite sure they had enough votes to gain approval.
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Dell's Project Ophelia now shipping to testers, everyone else this fall
If you ever doubted Dell's $100 pendroid would ship, the PC giant is proving you wrong. PCWorld reports that Project Ophelia units have started making their way to the tester community, and the general public can expect them between August and October. Enterprise users can rest assured that the investment won't be in vain, as Dell has said that IT departments will have the ability to manage and secure each Android-based device and can lock down the HDMI gadget at a moment's notice. Your alpaca GIF addiction wont' be private, either: Monitoring capabilities are already in the works and deployed sticks can be wiped remotely. So don't get any ideas.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Well-liked: Zuckerberg tops employee-driven CEO rankings
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| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at TechCrunch Disrupt last September. |
Lots of CEOs make the news for being gruff, domineering, or brilliant, but oftentimes their employees have different impressions. Every year, careers site Glassdoor surveys hundreds of thousands of employees across all industries and then publishes its rankings of the 50 highest rated CEOs (see list below).
And, for 2013, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg took the top honor.
Despite shareholder lawsuits over its botched IPO and mixed reaction to Timeline and Graph Search, the social network's employees gave Zuckerberg a 99 percent approval rating over the past 12 months, which ended February 24. This is up 14 percentage points from last year.
A Facebook employee told Glassdoor that Facebook has "an open community from Zuck on down" and that there is "mutual trust companywide and sense of community and drive, instilled by our CEO who we all truly respect."
Twenty tech CEOs made the top 50 list this year, starting with SAP's Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe sacking 2nd place. Also on the list were Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs in 8th place, Google's Larry Page in 11th place, Salesforce's Marc Benioff in 13th place, Amazon's Jeff Bezos in 16th place, Oracle's Larry Ellison in 46th place, Dell's Michael Dell in 49th place, and more.
While women are making more of a splash in the tech world as of late, no female tech CEO made the list this year. HP's Meg Whitmanmade the list last year but her approval rating fell by one percentage point this year to 79 percent and she wasn't able to crack the top 50. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer received an 87 percent approval rating, but she didn't make top 50 because too few employees reviewed her to make Glassdoor's list.
While Glassdoor's list is a survey, it's voluntary rather than scientific. The figures come from employees who actively go to Glassdoor's site to rate their companies and bosses. Glassdoor says that this top 50 CEOs report only includes CEOs who received at least 100 employee ratings over the past year. Overall, more than 500,000 employees rated their CEO on Glassdoor over the past 12 months. The average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor for all CEOs is 68 percent.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Dell XPS 18: The desktop/tablet hybrid you'll probably buy
Now Dell has a battery-powered all-in-one, and it's the best looking of this relatively new bunch.
The Dell XPS 18 joins similar PCs from Sony, Lenovo, and Asus in this young category of all-in-one desktop/giant tablet hybrid devices. The screen size, components, and even number of operating systems vary among these new systems, but they all share the ability to transform from standard desktop to big screen tablet, thanks to the combination of an included battery, Windows 8, and a touch-screen display.
Compared to the existing models, the Dell hews closest to the Sony Vaio Tap 20, which came out last fall. The Dell has an 18.4-inch screen, as opposed to 20 inches on the Vaio, but like the Sony system, the XPS 18 is designed for simple mode-switching and relatively easy portability due to its small size.
With all of their computing components embedded behind the screen, you can simply lift them from their stands, unplug the power cable, and the Dell and Sony systems become big tablets running full-blown Windows 8.
In contrast, the complicated Asus Transformer AIO works as an Intel/Windows 8 PC connected to its base, and then an ARM/Android tablet when you free the screen. The forthcoming Lenovo Horizon 27 has only one operating system and CPU architecture like the Sony and Dell systems, but with more limited portability due to its 27-inch screen.
And while Sony deserves credit for coming to market with the first all-in-one/tablet hybrid, the slim design of the XPS 18 makes Dell's system the most tablet-like of its class. At 4.8 pounds, the XPS 18 is still heavier than a 10-inch tablet, but it comes in at less than half the weight of the nearly 12-pound Tap 20. Unlike the Asus Transformer, the XPS 18 also runs full Windows 8 natively in tablet mode.
Dell promises 5 hours of battery life under moderate usage (around 3.5 hours of movie-watching time) for the XPS 18. Its size and weight prevent it from competing with tablets for true all-purpose portability. Having held the unit in a pre-announcement demonstration, it's hard to imagine taking the tablet on the subway.
It might work well is as presentation device though, or perhaps even a light-duty collaborative tool. If Dell's battery figures hold up under testing, it's not hard to imagine taking the XPS 18 on the road. Dell says it even intends to sell a carrying-case accessory.
The power of the Dell's core components suffers due to the unit's small size and stingy heat and power management requirements. That's the case with the Sony system, too.
The screen is at least a decent resolution at 1,920x1,080. It also supports 10-point touch input. For ports, Dell includes only two USB 3.0 jacks, a USB 2.0 port for the wireless mouse and keyboard receiver, and a headphone/microphone combo input. It also has a front-facing 720p Web cam, and support for 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, and Intel's Wireless Display technology, aka WiDi.Dell will offer the ultralow voltage of Intel's Core i3, i5, and i7 CPUs in the XPS 18, but the $899 base unit comes with only a low-powered Pentium 2117U chip (which yes, Intel still makes). Memory options fall along standard consumer 4GB and 8GB allotments, and hard drive choices consist of either a 500GB 3.5-inch mechanical drive, or solid state drives ranging from 32GB to 512GB.
Dell says it will begin selling the XPS 18 on April 16. If you're interested in a system like this but feeling patient, you might wait until Intel's forthcoming Haswell CPUs launch later this year, since they promise to bring better performance and more power efficiency to these new hybrid devices. You might even see a few new entrants in the field by then, too.
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