laptop

Dell Latitude on the Orient Express

Very Civilised way to travel

Very Civilised way to travel

Here’s a picture of what a bunch of tech journalists look like on one of the most luxurious trains in the world. Come to think of it, old bean, it’s not every day that geeks like me get invited on the Orient Express to find out about the Dell Latitude ‘E’ series… I also filmed a special Geek Chic one-to-one session with a Dell Jedi which should be out on youtube as soon as humanly possible, and yes, dear reader, I shall indeed stick a link here just for you.

Annie Mole, esteemed underground blogger and I both arrived at Victoria Station earlier than everyone else.  I was incredibly excited by the thought of going on the Orient Express, although it was probably uncool to blurt loudly “ooooh!! I’m going to go on the Orient Express!!!!! Woop! Woop!”, where “Woop” is an approximation of a train whistle.  I’m pretty sure I overheard someone say “Yeah, I’ve been on the Orient Express before” in an unexcited monotone.  What????  Well, I’m pretty certain that if I was ever lucky enough to catch this train again, I would probably have infinite “Woop”s remaining for the second time, I can tell you.

Right, back to the tech.  These are the E series Latitude notebooks, which boast a longer battery life, not just because of battery quality, but also because of new power management software tools and components which drain less juice inside.  The motherboard is inverted (i.e. upside down!) to improve accessibility and heat conduction.   The E series also have Zinc hinges and Magnesium Alloy casing (Yeah!! Metal!!), and a backlit keyboard function, useful for late night surfing (whatever you do on a computer in the dark).

Spooks-watchers and Bond-fans will appreciate the Remote Delete Service, which (if selected) will totally wipe your computer the next time it connects up to the internet after it’s been reported stolen.  Oh, and while the gun-sighting credits and dancing girls are still on your mind’s screen, it’s also worth mentioning that once this process starts, it cannot be stopped  even if you format the disk, as it’s burned into the bios.  And if that’s not enough spy-tastic talk, there’s GPS tracking within 10 metres (1 in 4 Dell laptops with GPS are recovered, apparently).  Finally, there’s the on-screen flag saying “This machine has been stolen”, even if you didn’t get the hint when you bought it from that dodgy-looking bloke.  In Cash.

Video to come: Markus from Dell tells us all about his Torture Chamber…

…and here’s a little gallery of the day. 

Dell Latitude Launch – live from Altitude, London

12082008766 1st look at dell latitude by LJRich.

Dell Latitude let off the leash

Currently at the top of London’s Millbank tower, in the venue known as “Altitude” for the Dell “Latitude” launch (I’m pretty certain that one is an anagram of another – how pleasing).

We arrived here (myself and anniemole) at around 4.30 and were given a short presentation followed by a live link up to San Francisco.  These computers appear to have some sexy new extras, including keyboards that light up in the dark, and a much-hyped 19-hour battery life (this is with the 9V battery and a battery slice on the e6400 model).  If you want to read the press release before quite a few others, have a look here for the skinny.

Dell has also launched www.digitalnomads.com today, which you’re welcome to have a look at.  The press have now got a feast to look forward to, up here on the 29th floor – as for the food, we’re hoping it’s Dell-icious…

Xmas in July Technology Event

Xmas in July ? Srsly?

Get that loop tape out...

Ho, Ho, Hold on a minute, it’s not Yuletide yet…

Christmas in July is an odd occasion, foisted on us by various technology manufacturers, and I expect it may happen in other genres, too.  It’s an event where press and buyers look at what’s on offer for this festive season, and in July, there’s enough time to get the stock ready for December delivery.

These kinds of events are where technology companies show off what they have,  journalists talk about the products,  then retail buyers / distributors buy the products so eventually they end up on the shelf / online for the general public. 

  
I took my trusty camcorder with and filmed a little for you.

RSS Readers / Can’t see the link? Click here

Tucano Laptop Bag

Tucano Laptop Bag

If you want to know what the present was in the video, it was this laptop bag from Tucano, I’m rather impressed actually, as it fits my monster Rizeon Laptop even with its gigantic 9-cell battery on the back and my powerpack too.

…I’ve taken it into QVC with me (I’m here all day today, WiFi blogging naughtily from the Cafe when I’m not on air – ahh, I love the smell of coffee and free internet).  I even remembered to take the tag off, too.  That label was a monster though, one of those plastic fastenings that don’t respond well to teeth or keys and you have to find proper scissors.  That said, I’ll probably take this case to Dubai with me tomorrow, depending on whether I go hand luggage only (toothbrush, credit card, laptop, camcorder, N95, powermonkey), or whether I should risk the wrath of the Conveyor Belt of Doom and actually attempt a suitcase, which (at this late stage) normally involves panic packing.

For those glamorous capsule-wardrobe types (I love you, I wish I could do it too), you might not know about Panic Packing, so here’s a quick breakdown:

Panic Packing Stage 1: the entire contents of last minute TK Maxx (sale, of course) purchases are crammed unceremoniously into a ball and sat on until they just about fit in a suitcase that looks like it’s been through several warzones.

Panic Packing Stage 2: panic re-packing, i.e. realising that nothing useful, practical or indeed wearable has been packed and it’s a good thing you remembered to pack your credit card.

Stage 2 normally (and rather disappointingly) happens on arrival at the destination. Ho hum. 

Here’s the gallery:

                                                                      
… and if you want more info,
Here are the Links…
Overboard waterproof stuff  Voix  mp3 stuff  Etymotic headphones/ear protection
Tucano Laptop bags  Gear4 more mp3 stuff  Supersmoker electronic cigarette
Solio solar-powered charger  Pocketsurfer internet surfing with sim
Loc8tor device locating device  CMS Self-encrypting Hard Drive
Here’s the  Flickr Gallery
I’m only going for a few days, see you soon.

Lost at The Venetian in Vegas

Take a look at the picture on the left – what really got me is that I wasn’t outside, I was on the 3rd floor of the gargantuan Sands Expo / Venetian Mutant-Sized Hotel Complex.

So I spent today at the Billboard Digital Music Seminar at CES. If you add 8 hours of interesting interviews about the state of the music industry, together with (for some reason) air conditioners in the conference room set to “superconducting”, and a quite frankly impressive amount of coffee, I was not just disoriented, I was M&S disoriented.

Just to give you an idea of how odd it is to happen upon a mini Venice, this is the back view that I came from. It’s not enough that you’re wandering around St Mark’s Square, eating gelato and hearing opera music piped through the hidden speakers – to make it even more italian, the gondoliers are all accomplished singers, warbling sweetly as they punt you around the man-made canal.The more I see of this city, the more I’m falling in love with it. It’s so bonkers, I feel more normal.

Last night, I bumped into a whole bunch of female gamers, one of whom had the same birthday as me. We’re chatting in the taxi queue, and then we’re in a taxi to Caesar’s Palace, where we go to a place called Pure, a very exclusive club. I wish I could have stayed there, but, dear reader, I had to get back to do some editing, dedicated as I am to the cause.

I tried my hand at Craps tonight, and appear to have quite the knack of throwing the dice – I’m still amusingly foggy over the rules of this baffling game, but I put 20 bucks on the table, and walked away with 32 – yes, the last of the big spenders, but I’d rather spend my money on the coffee so I can make the most of my last few hours here. By the way, today’s vid is TV with a twist. Catch it at www.virginmedia.com/digital, or type “LJ Does Vegas” into Youtube and do please write something nice after you’ve seen it!

p.s. Here I am at 2am watching FileZilla do its thing from the hotel. I love the fact that because there are over 180,000 geeky tech folk converged in one place, myself included, we’re all trying to get online, all the time. The internet connection is pitiful 🙂 I also love the fact that the queue for Starbucks downstairs in the morning is amusingly long – every time I stand in it, I wonder if there would be the same queue for coffee if there was some kind of holistic health show on instead. I swear, caffeine is the drug of choice for the tech industry. Apparently, the coffee place in the convention centre actually ran out of beans on the first day of the conference, they’d underestimated the caffeine consumption of a bunch of techies by quite a large margin ! Right, I’m *really* going to bed now. Goodnight.

also see http://www.ljrich.com for more info