Dell Unveils Its First Tablet PC

Dell (Dell) on Tuesday introduced its first tablet PC, saying that businesses are ready to consider more flexible types of computers for employees.

The Latitude XT weighs 3.5 pounds and features a 12.1-inch daylight-viewable display built for indoor and outdoor use. The screen enables people to manipulate data with the use of their fingers or a stylus, which can also be used for writing as if on paper. The device can also be operated using a keyboard and mouse.

Tablet PCs have been available for several years. Among the factors that made the time right for a Dell tablet was the entrance of Generation Y in the workplace, Margaret Franco, director of marketing for the Latitude product line, told InformationWeek. The twenty-somethings starting their careers are used to interacting with computers in different ways, having grown up with mobile phones, portable music players, and other handheld devices.

In addition Vista, the latest version of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows, is better equipped than XP for powering a touch-screen environment like a tablet PC, Franco said. Finally, touch-screen technology in general is more mature, giving people the option of using their fingers or a stylus to manipulate data.

With these factors gradually changing the market, Dell believed the time was right to launch its first product. "Corporations will standardize on different types of notebooks to serve the usage models of their diverse workforce," Franco said. "We call it hyper-segmentation that's happening in the mobile market, and the PC market in general."

But the high price tag of the Latitude XT is likely to discourage most businesses from adopting the new device for employees unless they have special requirements that can't be filled by a traditional notebook. Where a regular Dell laptop is available for less than $1,000, Dell's new Tablet PC will sell for $2,500 when it ships at the end of the month.

The XT comes standard with 1Gbyte of memory and a 1.06GHz Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Core 2 Solo ULV processor U2100. The machine also includes a 40Gbyte hard drive, and Wi-Fi technology. The computer is available with Windows Vista or Windows XP, and has a battery life of more than nine hours.

About 1.5 million tablet PCs were sold last year, which is 56% more than 2005, according to Dell's estimates. However, most of the machines were for specialized use, such as by delivery people or warehouse workers. The machines have not caught on with consumers, experts say.

Dell is not new to touch screens. The computer maker introduced the capability for some functionality in its XPS One entertainment computer launched last month.

And even though Dell has yet to ship its first tablet PC, the company is being sued for alleged patent infringement of touch-screen technology. Typhoon Technologies made the allegations in a suit filed last week in a Texas federal court. The developer and licensee of touch-screen technology also named Motion Computing as a defendant in the lawsuit.

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Installing Windows Media Player Plugin for Firefox

So you just bought a training video and popped it into your computer. You click on the menu in the autoplay dialog and it opens up Firefox, your default browser. Now you are staring at a blank screen.
What now?

The problem is most likely because you don't have the Windows Media

Player plugin installed for Firefox, so all we need to do is install it.

Note that you'll usually have the same problem anytime you try and view video files in FIrefox using Windows Media format, such as .wmv files.

Installation

Just download and run the plugin installer linked below. You'll probably want to close Firefox during the installation.

Verifying Plugin Installation

After running through the very quick installation wizard, you might be curious if the installation actually worked. While the easiest method is to just open a Windows Media video, you can also type the following into the address bar to see the list of loaded plugins:

about:plugins

And you should see the Windows Media Player plugin in the list. You can also see which file types Firefox will use the plugin on.

And now I can view this Windows Media format video file in Firefox…

Technical Notes

In case you have any issues with this installer, you might want to take a look at this list to help with your troubleshooting:

• The WMP plugin uses the IE Proxy settings, not the ones in Firefox.
  This is because the plugin itself is only a thin wrapper around Windows
  Media Player, which always uses IE internally to fetch data.
• The plugin files are installed to the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla
  Firefox\plugins" directory by default, and the file name is
  np-mswmp.dll. If the uninstaller fails to remove this file for whatever
  reason you can manually delete it.
• You could also theoretically copy the same .dll file into the
  plugins directory on any Firefox installation and it should work
  without running the installer.

Download Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin from port25.technet.com

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Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 8000

Microsoft's Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 8000 ($299.95 list) is all play and no work. For that chunk of change, you're not likely to buy it for your desktop, though. This keyboard and mouse set is meant to be used while you're sitting on your couch and using your Media Center PC with a large HDTV.

The first thing you'll notice about the 8000 is its—shall we say MacBookish?—silver sheen and super-thin design, tailor-made for living-room use. Even in our tech-savvy office, passersby stopped and cooed over its luster and sleekness.

The keyboard is built like a laptop keyboard. The keys give a satisfying click that feels and sounds like that of Lenovo's ThinkPad keyboard, one of our favorites. And the laptop resemblances don't end there. The 8000 has no number pad, is compact in size, and has myriad media buttons for one-click access to your entertainment. The lack of a number pad may bother some users (I personally like having one), but for a living-room keyboard, a smaller form factor may be more important than having a number pad.

The "comfort curve" design is much easier on the wrists than a typical straight keyboard, but not as ergonomic as the split-board design Microsoft uses elsewhere. It's much easier for hunt-and-peck users, though, and depending on how much typing you do on your Media Center PC, you'll either appreciate the comfort curve or, at worst, not notice its benefits. One thing you'll like either way is the silver backlit keys, which come in handy when you're using it in a dark living room.

One of my favorite conveniences is that mouse and keyboard share a docking station that serves to recharge the AAA rechargeable batteries that both devices use. (Lots of wireless keyboards and mice use either disposable or non-user-replaceable batteries, which can get expensive over time.) The docking station powers the devices and also provides the Bluetooth connectivity when the devices aren't docked. (They pair easily with a standard Bluetooth dongle as well.) The dock also integrates four USB ports.

Although the 8000 is a fine solution for living-room use—you can put it in your entertainment center or tuck it away somewhere—it's too big to be practical for desktop use. The dock is roughly the size of two decks of cards side by side. That might not seem big, but when the keyboard is docked and there's a monitor behind the pair desktop space disappears quickly. The dock has its own power brick, too, adding to the rat's nest of cables under your desk. All told, it's certainly more of a hassle than a normal wired keyboard would be.

The included Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 is silver, to match the keyboard. A handy battery indicator lets you know how much juice it has left. My only real complaint with the mouse is the placement of the back/forward buttons. Most mice that have these put both on the left side for easy thumb access, while the 8000 splits them, with one on each side. It's not a huge inconvenience, but it takes some getting used to.

In addition to the typical media keys, Play, Pause, FF, Rew, and Volume, there are also channel up/down buttons, a zoom button, Record, a back browser button, right and left mouse-click buttons, and two Windows Start buttons. A navigation pad further minimizes the necessity for a mouse. The Escape key at the top left and the F1 to F12 keys are cool-looking silver slivers.

If you're looking for a stylish complement to your HDTV or Media Center PC and have $300 to spend on a set of input devices, the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 8000 is a fine choice.

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One Care 2.0 Final - Coming Soon

Looks like OneCare 2.0 could be going gold very soon. As well as it showing up on Amazon.com with a retail release date of next week, an email sent to OneCare users tonight suggests that a web release will be even sooner than that. On top of that, the OneCare installation page has been unavailable for several hours tonight, which is always a good sign that a release is right around the corner.

For those of you already using OneCare, you should be prompted to upgrade once the new version is available, though you can still upgrade manually once its out. If you haven't been testing the OneCare 2.0 beta, you should read up on the new features before it launches - new features include multi PC management, centralised backups and much more. You never know, it might just catch your eye... ;)

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