Ace on Tech

Dell XPS One released (comparable to Apple iMac)

Nov 16

AceUncategorized Apple, Gadgets, Hardware, iMac, mac, media center, OSX, Windows Vista, XPS, xps one View Comments

There have been rumors about this thing for a while now. I’m not big on rumors, but somehow the ones on the Dell XPS One excited me quite a bit. I purchased a Dell XPS M1710 laptop in September for my studies in Computer Science at college (and also for my own little old pleasure) and I haven’t had a hitch since. I’m happily running Vista and Ubuntu 7.10 on it, too.

The XPS One is an all-in-one machine à la Apple’s iMac. At first glance, the ‘One’ looks classy, but in retrospect maybe a bit over-styled. A bit over priced, too. The low-end model starts at 1499 USD, whilst the high-end rig retails at a whopping 2399 USD (!). We’re all pretty accustomed to Dell’s (too expensive) pricing scheme, I guess, so it won’t surprise too many folks. It’s one sexy device that’s meant for den-usage; that is (not TOO heavy gaming and) media center applications. It comes as a 20″ widescreen and includes a built-in TV-tuner.

Full specs can be found at Dell’s US-based website.

If I’m completely honest, thought, I’d have to admit to the fact that the the iMac is just much more elegant. Expensive as well, it seems to be more justified. Maybe I just like the idea of a cute white’n'silver integrated machine sitting on the desk in the living room. Black is a bit obtrusive for my liking, but hey, tastes differ.

(Apple iMac running Leopard)

2GB partition on XPS M1710

Nov 04

AceUncategorized gutsy, Linux, ubuntu, XPS View Comments

While modifying my laptop’s hard drive I noticed there was a tiny partition present at the end my disk. I found the idea quite quaint, especially after Ubuntu’s installer returned an error message saying the FAT of this disk was faulty. It being near midnight I cancelled the installation and rebooted, hoping I hadn’t damaged anything crucial (like breaking the boot-sequence), whereas I didn’t really know what that plop of disk was for.

“Is it Dell specific? Does it have something to do with the recovery and diagnostic tools supplied by Dell?” After a quick Google I ended up on Dell’s own website to find out the partition belongs to another quaint application that comes factory-installed, called MediaDirect.

I had once mistaken the MediaDirect button for the power-button and my laptop booted into a custom environment that is able to play media like music and DVDs without having to fully boot into Vista. In itself a nice initiative, but in retrospect something no-one really needs.

I reckon I’ll just give it another shot and install Ubuntu anew, disregarding the error message (since the partition isn’t really necessary).