Dell XPS One Impresses Walt Mossberg

In a surprise article today, Walt Mossberg of the WSJ says that he is actually impressed with the new Dell XPS One. Given that Walt in an Apple Fanboy, that is a pretty strong endorsement. Actually, if you need an all-in-one machine that uses Vista, this is the one to get. Mr. Mossberg points out that the hardware is actually much better than the iMac. That said, the biggest downside of the Dell XPS One is Vista. Perhaps SP1, due any day now, will help in this regard.

The best part of the XPS One is that is doesn't look like it was made by Dell!

World's Best Headphones

These must be the best headphones that I have ever seen. Every review of them ranks them as 'the best in the world.' They are from Ultimate Ears. This particular model is called the EU 11 Pro. Each pair is custom made based on a mold of an individuals ears. Even their baby brothers, the triple.fi 10, will blow away any other headphone that you have ever used.

Vista Ranked #1 Tech Disappointment of 2007

PC World named Vista the number one technology disappointment of 2007. It took five years to make and even a year after deployment, it is still giving people trouble. They go on to say that it isn't that Vista is horrible, it just isn't all that good.

Here is the thing, people are clinging to XP. It is faster than Vista. Think about what Microsoft's universe must be like when the fastest Vista laptop in the world is actually an Apple Macbook Pro.

There is no doubt that Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right.

Meanwhile, watch Apple's market share increase to over 10% in 2008.

Ninja Warrior

This is the most amazing sports action TV show on the air right now. There are actually people in Japan that train full-time to compete on Ninja Warrior. Now in its 10th year, the show details athletes maneuvering a four part obstacle course. How hard is this? Only two people have ever successfully completed in course. They are Zazuhiko Akiyama and Makoto Nagano. Mr. Akiyama no longer competes as he has developed a degenerative eye disease. Mr. Nagano, the current top-ranked Ninja Warrior All-Star is arguably the best all around athlete in the world!. The show can be seen daily on G4.

Apple People

Need I say more about Apple people. Justine Ezarik is the girl who started the Apple tattoo craze. A little different from the Zune guy :-)

For those of you that are not familiar with Justine, she is the girl that made a video of the 300 page iPhone bill that she received from AT&T.

Microsoft People

Like many issues, there are always two sides. As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. As such, this demonstration is of Microsoft people vs. Apple people. This guy represents the Microsoft side of things. How strange is he you might ask? He is trying to have his name changed to "Microsoft Zune." Handsome creature isn't he :-)

It's about 'Customer Service' Stupid!

What Apple understands extremely well is customer service. Oddly enough, not one single PC vendor seems to get this. Most PC vendors end the transaction when they sell you a computer. Customer service seems like a foreign concept to them. Customer service has made Apple what it is today! Lest you think this is not true, look at Apple's customer service rating and their recent growth in market share.

The Ultimate Wii

If you are looking for a Wii this holiday season - good luck. The stores have been out of them for some time. The funny thing is, I saw ladies loading up shopping carts full of them a month ago at Costco. I suppose that they are now selling them on eBay for a fortune.

Now, if you really want the 'Ultimate' Wii, you must have this one of a kind Darth Vader Wii. Someone on eBay is asking $15,000 for it. That said, what is cooler than a Darth Vader Wii?

Dell Coming to Best Buy

Dell and Best Buy have reached an agreement to sell Dell computers at Best Buy stores. While the primary reason that Dell is doing this is to try to stave off plummeting market share, they have an opportunity to also address being the company known in the technology industry as having the worst customer service. Were Dell to reach a service agreement with the Geek Squad to provide timely and friendly customer service, Dell might be onto something. Only time will tell.

Apple's West 14th Street Store Opens

Apple's third store in Manhattan opened yesterday. Another beautiful store added to the Apple collection. It is also the largest of the three stores in NYC.

You Will Not Unlock Your iPhone!

The saga of locked and unlocked iPhones continues. In the USA, ever time someone comes up with a hack to unlock the iPhone, Apple pushes a software upgrade to brick the phone.

The iPhone in Europe is different. France sells all iPhones unlocked. It is French law. Germany, on the other hand, sold the iPhone unlocked for two weeks the locked them again.

So what is a consumer to do? Easy, people in Germany are buying their iPhones in France.

XP Twice as Fast as Vista

The Associated Press today released that states that Windows XP is about to get faster and Windows Vista isn't.

Vista SP1, due out in the first quarter of 2008, barely improved the operating system's performance, but XP SP3, scheduled for the first half of 2008, will improve on XP's performance, making it much faster that Vista.

So what is the bottom line? Benjamin Gray, an analyst for Forrester Research, said businesses will upgrade to Vista regardless, to "stay current with Microsoft's support life cycle." The SP1 release of anything from Microsoft is where businesses start to upgrade.