It’s been a pretty busy week for Dell – word is that they’re creating a new iPod killer.  And this fact might’ve slightly overshadowed a more immediate occurrence – the arrival of Dell’s new desktops: Dell’s family-friendly Inspiron 518 and its stylish Studio Hybrid.  I think that the Studio Hybrid is an excellent device to show off in your living room (as opposed to a clunky typical-looking computer).  And, the importance placed on form-factor is noted – a leaf taken out of Apple’s book, perhaps?

With computer makers stepping the form-factor up, I think that this can only be a positive for the integration of computers into living rooms – something that I thought would have happened a lot sooner.  It started with PS3′s and Xbox 360′s being “media centres”, but Dell steps it up by connecting an actual PC to the TV.  However, I’m certain that I missed something – where is the TV tuner card?  Without it, the Dell Studio Hybrid certainly misses one major convenience – the ability to schedule and record TV shows onto your computer.  Asides from that, I can see few appealing reasons to house a computer in the living room.

Starting at $499 USD and $529 CDN (reasonable dollar matching, I suppose), the Dell Studio Hybrid is an affordable and interesting product.  It’s extensible, but only through Dell – after all, you’re taking a huge risk if you’re going to personally try fitting something in such a tiny and unique machine.  And although I don’t guarantee its commercial success, I’m certain that it’s a step in an interesting direction.

Press Release: http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topic…&s=corp

There once was a time of chaos, when darkness reigned and mist covered the vision of Herbert Lui’s glasses. He was forced to constantly be connected to the Internet in order to have a chance to write on his blog to communicate with his faithful readers. Friends, such a time is now over. Herbert Lui has discovered the joys of Windows Live Writer.

To be perfectly honest, these desktop blog-editors have been around for a long time. Desktop blog-editors have many pro’s – you don’t need a wireless connection to write text on your blog (it gets published once you establish a connection to the Internet), plus you can save a local copy of the text to your hard drive for backup purposes. One very popular one for both Mac and Windows would be Ecto, which is recommended by many including the Problogger Darren Rowse. However, I’m definitely aware of how programs look much better on Mac than on Windows when available for both, and upon reading comparisons of Ecto and Windows Live Writer, I decided to go with the latter. It is a decision I do not regret.

On a recent trip to Connecticut, I was fortunate enough to be staying in a hotel with Internet (also with my relatives that had wi-fi, a recent upgrade that they made which I was very grateful for). However, on one isolated occasion, I lost connection with the Internet for some unknown reason and my post was only half-complete when it last auto-saved. You could say I was pretty darn mad, because it was a waste of my time and energy. With a desktop blog-editor (such as Windows Live Writer), you need not worry about this.

Windows Live Writer is great! Although I’m not always the biggest Microsoft advocate, I have to say that Windows Live Writer is a great piece of software. It fits in with the Windows Live theme very well, and its taken into consideration many essential functions that I felt would’ve been easy to forget. It does all this while making it very easy to navigate, and as a first-time user I’ve already successfully written a post (and saved a local draft).

If you’re a hardcore blogger, I suggest you download a desktop blog-editor. I realize that there are more elite ones that you could pay for, but why pay the premium before knowing what you get with a free version? Try out Ecto or Windows Live Messenger (personally recommended by the great Herbert Lui) and I’m sure you won’t regret it. I even figured out how to post an image.