Posts Tagged “dell”

While the world waits for Apple to release official news about their new tablet computer, a few smaller (and lesser known) companies are releasing their own touch screen tablets.  Archos has a few models out, there’s the viliv, and then there’s the whole CrunchPad thing which is now called the JooJoo.  And I’ve never played with any of them.  I have however been (for some reason) drooling for an iSlate for the past year or so.  And in my impatience I prematurely ordered a Camangi WebStation and am ready to report the bad news…

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The upcoming Dell Mini 10 looks to be a great machine, and if my hunch is right it could be an even better hacintosh than the Dell Mini 9.  The bigger, higher rez screen and real (as in reasonably sized) hard drive will put it in a different category over the 9.  Plus the normal keyboard helps too.

UPDATE: Apparently my hunch was wrong. Several commenters have pointed out that the graphics card in the Dell Mini 10 is not compatible with Leopard. A real shame since from all other accounts it would appear to be a good candidate. None-the-less, if you do want to order one for a windows machine the rest of the post is still applicable…

The official launch of the Mini 10 isn’t for a week or two, but here’s a little known fact: Even though there is no pricing information on the website, and no online order form, you can order one today if you know how to do it.  Read on for details, specs, and pricing info…

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The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 has finally appeared on Dell’s website, although it’s not actually for sale yet. The big question is will we be able to install Leopard on it like we can on the Mini 9’s?

There’s already a ton a buzz and speculation going on in the forums. I’m sure once they start shipping they’ll be hacked within a few hours. Read… »

I normally don’t link to outside blogs but this one needs to be mentioned because it relates to my Dell Mini 9 Leopard install video.  Here’s the story on Gizmodo, here it is on 9 to 5 Mac.

I found it odd that Wired had posted a video on how to install Leopard on an MSI Wind when a) it was sort of old news, and b) it was a much more complicated process than the one I used. But even more odd was the fact that they were suggesting people download a hacked version of Leopard from Pirate Bay. Apple eventually got wind (pun intentional) of it and early reports were that they were suing Wired. Now that the dust has settled it appears that Wired has just been asked to pull the video.

Will I be asked to pull my video?  I hope not – but I also doubt it.  The fact is that in my video you can see me break the seal on a brand new Leopard box. No where do I ever suggest stealing Leopard – quite the opposite. If you’re going to experiment with Leopard on a non-apple box I think you should go out and get a fresh copy.

I’ll also give the update that our Dell Mini Hackintosh is still working great.  However, if and when Apple releases a reasonable replacement for it, we’ll sell the Dell and buy a real Apple.

Back when I first started this blog I had the theme of “out with the old and in with the new” and it started with the upgrade of my old G5 to a new Intel 8-core PowerMac. In that early post I mentioned the Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP because it has loads of inputs including the new DisplayPort connector Apple has sort-of recently embraced. I believe that the writing is on the wall that DVI will eventually be on the outs and any monitor I invest in these days needs be ‘future proof.’ So during the black days after Thanksgiving I ordered one and it arrived today!

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The cute little hacintosh we’ve all come to love is now a little bit cuter with new system color options. In addition to Black and White you can now get Cherry Red, Pretty Pink, or 5 different sticker options. Choosing a sticker will add time to shipping, but the Red and Pink configurations appear to be shipping as fast as 2 weeks from now.

The other major add is that you can now also swap out the SSD for a 32GB version for only an extra $25 (over the cost of the 16GB). I’ll be curious to see if it fixes the Leopard sleep mode. A fully configured red model with 32GB and the web camera came to $499. Anyone want to buy a configured Leopard Dell Mini 9?  We’re in the mood to upgrade.

 BlackFriday.info has Black Friday deals posted early. Black Friday, in case you don’t know, is the day after Thanksgiving and is the biggest shopping day of the year.  I found this Dell ad there which shows the Dell Mini 9 for $299 – which is $50 off.  Interesting that an intel Core 2 Duo icon is right next to the ad when the Mini doesn’t have a Core 2 Duo it has an intel Atom. But I guess the logo is referring to the Inspiron 1525 in the ad above it. Read… »

The big project this weekend was setting up my wife’s “couch computer” (netbook).  After about a month of waiting the Dell Mini 9 finally arrived. I spent most of the day Saturday working on it. I also videotaped much of the process and made you this lovely video:

Watch it in HD over at vimeo. It’s much better in HD. Vimeo won’t let me embed HD without paying.

Overall I would say that the process was easy but is not for the weak. While I edited around it on the video, I made a few mistakes along the way – which is why it took all day to do. If I were to do it again it would go much quicker. Below I’ve listed links to the instructions and tools. I’ve also explained all of the pitfalls and how to avoid them, and what works and what doesn’t. Read… »

Is it Hacintosh or Hackintosh? Anyway, Shannon’s new couch computer is on it’s way.  There’ll be lots of fun stuff to talk about next week:

This is the Dell Mini 9 and we’re going to install Leopard on it.  I need to order the 2GB RAM tomorrow too.

In keeping with the current theme, here’s a video of me installing a new hard drive in a G4 Powerbook. At the start of the video all the screws had already been taken out.

This was my wife’s couch computer.  I sold it to a buddy for almost enough to completely pay for it’s replacement: a hacintosh Dell mini 9.  It’s ordered and should be here middle of November.  Not sure why it takes so long – something to do with it being built to order.  But more on that when it comes in.