Is Dell Going Downhill?

I have worked with Dell PCs at work since 1998. In that time, I have always recommended to friends for personal purchases because they were good machines. But that seems to be changing. In my current job, I maintain close to 200 Dells. In the past month, I have had to replace parts on about 9 of those computers. They have all been about 2 years old (and still under warranty). The problems that I have seen inlcude mostly bad hard drives, but there have been a few bad motherboards as well.

This recent increase in bad machines makes me thing that we are having some bad luck or that the Dell quality has gone down. They used to make some really great machines. In fact, I have 2 Dell Precision 410's and 2 Precsion 420's that I still use on a daily basis. Two of those PCs run 24/7 and have been doing that since 2001!

In addition to the apparent decrease in quality, their tech support quality has gone down as well. Not only have they outsourced their phone support, but their website seems more disorganized and slower. The slowness is especially apparent when you searh their forums.

Now, I am hesitant to recommend Dells to my friends and family. Then again, I don't know what other manufacturer I would recommend. All of them seem intent on selling REALLY cheap computers that are nearly a disposable item now.

Google at CES - Video Store and Software Pack

Well... Google just finished up their big CES keynote speech. As rumored, they did announce their video store and a pack of software. Two different blogs (Engadget and LostRemote) had live coverage of the event that featured Larry Page and Robin Williams. Larry provided the announcements and Robin provided the comedy relief.

Google Pack
I've already download the Google Pack. It includes AdAware, Google Earth, Norton Antivirus, Acrobat Reader, Google Screensaver, Google Desktop, Picasa, Real Player, Google Talk, FireFox in the initial download. If you already have a current version of any of the software, it will skip that part of the download. With the Norton AV download, it will first check to make sure it doesn't conflict with a competing AV package. After it performs the initial download, the software packages are installed silently in the background. The Google Pack Updater will also download any updates that are released for the Pack. In addition to the above software, Trillian, Google Video Player, GalleryPlayer, and Google Talk are made available as optional downloads.

If you look at the list of included apps, Google Pack does not appear to be all that new. However, the advantage of Google Pack is the updater app. It provides a seemless way of downloading, installing, and updating apps. For advanced users, this would be easy to do on their own. For novice PC users, Google Pack will make their lives easier. More information is available on Google's Official Blog and at the Google Pack website.

Google Video Store
During the keynote, several partners were revealed that are releasingt content via Google Video. The two biggies were CBS and the NBA. According to the major media news sites, the pricing scheme will be similar to iTunes-$1.99 for TV shows and $3.95 for NBA games. The quality is expected to be about 640x480 and if the content producer allows it, you can transfer the video to other devices (like the iPod). Oh... The videos will be commercial free.

For me, I still don't like the price of $1.99 for a TV show that I basically already paid for with my current cable subscription. I know... this version is without commercials and is available on demand. I guess I am just spoiled. For the past couple of years, I have been using BitTorrent to download a lot of my TV. If the major studios provide a way to download the shows (with BitTorrent or Google Video), I would be willing to allow them to leave the commercials in. Heck, you would think they would work out a way to insert targeted ads with a Google AdSense type system.

Anyway... That's all I have for now. I'll post more as soon as I have had time to play with Google Pack and the video store (no word on when it goes live).

Google Pack and Other Rumors

The rumor of the day is that Google will be announcing some big stuff at CES tomorrow (January, 2006). The Wall Street Journal published an article that said Google will begin selling videos and make a collection of software available as a download.

Google has always said they will make it possible for content providers to charge for downloads at Google Video. This new announcement will make that a reality as well as include information on partnerships with CBS and the NBA. While ABC has made a couple of shows available via iTunes, it will be interesting to see what shows Google will be able to offer from CBS. Many are also anxious to see the pricing scheme Google will setup. This will likely also be the debut of Google's micro-payment system that could compete with PayPal.

The Google Pack mentioned in the WSJ article came as a surprise to many analyst. The Pack is expected to include Acrobat Reader, an antivirus product (from Symantec), Firefox, Trillian, Google Talk, Ad-Aware, Google Toolbar, Picasa, and a Google Screensaver. Right now, we can only speculate how Google will bundle these apps and if there will be any added value by using the Google Pack instead of the individually downloaded apps.

Stay tuned... CES is looking good this year!