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Coming Soon: Steve Jobs, the Sitcom

Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the [...]

What’s Next For the iPad? A Tabletop iPad, According to Xerox PARC Circa 1991

Way back in 1991, just as Apple was transitioning from 68k to PowerPC chips, the braniacs at Xerox PARC were predicting it’s entire iPod, iPhone and iPad strategy. And next up for the iPad is a blackboard-sized device.
Nearly 20 years ago, just as personal desktop computers were taking off, researchers at Xerox started thinking about [...]

iPhone App Arms Users With Silent Panic Button

A new app called Silent Bodyguard features a panic button that sends an SOS distress signal with GPS coordinates to potential rescuers without alerting onlookers.
While the $3.99 app, available on iTunes, isn’t the first ICE (in case of emergency) app, this one is backed by Dr. Clint Van Zandt, former FBI chief hostage negotiator and criminal [...]

Video: There’s Sexy Technology, Then There’s This…

20100312-brewbeau.jpg

You’re all going crazy with your iPad ordering. Meanwhile, over on Vimeo, BrewBeau has some craziness of his own going on.
BrewBeau writes: “I’m a recent PC convert who waited patiently while Apple worked out the kinks with their latest iMac release of the 27″ Intel powered 2.8GHz quad core i7 iMac. It’s a thing of [...]

Dell Brings Dock, Color to New Laptops

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Dell is launching a new mid-range line of portable computers called Studio Laptops with a Mac-like “Dock” designed to give Vista users an illusion of the OS X experience.

Studio Laptops’ desktop GUI takes Windows’ traditional application icon layout and organizes it into a “Dock” similar to the one familiar to Mac users, though questions remain as to whether users will be able to customize the Dock layout and place it on either side or at the bottom of the desktop.

In an additional concession to the proposition that Apple may be winning the OS war, Dell will offer cases in seven colors, a significant change to the company’s predominantly industrial look.

Gizmodo has nice before and after screenshots of the desktop.

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About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

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9 comments

    Yuck. Looks disgusting!

    What do they plan to call this line? The InspironXPSGLX-83589XXXL? If there’s one thing that irks me about PC marketing is that they never think of the consumer’s experience (For example, I doubt many consumers could even think of the name of their PC model).

    Haven’t they tried selling cases in different colors recently? I guess they keep forgetting that color is just one element of overall design.

    As for the dock feature, I’m not surprised. It only took them like 7 years to get it.

    can’t polish a turd.

    Dell is calling the line “Studio” and they come in 15″ and 17″ flavors.

    Lonnie:

    Thanks for blogging about it. We’ve been shipping colors on Consumer laptops for about a year. We’re adding more color options with the Studio Line.

    The dock.. no question it was a good idea. Kudos to Apple for that.

    Thanks,

    Lionel Menchaca
    http://www.direct2dell.com

    It looks like someone at Dell saw RocketDock (a free software program) and is using a similar idea for their computers. I am a Mac, but whenever I have to setup a PC, I usually include RocketDock. It makes things more intuitive (like a Mac).

    already done: http://rocketdock.com/

    free download of the “best software ever written” apparently.

    Yeah – I’m gonna go with the folks who see the uncanny parallel between this and RocketDock. Frankly, since RocketDock is free, its likely that Dell just snagged a copy and started adding it to its OEM images.

    Actually, it’s similar to Stardock’s Objectdock (which is free), because Stardock developed the software for Dell.

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