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Dell's XPS One (PRODUCT) RED is a charitable rip off
The whole consumer motivation for (PRODUCT) RED is that a donation is made to those in need at no (obvious) additional expense to you. It's The Man who makes the donation, you're just pulling the trigger with the purchase of something presumably wanted anyway. But the (PRODUCT) RED XPS One confuses this whole system, at best. The RED XPS One costs an extra $300 over the regular XPS One's base configuration. For that, you do get a bump -- but it's software only. More specifically, your $300 premium upgrades you to Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (found online for ~$100 or less) and Vista Ultimate (~$300 or less), instead of stock Microsoft Works 8.5 (~$15) and Vista Home Premium (~$200 or less). Based on those retail prices, you're locked into almost $200 in add-ons that Dell and Microsoft will happily mark-up to $300 -- $80 of which is donated to the Global Fund. Never you mind that the full-featured Vista Ultimate (even with RED-themed desktops, screensaver, and widgets) adds very little value to the vast majority of home users when compared to Vista Home Premium. Or that Microsoft says that "Vista Home Premium is the preferred edition for home desktops." So why bother with Ultimate on the XPS One in the first place, except to up the perception of greater value? It's not like this all-in-one desktop will ever step foot inside of an enterprise cubicle. Our advice: save your $300 and just give some cash directly, it might work out better for your taxes anyway.[Thanks, Justin M.]
Vista Home Premium loosed in the US, unboxed in Oz
Get yer Vista... red-hot, OEM flavor of Windows Vista right here folks! Not to be outdone by our colonial fathers, we Yanks can now go on-line and order our very own copy of the latest Microsoft OS. No wimpy Home Basic version here, Newegg instead is offering a single-pack DVD copy of the 32-Bit Home Premium (upgrade, we assume) for $119.99 plus another $5 for 3 business day shipping. So call your buddies, alert the neighbors, and put your order in today for your copy a full four-days ahead of the official January 30th consumer ship date. Hey, after a five-year development time, why should you wait another day? Aussie reader Adam didn't, having already peeled away the shrink wrap from his Academic Edition in the unboxing tizzy below.%Gallery-1317% [Thanks Brad and Adam]
