Maryam’s driving. She just guided her BMW through Roseburg, Oregon (we started late today, still have seven hours of driving ahead of us). We enjoy getting calls on the road. Hugh Macleod just called from England. Seems Armani is going after Savile Row and that has him in a tizzy. I wouldn’t worry too much. Folks who have $3,000 to spend on a suit don’t want a brand name. They want something far more personalized than that. At least if I had $3,000 for a suit (I’m a long way from that status) that’s what I’d look for. I wouldn’t want anyone wearing a suit that looked like mine.

Feel free to call us. It keeps us awake and we learn something. I wish I had my recording system setup, though. It would have been fun to record these calls on the road. My cell phone is always on my blog. 425-205-1921.

I think we should institute a two-week moratorium against saying anything bad about a new corporate blog. Dell already shows that they understand the power of a link. Their post this morning tells me it’s not old-school “push a message out” time but that they are watching and learning.

Dell does have its problems. It’s getting squeezed on the high end by Apple and on the low end by the Chinese. And they have earned a reputation for inconsistent customer service (I’ve always been treated well by Dell, I had two of their computers under my desk at Microsoft).

One thing that Dell should make a bigger deal about is their new HD laptops. Apple doesn’t do full 1080i resolution. Dell has a laptop that does and I started seeing a few of those spring up around Microsoft before I left. The screen is stunning.

It’s unfortunate, though, that their case design is so uninspired. Apple will continue winning high-end sales not because of their features or price but simply because they put together a total package that is simply sexier than what Dell is offering.

Dell is blowing it by not featuring HD resolution on its home user laptop page. I know quite a few people who want the best resolution laptop possible (software developers, for instance, CRAVE real estate).

In fact, you can’t even find the laptop with the wide-screen HD resolution unless you click on their small business page.

Now, I have $2,500 burning a hole in my wallet. I’m gonna wait to see if Apple comes out with a laptop that supports full 1080i resolution at its developer conference in August. If not, I’m gonna buy a Dell, uninspired case design and poor marketing nonetheless.

And why can’t I get that super dooper screen with Media Center on it? Or, am I just missing the “right” page?

I’m imagining watching Lost episodes in the car on my new super dooper Dell high res wide screen display! I’m amazed that Dell isn’t making a big deal about this because this is something that Dell can do that Apple can’t do (yet).

Oh, and Dell, why do I need to go to Lenovo or Motion or Gateway for a Tablet PC?

Update: Wikipedia has an explanation of WUXGA screen resolutions and why that matters for HD video. That page also links to a variety of manufacturers that make WUXGA screens.

James Governor got a cease and desist letter asking him to remove a link to Gartner’s Web site. If that’s true, how lame.