Just in time for the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Dell Inc. today unveiled a crystal monitor and a made-over 15.4-in. Inspiron laptop.

The company announced that it’s releasing the Dell Crystal — a 22-in. LCD flat-panel monitor, which  “floats” atop a polished metal tripod. The display was designed with 4mm, ultraclear tempered glass, Dell said.

Both a microphone and webcam sit above the screen.

The monitor, with a starting price of $1,199, will be shown off at CES, which kicks off next week.

Dell also unveiled an updated Inspiron laptop, which is 25% smaller and thinner, and almost a half a pound lighter, than its predecessor model, the company said.  Dell focused on style with the new 15.4-in. Inspiron 1525.

(Full article ‘Dell unveils slimmed-down Inspiron laptop and crystal display’)

A week after adding its budget-priced Inspiron laptops to the all launched in late June along with the M1330 — can be ordered in eight hues, including basic black or white, as well as brown, red, blue, green, pink or yellow. Dell has tagged the line with the marketing slogan “Yours is Here.”

“Producing smaller quantities is not the issue — it’s mainly an issue of scale,” Menchaca said, echoing what Senior Vice President Alex Gruzen said about the XPS laptop three weeks ago. “We’ll continue to work directly with suppliers to ultimately increase our production on color notebooks,” he added.

Another bottleneck for Dell: LCDs. “Some screen sizes are in short supply,” said Menchaca. Earlier this month, Gruzen also called out screens, specifically backlit LED displays, as contributing to the slow delivery of M1330 orders.

(Full article ‘Dell paints Inspiron with delay brush’)

Dell customers continue to wait for laptops ordered weeks, and in some cases, months before, comments left on a recent company blog posting revealed.

Last week, Dell’s digital media manager, Lionel Menchaca, used the Direct2Dell blog to once again reach out to people who had placed orders for laptops, telling them that one reason their purchases had been canceled was because of Federal Trade Commission rules involving mail order sales.

“One of the laws that the FTC enforces is the Mail Order Rule, which requires us to obtain your permission to proceed with processing your order when it has been delayed more than once,” Menchaca said. “If we do not obtain your permission to proceed, we must cancel the order to be in compliance with the law.”

That drew responses from would-be buyers who claimed that their orders had been canceled without any prior notification.

(Full article ‘Dell delays spread to Inspiron, Latitude laptops’)