Dell finally uses its designers, sheds ugly duckling facade

In between all the announcements, Dell was kind enough to bring some humor to CES with its irony -- after finally making something that doesn't look like it was designed in Soviet Russia, the company reveals that it's only a concept product. The "ultra-flat" LCD (with a resolution estimated as high as 1920 x 1200-pixels) is encased in glass and features four built-in speakers. Dell manages to keep it svelte by taking a design cue from Microsoft and outsourcing the power supply to your floor rather than keeping it inside the actual device. There is also a microphone / webcam on the top, not unlike the supposed Apple display rumors; overall a very well thought out and nicely designed device -- we're hoping to find it leaked somewhere on Dell's site soon.

You still think Dell is Dull?

Dell to auction off custom World of Warcraft XPS M1710 laptops

Dell's in your laptop, airbrushing your WoW art -- in honor of the upcoming World of Warcraft Burning Crusade expansion release on January 16, they again commissioned artist Mike Lavalee to airbrush two limited edition XPS M1710 laptops with BC-inspired art; the lappies will be auctioned off to benefit World Harvest, an international humanitarian relief organization. For the non-addicted uninitiated, the artwork depicts the two new Blood Elf and Drainei races to be released in the expansion in the process of totally pwning each other. It'll be interesting to see how much these actually fetch on auction, as ironically the people who'd want them most may be unemployed and living in Mom's basement financially challenged.