It looks like Dell is taking a rather drastic step to attempt to cut some of the costs that have been dragging it down in recent years, with The Wall Street Journal now reporting that the company plans to sell "most -- and possibly all -- of its factories" within the next 18 months -- if it can find some buyers, that is. As the paper notes, the factories were originally built to serve a PC market driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs, but they've fast become a drag on the company as growth has shifted towards laptops sold at retail stores. While nothing is anywhere near official yet, the Journal pegs big contract manufacturers angling for a bigger piece of Dell's business as the most likely buyers, although there's a number of obstacles that could block such a sale, particularly when it comes to Dell's factories in the US. Dell is also said to be considering simply closing down some of the factories, and instead rely on those aforementioned contract manufacturers to build its PCs. Hit up the link below for the full saga and backstory.

[Via Blogrunner, image courtesy J.P.R Sdn Bhd]

We've already seen Nokia's new N96 up-close and unboxed, but if you're looking for a bit more information before your potential purchase, you may want to head over to All About Symbian, which has a few first impressions of the phone. Among other things, its contributor found the screen to be "great," even outdoors, and the overall build quality is described as "good," if a bit "plasticky." He also found the music quality to be especially good over Bluetooth/A2DP, and from the built-in speakers as well, which are apparently "very loud." On the downside, the camera shutter key proved to be a bit stiff, and some of the third-party applications like ProfiMail were to be a bit buggy, as was Nokia's Switch app when attempting to transfer data from an E90 to the N96. Hit up the link below for a few more details, and some sample photos taken with the N96's camera.

It's not exactly a shocker, but it looks like Garmin's promised free live traffic information for life on its new nüvi 7x5 and 2x5 navigators isn't exactly the completely free ride some may have hoped it was, with it instead supported by, you guessed it, ads. According to PC Magazine, its review unit arrived pre-loaded with ads for BP, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo, which always appear at the bottom of the screen when you access the traffic menu, and occasionally pop up on the map view screen (but not when you're in motion). Naturally, when you tap on the ad you get a POI search of all the nearby locations and, no, you can't disable the ads. Not exactly an unreasonable trade-off, but Garmin could be a bit more up-front about it.

It looks like those wanting to practice for their TV poker debut now have at least one, completely impractical lead to follow, as one Andrew Milner has now built what may well be the very first RFID-based, video-equipped DIY poker table. To reproduce the complete TV poker experience at home, Milner employed four cameras to keep watch on the players, with the elaborate RFID system and some custom-made software doing all the dirty work of keeping track of the cards (yes, each card has an RFID tag). As you might have guessed, the build was far from simple, with it taking Milner three months in his spare time, and it obviously wasn't cheap either, although he won't go any further than to say that it was "rather expensive." Be sure to hit up the link below for the full rundown of the project, and a video of it in action.

It looks like Tata Motors is taking one step forward and one step back this week, with it announcing plans to launch an electric version of its Indica hatchback in Norway within a year while also letting out word that it has abruptly halted construction of the plant in Singur, India that was to have built its budget-priced Nano compact. That latter development was apparently the result of a long-standing dispute with farmers, who are demanding the return of some of the land that was seized by the state government, and had previously caused construction of the plant to be postponed for five days. For its part, Tata says it is now apparently considering relocating the construction site, which would likely cause the planned October launch of the Nano to be delayed.

Read - Reuters, "India's Tata to launch electric car in Norway in 1 yr"
Read - Tech-On, "Tata Suspends Construction of 'nano' Plant"

[Thanks, Samit]

It's not exactly the first to turn any old speakers into wireless ones, but any attempt to cut down on wire clutter is alright in our book, and JBL is now doing its part with its new On Air WEM-1 wireless expansion module. As you can see above, this one consists of a transmitter module that connects to the audio source of your choice, and a receiver / amplifier that connects to a pair of speakers (it's apparently "tailored for use with select JBL loudspeakers," though it seems you can connect anything you like). That combo will give you a range of 70 feet and, supposedly, no loss in sound quality, although you will have to make do with the 50 watts per channel the amplifier pumps out. There's also the small matter of the $360 price tag, but we're sure there's at least a few folks out there willing to accept those trade-offs for a bit of added convenience, and for the principle of the thing.

It looks like those not willing to give up on DV tape for their HD recording needs now have a pair of new options to consider from Sony, which has just introduced its HDR-FX1000 and HVR-Z5J camcorders in Japan. The HDR-FX1000 (pictured above) is the slightly more consumer-minded of the two, with it boasting a not-outrageous price of ¥400,000 (or roughly $3,700), and some impressive specs all around, including a 20x optical zoom, both 24p and 30p modes, and Sony's G-series lens, which promises to deliver some top-notch images. The HVR-Z5J, on the other hand, offers some more specialized features like XLR audio inputs, PAL and NTSC compatibility, and support for the DVCAM format in addition to usual DV/HDV option. Look for it to set you back ¥554,400 (or just over $5,000) when it lands in December, with the HDR-FX1000 set to slip out ahead of it on November 10th.

[Via PC World]

It's not quite on Sony's schedule, but a new series of not-quite-precisely-timed ads have now revealed the company's new full-frame A900 DSLR, which boasts a mighty 24.6 megapixels. In addition to that desirable spec, it seems you can also expect to get Sony's Dual BIONZ image processing engine, "Intelligent Preview," a 3-inch "Hybrid LCD," 5 fps continuous shooting, and Sony's SteadyShot image stabilization, to name but a few features (head on past the break for the full spec list). Of course, there's no price or release date to be found in any of the ads, but we're guessing Sony will be spilling those little details when it gets official with the camera next week.

[Via Photography Bay, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

While we can't say if it represents a general sentiment at Samsung or not, the company's UK director of consumer electronics, Andy Griffiths, sure went out on a bit of a limb in a recent interview with Pocket-lint, with him saying that Blu-ray has, to paraphrase David Bowie, only "five years left," and that he "certainly wouldn't give it ten." He did say, however, that he thought 2008 would be Blu-ray's year, adding that "it's going to be huge", and that Samsung is "heavily back-ordered at the moment." As for Samsung's future after Blu-ray's supposed demise, Griffiths seems to think that OLED will be the next big thing, and he's pegging 2010 as a possible date for it to become mainstream and replace LCD. He didn't offer a prediction as to when it will die out though.

[Thanks, Big W]

Lenovo's new ThinkPad SL300 may not stand out too much from the ThinkPad pack, but it's budget-friendly price will no doubt help it attract its share of curious potential buyers, and NotebookReview has now offered a few pics and impressions to give them an idea of what they may be in store for. As you might expect, Lenovo had to cut a few corners to keep the price down, and the build quality looks to have take some of the biggest hits, with it described as "durable" but with minor flexing all around and even some squeaking around the TouchPoint buttons. On the upside, the system's fairly high-end specs delivered some impressive enough performance, and the included 6-cell battery managed to last for a full four hours with the WiFi enabled (turning it off resulted in an extra 30 minutes). Still undecided? Then hit up the link below for plenty more pics and impressions.

It looks like HP is doing its part for the environment and, possibly, thieves with its new Pavilion dv6929wm laptop, which does away with the usual excessive packaging and will instead be sold simply in a specially designed "HP Protect" messenger bag. That idea actually came about through a Walmart initiative that asked companies to produce a product that would reduce environmental impact, which HP won, and has now resulted in the laptop being sold exclusively at Walmart stores and Sam's Club locations. Unfortunately, there's not much word on the specs for the laptop itself just yet but, at $798, we wouldn't exactly expect a powerhouse.

[Via Reddit]