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Well turns out that the gang on this show aren’t spending enough time chilling out to Springsteen albums and instead are bumping, grinding, fist-fighting and talking so much s$!t that the company is the 3rd advertiser to pull its support for the show.

The editors here at Observer publishing are more into Fringe (let’s see who gets that one) but with all this controversy, will make a point of recording a show or two and see what all the fuss is about.

NC Governor Beverly Purdue looks to make a major issue around this. “I will fight them if they want to fight about this,” Perdue said. “They made some agreements. We offered some incentives. The locals offered some incentives, and they need to live up to their side of the bargain. If that means going to court, I guess we will.”

Dell’s vice president for the company’s online unit, Manish Mehta, told Bloomberg that over the past three months alone, the number of people who have started following Dell’s tweets has risen 23 percent. The company’s DellOutlet account, which is home to most of the vendor’s sales announcements, currently has almost 1.5 million followers. But unlike some companies, Dell has made Twitter an integral part of its operation. Bloomberg reported that “more than 100 employees send out the tweets” to customers.

Implementing the learnings from the design of the Adamo, Dell introduced today the Vostro V13 starting at a measly $499 starting price point, generously appointed at $699.

Featuring a 13″ screen, only .65″ thick and 3.5lbs, the V13 seems to be a fantastic value.

• The 37-inch Vizio VO370M 1080p HDTV is selling for $459 (regularly $599).
• 26-inch Vizio VA26L is selling for $269 (regularly $379).

The move to create a new handset group was not a surprise. When Garriques joined the company in 2007, it was assumed that he would help push the company (albeit late) into the cellular device market. Lenovo Group announced last week that it was repurchasing its Mobility Device group as part of a renewed commitment in to cellular devices.

What is a surprise, is a repeated move by the company to merge its Consumer and Small Business divisions into one group. Back in 2005, this was attempted in the United States with the goal of achieving ’synergies’ in marketing spend and headcount. The merger however was a failure and the company quickly divided the sales organizations into their rightful areas and Garriques was named as the head of the first Global group within Dell.

According to Squaretrade, an online vendor of extended warranties, more than 20% of all notebooks will encounter a major failure within 3 years. And its not limited to the lesser PC manufacturers! Check out the chart attached – what is most surprising is that Apple, which prides itself on quality and reliability was in the middle of the pack with a 17.4% failure rate; one that was bested by Sony, Toshiba and Taiwan’s Asus (often thought of as unreliable).

We at Observer Publishing have told you that extended service plans are a high margin profit pool for the computer manufacturers. For instance, if we go to Dell.com a 3 Year extended warranty (additional 2 years ‘at home’) costs an additional $260 (Inspiron 15 – price 11/24/09). The cost to Dell on that service plan can’t be more than $100.

Here’s what you have to factor into your next Notebook purchase:
1) The system won’t last more than 4 years without a repair (perhaps a drastic statement, but better to be safe)
2) Based on this data, figure out what is better to spend: $250-$300 now to ensure you’re covered through year 3? or save that money and figure out later if the computer is worth fixing or throwing out
3) In either case, especially in this era of $399 – $599 computers, BACK UP YOUR INFORMATION, preferably on an online service like MOZY. The most painful part of having a computer die on you isn’t replacing the computer – its replacing the information (files, pictures, music, etc…) that you’ve lost.

Read: Globe & Mail;  The Street

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