With laptops being such a commodity item these day, it is nice to see some of the Big Box computer retailers taking queue from Apple and giving the consumer more choices and better design.  According to the article, there will be 58 options for you to customize your laptop with 100 exclusive works to be offered in all.  With many people always haviing their laptop with them, it will be nice to have options to express your personal style.

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To be honest, I’ve never thought Dell’s new Studio laptops did much to befit the Studio name. Dell trumpeted personalization when it launched the Studio line earlier this year, but aside from the standard rainbow of solid colors also found on lunch-pail Inspiron models, the Studio line offered only a handful of graphics patterns from Mike Ming (one of which, Sea Sky, is also an Inspiron option). Expanded feature set aside, Dell’s Studio laptops looked like slightly more stylish versions of Inspiron laptops.

Today, the Dell Studio line further distinguishes itself from Dell’s other laptop lines with the introduction of the Dell Design Studio. There, you’ll currently find 58 options for personalizing the lid of your Studio 15 or 17 laptop.  Dell states its Design Studio “offers more than 100 exclusive and original works of art,” so expect more to be added soon.  Featured artists include Joseph Amedokpo, Jason Bacon, Tristan Eaton, Siobhan Gunning, Bruce Mau, Mike Ming, Brittany Waldner, Derek Welch, and Guillaume Wolf.

No surprise that with our current economic environment, we are seeing people pull in the reigns on their personal spending.  Uncertainy is the worst position to have our economy in, people are not sure if it is okay to spend or should they prepare for the worst for a more severe recession.  It will be interesting to see the online shopping numbers for this holiday season.  I believe there will be growth in those numbers but it will be much a smaller increase than we have seen in recent years.

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New research from comScore Inc. shows traffic at travel-related Web sites is plummeting as the economy worsens.

The company, which tracks Web traffic of all kinds, found travel service sites registered a 14 percent decline in October hits compared with last year. Overall, Web traffic at online travel portals was down to 38.2 million hits for the month.

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