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"So you've made a piece of software that has pretty cool functionality and before you know it some big name brand offers the same technology directly to its customers, built into its new product release.  It's a problem faced by many startups. Many entrepreneurs just hope that they get acquired so that the big name company can use the technology and then roll it out to their customers.  Things don't always happen that way, and an upcoming product push from Dell shows how this situation comes about.\nThe upcoming feature from Dell is called Latitude On and will feature instant access to many of your computer applications without having to fully boot up your computer. Sounds a lot like the recently funded and launched Splashtop, which is a software offering a similar feature.\n\nHowever, Dell's Latitude On works by bypassing the Windows operating system so that you get immediate access to things like your calendar, email, Internet, and contacts.  It's a fully integrated technology that will appear later this year on the Dell 4200 and 4300 Latitude series notebooks, and is powered by a Linux OS, sort of as a secondary operating system.  Latitude On also works with one of Dell's other initiatives, which is its long-lasting (and by long-lasting Dell means 19 hours) battery life, for all-day computing.\nIf you run your Dell Latitude in the Latitude On mode, Dell purports that you'll be able to extend your battery life for days, since you're conserving a great deal of battery power by bypassing a full system boot up.  Sounds like there's a bit of a green initiative worked in there, too.  The reasoning behind Dell's decision to offer Latitude On is in response to customer demands, and seems to be business-oriented as the Latitude series is designed for business use.\n\n\n\nGiven the pressure from other brands like Apple to continuously innovate, provide peripheral features that offer an integrated approach for cross-device use (Dell's new Latitude series also enables you to charge your mobile phone through your notebook, whether the notebook is plugged in or not, or is turned off or on), I do wonder at the potential for Latitude On to supplement or conflict with existing mobile capabilities that already offer us a good amount of immediate access to things like calendars, contacts, email, and even the Internet.\nNever Miss an Episode! Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here (video feed). Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here (audio feed)."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/12/dell-latitude-on/>