Apple Releases 8GB RED nano

Apparently response to Apple's RED nano has been so impressive that the company announced a new 8GB model on Friday. The first model, released in mid-October had 4GB.

The RED nanos were designed by U2 lead singer Bono (who was not at the DEMO show) and Bobby Shriver of the Kennedy/Shriver family. It is part of the RED campaign currently being endorsed by GAP, Converse, Emporio Armani, American Express, Motorola, and Apple. Each sponsoring company has its own RED products, which raise money for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. For each RED nano sold, Apple will contribute $10 to the fund.

"Customer response to the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition has been off the charts," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing in a statement. "We're thrilled to add a second model with 8GB of capacity, enough for 2,000 songs, so customers have yet another choice in supporting this important cause."

The new 8GB model will sell for $249, while the 4GB model will remain $199. Both models have a red aluminum enclosure and a claimed 24-hour battery life.

For more information on (PROJECT) RED, go to www.joinred.com.

YouTube downloads for mobile devices by 2007?

Speaking at the OgilvyOne Verge Digital Summit in New York yesterday, YouTube founder Chad Hurley said that he hopes to "have something on a mobile device" by the end of 2007. "It's a huge market and with our video lengths, it's a natural."

It's one of Hurley's first public outings after the Google acquisition of his YouTube service. YouTube already has a mobile service, but only for uploading videos, not watching them. Hurley wasn't sure he could figure out a way to make money from mobile downloads, since it's tricky to insert advertising on small screens without ruining the user experience. "It would be great to make the ad model work on a mobile device," he said. "I haven't seen that work."

Dell Launches First AMD-Based Laptop

Dell launched its first notebook PC powered by a processor from Advanced Micro Devices instead of an Intel chip.

With the Inspiron 1501, Dell offers users a choice between AMD's low-end Sempron, mobile Turion 64, and dual-core Turion 64 X2 chips. The product is aimed at home entertainment and small business users, offering a baseline configuration of the Sempron chip, widescreen 15.4-inch display, 80GB hard drive, and 512MB of memory for a starting price of $549.

Dell launched the product today without fanfare, simply listing it on the company Web site without the usual flurry of press releases. The company did not return calls for comment.

Dell had announced in May that it would began selling AMD-based servers, after remaining loyal to Intel processors for so long that it was the only major PC vendor not offering its customers a choice. By then, AMD had eaten significant chunks of Intel's enormous market share, riding the success of its efficient Opteron server chip to acclaim for its full range of chips. Indeed, by September Dell had also launched AMD-powered desktops.

Dell has shown great confidence in AMD by choosing to use the new chips in its notebook line, the one segment of the PC industry that has been fighting a recent slump in sales growth. Now that AMD has finally climbed aboard the Dell sales machine, it can claim a presence with nearly every vendor in the U.S. notebook market. The only remaining bastions of purely Intel notebooks are Lenovo Group, Sony, and Toshiba.