Computer maker Dell may have made its name by elimianting the middle man and only selling directly to customers, but since the return of founder Michael Dell, the company has been looking shore up eroding sales figures by moving its products into traditional retail channels. Today, Dell unveiled another step in that strategy, announcing it has inked a deal with Carrefour Group to put Dell notebook and desktop systems in 365 retail locations in France, Belgium, and Spain beginning in January 2008, with Dell products landing in more stores in additional countries later in 2008.
“We’re delighted to have reached this agreement with Carrefour, which enables consumers to have greater access to Dell products in an environment where they can experience the look and feel of our products before purchasing”, said Mark Ormerod, Dell’s VP and general manager for consumer business in the European, African, and Middle Eastern markets, in a statement. “Beginning in January consumers in Europe will be able to call, click or visit to purchase award winning Dell products at great prices.”
According to Dell, the deal puts Dell products in nearly 10,000 retail locations around the world. The computer maker has previously announced deals with Gome stores in China, Wal-Mart, Staples, the UK’s Carphone Warehouse, Courts stores in Singapore, and Bic Camera in Japan.
The Carrefour Group is one of the world’s leading mass merchandisers, second only to Wal-Mart in revenue and overall sales figures. It operates “mega-marts,” combining attributes department stores, specialty shops, and grocery stores, in the European Union, Brazil, Argentina, and Columbia, as well as parts of Asia and North Africa.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.