Digital Home Thoughts: Microsoft and Dell Team Up With PRODUCT (RED) Hardware & Software

Microsoft and Dell have teamed up with the (RED) team to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa, which continues to be a horrible epidemic - in some African countries AIDS is found in over 35% of the population. Dell is selling special versions of their XPS ONE, XPS M1330 laptop, XPS M1530 laptop, and the 948 All in One printer. I have the XPS M1330 myself, and it's an amazing notebook - very powerful yet still reasonably small. If you purchase a PRODUCT (RED) XPS M1330, $50 of your purchase will be donated to fight AIDS in Africa. How far will that go? How about 416 single-dose treatments to help prevent the transmission of an AIDS-infected mother to her unborn child? Or it would cover a year of hot meals and school materials to a child orphaned by AIDS. The best part is that this $50 comes out of Dell's profits - these products are no more expensive than the non PRODUCT (RED) versions.

Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED (Microsoft's contribution) includes special wallpapers (six of them), Windows Sidebar gadgets (two of them), one screensaver, and one Windows DreamScene. Here's a sample of one of the desktop wallpapers. I love the design of it, though it would have been nice if the Dell and Windows logo were transparent (maybe there's an alternate version of the wallpaper without the logos).