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Dell launches more personalized laptops at CESToday

It’s been a couple of years coming, but now Dell can truly claim that it makes computers built-to-order for just a single person. The company’s web configuration tools have so much variety in them now that Dell can virtually guarantee no one will have the exact same computer that you buy.

Today at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company is launching a couple of new customizable models in the Studio XPS line of powerful laptops.

I know. Most companies here have a cannonade of new products. But Dell is just counting on these two laptops — the Dell Studio XPS 16 and Dell Studio XPS 13 — for now. They are on sale today online starting at $1,199. The marketing description is fancy; they have “genuine leather and anodized aluminum accents on top of a high-gloss Obsidian Black finish.” That sounds sexy.

These are the latest in a series of products designed by Dell’s 120 industrial designers where the differentiation is in the design. Dell’s new system allows customers to join in the design by configuring the art on the covers of their lapto

Canesta teams up with Hitachi to create a Wii-like next-generation TV controlToday

Canesta is announcing today it has teamed up with Hitachi to create a next-generation user interface for a TV that is similar to the way arm-waving controls the Nintendo Wii video game console.

Hitachi will use San Jose, Calif.-based Canesta’s 3-D sensor chip to power the first gesture-controlled TV set. The companies are showing a prototype today at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Hand-waving controls haven’t had the best history. Sony used a two-dimensional camera to detect gestures in its EyeToy games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. But such cameras couldn’t capture the subtley of motions the way that a 3-D image sensor can.

Canesta has a single chip 3-D sensor that can detect gestures made with hands in the air. Hitachi will show the technology in its booth, where the sensor can detect motions at up to 9.8 feet away.

This could change the way people deal with complicated controls, simplifying the consumer electronics devices that are getting more and more difficult to use. A rapid wave of the hand can turn on a TV and a circular motion can change either the video source

AMD lashes back at Intel with Phenom II chip and Dragon platformToday

Advanced Micro Devices is taking a swing at Intel today with the launch of its Phenom II microprocessor for the consumer desktop market, as well as a new Dragon platform that will house the processors in a variety of new high-end computers.

The Phenom II is based on AMD’s new 45-nanometer manufacturing process, which will let AMD stay competitive with Intel’s newest chips. In the case of consumer desktops, analysts now believe that AMD will leapfrog Intel for the first time in a few years. The chips have larger cache memories — up to eight megabytes — and the processors start at 3.0 gigahertz. Previously, the fastest Phenom I chips could only hit 2.6 gigahertz. With the improvements, AMD says its new chips will be 20 percent faster than previous chips.

The company is unveiling the product at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, where AMD chief executive Dirk Meyer will be giving one of the keynote speeches.

The new chips will make AMD credible again at the high-end o

WiMax chipmaker Runcom acquires mobile video co. BambooToday

Video game league Major League Gaming raises $7.5MToday

Professional video game league Major League Gaming has raised another $7.5 million, an addition to its second venture round from 2006. The new financing will presumably help the New York company weather the economic downturn, although it’s reporting impressive growth for 2008.

Major League Gaming says it’s the largest organized video game league around and also the largest international “sanctioning body.” Players can compete against each other on the the company’s sites as well as at in-person competitions.

The company’s sites hosted 4.4 million online matches in 2008 and received 7 million unique visitors each month, up 625 percent and 109 percent, respectively, from 2007. On average, 15,000 people attended each of the live competitions, and there’s a growing audience that wants to watch, even if it hasn’t exactly reached NFL or NBA levels. October’s Dallas Playoffs were the year’s high point, with 503,000 men under 30 watching online.

Founded in 2002, Major League Gaming previously raised $35 million. Oak Investmen