Early observations

Here’s the preliminary report on the new Dell Studio XPS 8000.

The pros:

• It’s crazy fast. I have never seen Photoshop load in under 10 seconds until today.
• Windows 7’s “Dock” feature really does reduce the icon clutter on the desktop.
• The depression and USB ports on the case top for synching iPods and other stuff is very handy.
• Did I mention that it’s really fast?

The cons:

• 64 bit Windows 7 means I can’t use my Nikon Coolscan IV ED negative scanner. Nikon doesn’t have a driver for the 64 bit version.
• I lost my playlists while migrating iTunes to the new machine.
• Plug & Play doesn’t have a driver for my Epson R380 printer. (I downloaded the W7 driver from Epson and it works.)
• Palm hasn’t figured out how to get my Palm Treo 700p to synch with Windows 7.

So it’s a mixed bag and the problem-solving goes on.