Dell quietly introduces instant-ON laptops

Dell has quietly come up with a must-have facility for road warriors using laptops. It's called Latitude ON and allows users to gain access to a laptop's e-mail, Web browser and other basic functions without having to boot up Windows.

The ON feature also allows access to basic calendar and document viewing facilities. As well as giving instant access to a notebook's basic functions as soon as you switch it on, it also extends the battery life significantly.

Code-named BlackTop - a combo of BlackBerry and laptop - the original aim of the technology was to give users the same features as a Blackberry smartphone but using their laptop's full-size screen and keyboard.

What Dell is doing, of course, is building the equivalent of a secondary Netbook PC into its standard laptops.

This is could be a very useful application for most business users who currently rely on their Blackberry PDAphones for always-on access to office IT functions. This could also be a must-have feature on business laptops.

Unconfirmed reports say that ON will be seen before the end of the year in several of Dell's laptops, and using ON will extend battery life from hours to days, which, if true, is an incredible step.