Text chatting with friends and family around the world is a nice way to stay in touch, without racking up huge phone bills doing it. Typing isn’t as enjoyable as talking for most people and if you can actually see your friends or family when talking to them it is even better.

Yesterday Dell announced a new Studio series of notebooks and the notebooks are also bundled with a new video chat application called Dell Video Chat that is powered by SightSpeed. As you might guess from the name the application allows you to talk to people and see their faces as you talk using your Internet connection and a webcam.

Dell today launched the new “Studio” line of laptops following the trend of more consumers who would like a little more style and customization available for their portable computers. Kicking off the Studio laptops Dell launched the Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio 17, which come with a 15.4″ and 17.1″ display, respectively.

Both notebooks carry the drop hinge and “wedge” shape seen in the XPS laptops from Dell and both come in a range of vibrant and loud colors, capacitve touchpad and multimedia buttons that light-up when pressed, and an optional backlit keyboard. They also have the option of built-in broadband connections through Sprint or Verizon, Blu-ray drive, slot-loading drives and you can even get a mercury-free LED display if you ask. Dell has put some thought to your laptop accessories as well, offering mice, backpacks, sleeves and earbuds that are colored to match.

At the All Things D conference, Gizmodo’s Brian Lam ran into Michael Dell and learned about a new prototype laptop that, until then was all very hush hush. It’s got a bright red candy shell, with the body being similar to an Asus Eee PC.

So those in the market for an Eee PC might want to sit back and wait a bit as it’s about to enter the sub-$500 mini-laptop world. It’s just pics at the moment, but specs will be coming soon. The pics do reveal three USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, and Ethernet.

When it comes to notebooks many users want a notebook that does more than simply work well. They want a notebook that works well and looks good doing it. Teens are especially looking for notebooks that have a sense of style and Dell is trying to deliver that style with its new Mike Ming Designs on the Inspiron 1525.

The same features and options for Inspiron 1525 hide underneath the new art on the top of the notebook case. Mike Ming made two designs exclusively for Dell. One is called “Bunch O Surfers” and the other is called “Sea Sky.” The surfers design is black line art style and the sky design is what you see pictured here.

When it comes to PC gaming the hobby is far from cheap. This is one of the main points console gamers like to harp on when lauding the supposed superiority of consoles over PCs for gaming. However, PC gamers can all agree that with the right PC, graphics on the same game are typically much better on PC than on a console.

Dell announced its latest XPS gaming desktop today and we can just get this out of the way up front, it’s not cheap. Base models start at $3,999 and if you want the slick and high tech liquid ceramic cooling you are looking at a starting price of $4,999. For that amount of money you get some nice components.

This strange bamboo-encased eco-PC concept was unveiled at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference today. They’re saying it’s Dell’s smallest-ever computer. For comparison, it’s 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop and more importantly it uses 70 percent less power.

No info yet on what’s inside or an official name for that matter, but according to Dell the machine is scheduled to be released later this year, with a price between $500 and $700. I suppose if anyone can make people buy bamboo computers, it’s dell. Maybe they can bring the Dell dude back and instead of saying, “Dude I’m getting a Dell”, maybe he can say, “Dude, I’m getting wood”.

Business users are typically more demanding of their notebooks than normal consumers. Business users tend to want portability, power and pretty much everything else. The boss approving the orders wants all that stuff too, but at a cheap price.

Dell says it has listened to its business customers and delivered everything they want with its new Vostro 1310 and 1510 notebooks. The 1310 notebook has a 13.3-inch screen and the 1510 is a 15.4-inch notebook. Dell says that the 13.3-inch Vostro has 94% of the viewing area of the 14.1-inch Vostro, but weighs 20% less.

With the end of the format wars it’s time for those out there who have been waiting to buy a HD format DVD player to jump in with Blu-ray. The players are still expensive for the most part, but they are expected to begin dropping in cost soon.

Dell announced that its Inspiron 1525 now features a Blu-ray player and HDMI out at well under $1000. Dell says that a Blu-ray equipped 1525 will start at $879. If you have needed a new notebook and have an HDTV this is the way to go. $825 is reasonable for most notebooks and the addition of the Blu-ray and HDMI out will have you watching on your big screen in no time.

If you have been holding out for a new notebook Dell has a deal for you. Right now Dell is offering the XPS M1530 with $599 instant savings and the XPS M1330 with $599 instant savings and free shipping.

That means you can get the 15-inch M1530 starting at $1199 with a Core 2 Duo T7250 CPU, 3GB RAM NVIDIA 8600M GT, Bluetooth, 802.11n, and a finger print reader. The normal price for the rig is $1898. If you want something a little more portable you can check out the M1330.

Dell really does make some nice LCDs and they just put out another new on that fits into that “nice” category with the UltraSharp 2009W. This is a 20-inch, 16:10 widescreen monitor that will support up to a 1680 x 1050 resolution.

Other notable features include a 5ms response time, a 2000:1 contrast ratio, 102% color gamut and a 170º horizontal viewing angle. It also has 4USB ports and DVI with HDCP and VGA which will let you get in on the protected movies. The stand even telescopes up and down, pivots, tilts and rotates 90 degrees. Dell has the UltraSharp 2009W available on its website now for $289.

Dell is putting its own spin on the rugged laptop design as the top tier computer manufacturer today unveiled its first fully ruggedized notebook computer. It is called the Dell Latitude XFR D630 and pricing starts at around $3,900.

The Dell Latitude XFR D630 is designed to meet military standards in areas of extreme temperatures, moisture and altitudes. It has many common components found in Dell’s regular Latitude laptops while also offering “a patent-pending thermal management system” to deliver better graphics performance.

Dell is getting out of the “we own a brand name location” business, the computer company announced today. It said it plans to close its 140 kiosks in the United States.

Dell began its “Direct Store” model in 2002, but has since expanded to a retail model which puts its laptop and desktop computers in more than 10,000 retail outlets worldwide. The company feels its retail shifts fit “with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving.”

Dell and Microsoft partnered on a program called (RED) in conjunction with (RED) co-founder Bono to help fight AIDS in Africa. The program offers special (RED) branded PCs and printer in which part of the proceeds will go to help people in places like Rwanda, Swaziland and Ghana.

For each purchased (PRODUCT) RED branded PC from Dell loaded with a RED branded Windows Vista Ultimate, Dell and Microsoft will contribute between $50 and $80 to the Global Fund of the program. $80 will bring as much as six months of life-saving antiretroviral treatment for a person living with AIDS in Africa. A RED branded printer will generate a $5 contribution.