Finally got around to unpacking my new XPS One – a gorgeous system that in looks and performance rivals anything out there.  Amazingly easy set-up and unpacking.  Keyboard is fantastic.

What actually takes the most time is getting all the stuff I need onto the system.  We have to find some way of making that easy for people to do – maybe as part of the order process?  Anyway, here is what I am loading:

• Internet Explorer 7 – already on the system – set-up my iGoogle and Yahoo home pages. Remember, you can set as many homepages as you like so when you launch, they all open in tabs. Import bookmarks and feeds.
• Firefox: I prefer IE 7 over Firefox but like to have Firefox about for some of the add-ins.
• Download and install del.icio.us extensions for IE and Firefox. Click on the buttons and save to del.icio.us.
• Livewriter – my preferred blogging client. Fantastic little app from Microsoft that they have managed to make impossible and anoying to install by bundling with their very confusing “Live” family of products.
• Google Toolbar. Try the beta. Love the gadgets in the toolbar.
• Google Notebook. Terrific way to store information and access it from anywhere.
• Skype. Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it…
• Yahoo Messenger. Chitter chatter…
• Feeddemon – my preferred way to read all those blogs. Still can’t get it to sync correctly and wish they would deploy the NetNewsWire interface.
• Raphsody. Love this. Is the future of online music in so many ways. But still need a simple way to manage my tunes so download iTunes as well.  iTunes is still the best way for me to access my Podcast subscriptions.
• Real.  I go for the free version with the IE 7 plug-in. Love it as a way to collect and store video.

Now i am downloading all my cadgets for Windows Sidebar – why don’t they store this online and sync it via log-in? This goes for all the dashboards…

I’ll keep updating this as I motor along…