ET deals: Dell Inspiron 15 7000 touchscreen laptop for $600 with Venue 8 Pro tablet

Buying both a MacBook Air and an iPad Mini would cost you upwards of $1300, but you don’t need to spend that kind of money to get a nice laptop and tablet combo. Dell is currently selling the Inspiron 15 7000 series for just $600, and with it comes a free 8-inch Windows tablet. That’s less than half of what you’d pay for Apple’s solution.

On the inside, this Inspiron sports a dual-core 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-4210U CPU, integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400, 6GB of DDR3L RAM (1600MHz), a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi support. With a 1080p IPS display and an HDMI 1.4a port, you’ll be able to enjoy a full HD display whether you’re on the go or plugged into your big screen.

What about the tablet, though? This 8-inch Windows tablet features a quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735G CPU, Intel HD graphics, 1GB of DDR3L-RS RAM, 32GB of flash storage, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi support. And since weighs less than a pound, you can easily take it anywhere. Stash it in your backpack, read on the bus, or watch Netflix in bed.

Usually, this Inspiron 15 model retails for $924.99, and a 32GB Venue 8 tablet costs $199. But for a limited time, you can get both for just $599.99. Simply add the laptop to your shopping cart, and the applicable discounts will automatically be applied. Better yet, shipping is free, so you’ll be saving even more.

• Dell Inspiron 15 7000 touchscreen laptop for $599.99 with Venue 8 Pro tablet(Market value: $1123.99)

Check out these other outstanding deals:

• HP Pavilion 23xw IPS LED-lit monitor for $134.99 (Coupon code: 15HPTECHBARG)
• Vizio M552I-B2 55-inch LED-lit smart TV for $697.99 with $200 Dell eGift card(Market value: $797.99)

Comcast speeds past Google Fiber with symmetrical 2Gbps service

Comcast may be evil incarnate in some ways, but it’s also rolling out some seriously fast hardware. Today the company announced that 2Gbps fiber service will be available to 1.5 million Atlanta customers beginning this month. Called Gigabit Pro, Comcast claims it’s the fastest available in the country for home users, and will deliver 2Gbps both down and up.

That puts it ahead of Google’s own 1Gbps symmetrical fiber service — or AT&T’s in Kansas City, if you let them spy on you for the privilege of paying them for their own product. Google plans to roll out its own service to 34 new cities in 2015, although we’re still waiting for someone to launch gigabit fiber in big ones like San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, and Boston.

“Gigabit Pro is a professional-grade residential fiber-to-the-home solution that leverages our fiber network to deliver 2 Gbps upload and download speeds. We’ve spent a decade building a national fiber backbone across 145,000 route miles of fiber” in advance of the launch, the company wrote. It adds that the new service will require professional installation, and that the company plans to reach 18 million homes by the end of the year.

“Our approach is to offer the most comprehensive rollout of multi-gigabit service to the most homes as quickly as possible, not just to certain neighborhoods,” said Doug Guthrie, SVP of Comcast Cable’s South Region, in a separate statement that’s a clear shot at Google’s slow rollout.

The new offering is a big jump from its existing 505Mbps home service, which costs a whopping $399 per month. It’s doubtful 2Gbps will be cheap, either, although there are also plans for a 1Gbps fiber service in the works that could put it more in line with Google Fiber’s $70-per-month price point. “Gigabit Pro isn’t the only way we plan to bring gigabit speeds to customers’ homes,” Comcast said. “We are currently testing DOCSIS 3.1, a scalable, national, next generation 1 Gbps technology solution. We hope to begin rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 in early 2016.”

Keep in mind that Comcast is vehemently opposed to net neutrality rules, so you’re not going to see us breaking out the champagne over the company’s latest claims. In 2014, Comcast spent almost $17 million lobbying on the federal level alone. 2Gbps fiber isn’t enough to make us forget that, especially in just one city — although more competition for Google and AT&T is always a good thing. Not that ISPs would ever admit it themselves. Still, breaking the 2Gbps barrier is worth at least some applause, at least once it’s actually available.