Monitors
Asus announces wireless USB LCD monitors
After ushering in a revolutionary, perception-altering paradigm shift by changing the Eee PC's motto from 'Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play' to the far more enlightening 'Easy, excellent, exciting', Asus dropped off news about its first wireless LCD computer monitors -- the EzLink Series.
If memory serves -- and it often does -- these Wireless USB monitors were first hinted at in the middle of last year, when Realtek announced its collaboration with Asus on their creation. But we just got word from Asus that they now exist!
Details are scarce of course, and Asus hasn't got back to us regarding exact specifications. But it looks like these monitors will be the first to connect to your desktop or laptop without touching -- y'know, like your parents in bed -- and the promise is the same user experience conventional wired displays offer. Continue reading...
Most iPhone apps spurned after purchase
Just 30 per cent of people who buy an iPhone application actually use it the day after it was purchased, according to Pinch Media, which analysed over 30 million downloads from Apple's App Store.
The numbers plunge from there: after 20 days, less than five per cent of those who have downloaded an application are actively using it. The drop-off is even greater for free applications. Continue reading...
BenQ M2200HD: 16:9, 1080p monitor joy
Monitors with a 4:3 aspect ratio have all but died a slow, painful death, and 16:10 models like the one you're using now are on their way out, too. The future is all about 16:9 displays like the new BenQ M2200HD, which we had the pleasure of testing recently.
This 21.5-inch bad boy runs at a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels -- the same as you get on 'Full HD' 1080p televisions. This means it's ideally suited to watching high-definition movie content -- particularly Blu-ray or HD DVD movies, which are designed to run at that particular aspect ratio and resolution. Continue reading...
HP Dreamcolor LP2480ZX: One billion colours!
The generous chaps over at HP have just sent us what they proudly believe is the LCD monitor to end all LCD monitors. The HP Dreamcolor LP2480ZX's claim to fame is that it'll deliver colour reproduction the likes of which was only possible with a CRT display.
Designed in conjunction with movie studio Dreamworks, the LP2480ZX is capable of showing 64 times the colours supported by ordinary LCDs. It has a 30-bit LCD panel and a tri-colour LED backlight, which allows it to display over one billion colours. That's heavily impressive, considering the LCD you're reading this on probably shows just 16.7 million shades.Continue reading...
LG Flatron W2284F: Nipple-powered monitor
LG sent us a rather lovely 22-inch monitor to test this morning, and it stirred something primal in our loins. You see, the LG Flatron W2284F has the curves of Beyoncé Sasha Fierce, style like Gok Wan, and -- with a weight of just 4.4kg -- we suspect it may even have one of those trendy eating disorders.
Our favourite thing about the screen is the touch-sensitive power button, which one Craver noticed looks like a slightly deformed nipple. Bizarrely, you can actually tweak it to switch the power on, which causes the Perspex button to glow blue, and the clear transparent base to temporarily glow white. Perhaps that look is in this season. Continue reading...
Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display: Hey, good lookin'
In a short aside at tonight's Cupertino launch of the new MacBook and MacBook Pro, Steve Jobs casually introduced a new Cinema Display monitor, fashioned in purdy aluminium and glass. Continue reading...
Sony not alone in displaying OLEDs at Ceatec 2008
Sony has an entire wall of its 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TVs set up here at Ceatec 2008 in Chiba, Japan, but in contrast with past gadget shows, it's not the only company showing off OLED prototypes.
Panasonic may have said earlier this week that OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is still far from becoming a mass-produced mainstream technology for use in big-screen TVs, but other electronics makers are plowing ahead with their own research on the organic, thin film technology: NEC, Sony and KDDI showed off what they've been doing with OLED in their research labs.
Sony, of course, continues to press ahead its OLED research and development, showing a flexible OLED display as thin as a playing card, as well an OLED TV that's even thinner than its current XEL-1. The prototype measures just 0.3 millimeters thick.
KDDI is going in a slightly different direction, looking to take OLED smaller and mobile. The mobile phone company showed an OLED display measuring 79mm (3.1 inches) and meant for mobile devices. It's just a prototype for now. Continue reading...
LG Flatron M2294D: When monitors and TVs get it on
When Crave inherits the Earth, we're gonna change a few things. First, we'll make everyone watch Lips 2 Da Floor at least three times a day, every day, indefinitely. We're also going to sort out world peace, but not before making it compulsory for every PC monitor to include a TV tuner.
LG's priorities seem just as sorted as ours. It's just released the Flatron M2294D LCD TV-cum-PC monitor -- a 22-inch screen that looks like a telly and acts like a telly, but also packs a high-resolution 1,680x1,050-pixel, 16:10 panel so it can be used as a proper PC monitor.
The specs make for good reading: analogue and digital Freeview tuners, two Scart inputs, two HDMI inputs, component in, and optical digital audio out for surround-sound goodness. Continue reading...
Fujitsu-Siemens ScenicView 'Zero Watt' monitor: Pigs might fly
Green is the new black. No, we're not talking about the latest trends at the London Fashion Show -- rather the current trend of making electronic friendlier to the environment.
Fujitsu-Siemens reckons it's doing its bit with the Zero Watt monitor, also known as the ScenicView P20W-5 Eco. As you might have guessed, this rather attractive-looking display purportedly uses zero Watts during standby mode in an attempt to save electricity, money, and ultimately the world. Continue reading...
LG Flatron W2252TE: Greenest monitor in the world?
So you wanna save the Earth, huh? You've got two options: you can visit the Surya nightclub in London and dance on its electricity-generating dance floor, or you can buy an LG Flatron W2252TE monitor.
It might sound like some sort of futuristic tank, but the W2252TE is reportedly the world's most eco-friendly monitor. LG reckons it sucks just 22W in use and as little as 0.3W in standby mode. We tested these claims, and to our delight, it drew just 18.8W in use and less than 0.1W in standby mode. To put things in perspective, other 22-inch monitors tend to draw somewhere in the region of 40W.
So it's genuinely green, but is it any good? Well, yes. The 22-inch panel runs at 1,680x1,050 pixels, the screen isn't horribly glossy, it has a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 2ms response time, an HDCP-compliant DVI port, and the image reproduction is very, very good. Continue reading...
