Oh! Gizmo

By Shane McGlaun

Before the global economy went into the crapper, many businesses held quarterly or more frequent meetings to talk strategy and other items. Many firms flew employees in from all around the country to attend these meetings. With the poor economy today, flying people in has become too expensive and many businesses are going to video conferencing instead.

Samsung has announced a new video conferencing LCD called the VC240 that integrates all of the components needed for HD desktop video conferencing into a 24-inch LCD that works as a computer monitor as well.

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By Shane McGlaun

For many years, I worked with a 19-inch LCD and though I had a big screen. I ended up flipping back and forth through windows for hours each day before I moved to a 24-inch screen. With the larger screen, I could get two documents side by side and it was great. Now I often wish I had two 24-inch screens.

The problem is that I don’t have the desk space to sit a pair of 24-inch screens on the desktop. Steelcase has announced a new LCD arm available through its Details brand that will hold up to three 24-inch screens on a single articulating mount.

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By Shane McGlaun

Ever wonder why computer monitors are typically black, silver, or beige? No? Well I have wondered why most computer gear is the same color before, I guess no one likes to rock the boat or maybe those colors are cheaper to produce. I’d like to have a nice Ferrari red LCD, but alas I have a silver and black Dell.

Samsung has announced new LCDs for computer users that feature the firm’s Touch of Color design. The monitors have a clear acrylic neck to make them seem to be floating says Samsung. The three models include the P2070, P2370, and P2370HD.

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By Luke Anderson

I’ve been using Windows Vista for quite some time now, and one feature I’ve never taken advantage of is SideShow. If you’re not familiar with the feature, it allows you to have a small screen which displays a variety of useful information. I remember hearing about this and thinking how cool it would be to use. Unfortunately Vista has been out for close to two years, and there aren’t a lot of devices that work with SideShow. Those that do will generally set you back more than your primary monitor. Fortunately Mini-Box has created an excellent device that won’t break the bank.

The PicoLCD 4×20 Sideshow is a small SideShow LCD screen that can display up to four lines of 20 characters. It works with a variety of Gadgets such as Windows Media Player, WeatherBug, Stocks Plus and more. You can program each gadget to display a variety of information, and in the case of Windows Media Player, navigate through your music library from the device itself. The best thing about this screen has to be the price. At $50, this is the least expensive Sideshow product I’ve seen.

[ Mini-Box ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Luke Anderson

Guys, how many pictures do you keep in your wallet? I have seven (not including the one on my license), which seems like a small amount in comparison to some people. All of those pictures can add some extra bulk to your wallet, not to mention they don’t always seem to look the greatest in those plastic sleeves. Now what if instead of actual photos, you had a wallet with an LCD screen? That’d be pretty cool.

Well, it would be cool until you left it in your jeans to get washed. I doubt that it would survive a single wash. If you are a careful person, then this wallet will run you around $60. The screen is 1.44-inches and the viewer can store up to 60 pictures.

[ Seventh Avenue ] VIA [ UberReview ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While a 52 inch version of Westinghouse’s QUAD HD LCD monitor has been available to select companies in need of high-resolution displays for a while, a new version is now available to anyone willing to shell out $50,000. The new model, dubbed the D56QX1, has been bumped to 56 inches in size and like its predecessor features a resolution of 3840×2160. That’s 8.3 million pixels, compared to 2.1 million for boring old 1080p HD. The D56QX1 also features a 1200:1 contrast ratio, 500 nits brightness, a 6.5ms response time and compatibility with a wide variety of dual-link DVI video cards from ATI and Nvidia. Just make sure your desk can support 108lbs of monitor before you make the investment.

[ Westinghouse D56QX1 56" Quad Full HD Monitor ] VIA [ TG Daily ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m kind of sitting on the fence when it comes to how useful this Dual Multimedia Display from Samsung really is. The primary display is a 22-inch LCD with a resolution of 1680×1050, while the secondary display is a tiny 7-inch LCD with a resolution of just 800×480. So in a way, it’s like having an Asus EEE attached to the side of your monitor. The secondary display relies on a USB UbiSync connection and is attached to the back of the primary display with an articulating arm allowing it to be moved to any side. (Except the bottom.) It can even be completely removed from the arm, and used as a standalone monitor.

The smaller display is supposed to be used for applications like instant messengers, media players or email apps that you want to continuously monitor, but don’t want cluttering your main work display. But with a price tag of around $550, you’d be better off investing in 2 slightly smaller displays if you have the desk real estate.

[ Samsung 2263DX Dual Multimedia Display ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Luke Anderson

I love to multi task when sitting at my desk. I’ve got four monitors running at any given time, and I think that’s a pretty good setup. However, if you really need a lot of workspace, you might just look into the Paramount Parabolic Multi-Monitor Display from Humanscale.

My configuration includes three wall-mounted monitors and one that sits on my desk. While this unit from Humanscale doesn’t actually provide the monitors, it does accommodate between two and four monitors on a single unit, which is attached to your desk. What’s better is that monitors attach “effortlessly” without the need of tools, and actually curve around you. Frankly, if I ever decide to add any more monitors to my setup, this is definitely the route I’m going to take. You have no idea how difficult it is to mount monitors side-by-side on the wall. I’ll let you in on a small secret: it’s a huge pain in the ass.

This monitor mount will be available sometime in Q1 of this year. Unfortunately there is no word on pricing.

[ Humanscale ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As digital photo frames become larger, at what point do you draw the line between a dedicated photo viewer and an LCD TV/monitor? I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure there’s a technical standard somewhere that says once you put a tacky faux-wood frame around the outside edge, the LCD has to be sold as a digital photo frame. And that’s how you end up with this huge 32-inch model from Smartparts (which I’ve typed as Smartpants at least 10 times now.)

Besides the size, there’s unfortunately not much else to be impressed with. It has a resolution of 1366×768, which is perfect for displaying your 1 megapixel photos, and includes just 256MB of internal memory. As for file support, it can load JPG files off of an MS, SD or CF card, and also supports various video formats like MPEG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMA and AVIs. I will give it credit for also supporting PDF and PowerPoint files, making the display a bit more useful for office environments.

I’m not sure when the SP3200 will be available (it could be already) but it will supposedly come with an $899 price tag.

[ Smartparts SP3200 ] VIA [ I4U News ]