monitors

The bottom line: Back from the nearly dead, or at least the un-updated, ESET returns with high-level security that's light on your system. For a basic antivirus suite that's light on your system and tough on malware, NOD32 gets a yes from us.

Review:

The last time ESET updated its two security suites--the antivirus and anti-malware-only NOD32 and the more feature-heavy alternative Smart Security--it was a different computer security world. It was March 2009: Anonymous barely existed, Stuxnet hadn't gone public, and ransomware was the stuff of science fiction.

Version 5 of ESET NOD32 is a solid, … Read more

LED-based monitors continue their march toward completely taking over the world, and Hewlett-Packard is one of many monitor vendors doing little to stop this.

In fact it's actively contributing to the conquest. Soon we'll all be using them, saving a couple dollars every year on power and what then, huh? What then?!

Well, I, for one, welcome our new LED-based overlords, hence this blog. Today, HP announced a number of IPS displays; this, however, is not one of them. The HP Compaq LE2202x is a 22-inch (with 21.5-inches of actual viewing space) display with an LED-based backlight … Read more

The last few months in monitor reviews have been dominated by rail-thin monitors with twisted nematic (TN) displays. Many have been impressive specimens. But as far as monitors go, there are other panel technologies out there, people.

Today, Hewlett-Packard announced five new computer monitors: one TN and four that use in-plane switching (IPS) technology.

IPS monitors generally provide wider viewing angles and usually cover a higher percentage of the sRGB color space than TNs, so they appeal to more professional users, who may require more accurate visuals.

Below we'll dive into the details of four new IPS monitors, one … Read more

Not everybody needs (or wants) a huge monitor. As a matter of fact, the awesome Acer Aspire 8950G-9839 desktop-replacement laptop I use on a daily basis has a "mere" 18.4-inch display, and I find it more than adequate.

From now until tomorrow, or while supplies last, Dell is offering its own Dell IN1920 18.5-inch LCD monitor for $69.99 shipped (plus sales tax in some states). The monitor is new, not refurbished.

As you might expect at that price point, the IN1920 has few frills. It's a VGA-only monitor with a 5ms response time and … Read more

I expected the Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H to be a worthy successor to the Samsung PX2370. I was wrong, and while the S23A550H wasn't a bad monitor, it failed to live up to the performance and smart design of the best TN monitor to date.

I guess it stands to reason that I went into the SyncMaster S23A350H's review with low expectations. Having just been disappointed by the S23A550H, I wasn't willing to put my heart back out on the chopping block just yet.

Sometimes, however, lowering your expectations can yield some surprising results. So, does the S23A350H … Read more

On most of its systems Apple does not support HDMI output, and in order to use HDMI people have had to use adapters such as Apple's DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter. For the most part these work fine for sending audio and video information to various devices, but some people have found after upgrading to OS X Lion that their HDMI connections are either not showing video, not playing audio, or both.

Unfortunately the root cause of this problem is not too apparent, as the HDMI behaviors seem to be different for different setups. In some instances it happens intermittently, and in … Read more

Anyone who's owned a computer for an extended period of time (1+ years) can tell you that, after some amount of time, it just seems to boot up much slower than when they first got it. There are plenty of ways to help keep your computer's boot time as small as possible, but how can you find out exactly how long your system is taking to boot up? Check these steps out to find this information built right into a Windows utility.

Step 1: Open the Start menu and type Event viewer into the Search box and open … Read more

We covered the launch news of the iZON Remote Room Monitor from Stem Innovation on Monday. Now, I have my hands on an actual unit. We'll see if it's as easy to use as promised.

Here's a quick refresher. The iZON combines a camera with an iOS app to keep video and audio tabs on a room.

I set the iZON up in my living room where an unidentified feline suspect has been clawing the couch. Dealing with the hardware is simple and the power cord was long enough to reach to the top of the bookcase where I placed the camera.

The next step involved downloading the free Stem:Connect app to my iPad and following the setup instructions to hook the iZON up with my home wireless network. Easy-peasy.

From there, I was up and running. My DSL connection in this old neighborhood is extremely pokey, so there was a slight delay in the video showing up on my iPad. Users with faster Internet connections shouldn't have this problem.

Stem Innovation recommends at least a 2Mbps upload speed. I wish mine was that fast.… Read more

LED-based monitors actually worth their asking price are a recent trend I can easily get behind. Displays such as the Dell S2330MX and the Samsung S23A550H are LED-based, low-priced, and, when push comes to shove, ultimately worth their low prices.

The HP x2301 is the latest in recent monitor releases following the same thin-design paradigm, but does it follow the high-quality trend as well? With its sound design, cool-looking footstand, and low $200 price (currently), all signs point to yes, but there's more to a monitor's worth than simply design and price.

One thing that sets the x2301 apart from the aforementioned TN displays is its glossy screen. I spoke to this in a more general sense a few months back, but this is the first of these recent, superslim LED-based displays to house such a reflective screen.… Read more