When upgrading a PC, the monitor is often the one thing people keep hold of. The rationale goes that it still works perfectly well and newer screens still use the same TFT technology that’s dominated the industry in recent times. Why shell out for a new one?
I’ve just finished testing Iiyama’s latest flagship model - a 26in monster of a display with DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs and a very impressive set of 5W speakers. It’s a solid TFT, and I was expecting a reasonably attractive price given the non-adjustable stand, but I was staggered to see just how cheap it is.
If you keep close tabs on the smartphone scene - and PC Pro’s reviews section - you’ll know that we weren’t too impressed with HTC’s response the iPhone 3G, the Touch Diamond a couple of months ago.
We liked the fact that it buried most of Windows Mobile’s ugliness under an attractive, finger-friendly touchscreen interface, and we liked its fantastic VGA screen. We were also keen on its fantastic web browser - Opera Mobile 9.5.
But we hated its sluggish performance. The whole point of touchscreen interfaces is that they should be responsive, but this was anything but. Hit a control on screen and, like as not, you’d have to wait a second or so before anything actually happened. It was one of the most frustrating phones we’ve ever had the displeasure to use.
Would the same issues afflict its big brother - the Touch Pro, which arrived in the Labs today?
Our review of the latest in the Eee PC roster, the 1000H, is now online, and it’s the most usable model yet. But this marvellous chart tells its own story (click to enlarge).
The “Easy, Excellent, Exciting” (yes, that is what it stands for; no, I couldn’t believe it either) brand now consists of 12 models - and that’s only those in official existence.
There’s also going to be a 701SD with external storage, an Atom-based 900A, and a Celeron-based 1000HD to complete a line-up which will comprise 15 different Eee PC options. And that’s before the $900 S101 arrives to take the brand to a whole new level of absurdity.
Without a chart like this I certainly wouldn’t be able to tell you what’s inside each one, so I can’t imagine how the average PC World shopper goes about choosing.
You may have noticed the latest review up on the PC Pro homepage, of HP’s Pavilion HDX9320EA laptop. A gloriously over the top machine, with oodles of style and a price tag that’s certainly not as high as we expected when it was crane-lifted out of the box.
But is it actually a laptop? Could it feasibly be argued that this leviathan will comfortably sit on the average lap? At some point a desktop replacement becomes, well, just a desktop by another name. (more…)
I never thought I’d end up doing this when I joined PC Pro but, as potential career directions go, it could prove quite lucrative.
As part of the artwork for an upcoming Labs, I’ve been roped into some hand-modelling. It’s a glamorous affair: I was led down to one of our plush, fully-equipped photo studios and fussed over by a skilled and talented photographer and his able assistant.
There was more, too: members of the production team evaluating the pictures to see if my hand was behaving, and Art Editor Jo Clements was lovely enough to hold my elbow up throughout so I could keep the object in the correct position.
The best part, though? Finding out that the top hand models can make hundreds of pounds per hour if they keep their cuticles in great shape and wear gloves everywhere they go.
I also know how the average celebrity feels, now, as I’ve been told that my hand just wasn’t svelte or tanned enough - and I’ve been Photoshopped. The finished image, when it appears in the magazine, will feature numerous changes: the nail on my right thumb has been tidied up, a few unsightly hairs have been virtual-plucked out of existence, and my pasty, pale, IT journalist’s skin has been given a touch of fake tan.
It’s the only time that I’ve ever been able to say that I feel like Britney.
Now that the photoshopping’s out of the way, then, there’s only one mystery left - what am I holding?
Unless you can guess - and please let me know if you do - then the only way to find out is to wait and see: Issue 168 hits the shops on Thursday the 14th August. Me and my hand will see you there.
Many of you left comments agreeing that enough is enough, and reader rjp2000 made the point that the printer and camera markets are just as bad as laptop manufacturers. From experience I knew that (s)he was spot on, but this month that point has been rammed home far more irritatingly than I ever imagined.
This is a piece of class. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team has sent the Firefox pack a congratulatory cake to celebrate the launch of Firefox 3. Say what you want about their browser and Microsoft as a whole but it’s a grand gesture between two extremely fierce rivals.
With all the critical media coverage of high-profile data losses in recent months (much of it here on PC Pro), it’s no wonder that people are thinking more and more about their own data security. It makes sense to be paranoid, to a certain extent, but it’s easy to go too far. (more…)
You may have seen a blog post from the other day that referred to a semi-circular projector screen that can envelop the user in an image - the jDome- which has seemingly endless possibilities in the realms of immersive movie-watching. Or, alternatively, immersive game-playing: imagine hiking through the jungles of Crysis, or battling through battalions of enemies in Call of Duty 4 with bombs exploding literally all around you.
One flaw quickly arose, though, and sparked debate in the PC Pro office - how would you play a game when you have to stand, surrounded, by the screen? The general consensus was that you’d need some sort of strap-on desk, on which a keyboard, mouse or laptop could be held and used.
Of course, this was a mere pipe-dream: an answer to a problem that, surely, will rarely exist, and one too silly to seriously contemplate. A bit like the jDome itself, in fact. Consider our surprised when that exact object of our fascination arrived, unannounced, in the PC Pro Labs.
Just in from laptop manufacturer MSI, the rather oddly monikered Titan 700 PC. We say oddly because, despite the grandiose title, it’s actually MSI’s brand new attempt at a small form factor PC.
