YourITronics

I finally got a new monitor on my desk, an Acer P223w. It looks great and I’m very happy with the performance, i mean its not top of its class but its worth the money i payed for it. I choose Acer after doing allot of research, of-course there were allot of other models and makes on the 22inch segment like Samsung that are slightly better but those were over my budget. Another reason i chose Acer for, its the Crystal Brite technology (CrystalBrite is Acer’s marketing name for high-gloss laptop screens, representing the latest in anti-reflective LCD screen technology). I own an Acer Aspire notebook, which has CrystalBrite display and it looks great, so i wanted the same technology on my desktop monitor.

Before i got the Acer P223w i was using a 17 inch CRT monitor(yeah i know, i should of got a new monitor some time ago) so you can imagine that i was truly impressed with the size and properties of the Acer. Here is a list with the main features of the Acer:

• Screen Size : 22″
• Resolution : 1680 x 1050
• Contrast Ratio : 2500
• Response Time : 5ms
• Connection : DVI, D-Sub

Acer actually build two versions of this monitor one with D-Sub(VGA) and one with DVI connector. I have the one with VGA, because at the store where i ordered the monitor they only had this version. But i don’t think the DVI version would of been any better, because most of the differences between DVI and VGA monitors are just numbers, nothing to be seen with your eyes.

The first thing i did when i powered it on, was to check for any dead pixels (i recommend you do this every time you buy an LCD display). The best way to check for dead pixels is to run a program called LCDtest (i attached a zip archive, so just click on the link to download it). What the program does is to display 5 colors on your screen(white, red, green, blue and black), this make spotting dead pixels really easy. So i ran the test and everything was ok, actually during the test i could see how nicely the monitor displays the black colour(very black).

My video card already detected it as a wide screen monitor and set the 1680 x 1050 resolution. Next thing to do was to find a nice High Definition wallpaper, i chose this nice mountain scenery. I’ve not seen bleeding issues like others report on various forums and sites, in fact i have no issue at all with the monitor. Even if it doesn’t have the 2 ms required response time for gaming, the monitor still displayed the games i tested without issues(Comand&Conquer latest versions, NFS Carbon).

Another great thing about the Acer P223W is the OSD menu, which is great. Other monitors have really complicated OSD menus, but not Acer. You can access 2 main OSD menus, the full menu by hitting the Menu button, or the E button (e comes from Empowering, another technology from Acer). So far i only use the empowering button, because i only change the display mode from Text to Movie sometimes, everything else the monitor adjusts automatically.

As a final word, the Acer P223W is a great monitor and definetely a must see on your shopping list. If you have a limited budget and you want to get great design and performance, this is a perfect choice.

Well why should i write a review on a JBL subwoofer ? Because i got one and it make’s me proud. I recently added this subwoofer combined with a Blaupunkt GTA 2 Special Mk II amp and 4 speakers ,2 for fron, and 2 for rear on my car. I will be reviewing the amp and the speakers in later posts. Lets start with the first impression on the JBL subwoofer IT’S BIG and the second impression IT’S LOUD. The dimensions are 660mm x 346mm so you will lose some space from the trunk of your car if you want this installed, but trust me if you like music like i do, you wont mind it.

About the “LOUD” part JBL is saying about this product on their website that it has “New 300mm CS Subwoofer Generation — This quality-built woofer offers double the power handing of the previous generation: Stunning 250/1000 W (RMS/peak)” I can only say, well done JBL it really is LOUD, imagine this waiting on the stop lights listening to your favorite tune so loud that the cars around you are listening to your music instead of theirs. I paid about 160 $ for the subwoofer and the installation kit and it fits quite nicely in my trunk with the big JBL logo printed on it. So far i had no problems , the sound is crystal clear, the bass its amazing, you can fell it trough the seats, trough the floor, its everywhere. I hope this is enough for those of you that were asking themselvs whether to buy this subwoofer or not. If not please post a question and i will be happy to answer it.

Here is the specifications on JBL CS1204T Car Subwoofer:

• Type Bass-Reflex Subwoofer Tube
• Power Handling, RMS 250W
• Power Handling, Peak 1000W
• Sensitivity (2.83V/1m) 90dB
• Frequency Response 35Hz – 200Hz
• Impedance 4 Ohms
• Dimensions (Diam. XL) 660mm x 346mm

The pre-installed OS is pretty good for most things, but I find it is a bit limiting for real work. Xandros comes with KDE 3.4.2, so installing any newer KDE based apps is tricky, since that will force the upgrade of the kdelibs and could break stuff.

The other reason why the default OS is not appealing to me is that there is a 2.3GB read only partition for the OS files and pre-installed programs. So you only have 1.4GB for your user files on the built-in drive. That wouldn’t really be such a big problem if you could free up some space, however even if you uninstall apps you don’t use, you can’t actually use any of that freed space because no data gets removed from the system partition. And if you install new apps it uses space on your user partition.

So that’s a no go. I installed plain debian on my EeePC and it works really nicely. All the apps I need (Firefox, Openoffice, Kopete, Konversation, KDevelop, , plus a full Qt/C++ development enviroment fits into 1.5GB so I have more functionality in much less space and much more flexibility. Got an extra 4GB SD card so I might put Windows on that (although windows is a bitch to install on removable storage).

Overall the EeePC is really awesome.. Even though it has a small screen, I find I’m using my main laptop less and less at home. There’s a huge benefit to having something you can easily carry around with one hand, has no moving parts, and can use in any place, and boots up super fast.

I say you should, and if i did not convinced you with my previous review , here is what other reviews say about it:

“The U600 is the slimmest slide phone ever, measuring an astonishing 10.9mm thickness. Yet it’s a high-spec phone featuring a 3 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, and a fully-featured music player with expandable memory to replace your MP3 player. The only thing that may put some people off is the touch sensitive buttons – but sometimes you have to suffer a little to look good! A better buy might be the Samsung G600. Available in black, red, pink and blue”

And here is some Samsung U600 owner reviews gathered from the internet :

1. Great phone, very thin which is great and like the touch keys and camera quality is great a must buy phone for everyone. Has to be given and outstanding 5 stars.
2. didn’t like this phone – kept it for two days then exchanged it! battery is pretty rubbish, camera really good, but not worth keeping just for that. the key pad is way over senstive. i’ve been using samsung phones for years – defo not impressed with their latest, not as user friendly as past handsets.
   
3. the U900 is a great phone and i cant find any faults with it what so ever. everybody who says that is a bad phone is either just stupid or are stuck in the past and cant get used to todays technology!!! since i had my first samsung (D500) i have never had any other make of phone as i find samsungs very easy 2 use, stylish and modern. i would recomend this phone to everybody
4. Brilliant phone. Ive had it just over a week and i love it! I was originally going to go for an E900 but im so glad i went for the U600. Smooth, ultra slim slider (you wont believe how thin it is until you see it), sleek design and really excellent functions. Yes the battery life is not as good as other phones but that might be because you can’t put it down!! Touch sensitive keys are great but i think are better suited to women rather than men (sorry guys!!)I loved the motorola that i had before this and was worried about the change-over but i had nothing to worry about, i’ll definitely stay with Samsung for my next phone. Dont listen to the bad reviews – buy this phone, you’ll not regret it.
5. I’ve had this phone for a week now and I’m going to exchange it for either an N73 or k810i. The U600 main bad points are: 1. Terrible battery life. I need to charge it every day. Same usage on a K800 and I charged it every 3 days. 2. Texting is a nightmare. The predictive text software is awful. When given a list of possible words sometimes you have to scroll up, other times you have to scroll down. Why? 3. The touch sensitive buttons are great in theory but are not practical. Quite a number of times I’ve accidentally dialled someone while reading their text. Then you’ve got to quickly unlock the keypad and hang-up before the call is connected. This is beginning to become a real pain. ********** DO NOT BUY THE U600 **********
6. Just received my U600 and am pleased at the improvements Samsung have made to my previous phone the E900. At last on a Samsung, you can now use your own sounds for message alert, the ringer now supports vibrate and melody at the same time, messages are automatically saved and you now have a choice of clocks – which means you can go without the standard Samsung clock bar which is a permanent feature on earlier phones your mates may still have. For those – who I see from existing reviews – are gettting used to the touch-sensitive keys and moaning about inadvertently ringing numbers can I offer a workround which I used successfully on my E900 and which works on this phone. Simply go to your Call log and delete all ‘Recent Contacts’. Next time you brush over the phone key you will simply get a dialogue box on screen saying ‘Call log empty’. Note this does not affect your Missed Calls, Dialled Calls, Received Calls or Sent Messages – these are all still there in their own section to be accessed at any time you need them. I have added Call Log to ‘My Menu’ so you can easily jump to it and delete.Voila!
7. Very sturdy, the inside mech is metal. The slight wobble is not a weakness just movement in the metal track. Music player on mine does not see the 1gb mem card .. so no tunes will load – maybe I’m doing something wrong! can see then from the file app, but will only play 1 at a time, can’t mark multiple tracks … WHY? Everything else at this early stage looks pretty good to me – This one might last me a while, and believe me I’ve had a few!!!!!
8. Bought this phone from dialaphone to replace my beloved d500. The u600 is amazing! Everything is familiar from older samsung models, but can’t believe how thin it is. Camera is much much better than the d500, especially video recording. Screnn is amazing. I was worried about the touch sensitive keys, but tehr fine – don’t know what the fuss is about. I want to give this 6 out of 5!!!
9. Got this phone last week, have just got use to the sensitive touch and it works brilliantly. The photos taken with the 3.2mgp is sharp and clear. Battery can last me for 3 days if bluetooth not turn on. All symbols can be found are easily found by holding the # key. Software response is quick. Design is classy and elegant, with fantastic finishing. Samsung U600 is still the best compared to SE W880i, K550i, N95, N73, X820.
10. well well well.am i happy or what,got this phone today after swapping it from nokia 7390,i agonised for ages about swapping to this as i went off samsungs for a while.now they have sorted quite a few things out on their phones they have lured me back.i dont know what everyone is moaning about the touch sensitive keys,mine are perfect no jumping around all over the place like e900,equivalent to using the d900.the camera is very good with nice and clear picture quality,also no delay on shutter like some peoples complaints(i think it sounds like a faulty one)excellent sound quality and the main thing to me that converted me back is the fact you can now use your own tones for message alerts,not just the default dodgy ones.the battery has been quite good,lasted ages andi been messing round on it loads.Its slim,light and sexy and possibly gonna be a fave of mine.so buy it NOW !!!!!!

If you want my personal opinion, il give it to you again, There is only one bad thing to say about this phone: as usual Samsung fits it phones with not so good batteries as other phone manufacturers. So there is a down side, small battery life but that’s all.

Small computers are always liked by people. The reasons are obvious they are ergonomic, environmental friendly since they only suck up about 4-6w(considering the number of PCs that are left on continuously that could add up to a big environmental – and cost – saving), silently, they have fanless designs and lets not forget cool. The first reason I can come up for buying a small computer its because it is cool, after the cool part I can think at the other advantages.

Lets start by saying a few words about Linutop a small computer that runs from a USB key. Without internal hard drive, linutop is more robust. It offers a completely silent, low-power operation in an extremely small package. It comes with optimized software to access the Web and Digital Contents (Text, Photos, Music & Videos). Its low energy consumption its very low compared to a normal desktop computer, linutop only uses 5W of energy. A pack of Linutop + USB Key 1 GB Linutop

Is priced at $400. Click the Link to visit Linutop’s web page for full specs and ordering. Next lets talk NorhTec’s MicroClient Jr., an 11.5 x 11.5 x 3.5cm box based on SiS’ 200MHz SiS550 x86-compatible system-on-a-chip part. Like Linutop, the MicroClient Jr has no hard drive, but there’s a CompactFlash slot located on the front or a card containing the user’s preferred operating system – NorhTec will pre-install Linux if you like.

The unit has 128MB of on-board memory, plus a trio of USB ports – two on the front, one on the back – along with a PS/2 keyboard port, two serial connectors, 100Mbps Ethernet and a VGA port. MicroClient Jr. prices start from 120$ and go up according to your preferences. Click the Link for full specs and details.

Next on our list is Sumo ST166. Like Linutop, Sumo Technologies bases its ST166 box on an AMD Geode CPU, either a GX533 or an LX800. The 14 x 13 x 3.2cm unit crams in at least 128MB of memory and 64MB to 4GB of Flash storage. There are four USB ports and 100Mbps Ethernet, audio I/O connectors, and a VGA port. The Sumo’s average power consumption of 4.4 Watts makes it outstanding in its field.

Particularly suited for healthcare and industrial applications, the SUMO ST166 has zero ventilation requirements and is presented in a robust, sealed aluminum case. It has Support for Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Embedded, Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 and Linux operating systems. So its up to you what OS you will use with Sumo. Click the Link to visit Sumo’s web site.

The last small computer we will be reviewing in this article is ThinLinx. ThinLinx offers a more colorful option: the Hot-e. It’s offered in a couple of configurations both based on an AT91RM9200 SoC, itself derived from a MIPS ARM-compatible CPU, and available in lime, platinum or pink color schemes.

Again, an array of USB and serial ports are included, along with Ethernet for networking. And for power – one model, the HL100, supports Power Over Ethernet. ThinLinx also equips the boxes with CompactFlash and SD/MMC slots. The Debian ARM file system is pre-installed with the 2.6.12 Linux kernel. For full specifications click the Link.