Cool Tech Reviews

My gaming days are mostly behind me but the LG Flatron 1970HR LCD monitor caught my eye when I saw the 2 ms response time. John R. Delaney has kicked its tires at PC Magazine and here’s the net:

Known for turning out stylish TVs, cell phones, and computer displays, LG Electronics continues the trend with its 19-inch Flatron L1970HR ($420 street) LCD monitor. This flashy 1,280-by-1,024 panel features a 1,600:1 contrast ratio and the fastest LCD pixel-response rating—2 milliseconds—I’ve ever seen. Gamers and video buffs will appreciate the monitor’s smooth motion performance, but if you’re working with lots of small text or photos, look elsewhere.
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The big story here is the L1970’s amazingly fast 2-ms (black to white) pixel-response rating. I put it to the test while playing several rounds of Doom 3 and was blown away by the panel’s smooth motion performance. Granted, it’s not CRT quality, but there was no noticeable ghosting and very few motion artifacts. I fired up The Matrix on DVD to see how the monitor handled the tough combination of fast action and dark shading and came away impressed, although there was a slight loss of shadow detail. Even so, gamers and multimedia mavens will have a ball with this display.

He does report some problems with grayscale rendition and ultra small fonts, although I suspect those are way, way down on most people’s “must have” feature lists.

With all the models of LCD and plasma televisions to choose from, one tends to forget that there are still very good deals to be had on rear projection TVs as demonstrated in Robert Heron’s review of the HP Pavilion MD5880n at PC Magazine:

Rear-projection TVs (RPTVs) offer big screen enjoyment for a fraction of the price of the largest flat-panel displays, and the 58-inch HP Pavilion md5880n ($3,499.99 list) is one of the most impressive RPTVs I’ve seen to date. Its robust A/V input selection is uniquely located for easy access, and a slick menu system provides useful customization and visualization features for those connected devices. With its stylishly modern design and a detailed picture that is capable of producing accurate and well-saturated colors, the md5880n earns my pick as an Editors’ Choice.

Hit the link for all these details on this 1080p native system as well as the few things he did find not to like, but my concern has always been the weight of projection TVs. That has certainly improved over the years, but the md5880n weighs 118 pounds and although it has built-in handholds, you will still need a friend to help you move the beast.

UltimateAV’s Thomas J. Norton provides a very detailed review as well and recommends that you get the HP custom stand which weighs as much as the MD5880 itself. His overall net:

But in the here and now I am immensely impressed with this model from HP. This is a great debut for a company previously known mainly for its computer products; HP hit the target from almost every direction. I could live happily with this set - if not ever after, at least until the next big jump in video display devices, whatever and whenever that may be.

Finally, Philip Ryan reviewed the HP MD6580n 65-inch big brother to the MD5880n at CNET and found a lot to like too and it’s still a “svelte” 138 pounds.

Paul Thurrott notes the defection of some prominent Mac users to the Ubuntu Linux distribution:

It’s curious to me that people are leaving OS X for Ubuntu, not because Ubuntu isn’t great, but because I figured anyone with that kind of gene in their body would be fine in Apple’s world. I guess not. Anyway… (former) Mac advocates Cory Doctorow and Mark Pilgrim are both switching to Ubuntu.

Tim O’Reilly has more on the trend (fad?) and you can read Doctorow’s and Pilgrim’s explanations for yourself, but this is all by way of a lead-in to Pilgrim’s essential software list:

Now that I’ve completed my move to Linux (sorry Mac fanboys, the install was flawless and everything worked out of the box), someone emailed me to suggest that I update my essential software list. So here you go.

1. Ubuntu, which is an ancient African word meaning “can’t install Debian”.

There are many more entries on the list, many with a touch of techie humor. The slant of the list is about making the transition from Mac user to Ubuntu user, but it’s got me thinking about the old Windows 98 machine sitting next to me that is about to go out of support.

Update 7/9: Also highly recommended is EasyUbuntu.