IBLOG SPACE

Looking for a new monitor? Both Dell and HP have a few they’d like you to consider, ranging in size from 20- to 23-inches and priced from $149.99 to $299. Dell’s duo are the 21.5-inch U2211H and 23-inch U2311H, each running at 1080p resolution, while HP’s trio are the budget-minded 20-inch S2031, 22-inch S2231 and 23-inch S2331, the former running at 1600 x 900 and the latter two at 1080p. The Dell displays have DVI-D and DisplayPort connectors, along with a four port USB 2.0 hub for hooking up accessories. Contrast is 1,000:1 while brightness is 300 nits, and they tilt, swivel and height-adjust. The U2211H is priced at $279 while the U2311H is priced at $299. As for the HP displays, they have VGA and DVI-D connectors though no USB hub. As with the Dell panels there’s a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, though only tilt adjustments. They’re priced at $149.99, $189.99 and $219.99 for the S2031, S2231 and S2331 respectively.

Things have been quiet on the OnLive front of late, but the streaming games system looks to be finally rolling out commercially thanks to a partnership with UK telco BT. The deal sees BT take a 2.6-percent stake in OnLive, plus exclusive rights to bundle it with their home broadband services in the UK; meanwhile a US launch is tipped for summer 2010. OnLive removes the requirement for gamers to have high-performance consoles or PC hardware in their homes, or indeed to jump on board the upgrade cycle to keep those machines up to date. Instead, it streams game content via broadband to the gamer’s TV, PC or Mac, using cloud-based servers to do the heavy crunching. All that’s required locally is a small adapter box, which hooks up to the network, the TV/computer and the controllers. BT haven’t revealed how much it will be charging for the UK OnLive service, but that news is expected later in 2010.

My wife is one of those women who puts as much stock in how something looks as she does in how it works. She has bought more than one junk gadget over the years just because it was “cute” in her opinion. For all the ladies out there who want a Bluetooth headset, but want it to look good too Novero has unveiled the new Victorialine. The Victoria line comes in different styles and puts Bluetooth technology for hands free phone calls into a device that looks like jewelry, albeit some edgy jewelry. The Victoria collection focuses more on the style than the hardware specifications, but Novero is known to make some nice Bluetooth gear so quality should be good. The collection includes the Victoria Lapis, Pearl, Stripes, Wave, and the Victor. The devices apparently use the same Bluetooth innards and only vary in style. Novero also built a collection of mega high-end Victoria gear using precious metals and gems that are valued at about $120,000 each. You can commission your own high-end piece

I have been using an iPhone in one form or another for years now and on more than one occasion I have wished I had a stylus. Admittedly, that doesn’t happen as much as it did when I first started using the iPhone, but on occasions I would still like a Stylus. A new stylus for all Apple’s touchscreen gadgets called the Mi-Stylus has launched. The stylus has a special composite nib on the tip that allows the touch screen to operate just as it would with your finger. We all know that the iPad and iPhone touch screens won’t work with a normal stylus. The Mi-Stylus has a nib with a flat area for clicking on large icons or links and a thin edge that will work for touching small buttons and keys. That edge is important considering that the stylus tip might be too big for typing on the iPhone and touch. The Mi-Stylus is available now for GBP4.99 making it very cheap.

One of the best things about the iPad 3G when it was announced here in the US was that AT&T had for once offered buyers a very good deal on a data plan for the device. With the iPad set to land in the UK shortly, many fans are looking at getting their hands on the iPad 3G. We have already talked about data plan pricing for the iPad 3G in the UK. However, there is a way to get a data plan at an even lower rate than what we previously though according to ITProPortal. The data plan in question will cost the iPad user £5 monthly for 500MB of data each month. There are a few catches though. You have to be an existing Orange customer with an Orange 3G dongle in your possession. You then have to remove the SIM and hack it with a knife or scissors into a microSIM card and cram it into the iPad 3G. Naturally, this is a violation of Orange user agreements and policies, but we won’t tell on you.

When most Americans think about where the military spends its money, we think about things like $500 toilet seats and cheap items we can buy at the stores that the military pays huge money for. The US Air Force was conducting some tests on using the PS3 and its cell processor as a cheap and very powerful computing platform. The Air Force was using plain PS3s to get the Cell processor much cheaper than via other methods. The Advanced Computing Architectures team at the information Directorate looked at other ways to get the cell processor and settled on the PS3. However, the chopping of the OtherOs feature will put a crimp on the plans of the Air Force. According to the Air Force, building the same cluster with similar power out of other cell processing solutions will cost “more than an order of magnitude greater than the PS3 technology.” The Air Force Told Ars Technica that it would continue to use the PS3s on hand, but when one fails or needs repairs all bets are off. I wonder if thi