This 24-inch Monitor is only $100

Most of the time when we are working or playing on a computer, it is generally a pretty small laptop or even a tablet. But there is nothing quite like looking at a nice, big screen. If you have a desktop PC then you probably need one, but even if you are connecting it to a laptop or a Chromebook, it is still going to make the experience better.

Sometime's big deals pop up that you just can't ignore. Right now at TigerDirect, you can get the Seiki SE24FA01-R 24-inch desktop monitor for $139.99, and that is with shipping included and everything. You can also redeem a mail in rebate that puts it at $99.99 total.

Mail in rebates aren't always the coolest thing in the world. You have to fill stuff out and wait. But, even if you are too lazy to send it in, it's still a really great deal without even doing that. I only say it like that because I am one of those people who would rather spend the extra 40 dollars to not have to worry about it. But if you are super into that sort of thing, I would opt for the "no-wait rebate" option that gets your rebate in  the mail to you in about 5 business days. It means you get $4 less back, but it's worth 4 dollars to not wait between 8 and 10 weeks to get your extra money back. 10 weeks is not worth $40.

The monitor itself is 23.5 inches, which still qualifies as being a 24-inch class monitor. It has a 1920 x 1080 pixel native resolution, LED backlighting and a 5ms response time. It has all the inputs that you would assume it would, including VGA, DVI and HDMI. It also has stereo speakers, so you could hook it up directly to a gaming console or anything really.

So, this super cheap monitor has everything that the super expensive ones have. There aren't too many reviews to be found on it at this time, but the few that do exist are very positive. With a solid resolution and all of the inputs that you would need, it's hard to see where you could go wrong at all.

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If you have a laptop as your main computer, or maybe you just need to upgrade your monitor, I would say this would be the time to do so. You can't beat having a big monitor, and you certainly are not going to find one this size for that price, probably ever again. I love it when deals pop up like this. You only come across something like this maybe once or twice a year, and that includes Black Friday. And don't even get me started on Black Friday... never again.

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Multiple-Monitor Setups Can Increase Work Productivity

Having a multiple monitor setup for your computer used to be something that was reserved for hardcore PC users, like designers, programmers and hardcore PC gamers. However, that mindset has changed over the past couple of years. Multiple monitor setups have become more mainstream, especially with businesses that have the money and the space to do so. For example, in my little office there are 4 of us working and we all have multiple monitor setups. Two of us have three monitors and the other two have 4 (because they're fancy or something like that). However, the real big question here is whether or not having multiple monitors is beneficial, especially in terms of productivity.

Naturally there are clear benefits to having more than one monitor. Multitasking is easier, you don't have to switch between windows as often, it's easier to manage things like social media, etc... But how does it affect your productivity. There have actually been studies done about this very thing, with one such study from the University of Utah finding that people working on things like editing tasks showed higher productivity using two monitors as opposed to one.

The study found that more monitors decreased toggling time between windows on a single screen. This may not seem like much but this can actually save you 10 seconds for every five minutes of work. Having multiple monitors doesn't force you to toggle back and forth between windows and also allows you to take in more. However, not all the information on your monitors can be useful. This all depends on the size of your monitors.

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If you have multiple monitors but one of them is quite a bit smaller than the other (like if you're using a tablet or a laptop as a second screen). An ultrawide monitor is any monitor that has a 21:9 aspect ratio or better. Depending on the size of your monitor, your resolution will most likely be around 2560 to 3440 pixels wide and 1080 to 1440 pixels high. In addition to that, display sizes generally range from 29" to 34".

The 34" monitors are priced rather high, though for multitasking and productivity for a single monitor they are definitely worth it. These monitors are so large that it is easy to have multiple windows occupy the same screen without the content on those screens being diminished to severely. And with resolutions of 3440 x 1440 everything should look really nice.

To boil it all down yes, having multiple monitors can increase your productivity. However, it all really depends on what you are using your computer for. There are situations where having multiple monitors or a single ultrawide monitor is absolutely necessary. But for average users, having two monitors could be more of a luxury than a necessity.

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Tiny 4K Displays Are Coming....

Sharp recently announced a 5.5-inch 4K display for mobiles, making virtual reality finally feel real.
We can only imagine Sharp's small ultra-high resolution IGZO displays will wind up in smartphones eventually as the size fits with increasingly popular "phablet" devices like the iPhone 6 Plus. Apparently Sharp is being reported as one of the companies supplying Apple with displays, and there's a clear market appeal to the 4K display claim.

Sharp’s latest offering has a 3850×2160 resolution, a total of 806 pixels per inch. That’s roughly twice the resolution of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus and 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3.

From looking at the quality while you are holding the device, you’d only be able to resolve about half the resolution a 5.5-inch 4K display would provide, says Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies. In most cases, the additional sharpness wouldn't even matter to most people. Not to mention the fact that there is literally zero 4K content out there to even view right now.

4K displays on smartphones aren't all a big joke though, there are some cool things about it. If there are 4K displays out there then that will drive content creators to make more 4K stuff for us to enjoy. So... it kind of works out.

Is it really worth it though? Think about all the battery power it would take to keep all of those darn pixels lit up. Maybe I'm just complaining for no reason, but these are the things that cross my mind.

Most people in the world have yet to try out a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift or the HTV Vive. These things have been in the works for years upon years, and though there have been some promising demos and things like that, they still have such a long way to go. BUT, a 5.5 inch 4K display would really help them along quite a bit.

Most virtual reality headsets just magnify the display, which means you can see all of the pixels. At that point, it doesn't even look that cool. To make things worse, you have to have two images to create the illusion, so now you can see pixels AND it ends up being blurry. What's the point? So, having a super high resolution display would take care of this problem, for the most part, and make the experience more enjoyable all around as you would have a much smoother picture.

If you are looking forward to virtual reality being a real, easily accessible thing, then there is a lot to be excited about here. Let's be honest, no one really cares about a 4K smartphone display (yet). It will drain your battery super fast, and you probably won't even be able to see the difference at all. But the point here is that those new battery draining, pointless screens are probably what is going to make virtual reality a realistic thing for us in the near future. So there is a pretty big "cool factor" either way.

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An Actually Affordable 4K TV Series from Vizio

Until now 4K HDTVs have seemed like a luxury only fit for celebrities. The price points were extremely high and most people could have bought a car before buying a 4K TV. However, Vizio has just confirmed pricing on the M series of HDTVs and let me tell you that they are some of the cheapest 4K TVs on the market today.

In addition to that, Vizio also threw out some details on the high-end Reference series of TVs that debuted at CES 2014 without official pricing or availability. Whenever they do arrive, though, Vizio has stated that they will be the first TVs with Dolby Vision HDR.

The official prices of the M series are nearly exactly the same as the unofficial prices that were leaked about 2 months ago. The biggest exception in the released pricing over the rumored prices comes with the 50" model. This model will sell for $799 instead of the leaked price of $899. The full list is as follows:

• M80-C3: 80" to be released in late 2015 for $3,999
• M75-C1: 75" to be released in late 2015 for $2,999
• M70-C3: 70" to be released in April-May for $2,199
• M65-C1: 65" to be released in April-May for $1,699
• M60-C3: 60" available now for $1,499
• M55-C2: 55" available now for $999
• M50-C1: 50" to be released in April-May for $799
• M49-C1: 49" to be released in April-May for $769
• M43-C1: 43" available now for $599

All of these 2015 M series TVs will come with the same kind of direct local dimming backlights that the 2014 versions had. This allows the TVs to have extremely impressive black level performance and all sizes have the same 32 zones of backlight dimming except for the 43" model with has 28 zones.

The 60" models and up have a 240Hz effective refresh rate with the smaller models coming with a 120Hz effective refresh rate and, since there are no native 240Hz 4K TVs, Vizio has confirmed that the "effective" title indicates that the smaller sets have 60Hz panels while the larger ones have 120Hz panels. Backlight scanning is responsible for the double Hz numbers, which means it's the same type of "fake" refresh rate that Vizio and LG have been employing for years now.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the M series will have 5 HDMI ports that will be capable of accepting 4K sources. However, only one of these ports will be HDMI 2.0 compatible and able to accept 4K sources at 60FPS. Three out of the five ports will offer HDCP 2.2 copy protection and the sets will be able to stream 4K from Netflix and Amazon Instant Video and will also come with an UltraFlix app.

This is definitely some interesting and exciting news from Vizio. 4K is the future of HDTV technology and, like all technology, adoption speed depends on pricing. It took people a long time to adopt to HDTVs when they first came out because they were so expensive. With Vizio able to slash prices on 4K TVs so quickly it definitely shows promise for the sets to be widely adopted at a much quicker rate than HDTVs.

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New 70" Touchscreen Display from Sharp Responds to Real Brushstrokes

Sharp recently showed off a brand new 70 inch LCD touch screen in Tokyo. With the new touch screen technology, Sharp says that it is the closest thing to working with a piece of paper and a pen, even with how big the screen is. This prototype could be used for a ton of applications, but they decided to use calligraphy to show off what it could do. They used a calligraphy brush with capacitive fibers to write on the screen, and it actually responded as if they were using a real brush and real ink. They also used smaller brushes on another screen to "paint" fine details of a dragon and it looked just like a watercolor painting. 

This kind of technology has already come out, of course. But the big reason that this is so impressive is because it works with bigger formats and it is way more sensitive. So sensitive, in fact, that the smallest of details were able to be picked up accurately. Generally you can't do that with bigger screens because the noise from the display takes away from the sensitivity of the touch panel. They were able to get around this issue by using a parallel drive sensing method. This drives the processes of multiple touch sensors at the same time. The signal processing software for the screen allowed Sharp to have a signal-to-noise ratio eight times higher than other screens on the market right now.

These are still in the developmental stage but when these type of screens start hitting the market, it could be huge for businesses and classrooms alike. Having a digital whiteboard could benefit just about any business or school. It would also be really great to have at large events or business meetings. 

The company showed off a number of new screens at the event, and some of the other ones were said to be hitting the market some time in 2016. There wasn't much word on when we could get our hands on the 70 incher, but hopefully it will be around the same time. Graphic designers, business owners, and teachers could all benefit greatly from such an awesome new product. 

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Acer B286HK Leading The Way On 4K Affordability

Everyone knows that when new, hot, technology comes out that it is always super expensive. You have to pay to be on the cutting edge of things. But, these are good times for people who need to upgrade their monitor. The Acer B286HK 28-inch 4K Ultra HD monitor is not only an absolute beast, but it also may be a sign of what's to come.

Acer's expensive, and highly sought after, B286HK 28-inch 4K Ultra HD monitor is actually everything it's cracked up to be. It is a 3840 x 2160 monitor capable of 4K video at 60 FPS over DisplayPort 1.2. It uses a TN panel which come people have complained about, but let's get real for a minute: who cares? This thing rules. It has a 2ms response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness, built in speakers and a built in stand that lets you tilt, swivel, adjust height, whatever.

When it first came out, this monitor started selling for $699, and although many people might have trouble justifying that much money on a monitor, I know many who thought that was a great deal! But it's getting even better, recently, the B286HK was spotted online selling for exactly half of it's original price. Which, if you ask me, is an absolutely wonderful deal.

I'm not writing this to get you to buy the B286HK if you don't need a new monitor, chances are you're probably reading this on a perfectly good monitor right now. But the point I'm trying to make here is that 4K monitors are becoming  much more affordable! And the second point is that these price drops might be a sign of even newer technology coming at us pretty soon. Can you say 8K? Either way, I'm excited to see this next generation of 4K monitors move into more mainstream price points.

Dell Drops Price Of UltraSharp 5K Monitor Before It Even Ships

Price wars are common throughout all facets of business, 5K monitors included. The price wars for this market have started, surprisingly, before a single stand-alone display technology has even shipped. Dell, which recently announced but not shipped its UltraSharp 5K monitor, has already said that it will cut prices of the device in the wake of Apple's latest 27" iMac jumping into the market. Dell's UltraSharp was announced back in September and will be priced under $2,000 from December, the same month it is set to ship.

When originally announced, this monitor was priced at $2,499.99. Even though Dell did not immediately provide reasons for the price drop, founder and President of Touch Display Research Jennifer Colegrove stated that Apple's 27" iMac, which sports a 5K display, may have been a catalyst. Apple is throwing in an entire computer with its 27" iMac with 5K Retina display for the same $2,499.99 price as the UltraSharp.

Apple was first to make 5K displays available when it began shipping the iMac earlier this month. 5K monitors display images at a 5120 x 2880 resolution, which is nearly 60% more pixels than 4K displays, which have resolutions of 3840 x 2160. Dell is still taking orders for the 5K monitor at $2,499.99 on its website, but stated the price drop would occur in December. At $2,000, Dell's 5K monitor may be worth it for people who want to upgrade from conventional 1080p moniotrs, according to Colegrove.

Dell's UltraSharp has two 16-watt integrated Harman Kardon speakers, six USB ports and one media card reader. In addition to that, it also has one mini-DisplayPort and two DisplayPort interfaces. The monitor is also capable of working with any PC a user chooses, meaning it could be attractive to graphic designers, movie makers and others who find high-resolution images valuable. Moreover, the UltraSharp is also likely to be the only stand-alone 5K monitor available when it ships, whereas Apple's iMac is an all-in-one.

If you have already taken the plunge into 4K then there is little incentive for you to jump ship into 5K. 4K monitors are available for as little as $700 and there is content being produced for 4K, which is already being considered the next industry standard. Content made for 4K will look no better on 5K devices, unless it is upscaled through special software.

Vendors, on the other hand, are gradually moving to 5K and higher, all the way up to 8K resolutions. The first 8K TVs are said to be coming out next year and monitors based on that technology are likely to appear in 2017, according to Colegrove.