Gadgetwise Blog: Monoprice Introduces an LED Monitor

Gadgetwise Blog: Monoprice Introduces an LED Monitor

Monoprice, the Web retailer best known for its low-priced cables, continues to expand its product line with a 27-inch high-resolution LED computer monitor it showed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. The price? $ 475, nearly a third less than many models with similar specifications.

Just to give you an example of Monoprice’s value, let’s look at the kind of cable you use to connect your TV to your DVD player. A 6-foot 24AWG High Speed HDMI cable from Monoprice is $ 6. The lowest price I could find on a similar name-brand cable was $ 50.

One caveat is that Monoprice’s quality can be uneven, although the company has a reputation for happily replacing faulty products without a quibble.

Going by the numbers, the monitor looks very good indeed. It claims 2560 x 1440 resolution and .233 by .233 mm dot pitch, which means it has lots of pixels close together for high resolution.

I have to admit I am not well-equipped for evaluating monitors. I would prefer to have seen it side-by-side with a competing model. Instead I connected to a TV source and watched some high-definition shows. The blacks were certainly excellent, detail was very good, and there was little problem with motion â€" although some parallel horizontal lines could get a bit jagged.

Other users have reported “light bleed,” meaning that the lights behind the screen can illuminate unevenly, causing shadows and ill-defined areas. I didn’t see any light bleed, but my room may not be dark enough for it to be apparent.

Of course, you can’t deliver a product at a fraction of a competitor’s price without cutting a few corners. Those most noticeable to me were the inelegant plastic bezel around the screen and the functional but cheesy stand. At the savings offered, I could live with it.

App Smart: Apps Offer Lessons in Simple Drawing

App Smart: Apps Offer Lessons in Simple Drawing

The smartphone revolution, among other things, has put a camera in everyone’s pocket. This has led to an explosion in the art of photography â€" if you can call an Instagram self-portrait art. But smartphones and tablets have another ability that is genuinely arty: they can help teach basic drawing and sketching.

How to Draw is a good app for learning basic skills, and is free for iOS and Android.

Its Step by Step section features the main drawing lessons, each of which is based on copying simple lines that make up a cartoonish drawing of an object like a turtle or a coffee mug. The app shows each line in turn, then you draw on the screen with a finger to copy it. More guide lines appear, until the image is complete.

The app has tools to add color to the image, or it can stay as a pencil-like sketch.

The app is aimed more at children, given the sample images and its Coloring section, which looks a lot like a digital coloring book. It starts with a limited number of sample images; more images require an in-app payment. Access to all of them costs $ 5.99 for the iOS edition.

Complete novices will definitely pick up basic drawing tips. How to Draw, however, is unlikely to turn you into Leonardo.

For more advanced drawing lessons, Learn to Draw Digital Sketchbook, free for iPad, is a great choice. This app is more like being taught to draw by a human teacher. It has a number of sample lessons, including how to draw a hibiscus flower or a dragon, and it talks users through the drawing of a detailed illustration.

Each step takes place on a faux sketchbook with tools like a pencil and eraser shown at the bottom on an icon bar. The app has rough blue guide lines for every step of the lessons. A spoken guide and a text panel offer detailed guidance: for example, “start by using the sketch pencil to block in the blossom with six straight lines.” The text box can be made to disappear, and users can control the opacity of the guide lines.

In relatively few steps this app can teach a person how to create detailed drawings; the work can be saved to the iPad’s photo gallery.

One problem is that its free content is limited. For more complex lessons and to learn advanced techniques, like those needed to draw people, you will have to make multiple in-app purchases. Each new lesson can cost from a dollar or so up to $ 6.99.

If you would like to draw people, you may prefer How To Draw: With Artist Matt Busch. This $ 1.99 iOS app has four portrait tutorials, but unlike the other apps mentioned here, you do not draw on the screen. Instead, this app shows an image that the artist has created for you to follow in a sequence of steps, and you are supposed to draw on paper.

The app displays real drawings, and this realism made the lesson more interesting. Points of interest are highlighted in each sketch with blue pencil icons; tapping on these brings up a text box that contains guidance like, “Note when drawing noses, the less you draw the more aesthetically pleasing it will be.”

I’ve always found it hard to draw people, and yet I am able to produce passably good results thanks to the tips here. It is quite basic, however, and though you’ll learn some good drawing techniques, they are limited to people’s faces.

A great free app for Android devices is How to Draw â€" Art Lessons. With this app, too, you are expected to draw in pencil on paper, guided by a sequence of sample sketches, but its images are simpler. Available topics include Japanese manga characters, sea animals and even band logos. The app goes step by step on guiding the drawings. Each step is shown in color to stand out from the previous stages of the illustration.

This app is free, but the images are fairly simple and the popover advertisements can be annoying.

Quick Calls

Qualcomm, which makes the Snapdragon chips in many Android devices, now has an app to help save battery life on phones and tablets. The app, Snapdragon BatteryGuru, is free and is intelligent, because it learns user habits, and turns off services like Wi-Fi when not in use. ... The music identification app Shazam is now available for Windows Phone 8 devices and integrates with Xbox Music or Nokia Music. It’s free.

DealBook: Dell’s Mathematical Argument Against the Southeastern- Icahn Plan

DealBook: Dell’s Mathematical Argument Against the Southeastern- Icahn Plan

As Dell prepares to defend its $ 24.4 billion sale to its founder, the computer company took a big swipe at two of its biggest investors, who oppose the leveraged buyout.

In a presentation filed with regulators on Wednesday, Dell argued that an alternative plan by Southeastern Asset Management and the billionaire Carl C. Icahn would leave shareholders stuck with the worst of two worlds: trapped in a still-public Dell whose coffers and performance continue to decline.

Southeastern and Mr. Icahn, who together own over 12 percent of Dell, have called for a dividend payout of $ 12 a share, either in cash or in additional stock. That would leave the computer maker publicly traded, but with dramatically fewer shares outstanding, in what financiers commonly call a stub.

In presenting their proposal last month, Southeastern and Mr. Icahn derisively called the $ 13.65-a-share offer from Michael S. Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake “the great giveaway.”

But Dell reiterated in its presentation that a special committee of its board had considered and discarded alternative ideas, including a special dividend. And it contended that the Southeastern-Icahn plan would load too much debt onto Dell while sapping its cash flow and making its stock more thinly traded.

In one page in particular, Dell calculated that the debt required to carry out the alternative plan did not accurately account for debt payments the company must make, as well as cash needed for operations and other requirements. Instead of $ 17.3 billion in cash available to Southeastern and Icahn, the company contended, only $ 13.4 billion would be usable.

That would leave Dell with a potential $ 3.9 billion hole in its balance sheet if the special dividend plan were enacted.

Dell also pointed to the example of Clear Channel, where two private equity firms agreed to leave a stub as part of their leveraged buyout. That stock, which has been harder to trade because of fewer outstanding shares, has fallen 69 percent since August 2008.

In its presentation, Dell argued that the alternative plan presented a “dramatically elevated risk profile and uncertainty for existing Dell shareholders.”

Still, Southeastern and Mr. Icahn are betting that enough shareholders will agree that the take-private bid by Mr. Dell and Silver Lake is too low.

One factor they are counting on is the high support required for the leveraged buyout to pass. Mr. Dell cannot vote his stake of roughly 16 percent in favor of the deal, meaning that a “majority of the minority” of shares outstanding must vote affirmatively for the deal to succeed.

Obama Issues Orders to Stop ‘Patent Trolls’

Obama Issues Orders to Stop ‘Patent Trolls’

WASHINGTON â€" One company threatened to sue 8,000 coffee shops, hotels and retailers for patent infringement because they had set up Wi-Fi networks for their customers. Another claimed that hundreds of small businesses were violating its patents by attaching a document scanner to an office computer system. One claimed rights to royalties from anyone producing a podcast.

Now the Obama administration is cracking down on what many call patent trolls, shell companies that exist merely for the purpose of asserting that they should be paid because they hold patents that are being infringed by some software or electronic process.

The companies exploded onto the technology scene in the last two years, accounting for more than half of the 4,000 patent infringement lawsuits filed in the United States last year, according to several studies, up from 45 percent the year before and from less than 30 percent in every prior year.

That surge can be traced partly to the very law that was supposed to stamp out some of the trouble. The America Invents Act, signed in 2011, made it illegal to file a single lawsuit claiming a whole bunch of defendants had infringed a patent in the same way. Now, a patent holder must file individual lawsuits against each company, which has caused the number of lawsuits to soar, patent experts say.

On Tuesday, President Obama took direct aim at the companies and their practices, announcing several executive orders “to protect innovators from frivolous litigation” by patent trolls.

Mr. Obama ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to require companies to be more specific about exactly what their patent covers and how it is being infringed. The administration also told the patent office to tighten scrutiny of overly broad patent claims and said it would aim to curb patent-infringement lawsuits against consumers and small-business owners who are simply using off-the-shelf technology.

But some big software companies, including Microsoft, expressed dismay at some of the proposals, saying they could themselves stifle innovation. A trade group known as BSA: The Software Alliance, which represents software companies, urged caution.

“Some of the White House proposals are problematic,” Matt Reid, senior vice president for external affairs for the group, said in a statement.

Mr. Reid said a proposal to expand the patent office’s program allowing for special review of computer-related patents “could inadvertently put at risk innovation for many industries that rely on software, from manufacturing to biotech.” Changing measures that have been in effect for less than a year “before we see the results doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Some states have decided to act. Vermont passed a law last month that would allow companies singled out by patent-infringement lawsuits to sue their tormentors. Usually companies cannot fight back by countersuing because the patent trolls don’t make anything that itself could violate a company’s patents.

In Vermont, companies that bring patent lawsuits and lose could be forced to pay the legal fees of the winning side and damages up to $ 150,000. Vermont has one of the highest per-capita rates of issued patents in the country.

Lawmakers encountered resistance in 2011 to some of the measures Mr. Obama ordered on Tuesday. The opposition came from, among others, pharmaceutical companies that feared that the legislation would hinder their ability to defend their own patents.

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and drafting a bill to address the patent troll issue, said at a panel discussion Tuesday that the opposition was stiff enough that “it led a number of people to believe that it was going to delay overall patent reform.”

Mr. Goodlatte said the jump in the number of lawsuits brought the issue back to the fore.

Arti K. Rai, a patent law professor at Duke University, said in an interview that those numbers “are a little bit manipulated.”

Apple Violates Samsung Patent, U.S. Trade Panel Says

Apple Violates Samsung Patent, U.S. Trade Panel Says

Apple’s legal victory against Samsung Electronics over patents in the United States is not flawless. A trade commission on Tuesday determined that the company had violated one of Samsung’s patents, and it ordered a ban on some older Apple devices.

But the ban is unlikely to have an immediate impact on sales of those devices in the United States.

The United States International Trade Commission said on Tuesday that it was issuing a ban for a handful of devices that work on AT&T’s network, including the third- and fourth-generation iPhone, and the first-, second- and third-generation iPads that have a cellular connection.

President Obama has 60 days to review the order and can veto it.

Apple said it intended to appeal the decision, so it will be some time until the commission’s decision goes into effect, if at all.

“We are disappointed that the commission has overturned an earlier ruling and we plan to appeal,” said Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman. “Today’s decision has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States.”

The ban already faces challenges because of executive orders issued by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to tighten regulations at the Patent and Trademark Office. One order, labeled “Strengthen Enforcement Process of Exclusion Orders,” called for a strict review of the procedures that the commission uses to enforce exclusion orders.

The order noted that enforcement of a ban would be difficult when the ban involves “a technologically sophisticated product such as a smartphone” because customs officials would have trouble telling the difference between a redesigned product, which would not be banned, and an older model that has been banned.

Samsung, which in August lost the patent case and was told to pay Apple more than $ 599 million in damages, endorsed the commission’s ruling.

“We believe the I.T.C.’s final determination has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations,” Samsung said in a statement.

Carolina Milanesi, vice president of Gartner Research, who tracks the smartphone industry, said that even if the ban went through, it would not have a huge impact on Apple. She said the majority of iPhones sold today are the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 models, which are not included in the ban. When the next iPhone comes out, the iPhone 4 model will be even less relevant to Apple’s bottom line, she said.

“It has more to do with counting the blows between the two parties, and this is one for Samsung, but materially there is not going to be a huge impact,” Ms. Milanesi said.

Mr. Dowling said Samsung’s actions had not held up in courts outside the United States. He added: “Samsung is using a strategy which has been rejected by courts and regulators around the world.”

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Backing Up Photos in the Cloud

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Backing Up Photos in the Cloud

I take a lot of photos with my smartphone but don’t back them up. What are some options that don’t include having to connect the phone to a computer with a USB cable?

Phones running the Android, iOS or Windows Phone operating systems typically have backup options and apps designed specifically to work with their corresponding cloud services, Google, Apple and Microsoft. If your phone is on a monthly plan with data limits, check that the automatic backup option you choose kicks in only when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Backup options are plentiful. Among them, Android and iPhone phone users can automatically back up photos to a private album within their Google+ accounts. The free Google Drive app can be used to manually mark pictures for online backup; instructions for Android owners are online, as are steps for iPhone and iPad users.

For those with both an iPhone and an iCloud account from Apple, the Photo Stream feature can automatically upload copies of photos from the phone to the Web, computer and other devices. Windows Phone owners can automatically back up their pictures to Microsoft’s free SkyDrive service, as the Windows Phone Blog explains.

Other services that work on multiple platforms include the Camera Upload feature from the Dropbox online storage service and SugarSync’s mobile wireless backup apps and services. Smartphones have plenty of other backup options, like DoubleTwist AirSync for Android in the Google Play store. Read a program’s reviews to make sure it is worth your time.

Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: Timer Apps to Keep Track of Your Life

Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: Timer Apps to Keep Track of Your Life

If you could have listened to the App Smart column the other week instead of just reading it, you’d have heard the tick-tock of timer apps counting down. Far more flexible than kitchen timers of old, or even wristwatch timers, timer apps for smartphones and tablets can be very useful in helping you keep track of all sorts of timings.

For running several different countdown timers at once the Tmrrrs app, free on iOS, is worth trying out. Tmrrrs follows one of the big design trends in apps at the moment, which is to have a very clear and simple layout and graphics with large panels of plain color. This generally results in apps that are easy to read and control, and this is true of Tmrrrs. When you’re setting a countdown timer in Tmrrs, you can set up a main time and a secondary time. You can even put these two times into a repeat loop, which is useful if you want to program in both exercise and rest intervals into a timed exercise session.

It’s relatively easy to use this app, once you’ve learned how to control it through its various icons, menus and gestures. In the free edition, some of the features are limited, like not being able to set a different color scheme for each timer you have running. These restrictions are lifted if you spend $ 2.99 to unlock the app through an in-app purchase.

A far simpler repeat timer app, handy if you just want to set one timer at a time, is the appropriately named Repeat Timer Free app, free on iOS. It’s very simply designed, and maybe handy for timing daily chores or your exercise routines. Though it’s easy to use, this app is limited to one timing feature, which is to count down a main time and a secondary time within a repeat loop.

A very popular Android app that combines both countdown timer and stopwatch functions is the free StopWatch & Timer app. In terms of looks, the app is designed to be minimalist, and the display is dominated by the numerals of the countdown clocks you’ve set plus prominent buttons for easy access to its controls. The app remembers the last three countdown timers you’ve set, which will be useful if you find yourself regularly needing to time the same intervals. In stopwatch mode this app can log lap times, and you can customize its look so it suits your preferences. The free version is limited, so you can’t run multiple timers, for example, but the full version is just 99 cents.

The Windows Phone platform doesn’t have quite the range of timer apps that iOS and Android devices have. But one good option is the free Quick Timer app, available for both Windows Phone 7.5 and 8. It can run up to six countdown timers at the same time and has all the usual stopwatch features. It’s a very good-looking app, but though it has a good range of features it’s not quite as flexible as some of its rivals on other smartphone platforms.

Time’s a-wasting: Check out these apps on your app store because you’ll kick yourself if you need to time an event soon, and haven’t downloaded one to your device yet.

Quick call: Pheed is a social networking app that’s a little like Twitter but with more emphasis on sharing photos and audio or video content. It’s finally available as a free Android app.