Reviewed: Three touchscreen displays that bring Windows 8 to life

You don't necessarily need a touchscreen monitor to use Windows 8, but swiping your finger to invoke the Charms bar is a lot more fun than holding down the Windows key and pressing C. I'll admit that initially I had to force myself to use the new touch gestures, but after a short time with the OS I found myself reaching out to touch even my MacBook Pro's screen.

Since the debut of Microsoft's latest operating system, monitor manufacturers have been working to bring touchscreen support to desktop users. At first it was near impossible to find a display that responded to all the gestures in Windows 8, but now we're able to review three 23-inch models with 10-point multitouch support (meaning the monitors recognize all 10 fingers on both your hands). 

We put the three monitors through a gauntlet of tests to find which one offers the best value, quality and feature set to win a spot in your workstation.

Acer T232HL

Acer's T232HL is a 23-inch, 10-point touchscreen LCD monitor with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. It uses environmentally friendly LED backlighting and a high-quality IPS panel for wide viewing angles.

The T232HL offers VGA, HDMI, and DVI inputs. Acer thoughtfully includes cables for each connection type in the shipping box, but we still found the initial setup to be a bit tricky. The T232HL’s stand uses a hinged design that lies flat against the display for shipping. It took a lot of force (and courage) to open the stand, but eventually we were able to pull it into position. A note in the setup guide would go a long way to alleviate fears of snapping the base off your newly purchased monitor. The stand doesn’t allow for height adjustment, pivot, or swivel, but it does tilt back to a 45-degree angle very easily, once you’ve set it up.

Acer's T232HL touchscreen display has the edgiest design aesthetic of the three models we reviewed.

We connected the display via HDMI, and our test PC recognized it automatically as a Windows touchscreen device, booting directly into its native resolution without issue. The T232HL delivered impressive performance as we ran the display through our battery of test images. On our solid-color screens, we found no stuck or dead pixels, and color and brightness were uniform across the screen. Its viewing angle was top notch, losing contrast only at extreme angles. Its glossy surface, which can be problematic in terms of glare, helps to enhance the appearance of photographs. Even gray tones appeared neutral at its default color settings.

While no one would confuse the T232HL with a Retina display, text was legible even at small point sizes. We also watched test clips of HD video, and the action played smoothly without any obvious artifacts. The built-in speakers are okay, if a little tinny. The speakers are located in the back of the display, and they sound like it.

As for touchscreen performance, the T232HL was responsive and accurate. We didn’t have any issues using the gestures, closing open windows, or selecting menu items. The stand’s ability to lean back to a 45-degree angle made the touch features—especially the on-screen keyboard—easier to use for extended periods of time.

Despite a little trouble in our initial setup, the Acer T232HL is a nice display that uses high-quality components. It performed admirably in our text, motion, color, and uniformity tests, and it would definitely be worth considering even without its 10-point touch capabilities.

Acer T232HL, $549 (street price)

Pros:

• 10-point touchscreen
• Wide viewing angle
• Accurate colors
• Smooth gradients

Cons:

• Stand is difficult to set up and offers no height adjustment

Bottom line:

This is a terrific display, but we do wish it allowed height adjustments.

4 stars

LG Flatron 23ET83V-W

The LG Flatron 23ET83V-W is based on a high-quality IPS panel with 1920 by 1080 resolution and an LED backlight. Sporting a white plastic case with a thin black bezel, this glossy-screened monitor connects to your PC via HDMI or VGA.

LG

LG's Flatron 23ET83V-W doesn't offer the great off-axis viewing experience we've come to expect from IPS displays.

A red light illuminates a thin, translucent, crescent-shaped plastic tab on the bottom edge of the screen that reflects off the desktop. The tab is not a button, but it sits just below the buttonless touch power control. Although the absence of physical buttons might make for a cleaner, simpler-looking design, we prefer the tactile response of a button. Maybe we’d get used to the menu system over time, but we found ourselves frequently hitting the wrong buttons and having to exit and reenter the menus.

Aside from a few degrees of tilt, the LG display’s stand offers little ergonomic flexibility. You can’t adjust the height, pivot it into portrait mode, or swivel the screen from left to right. Other touchscreen monitors we’ve looked at can lean back farther, making it easier to use touch gestures without having shoulder fatigue setting in immediately.

A quick note about the setup: When attached to an AMD graphics card, the display would boot up underscanned, with about an inch of black space around the screen. The LG’s on-screen menus have an Overscan setting, but turning that from its default off position to on did not fully correct the problem. We had to turn off overscanning on the display and then go to the AMD Catalyst Control panel’s advanced settings and move the overscanning slider to zero. In addition to the unwanted space, the screen was blurry in this underscanned mode, and that affected calibration. When we attached the monitor to a system with an Nvidia-based graphics card, the proper resolution came up automatically and the image filled the screen as expected.

Once we had the screen properly set up, the 23ET83V-W performed well in most of our image tests. We found no stuck or dead pixels, and colors were uniform. Text was legible even at small point sizes, and photographs looked good, although making out details in shadowy areas of the image was hard. In some of the DisplayMate gray-level test patterns, we were unable to see differences in the first few gray-level patches. Switching the display’s Black Level control setting from its default Low to High resolved the issue.

The LG’s viewing angle wasn’t quite as stellar as that of other IPS screens we’ve seen. Color shifts weren’t an issue, but at extreme angles it was harder to see what was on screen. This minor drawback is probably attributable to the touchscreen coating.

Speaking of the touchscreen, the 23ET83V-W performed admirably in that regard. It was responsive and accurate, and we had no problems using Windows 8 touch gestures or closing windows and choosing menu items on the Windows 8 desktop.

The LG Flatron 23ET83V-W is a capable touchscreen display. Its viewing angle isn’t as wide as that of most IPS screens we’ve tested, but is still very good. Its controls were a bit of a hassle to use, and we needed to make adjustments to the black-level settings to help the display look its best. While those are admittedly minor grievances, the monitor’s lack of ergonomic agility could reduce the amount of time you end up using its touch capabilities.

LG Flatron 23ET83V-W, $550 (street price)

Pros:

• 10-point touch
• IPS panel
• LED backlight

Cons:

• Limited ergonomic flexibility
• Black levels require adjustment

Bottom line: 

This is a very good display, but its controls are more difficult to use than they should be, and its viewing angles aren't as good as other IPS monitors we've evaluated.

3.5 stars

Viewsonic TD2340

Viewsonic’s TD2340 display is built like a tank, weighing a hefty 20.4 pounds. It features a 23-inch, LED-backlit, IPS panel that delivers a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and it supports 10 touch points.

The TD2340 has a heavy-duty, dual-hinged base that offers a few inches of height adjustment, the ability to pivot into portrait mode, and even the option to tilt the display down so that it sits completely flat like a tabletop. At a height of 6 inches above the desk, however, the flat orientation seems like an awkward way to work. The best position we found for typing directly on screen using the touch keyboard was tilting the panel back to a 45-degree angle and lifting the bottom-front edge a couple of inches off the desk. This position allowed us to type on the screen without reaching as far, while still being able to keep our physical keyboard and mouse in front of us.

VIEWSONIC

You'd never guess by the ViewSonic's TD2340 Frankenstein feet just how limber this display can be.

You can connect the TD2340 to your computer via HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA. To use the touch capabilities, you need a USB connection as well. The on-screen controls are simple and easy to use, which we find refreshing. Button 1 brings up the menus, while button 2 selects with up and down arrows for adjusting color, brightness, contrast, volume from the SRS speakers, the on-screen menu position, and much more.

The TD2340 offers a wide viewing angle, which is helpful if you collaborate with other people around your screen or if you take advantage of the aforementioned flexible stand to position the screen at nonstandard angles. Text was legible even at small point sizes, and colors were uniform across the screen. We found no stuck or dead pixels when testing the display. The glossy screen helps to give photographs more depth, but glare can be an issue. You'll need to consider where, in relation to windows or other fixed light sources, to position a glossy-screen display like the TD2340.

The Viewsonic’s 10-point touch capabilities were impressive. Input was responsive and accurate, and we didn’t have any issues using Windows 8 gestures or maneuvering around the Windows 8 desktop.

Of the Windows 8 touchscreen monitors we’ve evaluated, the Viewsonic TD2340 is the most capable. Its wide viewing angle, its agile yet bulky stand, and numerous little touches such as the SRS speakers, multiple inputs, and easy-to-use menus combine to make the TD2340 a great choice for Windows 8 users. It’s more expensive than some other touchscreen displays, but it earns its price tag.

Viewsonic TD2340, $600 (street price)

Pros:

• 10-point touchscreen
• Wide viewing angles
• Versatile stand
• DisplayPort

Cons:

• Not very attractive
• Bulky and heavy

Bottom line: 

ViewSonic's TD2340 is more expensive than other monitors in its class, but it delivers enough features and value to warrant the difference.

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How to become a LinkedIn power user in five easy steps

LinkedIn is the most popular business network on the planet, boasting more than 200 million users. You’re probably one of them. Also highly probable: You’re not taking full advantage of this business and career networking service.

Here’s the good news: LinkedIn can be an excellent resource without becoming a time sink. Don’t neglect your profile or the service in general just because you’re not actively looking for a job at this very moment. Hiring managers, clients, colleagues, and potential customers and business partners are constantly browsing LinkedIn. A killer profile and savvy search skills will give you a competitive edge. It might also remind your current boss—who is probably doing the same thing—just why you’re so valuable (and potentially poachable).

Our five-step guide will make you a LinkedIn power user, so you can land your next job opportunity, promotion, or business deal.

Step 1: Polish your profile

Your professional profile is the most important—and often the most neglected—element of LinkedIn. This is where you display your work experience, skills, and education. More important, it’s the best place to inject some personality into what can otherwise be a dull laundry list of a résumé.

Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success, points out that the LinkedIn profile is designed to be much more than a simple CV. “Hiring reps love LinkedIn,” Breitbarth says, “because it has defined spaces and it offers a lot more information than a traditional two-page résumé, such as recommendations and links to projects or published works.”

The more information you provide in your profile, the more likely your name will appear in searches. LinkedIn has a number of widgets that you can add to your profile to highlight honors and awards you’ve received, coursework you’ve completed, patents you’ve been awarded, languages you speak, certifications you’ve earned, and even causes you’ve volunteered for. To add widgets, go to Profile > Edit Profile, and choose widgets from the right side of the screen.

Be sure to include a well-lit, professional-looking photo on your profile too. “The biggest mistake people make is not having a photo,” says Breitbarth. "That’s an automatic disqualifier for many job seekers and hiring managers alike.”

A complete profile is the most important factor in having an effective LinkedIn presence.

LinkedIn will automatically fill many of the fields in your profile, but there’s no reason to accept what it comes up with. For instance, typically it populates the profile headline (the words displayed beneath your name) with your current job title. But you can edit the headline to say anything: Just click Profile > Edit Profile, and then click the pencil symbol next to that headline. If you’re an independent contractor, for instance, you might prefer to write something that encapsulates your philosophy or describes your unique take on your craft.

You might also want to edit your peer-endorsed Skills & Expertise section. While you're in Edit Profile mode, scroll down to that section, click the pencil icon, and add or remove areas of expertise and manage your endorsements. If you’re on the market for a new job, this is a great place to add skills that hiring managers will be seeking.

Don't underestimate the value of cataloging your skills and expertise.

Your profile is a living résumé, so keeping it up-to-date is critical. Add a reminder to your online calendar prompting you to review your profile every month. You should also update your profile every time you undergo a major work shift, whether it’s earning a promotion, moving to a new job, or changing careers. Tout your new work experience, revise your summary (which is one of the first things people see), and don’t forget to update your contact information. In fact, if you're logged in to your account, click that button now—it’s in the right corner of the first profile box, beneath your number of connections—just to make sure the information displayed there is current. To edit your contact information, go toProfile > Edit Profile > Edit Contact Info.

A job move or a promotion is one of the best times to tap current and former bosses, clients, coworkers, and other people you know—and who know your track record—for endorsements and recommendations, according to Jessica Bedford, a recruiter and account manager at Artisan Creative. “Make sure you really know the person, and be specific about what you want them to share,” she advises.

Step 2: Get connected—and stay connected

LinkedIn’s most valuable feature is its ability to connect you with other professionals. Whether they’re people you work with now or worked with years ago, met at a trade show, collaborated with, or did business with, your relationships can be highly and mutually beneficial—but only if you stay in touch with each other.

LinkedIn has a service that will scour your email contacts to find potential connections. To use it, go to Contacts > Add Connections. Select your email provider and enter your email address in the designated field. Once the service finds all of your contacts who have LinkedIn accounts, it will ask which ones you want to connect to. This can be a lot of people, especially if your email service is like Gmail and adds every person to whom you’ve ever sent an email to your contact database. Don’t just hit Select All—you probably don’t need to add your tech-savvy grandmother or the guy who bought the couch you advertised on Craigslist. Spend a little quality time choosing the people who will form your network.

Make careful use of the LinkedIn Contact Finder tool. Simply dumping your entire contact database into your network could prove counterproductive. 

Aside from that first “contact dump” of LinkedIn invitations, you should add a personalized message each time you invite someone to connect. The only exception to this rule is if you’ve known the person forever, and you’re positive they’ll recognize you. If you’ve just met the person, you should always include a note reminding them of who you are and how you know each other. If you’ve never met the person, a friendly and inviting approach is all the more important.

A small, well-maintained network is more valuable than a large network of people you’re never in contact with. Make an effort to stay in touch with people in your network, whether it’s within or outside of LinkedIn. The easiest way to do this is to send brief messages to people in your network every so often. Your best opportunities arise when they earn a promotion or change jobs, but you can also comment on their status updates, which appear on the main page in your LinkedIn feed. You can also offer endorsements and recommendations, which can prompt them to get back in touch with you—possibly to return the favor.

Speaking of endorsements, this is a recent feature that LinkedIn added to the Skills & Expertise section of user profiles. The tool lets users quickly vouch for other people’s skills. LinkedIn is clearly trying to drum up user involvement: Whenever you visit a connection’s profile, a large blue box will pop up, encouraging you to endorse that person’s skills.

Peer-corroborated skills look good in your profile. Returning the favor when appropriate is a good way to stay in touch with your contacts.

Here’s what you need to know: You don’t need to endorse all (or any) of those skills. If you’d rather not endorse that person, simply click Skip. If you feel comfortable endorsing only some of the listed skills, delete the ones you don’t want to endorse by clicking the X next to them. If you want to endorse the person for a skill that isn’t listed, type one in next to the preselected skills.

Don’t endorse people for skills you don’t think they possess—doing this will reduce the tool’s results to useless noise. A good rule of thumb is to treat endorsements as quicker, easier recommendations: If you wouldn’t write a two-sentence recommendation about that person’s skills, don’t endorse them.

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Best Android Smartphones (April 2013 edition)

Introduction

Looking to replace your aging Android companion with something newer and with a little more oomph? Here are five excellent Android-powered smartphones from Google, Motorola, and Samsung.

No matter whether you are looking for a consumer handset, or something that will be suited to a BYOD role, you're bound to find something of interest here.

The handsets are arranged in no particular order, but my current favorite is the Nexus 4. It's a powerful package that delivers what I believe to be the best, purest Android experience possible.

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Review: HTC One is the Android phone to beat

HTC knows how to make good-looking hardware. I loved the white ceramic body of theHTC One X and Nokia could learn a thing or two about making Windows phones by taking a closer look at the HTC Windows Phone 8X. The company’s latest offering, the HTC One, is a paragon of industrial design: Its chiseled chamfers, rounded edges, and chrome accents are sure to turn more than a few heads when you whip out the phone in public. But the One is more than just a pretty face: HTC packed a lot of power under the phone’s hood, and the handset’s camera benefits from numerous software and hardware tweaks that should excite fans of mobile photography.

A feast for the eyes

JASON CROSS

The HTC One is a well-crafted handset.

The first thing you’ll notice when holding the One is how well it sits in your hand. At 5.4 by 2.7 by 0.4 inches, the phone is larger than Apple’s iPhone 5 but smaller than HTC’s previous handset, the Droid DNA. Though the phone comes with a 4.7-inch display (shades of the Samsung Galaxy S III), the One’s aluminum unibody design and gentle curves compare favorably to the S III’s primarily plastic body. That slick exterior does come at a price, however: The One’s power and volume buttons sit flush with the phone’s chassis—which makes them difficult to press—and the 2300mAh battery is nonremovable. The phone also lacks a microSD card slot, meaning that you’re stuck using the supplied 32GB (or 64GB, if you buy the larger model) of on-board memory to store your photos, apps, music, and movies.

JASON CROSS

The One has two front-facing stereo speakers.

The absence of expandable storage is lamentable, especially since in other respects HTC designed the One to function as a multimedia powerhouse. The One’s 1920-by-1080-pixel display packs 468 pixels per inch, which makes viewing HD content a feast for the eyes. Bordering that gorgeous display are two large, front-facing stereo speakers, which pump out surprisingly loud, clear audio. One big advantage of positioning the speakers on the front of the device rather than on the back is that audio doesn’t get muffled when you set the phone down on a flat surface. I did notice an occasional pop at higher volumes, but the speakers’ sound quality was more than acceptable overall.

The TV app on the HTC One.

If you tend to mislay your TV remote, you’ll appreciate the One’s built-in IR blaster, which lets you use the phone as a universal remote control. The phone has a TV app with a setup wizard that simplifies the task of programming the One to work with your TV, cable box, and home theater. The app also pulls listing information fromPeel, showing which TV shows and movies are currently playing. You can arrange for the phone to remind you when your favorite shows are on and to provide a brief synopsis of specific episodes. I tested the remote functionality of the phone with an LG TV and a Motorola cable box in our office and was surprised at how well the combination worked. Though I was 13 feet away from the cable box, I noticed little or no delay when I changed channels or browsed through the guide. The app is so well made that I almost wish I subscribed to cable...almost.

Built to be social

HTC’s BlinkFeed app.

Another cool bit of software that the One offers is BlinkFeed. HTC is marketing BlinkFeed—which resembles the Live Tiles on Windows Phone to some extent—as a “magical” way to stay up-to-date on your social networks and news feeds, but in reality it’s just a glorified RSS reader that lives on your home screen. You can tie BlinkFeed to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts so that your friends’ updates show up there; however, clicking an update just kicks you into the corresponding app. You can also instruct BlinkFeed to display news headlines, but the news outlets you can subscribe to are limited to a handful of blogs—though you can subscribe to a catch-all news category like ‘lifestyle’.

Despite using the phone for several days, I never felt inclined to spend much time with BlinkFeed. Though I loaded all of my social accounts into it, I ended up using the stand-alone Twitter and Facebook apps to update my status and to see what my friends were up to. Being able to browse headlines quickly was convenient, but other dedicated apps such as Zite perform better in that regard. Most annoyingly, you can’t turn BlinkFeed off: It always appears as your leftmost home screen, and you can’t get rid of it without installing a different launcher.

UltraPixels make a difference

JASON CROSS

The HTC One has a 4-megapixel camera.

The other features that HTC played up when it announced the phone were the One’s camera and camera software. Rather than perpetuate the myth that the more numerous the megapixels, the better a camera’s image quality, HTC opted in favor of a 4-megapixel camera with larger pixels than those traditionally used in smartphones. These UltraPixels are designed to take in more light, making them better for capturing photos in low-light environments.

After taking the One’s camera out for a spin, I think HTC may be on to something with UltraPixels. The One handled everyday shots well enough, but it excelled at taking photos in areas with less-than-optimal lighting. Photos were less noisy than comparable shots taken with an iPhone 5 or a Nokia Lumia 920 under the same conditions, and the One’s flash didn’t completely wash out the subject. The iPhone 5’s outside shots looked better than the One’s, but the two were more evenly matched on indoor photos.

A sample photo taken with the HTC One.

The One’s biggest advantage over the iPhone, however, is in the number of features that HTC packs into the phone’s native camera app. The default Android camera has various extras built into it already, but HTC seems to have omitted only a kitchen sink app in assembling the One’s camera software: Among the available shooting modes are HDR and panorama; and you can apply filters to your photos without having to resort to third-party apps such as Instagram.

Another noteworthy shooting mode is Zoe. When you activate Zoe, the phone takes up to 20 photos and records about 3. seconds of 1080p video. The feature is designed for action shots, of course, where you’d expect a lot of movement; and you can select and pull additional stills from the 1080p video. Though Zoe mode is a neat extra, I didn’t find much use for it in my day-to-day life. Perhaps very creative people will find some cool uses for the feature.

The processor steps up the power

The One’s many features require a lot of processing power, which the One has in good supply. The One is the first handset to ship with Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, which is supposed to deliver superior graphics and battery life. The phone gracefully handled every app I threw at it, including games like Shadow Gun and Temple Run, though it did get noticeably warm when performing processor-intensive tasks (like gaming) or downloading 20+ apps at once.

The phone’s battery should survive an entire day of normal use (about 9 hours), so you don’t have to worry about the One dying on you in the middle of the day. If you like to play lots of movies or games on your phone, however, you’re well advised to bring along your charger: The One’s high-resolution screen can be a real drain on the battery if left on too long.

We received the Sprint version of the One for testing. (It will also be available on AT&T and T-Mobile.) Call quality over Sprint’s network was solid, with little or no static on either end of the call. Unfortunately, Sprint’s data speeds were somewhat underwhelming. In San Francisco, where we have access to Sprint’s LTE network, I often found myself using the One on Wi-Fi when streaming HD video or downloading large apps. Its performance might improve as Sprint fleshes out its LTE network, but for now don’t expect miracles if you’re a Sprint customer looking to upgrade to the One.

Bottom line

Even with its handful of quirks, the HTC One is among the best Android phones you can buy. Heck, it’s among the best smartphones you can buy, period. A superb design, a beautiful screen, and such extras as the IR blaster and the Zoe camera mode help it stand out from the pack. If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, this is the one to get.

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Facebook Home: Facebook as the central interface on Android

Not a smartphone or operating system. Facebook Home is an interface which transforms an Android device into a welcome device for Facebook.

The speculation is over. Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled Facebook Home and is clear. "We are not building a telephone and we are not building an operating system". Facebook Home is more than just a simple Androidapplication though. It is a group of applications which take advantage of the open mobile OS.

Facebook Home becomes the welcome and locking screen of the smartphone, with the usual Android applications being easy to access in Home with an applications launcher that can easily manage favourite applications.

The central element is a window called Cover Feed. Once the smartphone is turned on, or when the home button is pressed, you will see a screen full of photos and Facebook news feed items. It is for example possible to like photos by clicking on it twice.

  

  

When a friend publishes on the users Timeline, a notification is received with the profile photo directly on the welcome screen. If you don’t want to see this then you simply need to drag the notification to the side of the screen and it will no longer be displayed.

 

While Facebook Home will occupy the role of Facebook on Android, Facebook Messenger is also an important function. It will be supported by Chat Heads so that it can also send and receive SMS messages through the same use as any other Facebook application.

  

Facebook Home will be available as a free download from the 12th of April from the Google Play portal (initially in the USA and then soon after in other countries). Before other handsets follow, the service will initially be released for five compatible phones: HTC One X and One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, Samsung Galaxy Note 2. A tablet release will be made available at a later date.

Facebook Home will also come pre-installed on the HTC First smartphone. This LTE model is equipped with a 1 GHz dual core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.3 inch screen and 5 mega pixel camera lens. It will be sold in the United States by AT&T for 99.99 dollars.

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Comment contourner code de sécurité iPhone iOS 6.1.3

Vidéo présentant la manipulation nécessaire au contournement du code de verrouillage d'un iPhone 4 sous iOS 6.1.3

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Nouvelle application Google Play 4.0 pour Android

Démonstration des nouveautés de l'application Google Play en version 4.0 pour Android.

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