Thanks to Apple Computer and Microsoft Corp., I’m living a bit larger these days, and I’ve cut a few cords.
With a 20-inch Apple Display LCD screen hooked up to a PowerMac G5, I’ve got a rather huge workspace. Turn on the “normal” display mode in Microsoft’s Word 2004 (or the earlier Mac version) and you’ve got a blank screen on which to work that magnifies the 12-point type by 374 percent. No reading glasses are needed.
This new Apple Display will set you back about $1,300; a refurbished one can be had from online seller MacConnection.com for $200 less. If you don’t need the Apple brand, similar 20-inch flat panels from Philips Electronics and Planar Systems will cost you under $1,000. If you want to drop an inch and get a 19-inch flat panel, you can save even more.
The point, though, is that by going above the standard 15-inch and 17-inch displays, you can have screen real estate on which to work. I like the Apple Display because it looks cool, but my office Macintosh is hooked up to a Dell-brand flat panel and that works just fine.
My only peeve with Apple is that none of the versions of OS X that I’ve seen will support screen pivot software. If you could physically flip a display from “landscape” to “portrait” mode — the latter looking like a letter-sized sheet of paper — you can’t shift the Mac’s screen presentation. Apple says its customers don’t ask for that. I say that’s hogwash.
Adding a display to an older computer is a nice way to “upgrade” a system without spending too much money. If your Windows computer is running any flavor of Windows XP, it shouldn’t be a hassle, because that operating system has tons of drivers for screen displays. On the Linux side, there are more drivers than ever before.
While my computing field of vision is larger these days, I’ve also been able to cut the cord on both my keyboard and mouse. Oddly enough, these Mac enhancements come from Microsoft Corp., although Apple has its own wireless duo. I prefer the Microsoft products here because their keyboard and mouse offer more flexibility. Where Apple’s mouse, corded or wireless, is a one-button-only affair, the Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 offers two main buttons, a scroll wheel, and “back” and “forward” buttons on the left side that work nicely with Web browsers.
Microsoft’s Wireless Desktop Elite keyboard offers five programmable “favorites” buttons, a slew of multimedia controls and one-button access to folders for documents, pictures and music, as well as e-mail, a Web browser and a calculator. There’s also a scroll wheel to move up and down in documents, as well as from side to side, and “back” and “forward” keys for the Web surfer.
You can find the pair in online stores for about $92. On either a PC or a Mac platform, the Microsoft wireless product line is worth considering.
Wireless watch update: Maybe it wasn’t really “dead” after all. Last week’s column about my off again, off again Suunto n3 watch that receives all sorts of data via radio waves brought an impassioned call from Microsoft’s PR agency: Please try charging the watch just one more time. It seems to have worked, and I’ll keep testing to see what happens. As to my friend, whose Fossil-made Microsoft SPOT watch remains lifeless, he should be getting a replacement any day now.
• E-mail MarkKel@aol.com or visit www.kellner.us.
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