The good news is that there are a number of adjustments you can make that will dramatically extend the life of your iPhone battery.

Start with the Brightness setting (Settings/Brightness) by turning it down to the lowest acceptable level and make sure the Auto-Brightness is turned on.

E-mail can be another huge power-suck on the iPhone especially if you have it checking multiple accounts and you get a lot of mail. By default, both the Push and the Fetch options are turned on which can be a big power drain.

Push essentially pushes e-mail to your phone as it arrives to your primary e-mail system. Unless you have to get messages that quickly, turn off the Push option for your e-mail account(s) (Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars/Fetch New Data) to conserve lots of power.

While you are in the Fetch settings, either set the interval to Hourly or Manually to conserve the most power. Fetch determines how often your phone goes out to your mail system to check for new mail and is also used for the 'Find My iPhone' feature in MobileMe, so setting it to Manually isn't for everyone.

If you have a special e-mail configuration such as an imap account, you may have an additional place to choose Push or Fetch in the Advanced section of the Fetch New Data screen.

Push is also used for third-party applications (such as Facebook & Twitter) for notifications, so minimizing or turning off all notifications will also help conserve power (Settings/Notifications).

While we are on the subject of third-party applications, changing your notification settings in Facebook, Twitter, etc. (from your computer) so that you don't get a text message every time an update is posted to your accounts.

Location services for things like maps and restaurant finders are awesome, but they also drain power every time you open any 'location service' enabled application. You can turn off Location Services for general usage and only turn it on when you actually need it (Settings/General/Location Services).

Turning off the Bluetooth feature on any smartphone has two potential benefits: it saves power and its more secure (Bluetooth can allow unauthorized connections to your phone). Unless you are one of those cyborg looking folks that likes to torture whomever is on the other end with lower sound quality, ditch the Bluetooth.

Turning off Wi-Fi until you actually want to use it is another good power saver (Settings/Wi-Fi). You may have noticed that every time your phone gets near any new Wi-Fi hotspots, it lets you know (both a power drain and a general pain!)

Set your Auto-Lock interval (Settings/General/Auto-Lock) to the shortest time that works for you (it's like the Sleep option on computers). Also, get into the habit of locking your iPhone as soon as you are done using it, instead of allowing it to go blank on its own by pressing the thin metal Sleep/Wake button on the top of the phone.

If you are going into a meeting or movie theater or know that you are in a low or no coverage area, turn on the Airplane mode to save a bundle of power ((General/Airplane Mode).

If you're getting low on power and want to squeeze a few extra phone calls or text messages in, turn off the 3G option (Settings/General/Network) and don't check e-mail or try to surf the web.

Apple also recommends that you completely power-cycle your phone at least once a month. That means charging it all the way up and discharging it until it dies, as proper maintenance of lithium-based batteries.

If you travel frequently, I suggest getting a sleek attachable battery charger like the Juice Pack from Mophie ( http://www.mophie.com ). Mine has saved me (and sometimes the passenger sitting next to me!) many times on road trips.]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:49:25 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21761 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21760 3G & 4G are marketing terms used by many companies (including Apple for its iPhone as well as cellular and WiMAX providers) and it's causing some confusion.

In the cellular network world, 4G is a reference to the '4th Generation' of cellular technology.

The first generation was simply the ability to make calls; the second generation introduced some basic data capabilities (mainly text messaging); the third generation (and the current standard) introduced high-speed data transmission for capabilities beyond voice & text (like audio & video); the coming forth generation is designed to increase the speed to make tasks like streaming video much better.

The general consensus on the speed difference of 4G over 3G is that it will be 3 to 5 times faster in average and peak download speeds, but we will only see limited access to these networks in 2010.

Whether it makes sense for you to 'cut the cord' or not has a lot to do with your needs and uses.

At the current time, the cost vs performance of cellular-based Internet services is a little out of line in that you get a lot more speed and data capability with a traditional broadband connection for less than you do with cellular data networks.

If you don't do much more than surf the web and check e-mail, you may find that the (currently) slower speed of cellular Internet offerings are adequate, but be careful of the pricing structures.

Traditional home-based high-speed Internet services are an 'all you can eat' type of offering, whereas some cellular data plans (especially data only plans) have limitations on the amount of information that you can download before being charged extra fees.

If you are going to compare, make sure you are comparing unlimited cellular data plans, even if you don't think you will need it. Content and media on the Internet is increasing at a blinding speed and you could easily increase your data consumption without realizing it on a pay-as-you-go plan.

From a performance standpoint, if you are a hardcore gamer that likes to play against others on the Internet or if you download large videos, lots of music or other content that tends to take a lot of bandwidth, you should probably stick with a traditional residential broadband service.

If having access to the Internet no matter where you are is important, that's the biggest selling point of the cellular based Internet services. Of course, these services only work if you are within range of a data cell tower.

Another issue to consider is the impact of lots of users on a cellular data network. While I was attending this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, my cellular data service was almost unusable (there were a huge number of iPhone users all jamming the network at the same time).

If you live in a high-density urban area, you are more likely to run into network overload issues than those that live in suburban or rural areas.

Although, there are solutions available for sharing cellular Internet connections (most companies are referring to it as MyFi or personal hotspots), if you have multiple users in your household, you are definitely better off with a traditional high-speed Internet connection shared through a router for the time being.

4G is getting a lot of hype as the first legitimate alternative to those that want to 'cut the cord' but it's going to be a while before the various providers build out their 4G networks. That means that early adopters will only get 4G speeds in limited areas so make sure you see a coverage map before you take the plunge!]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:05:53 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21760 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21759 Of the 400 million people that have a Facebook account, over 83 million are active users of Farmville which is why even if you don't play the game, you're going to get pelted with updates from your friends.

What many users of third-party Facebook applications (such as Farmville, Café World & Mafia Wars) don't realize is that they are giving up their profile information in exchange for access to the game.

And they aren't just giving up access of their profile info to the Farmville game maker, but also to all of their advertising 'affiliates'.

Depending upon how your privacy settings are configured, your game playing friends can even allow these third-party companies to access your profile info even if you aren't playing the game.

Facebook constantly updates its system (much to the dismay of many) but the upside is that they continue to add tools that help us manage the traffic and our privacy on our own pages.

If you simply want to hide Farmville posts from your 'News Feed' (generally the default page when you sign on to Facebook), the next time you get a Farmville update in your stream, float your mouse over the right corn of the post and click on 'Hide'.

This should bring up three options: Hide (Username), Hide Farmville and Cancel.

If you click on 'Hide (Username)', then nothing from that use will ever appear in your News Stream (but they can still manually post comments on your wall).

If you click on 'Hide Farmville', you will not see any updates from this user or any other user that is playing Farmville in your News Feeds any longer (this works with any posting that comes from third-party applications; Causes, Birthday Cards, etc.)

Additionally, If you want to globally block Farmville as an application to your profile so that you no longer get Farmville invitations, go to www.facebook.com/farmville and click on the 'Block Application' link below the Farmville logo on the left side.

You can repeat this for any Facebook application by simply putting the name of the app in the Search bar and finding the page associated with the application.

Most of your friends probably don't realize that they can share your profile information to third-party applications even if you are not using the application or the game.

You can control what they can share about you by clicking on Account (in the upper right hand corner), then on Privacy Settings/Applications and Websites then on the Edit Setting button for 'What your friends can share about you'.

Remove the checkmark for any of your profile information that you do not want shared via your friends to applications and websites, but remember that anything that is available via your public profile can be readily accessed by third party applications and websites at any time.

If you want to see what information is available via your public profile, go back to the Privacy Settings screen, then click on Profile Information. You will see a list of items that are contained in your profile with buttons to the right with four options: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Only Friends and Customize.

The first three are pretty obvious, but the Customize option allows you to choose one of the three previous settings and then manually hide the item from specific people.

Finally, be sure to click on the Preview My Profile button at the top right to double-check what the general Facebook public (and third-party applications) can see on your profile without being your friend first.]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Thu, 4 Mar 2010 19:39:54 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21759 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21758 As we have become more mobile or more likely to use more than one computer, programs like Outlook Express present challenges to being flexible about how and where you get your e-mail.

The reason you are having a problem sending messages from the road via Outlook Express is because the program is specifically configured to send mail out via the Cox mail system. When you are on the road, you are no longer connecting to the Internet via a Cox connection; therefore you are not permitted to send mail from another Internet provider through the Cox mail system.

This restriction was implemented by all Internet providers years ago to stem the tide of spam that was sent via unauthorized system on the networks.

Simply put, you can only send messages via the Cox mail system if you are on a Cox Internet connection. Your Outlook Express is configured to use the Cox outgoing mail system or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server, so it gets denied access when you are on the road.

If you knew what the SMTP settings were for the new network that you are connecting to from the road, you could change the setting temporarily to get it to work, but there are several more elegant solutions available.

The first option is to use the Cox 'webmail' interface instead of Outlook Express when you are on the road, which can be accessed by going to http://webmail.cox.net.

The nice thing about webmail systems is that you don't even have to use your own laptop to access them as they can be reached via any Internet connected computer.

The downside to using the Cox webmail interface while you are on the road is that it's rather sparse, won't have all the contacts you have stored in Outlook Express and adds a new place that you will have to look for 'Sent messages' in the future.

If you transferred all your contacts to the Cox Webmail system and stopped using Outlook Express even while you were at home, you could eliminate all but one of the problems: the lackluster webmail system itself.

My recommendation is that you bypass all of the Cox options and sign up for a free Google Gmail account (http://gmail.com) which can be configured to check your Cox e-mail account and mark all messages as coming from Cox.

You can also set Gmail up to automatically make your messages look like they are coming from your Cox e-mail account for all outgoing messages or just those that were originally sent to your Cox account.

You can export your contacts from Outlook Express (File, Export, Address Book) as a CSV (Comma Seperated Values) file which Gmail can very quickly import (Contacts/Import).

Once you have it all setup, use Gmail at home, on the road, on your friends computer or anywhere you can access the Internet. You will always have your most current contacts, messages and sent mail, no matter where you are.

Additionally, Gmail has a plethora of other useful tools that can make dealing with spam or messages from many accounts very efficient. Gmail is so popular, especially with the tech savvy crowd that you likely have many friends or family members that can help you get converted.

This approach also gives you another cool option; stop giving out your private Cox e-mail address to anyone you don't explicitly trust and give them your Gmail address instead (shopping sites, subscriptions sign up forms, etc.)

By doing that, you can easily see messages from people you care about in the Inbox as Gmail will mark the messages separately or allow you to click on your Cox messages only.

Gmail has a very small learning curve and I promise you that it will drastically change your e-mail life in a very good way!]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:43:20 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21758 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21757 Devotees of the trend-setting device (including myself) have been willing to put up with 'less than desirable service' from the voice and data network at AT&T because the device is that compelling.

The ongoing rumors of Verizon getting the iPhone continue to ebb and flow as the current exclusivity agreement between Apple and AT&T is set to expire in June of 2010.

While anyone with even the slightest business sense can see that Apple's smartphone market share would flourish if Verizon where to get the iPhone, most analysts are expecting that Apple will extend the exclusive deal with AT&T for at least another year or maybe even two.

One of the biggest reasons the analysts are making this prediction is based on the recent launch of the iPad which is also exclusively an AT&T device for the 3G connection.

The speculation that Apple would announce the Verizon iPhone during last January's Apple event was mounting as the iPad launch event neared, but in the end, we did not hear Job's mutter his classic "One more thing" to make a big introduction about the Vz iPhone.

More importantly, many current iPhone users have a misconception of what would happen if Verizon suddenly got the iPhone.

Existing iPhones are designed to work on GSM (Global System for Mobile) networks; Verizon's network is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).

This means that current iPhone users could not simply switch over to the Verizon network with their existing phones, they would need to get a new CDMA version of the iPhone (which currently does not exist).

In Western Europe, GSM is the prevailing technology for all the networks and the iPhone, which is available from all the carriers, is the top selling device. Getting your current iPhone to work in Europe is a snap (requires you to change the SIM card to the provider you choose) but here in the U.S. it's a completely different story.

Besides AT&T, T-Mobile uses GSM, while Verizon, Sprint and smaller carriers like MetroPCS and U.S. Cellular use CDMA. If Apple were to extend the iPhone to T-Mobile, then current phones could simply switch over.

Since no one really knows what is going to happen for sure in June, you have to make a judgment call. If you listen to the analysts, they are predicting the end of 2011 is the earliest that they see the end of the AT&T exclusivity.

The ability for Apple to keep a lid on a Verizon capable CDMA iPhone if it were in existence would be quite difficult in today's 'everyone can report anything' with their camera phone world that we live in.

If you want to play it safe, Apple allows you to continue on your current plan on a month-to-month basis at the end of your contract, so you could take the wait and see approach until June.

I personally am not too worried about when Verizon gets the iPhone because if my suspicions are correct, Verizon will likely have incentives that offer to pay early termination fees especially if your family or your organization has a lot of phones.

When (or if) Verizon gets an iPhone, it will essentially be a new device because the radio system (CDMA) will be a first generation, so I wouldn't be all that anxious to be a guinea pig in the early stages of the release anyway.]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:09:09 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21757 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21756 I view the current 'social revolution' as the third great shift in the personal computer revolution and anyone that ignores it will essentially be 'off the grid' in the near future.

The initial revolution of the personal computer made way for the Internet revolution which has now transitioned into this social revolution that most of us are still trying to figure out.

In today's world, you would view any person or company that did not use personal computers or the Internet as out of the loop and a bit odd; the same will occur in the near future for those that don't engage in the social revolution.

As a consumer, what is your perspective of a business or individual in today's tech age that doesn't have a website or doesn't use e-mail? Over time, this view will be the same for companies and individuals that don't use the social technologies that are exploding.

Ask yourself where you joined in during the past two revolutions and decide when you want to join the current one.

Social tech is not a fad and Google knows it. Facebook is the current king of social tech with an estimated (as of this writing) 400 million users worldwide that are very engaged on a daily basis.

To put it into perspective, if Facebook were a country, it would now be the third largest in the world behind China and India.

Google Buzz is a new option that is appearing only for those that currently use Google's e-mail system Gmail.

In its current iteration, it looks like Google is trying to cut into Facebook's turf and integrate features that are similar to what Twitter is all about.

It can serve as a basic 'aggregator' for various social media sites, but oddly it has no integration with Facebook (which is why most are speculating that they are the target).

Frankly, Google Buzz is so new that unless you are an 'early adopter' of technology, you should probably let them get through a couple of development cycles with the early adopter crowd before you jump in (exhibit: Google Wave - what's happened to it?)

Unless you're using Gmail, it's a moot point on using it as there is no stand alone version of Google Buzz.

The biggest concerns in the early stages of Buzz seem to be in the area of privacy, primarily in the area of the way you automatically get followed or start to follow others.

If you are a Gmail user and want to avoid any of the privacy issues being voiced by critics, you need to do more than just click on 'Turn off Buzz' as that simply turns off what you see, but not necessarily what you are participating in.

Cnet's Jessica Dolcourt has posted an excellent step-by-step tutorial on how to ensure that none of your 'privates' are included in the Buzz: http://bit.ly/dw1ubz]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:36:53 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21756 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21755 While managing your files is important for organizational purposes, getting rid of files because someone created a national day to remind you to do is a bit disconcerting to me.

There is a major misconception amongst non-technical computer users that deleting files from your computer will somehow improve the performance.

A computer that has 100 data files will run no faster than a computer that has 10,000 data files stored on it purely based on the number of files. The only impact that a large volume of files will have on a computer is that it will fill up your computer's hard drive. Think of it like your refrigerator; it stores the ingredients that you use for cooking, but has little to do with how fast you can prepare a meal.

If your computer's hard drive is getting close to full, then getting the 'urge to purge' makes sense but don't expect any tangible performance gain (unless your hard drive is completely full and out of operating space).

You can easily check to see how full your hard drive is by opening up My Computer and right-clicking on the C: drive, then selecting Properties.

A pie chart should come up with the blue section representing your data and the purple section representing your free space. If the purple section is a tiny sliver, then it's time to start removing unneeded items; if not, don't get too concerned about deleting old files.

The quickest way to free up large quantities of disk space is to uninstall unnecessary programs, which take up lots more space than documents and spreadsheets. Pictures, music and especially video files are the most common 'data' files that can take up significant space only if you have large quantities of them.

To remove unneeded programs, start by looking for an Uninstall option in the Programs section of each application from the Start menu. If you don't find an option there, you can open the Control Panel and click on the Add/Remove programs option.

A Word of Warning!

Removing items just because you don't know what they are is very dangerous. We constantly see customers in our stores that are suffering from 'self inflicted deletion wounds' because they started mass deleting files and programs that they didn't recognize.

A more relevant cleanup process that can improve performance is built into the Windows operating system and should be performed at least every couple of months.

The Disk Cleanup utility (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools) will track down lots of extraneous files that build up as a natural course of using your computer and get rid of them all at once.

Beware of companies that may try to take advantage of any press that 'Clean Out Your Computer Day' receives by trying to sell you a magical program that will clean up your computer for you.

Windows based 'Registry' system is extremely complicated, so these 'cleanup programs' must guess what needs to stay and what it thinks it can remove. If they guess wrong, you end up with a much bigger problem that can be very costly to fix. All too often, we see folks bringing in crashed systems that say 'everything was working fine until I installed XXX cleanup program' so be very mindful of any third party programs that claim to perform miracles for $29.95!]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Thu, 4 Feb 2010 20:50:16 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21755 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21754 Scareware refers to rogue programs that scare folks into doing something that, in this case, actually infects their computer.

Typically, users are initially exposed to these programs when visiting a website that is laced with the instructions to pop-up a fake warning that your computer is infected. These warnings look very similar to Windows screens and cause most folks to follow the prompts to 'scan' or 'fix' the problem.

Eventually, the 'fix' asks the user for a credit card number, which is when most folks realize something 'phishy' is going on, but by that time it's too late. The second that anyone clicks on the button to 'scan' or 'fix', it instructs your computer to install the evil code in the background while making you believe that it's scanning your computer for viruses.

It's by far, the most common reason that we are seeing 'patients' in our stores throughout the country.

This class of malicious software began appearing on the Internet in 2006 and has grown at a veracious rate simply because it is an effective way of getting into your computer. As of this writing, there are over 300 variants of fake security programs with new versions appearing on a weekly basis.

There is even a fake security program that calls itself 'Data Doctor 2010' which as you can imagine causes some confusion for our customers (we are not the authors, they simply made use of our name hoping to fool users).

Once they infect you, they can steal your credit card information, infect the machine for use as a silent soldier in a 'botnet' army, or install anything else that they so desire.

The reason your MacAfee antivirus didn't protect you is that it couldn't and neither would any other companies antivirus because you clicked on a button that told Windows and your security program that you wanted to install a program.

These malicious programs are very well written and look like any other program, like a screensaver or photo management program to your operating system and security programs.

Keep in mind, while these evil programmers are cooking up these concoctions, they have the ability to test it on every major antivirus program on the market before they launch it. In other words, they can keep working with the code until they know that your antivirus program will think it is a legitimate program.

Once they accomplish that, their only task is to fool you into clicking on a button to start the process of infiltrating your computer.

This, unfortunately, is why so many people are getting infected and your antivirus program is powerless to protect you from yourself.

Most folks that get infected immediately start searching Google for a way to get rid of these programs, which exposes them to yet more scams of programs that claim they can help if you pay.

The best information for removal will be the manual registry steps to eradicate the scareware code from the core of the Windows operating system, but even those instructions can be dated in a few short months.

The authors of the malware also scan the Internet to see how folks are removing their code, then they update their code to block or evade those removal instructions, so if you are searching for help on any specific infection, make sure to refine your search to only show you results from the past week (click on the 'Show options' link above the search results in Google).

In the future, pay very close attention to warning screens. In your case, you have MacAfee installed, so if the warning is not clearly coming from the MacAfee program, cancel the warning.]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:23:59 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21754 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21753 That's all changed with today's options and it's what every business traveler that gets stuck on 3 or 4 hour flights has been praying for!

My personal experience with in-flight wifi was on a cross-country Delta flight and it proved to be a very productive use of $12.95. I was able to complete work that would normally have been delayed until after getting off the plane late at night.

The primary task was to get our newsletter completed and delivered, which is very web-intensive as it's done completely through a web-based service (Exact Target), so a reliable Internet connection was critical.

I was pleasantly surprised at the speed and reliability of the connection (or maybe I managed my expectations really well!) and more importantly, was grateful that I didn't have to stay up late after a long flight to complete my work.

The actual service that I used was from Gogo (www.gogoinflight.com) which currently works with Air Canada, AirTran, American Airlines, Delta, United, Virgin America and is scheduled to launch service on Continental and US Airways this year.

Not all flights on all carriers are offering wifi at the moment (you can check which airlines are offering it on which aircraft at Gogo's website). In most cases, it is being offered only on longer flights (3+ hours) but that is bound to change.

Gogo's service is based on a special high-speed cellular frequency that communicates via towers on the ground in the continental US.

Another provider Row 44 (www.row44.com) is a satellite based service which will allow them to provide service on transcontinental and domestic flights. They are working with Alaska Airlines and Southwest amongst other international carriers.

As of this writing, the providers and airlines are not blocking access to any specific content or websites and are relying on passengers to behave themselves (this could change!)

One exception is voice traffic. If you plan on using a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) service such as Skype to make voice calls in-flight, don't waste your money. The airlines decided that their passengers didn't want to get stuck next to loud, obnoxious 'deal makers' flapping their gums about their latest conquests during these long flights (good for them.)

Interestingly, you are allowed to connect via Skype for video only (the audio gets scrambled), but what good is that unless you know sign language.

Also, the Internet service can only be used at 10,000 feet or higher, so it's not like you can use it during the whole flight or if you get stuck on the tarmac for hours waiting to take off.

Any device that is wifi enables and has a browser can make use of the connection: laptops, Netbooks, smartphones and even the iPod Touch and some handheld gaming systems. You must have a browser in order to get past the 'I Agree' terms of use gateway page.

As far as safety goes, this shouldn't be approached any different than any other public wifi connection. If you aren't careful, you could expose your computer to others on the flight, just like in the airport or at a hotel (my column on public wifi safety is posted here: http://bit.ly/2ldfHp.)

Be very mindful that those in the row behind you can easily see through the gaps in the seats to your screen or lots of folks if you are seated in the aisle seat. This means you should avoid typing in any sensitive information or websites that will display sensitive information.

If your company requires you to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect to the company network, you may have problems getting it all to work depending upon how restrictive your IT department has set the VPN to be (check with them before your flight for the best results).]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:29:24 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21753 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21752 Physical considerations

The first is your desk space, especially the height of the monitor if it must fit under a shelf or cabinet, so be sure to measure your space to start.

The next non-technical consideration is viewing angle. Some cheaper displays can have a small viewing 'sweet spot' which means that colors and contrast can get washed out as your viewing angle changes. This is especially important for anyone that will use the display for presentation purposes or for those that like to gather a group around the computer to view Internet or other video content.

Make sure to also check how flexible the adjustments are for the stand (swivel, tilt and height).

Display Size & Shape

From a technical perspective, start by deciding whether you want an older 4x3 (square) aspect ratio or a newer 16x9 (widescreen) aspect ratio display. If your computer is more than 4 to 5 years old, it may not have a video card that is capable of supporting a wide screen display in its 'native' resolution, which can cause degradation in the quality of what is displayed.

The newer widescreen displays are optimized to display today's video content in its proper resolution (no stretching or cramming of images into the older square resolutions) and can allow side-by-side displays of documents on larger displays.

They're also better at displaying 'widgets' that are common with Windows Vista and Windows 7 (via the sidebar) without crowding the rest of the screen.

Some widescreen displays are designed to pivot from landscape to portrait mode, which is excellent for those doing page layout work in documents or graphics programs.

Contrast Ratio

This spec is important, but has been completely overblown by many manufacturers as a marketing tool. Contrast ratio refers to the difference between the whites and blacks in the display, with the higher the ratio the better.

Look for contrast ratios in the 400:1 to 600:1 range as anything above that is likely difficult to perceive and may be overstated (for reference purposes, a movie theater display is generally 500:1) and ignore any spec that is called 'Dynamic Contrast Ratio".

Resolution considerations

If you plan on using the display for both computer content and want to view BluRay DVDs at their full resolution, then you will need a display with at least a 1920x1080 resolution (typically 23" to 24" widescreens).

With resolution, however, bigger is not always better for those with older eyes. The higher the resolution, the smaller everything on the screen will become. Make sure you view Internet content in the native resolution of any display that you plan to purchase to ensure that the text isn't going to be too small to read comfortably.

You can make some adjustments to text size in both the browser and the operating system display settings, but stepping down to a resolution that is below the 'native' setting will usually result in jagged edges on images and text, so don't over buy on resolution.

Connectors

In the old days, the connector was the connector (15-pin SVGA), but today there are several options worth your consideration.

The first is DVI (Digital Visual Interface) which is a common way to connect high-resolution video cards for gaming, video or photo editing. Even if you don't own a computer with a DVI output, you likely will in the future, so this one is generally worth paying extra for.

For those with very high-performance needs, the HDMI (High-Definition, Multimedia Interface) connector will allow you to directly connect home theater sources as well as the latest in very high-performance gaming video cards and keep up with these uncompressed digital signals.

At the end of the day, looking at the display will go a long way to helping you determine if the display is the right one for you, so don't over-think this purchase!]]> ken colburn, brandon disney, data doctor, ktar Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:33:55 +0700 http://datadoctors.com/help/kenscolumns/column.cfm?id=21752