Destined to Reign

Not satisfied with just the TV watching crowd getting their fix today, ViewSonic also introduced a plethora of monitors for the gaming and budget-minded sets. Up first is the 19-inch VX1940w ($249), 22-inch VX2240w ($349) and 19-inch VX1932wm ($249), all of which sport a two-millisecond response time, 300 nits of brightness and DVI / VGA inputs. The latter sports a 1,440 x 900 resolution and a 2,000:1 contrast ratio, while the other two offer up a 1,680 x 1,050 native resolution coupled with a 4,000:1 contrast ratio. Moving right along to the Value series, the widescreen 19-inch VA1926w (WXGA+), 20-inch VA2026w (WSXGA+) and 22-inch VA2226w (WSXGA+) displays all feature 2,000:1 contrast ratios, 300 nits of brightness, DVI / VGA connectors, and five-millisecond response times. Oh, and for those not needing 16:9, the VA926 offers up a 1,280 x 1,024 panel. In order of mention, you'll be looking at $229, $249, $279 and $259 pricetags on the four Value monitors. Phew, got all that?

Intel demos iPhone-like MID of the future

Intel just keeps banging out the hits from IDF. After the handful of McCaslin "next-quarter" and "coming-soon" UMPCs we saw from the chipmaker (and associates), Intel started busting out prototypes from its forthcoming Menlow chipset, using smaller, 45nm Silverthorne CPUs, and the 2009/2010 offering Moorestown... which is the bad-boy you're looking at in these photos is based on. In a rather obvious homage to the iPhone, the chip-kingpin presented this do-anything, go-anywhere MID (provided you can cram this French-bread-sized device into a pocket). The device will feature a 45nm CPU as well, plus all kinds of goodies like integrated WiFi and WiMAX, and apparently 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. Obviously, this product will probably never see the light of day (at least not in this form factor), but then again -- you never really know.