monitors

When considering a new purchase, the importance of price can't be understated. Just attaching a low sticker price to a product can make something not even on your radar suddenly become a must have.

If, like me, you were a Steam customer during the holidays, you'll know exactly what I mean.

For large purchases, however, functionality takes precedence over price. At least for me it does. I've been burned too many times going with the cheaper alternative only to be unsatisfied by the experience it provided.

The HP 2311x got a lot of attention on CNET last … Read more

Last time, we took a look at how cars protect their passengers in the event of a crash. This week, we're taking a look at a few high-tech ways that modern vehicles can help prevent accidents in the first place.

Modern tech cars can be equipped with a host of driver aid systems that help make driving easier for your average commuter. From road-aware cruise control systems to self-aware headlight systems, cars are getting smarter every day.

Adaptive cruise control If the standard cruise control system was the first step toward vehicular autonomy, then adaptive cruise control system is … Read more

My Data Manager by Mobidia provides a simple, passive way of tracking your Android device's data usage. It's perfect if you have a limited data plan and are constantly trying to avoid those annoying overage charges.

Once you install My Data Manager, it automatically starts tracking your home data usage, roaming, and Wi-Fi usage, all in real time. It lists all of the active, data-connected apps on your device, the amount of raw data used in MBs, and the percentage of data transfer currently being used by each app. It even has pie charts.

But that's just … Read more

Glucose levels are 100 times more concentrated in blood than in saliva, which is why in spite of many efforts to use saliva, diabetics are still pricking themselves to get accurate glucose readings.

But now, harnessing the power of nanotechnology, engineers at Brown University say they've designed a biochip that can measure glucose levels in saliva almost as accurately as current devices can measure levels in blood.

To do this, the engineers etched a complicated array of thousands of plasmonic interferometers (no, this is not an episode of Farscape) onto a fingernail-size biochip. This means they were essentially using … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you've been pining for a continuous heart rate monitor that doesn't strap onto (and continually pinch or slide down) your chest, the new company Basis Science may have just the solution for you, and it doubles as a sleek little watch.

The Basis Band, one of this year's dozen or so CES Health and Wellness Innovations Awards honorees, is equipped with multiple sensors that track not only heart rate (using optical blood flow sensors) but also activity level (via 3D accelerometer), calories burned, and temperature and galvanic skin response.

The water-resistant black or white band … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Some things are just plain hard work. Like walking the show floor at CES. Which is why Striiv, a 2-inch touch-screen device that counts every step or stair its user takes, is notable among the slew of fancy pedometers at CES this year.

Because all it's done since I clipped it to my pants this morning is tell me how awesome I am, with every step I take, and there are few things quite so motivating.

It would be easy to dismiss something so feel-good as nothing but a device that applauds the status quo, but the folks … Read more

LAS VEGAS--You may never really be away from home again.

Motorola demoed today at CES 2012 its Home Gateway, a device about the size of a compact router, designed to bridge all appliances of your home, from IP cameras to TVs to light bulbs, and allow you to monitor and manage them over the Internet with a mobile app.

During the demo, Motorola showed how a person could control different devices, like switching desk lights on and off or dimming them, or viewing surveillance camera footage, all in a single mobile app.

Motorola said the Home Gateway is the latest in its 4Home series of technology that "delivers the connected home in a smart and simple way." Most of the devices can be paired with the Home Gateway via a single button push. Devices that don't support any connectivity standard, such as an old refrigerator, can be added to the network via a Z-Wave adapter and then the user can monitor their energy usage and even turn them on or off.… Read more

A big monitor can change the way you work. It not only gives you a physically larger display, but also boosts the resolution so you can fit more windows onscreen at once.

That means you could keep, say, your browser open on the left side of the screen and your word processor on the right. No more hopping back and forth between them. Once you experience that kind of convenience, you'll never want to go back to a smaller monitor.

For a limited time, Dell Small Business has the ViewSonic VA2431WM 24-inch LCD monitor for $149.99 shipped (plus … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Dropcam, which has made a name for itself for providing a user-friendly, easy-to-setup video-monitoring camera and service, has taken the wraps off its new video-monitoring camera, the Dropcam HD.

While Dropcam has just announced the product--and is shipping it later this month for $149--I've been playing around with an early sample for the past week. It has an interesting design and is fairly tiny. The camera can be removed from its stand (when you hook it up to your computer, you take it out of its stand), but most people will leave it in its stand and either set it up on a flat surface or mount it on a wall.

You can't swivel the camera remotely, but you can manually tilt and swivel the camera into almost any position. It's a fixed lens, which means there's no optical zoom, but Dropcam is now offering a digital-zoom feature. … Read more