Posted 11/23/09 at 10:30:35 AM by David Murphy

Widescreen monitors are, in a word, awesome, and not just because they offer some kind of enhanced quality over their four-by-three ratio brethren. Depending on what you're using them for, like movie-watching, you'll simply see more of a given scene than you otherwise would on a standard display. The increased screen real estate (on the horizontal plane) also allows you to make more effective use of your desktop... provided you have the right software tools to create this enhanced productivity. 

In fact, one of the biggest complaints surrounding the use of widescreen monitors is just that--the elongated desktop space is just too hard to navigate, and applications frequently don't make the best use of this additional room. I can't promise that everything out-of-the-box (or out-of-the-browser window) will look great on your widescreen display. However, what I can do is offer you a suite of tools designed to make your 16-by-9 or 16-by-10 experience as great as it can be. I've been using widescreen monitors for quite some time now. I know how it feels. That extra background space on the sides of every Web page you load? Maddening.

Let's take care of that issue, and more, with some awesome widescreen monitor apps.

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Posted 09/25/08 at 09:56:33 AM by Paul Lilly

If you've ever owned a Jack-in-the-Box, then you're already trained on how to use Trevor Baylis' Eco Media Player Revolution. But rather than being traumatized by some creepy crown, you'll instead be rewarded with about 45 minutes of music in return for one minute of cranking on the integrated handle.

This second generation media player comes ready to handle just about any media format you can toss at it, including MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, and OGG, along with AVI, MP4, and WMV video formats.  The company says the 4GB of internal flash memory will store up to 2,000 songs, and an SD card slot gives users the ability to double up the storage ante.

Getting back the hand-crank, not only does it power the Revolution, but it can give your cell phone a quick boost too. A minute of cranking earns you about 5 minutes of talk time, provided one of the five included adapters fits your brand of phone.

What are your thoughts on this thing? Hit the jump and let us know.

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