Mimo UM-710S - USB LCD Mini Monitor

The Mimo UM-710S is the first monitor that I will cover. It's a very neat and small external monitor powered by a single USB cable. Sometimes you just need a secondary monitor and the Mimo is a neat one. Obviously it has it's limitations, but it has it's positives. Box Contents: Mimo UM-710S USB cable (about 60 inches long) CD with Drivers Installation Make sure that you install the driver from the CD before plugging in the Mimo. The drivers are from Display Link and previously I have had issues with it when I plug the monitor before installing drivers first. (Warpia SWP100, SWP220 use Display Link drivers) If for some reason you cannot use a CD to install the drivers you can download them at the Display Link drivers website. Screen Size + Weight With a screen of 7 inches the Mimo is very portable. Since it has a small form factor it's also very light and can be packed easily. Case/Stand The case when closed will protect the screen and functions very well as a stand. The stand allows you to rotate from landscape to portrait modes, which may be useful to some people. The rotation of the resolution doesn't happen automatically so you will have to change that in Windows. Resolution At 800x480 the resolution may not be enough for most tasks. Due to the screen resolution it may limit what you can do with it. I did not find it useful for browsing the internet, but I did find it to be useful playing movies, music, and previewing images. Colors The box specifications say that it has 262 thousand colors, and I believe them. Most modern laptops have screens with millions of colors. Since the Mimo has a smaller range of colors you will notice differences (especially in gradients). Brightness The screen brightness is stated to be at 350 CD/m with a contrast ratio of 400:1. This is not bad. The screen seems even brighter than my laptop's screen (a bit sad) Buttons There are three buttons on this system. The first one is power on/off which works well. There's also an indicator LED light which is completely useless and may be annoying. The second and third ones are brightness up/down, which do not seem to work that well (at least the different levels are not noticeable). Text Previously I have tested Display Link technology with Warpia devices and it wasn't quite great. The Mimo UM-710S does a very good job at keeping text crisp and sharp. Price At $129 on Amazon this is not a cheap screen. You can buy wall powered monitors for that amount of money and they would give you a bigger screen. The price of the Mimo UM-710S could and should be a lot lower. Usability Don't expect to use the Mimo monitor for professional image/video editing, the colors will be a bit misleading. What you can use the Mimo for is for secondary tasks such as playing videos in the background, widgets/gadgets, previewing images, running iTunes or Media Player, and so on. Basically to do things in the background that now will not get in the way of your main computer screen. Overall I think it has it's pros and cons. For a small screen that is only powered via a single USB port I think it does a fine job and is a neat addition to a laptop. Obviously it has it's limitations, but I think it's a neat gadget. The price does definitely make this a hard thing to buy, and so I wouldn't recommend it to most people. Other There are other models of the Mimo monitors, the UM-710S is one of their first monitors.

Mimo UM-710S Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 Toshiba 14 Inch USB LCD Monitor AOC e1649Fwi 16" USB Monitor

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Incoming - USB LCD Monitors

MIMO UM-710S, HP Pavilion DV6T QE, Lenovo Thinkvision LT1421, Toshiba 14-inch USB Ultra-portable Monitor

It's been a while since I did some videos and posts. But I have something a bit interesting coming. In my possession I have three USB powered LCD Monitors. They each have their positives and negatives and in a few days I'll go over each monitor. Why are they unique? These USB LCD monitors are powered only via USB, there is no need for an AC/DC adapter. This makes them very attractive for laptop owners that want to remain mobile. My current HP Pavilion DV6T QE laptop has a resolution of 1366x768 which limits productivity. With the addition of at least one of these monitors doing things like editing and programming become a lot easier. If there are specifics you would like me to cover make sure to write a comment. Thanks.

NO SOPA, PIPA, AND INTERNET CENSORSHIP

Links: H.R.3261IH - SOPA American Censorship Website CNET - How SOPA would affect you Wikipedia - SOPA, Wikipedia Joins In netCoalition - PIPA and SOPA: Who, What, Where, When, Why & How Mashable - Why SOPA Is Dangerous Congress - Supporters (80), Opponents (31) Reddit - A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP

Since I create a good amount of content on Youtube and on several blogs I may or may not be performing copyright infringement, it's hard to keep track of all the tiny things and I don't intentionally do it. SOPA and PIPA are acts that could affect the work that I have done over the past few years. From my understanding. If these acts become law, big companies can shut down websites very easily. As a small blogger I would not have a fighting chance. Youtube which does allow the uploading of content is a big copyright violator. If they shut down Youtube all of my videos would be gone. The bill is not just about combating piracy, it's about control and censorship (ala Iran, Cuba, etc). These politicians did not grow with the internet, they are not experts in the field, and they don't know how it can affect independent content creators. (or maybe they do, but their Lords control them like the puppets they may be) The internet has given me a chance to spread information. Hopefully some of the content that I and many small bloggers create helps others. Spreading information is the whole point of this blog. As a content creator I cannot be a good quiet slave and keep my mouth shut. If enough people join in on the movement, SOPA and PIPA will not become law. SOPA: Gives the government the right to unilaterally censor foreign websites. Gives copyright holders the right to issue economic takedowns and bring lawsuits against website owners and operators, if those websites have features that make it possible to post infringing content. Makes it a felony offense to post a copyrighted song or video.

HP Pavilion DV6T Quad Edition - Open CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Tray Easily With A Script

I got a message from someone who wanted to know how to open the optical drive of the DV6T QE with a key combination. In the case of the HP Pavilion DV6T QE there is kind of a need for this because the disc eject button is not the easiest to press. There are several ways of doing this, but I will use the AutoHotkey method. Basically we will write a script that will enable a key combination to open the CD/DVD tray. How to: Download and install Autohotkey  http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ Open Notepad Press win key and type "notepad" Inside the Notepad window type: #z::Drive, Eject Return Save As "Open Disc Tray.ahk" Ensure that "Save as Type" is "All Files" Open the recently saved Open Disc Tray.ahk script Press Win key + z The disc/optical drive will open Additional - Make it automatic To have the script work every time the computer boots up you need to make the script opens automatically. To automate it you need to copy and paste the script to the "Startup" folder. The Startup folder is found by: Hit win key Click "All Programs" Scroll down until you find "Startup" Right click on the folder and select "Explore" You can now drag/drop the "Open Disc Tray.ahk" file This is just one method of doing this, there are many others. Hope that helps.