Tagged : dual monitors

in gadgets

Drive Dual Monitors with your Single Output Laptop with this Full HD Dongle

USB-to-DVI-Full-HD-and-QWXGA-Dongle

usb-to-dvi dongle

I’ve been meaning to write about my recent switch to a Mac Book Pro, which I love, but I haven’t quite gotten to it yet. About the only thing I miss from my Dell XPS m1330 is that laptop’s ability to drive two external monitors, one via the  HDMI interface and one via the VGA output.

I came across this dongle today by Logitec (no, not Logitech) and it looks promising, offering the ability to drive that external screen at QWXGA resolution (2,048 x 1,152).

The revolutionary USB to DVI Full HD and QWXGA Dongle offers virtually perfect video quality and turns your USB port into a true DVI-I port, making it the first external video card that truly performs like a standard internal video card. With the included adapter you can add a VGA monitor.

[Note: MAC OS X: Maximum Resolution is WUXGA (1920x1200)]

Anyone ever try a product like this?

via Geek Stuff 4 U – For Geeks By Geeks USB to DVI Full HD and QWXGA Dongle.

in gadgets, productivity

one thing I like about my Dell XPS M1330: dual external monitors!

In my last post I talked about how to maximize screen area on widescreen systems by optimizing the placement of your Windows taskbar and your Firefox configuration. I was driven to that point in part by spending just a few days working from my home office, where I’ve got a single 20” widescreen monitor.

I don’t worry about vertical screen real estate too much when I’m working from the office because I’ve got quite a bit of it to work with. No, I don’t have a mongo 30” widescreen Cinema Display. I don’t even have a 24-incher. In fact, I think my current setup, which consists of dual 20” panels, works better than either of these.

CIMG0747

The monitors are Dell 2007FPs. Each is running at 1600×1200, yielding a total of 3.84 million pixels, compared to 2.3 million for a 24” widescreen and 4.1 million for a 30” panel. Not bad considering the cost is roughly 75% more than the 24” and significantly less than half the cost of the 30”.

CIMG0756Part of what makes this work so nicely is my Dell XPS M1330’s ability to drive two independent external monitors. I’m sure it’s not the only laptop that can do so nowadays, but it’s the first I’ve owned. The Dell has both a VGA port and an HDMI port and, unlike some other machines that only let you use one at a time, you can use both on the M.

That’s not to say that the machine is perfect – for example, a docking station would be nice to help manage all those connections. Backlit keyboard would be sweet, too. Don’t get me started.

But it is nice to have the dual external monitor support. Thanks, Dell!