Setting up is fairly straightforward, calibration takes place by clicking the corners of the screen or whiteboard area so the Edge scanner learns the workspace size. Magnetic strips can be used to easily mount the Edge scanner to a stick-on whiteboard.The eBeam has both business and education packages with capture toolsl however, the business edition features the collaborative Workspace software environment which supports the import of Office, Flash and image files and is PC only. The education version is Mac and PC compatible but lacks Workspace. This eBeam kit might seem more appropriate to pimp my boardroom, but if your work involves unpicking brainstorming meetings, then the content captured may well simplify matters.When I first clapped eyes on this stand with a definite twist, I was surprised to find myself being charmed by its design. I mean, we’re talking about a bit of kit to simply hold a tablet in position, after all. It’s not exactly news but it certainly has a very neat approach. Described as a monkey’s tail, this weighty, bendy rubberised length of heavy duty flex, holds its position when shaped so that it can be raised, lowered or even wrapped around fixtures. A robust suction cup at the business end holds the tablet in place.
While it’s hardly rocket science you can use it to hold a tablet just about anywhere – you can even wrap it around your neck, and have the tablet in front of your Bob Dylan harmonica style, which might be handy for reading or the need for hands-free viewing whilst following some tech info. That said, dock and tail are not exactly light at 840g in total and that's before you attach a tablet. Still this weight does ensure it stays put when place on a tabletop.The suction cup section can be removed and used as a basic prop stand if kept stuck to the back of the tablet
Unlike so many prop-me-up tablet stands, this one brings the tablet to you so if you’ve wandered into a meeting room for video conference with a monkey tail in tow, your telepresence won’t be a view or your nostrils any more. Also app or web authors can see their work in the same line of sight as their desktop screens too. Why not have PDF manual loaded into an eBook reader? You could then work out how to get the best from Dragon Dictate from its commands cheat sheet.
If you’re inclined to hesitate about choosing a Philips monitor, then it's probably passed you by that this sector of the brand is actually run by MMD. It’s a spin-off company from TPV Technology – the world’s largest flat panel producer – that now designs and manufactures Philips TV and display products. As TPV panels are everywhere, it must be doing something right.So what we have here is a 1080p monitor with what appears to be a webcam, but is a low-res sensor that enables the display to double as a fitness coach, well sort of. The ErgoSensor’s spooky my-tech-is-watching-me aspect, actually implements some well-intentioned ideas. It will nag you to sit up straight, advise on viewing distance and notify you that it’s time to take a break. Perhaps the latter will appeal enough to want one on your desk and if you’re found idling by the tea room, you can insist you’re simply following company policy.Besides watching you while you work it features an energy saving trick, as the display dims after a minute when you're not at your desk, rather neatly brightening up when you reappear. For longer periods the display blacks out. Talking of energy, at 29W, the new 231P4QRYES 23in IPS panel does consume a bit more power than the 241P4LRYES 24in TFT version’s 21.5W, which is still available.
Both feature DisplayPort, DVI and VGA interfacing along with 4 x USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out, 2 x 1.5W speakers and a pivot stand that enables landscape viewing. The speakers are probably the worst feature, sounding bright and thin, akin to laptop. Still, do you really buy a monitor for its speakers?Philips isn’t alone with the ergonomic ideas though, BenQ has implemented similar reminders on some of its models with the BL2410PT taking a best guess as to when you’re reading and makes brightness and colour adjustments.No doubt some of you have 4K in mind for your next display upgrade. LG has a couple of 4K monitors – the 27in 16:9 aspect EA83 (£600) for professionals and the 29in consumer-centric 21:9 EA93 (£400). They might not tell you when it’s time for a tea break but they certainly make a big impression.
When it comes to desktop audio and video office tech, companies are falling over themselves to deliver equipment optimised for use with popular communications systems. Flavour of the month appears to be Microsoft’s Lync and, like Logitech, Plantronics has plenty of devices that talk the talk with Redmond’s latest. It’s just an endorsement of sorts, as buying a Lync savvy device doesn’t mean it will fail to function with Google Hangouts and the like.For calls, a simple single earpiece and mic setup is all you really need and I was initially tempted by the Blackwire C710 USB headset, as I find that peripheral battery gear in the workplace has a tendency to die at inopportune moments – the Bluetooth mouse being the biggest sinner here. However, the C710 has the best of both worlds, as its clip on controller unit – with call mute, volume and mode buttons – also features a rechargeable battery to power it for mobile use.Sure you can simply plug it into a USB port on a Mac or PC, but you can also switch from desktop to mobile mode and go walkies with it linked up to a handset via Bluetooth. Another nice touch is it senses when you pick up the headset to answer a call and to hang up when you take it off.
Sonically, the spec reveals the frequency response is merely 100Hz to 8kHz for the noise cancelling mic which has been tailored to play nice with voices and sounds pleasant enough. The headset can be cranked up quite loud too but there’s no booming bass nor a scintillating top end, just a fairly modest response.I’ll admit that I did find the headband a little tight to begin with though, but after a little adjustment, I’d either found a sweetspot or just became used to it. Still, for those with big bonces, it might be a problem and the wireless Voyager Legend UC might be a better bet, but then you’ll have an in-ear system that relies solely on battery and Bluetooth. You pays yer money...Undoubtedly, there exists a chosen few in offices who are kitted out with an Apple MacBook of some description attached to a 27in Thunderbolt display for a bevvy of interfacing options. Naturally, such niceties are not cheap and even Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express dock is a pricey alternative for those in need of additional ports for a MacBook Air.
PC users, especially those with Ultrabooks, are finding that ports they took for granted are now missing. It’s something that StarTech’s docking station sets out to remedy. This USB 3.0 box of essential interfacing features Gigabit Ethernet, audio in/out, two additional USB 3.0 ports and three display connectivity options: HDMI and DVI-D and VGA. You can even hook up two monitors from this selection configured either as HDMI and DVI-D or HDMI and VGA.To get started, you need to instal the DisplayLink manager software which enables the video ports for additional screens and features resolution and orientation functions. I tried it out with the BBC iPlayer on a second monitor, with the dock audio output going into powered speakers, all streaming from its Ethernet connection. On the host PC's main screen this all worked smoothly but Top Gear was a tad jerky on the second display attacted to the dock. This probably won't be an issue for the majority of PowerPoint presentations though and, thankfully, the audio was in sync.
Tests with an older MacBook Pro with just USB 2.0 ports successfully accessed the dock's USB ports and audio output interfacing, but not the audio input. So in desperate times the Startech USB3SDOCKHDV dock could be hauled in for hub duties. Unsurprisingly, the Ethernet and monitor options didn't show up.Ideal for hot-desking or just getting notebooks displays onto the boardroom big screen this all-things-to-all-men device is certainly versatile and after a bit of driver handshaking will get visitor laptops talking over Ethernet so you don’t have to give out the company Wi-Fi details to every waif and stray that pitches up at the office. Exclusive review Western Digital (WD) has revamped its SMB NAS lineup with a Server 2012 Essentials system that I find hard to hate.I have never been comfortable with the idea of WD entering into the server space; it's a disk-peddler, what could it possibly know about servers? This is the second generation of these units I've had in for review, and WD is slowly changing my mind.
Up for review this time round is the Sentinel DS6100. Earlier this year I reviewed its older sibling - the DX4000 - and then my complaints boiled down to "Microsoft makes the weirdest interfaces known to man" and "but it's Western Digital…they who have caused me so much grief!"Microsoft still can't design an interface worth a damn, but any queasies I had about Western Digital's ability to make workable kit are officially gone.The unit The Register was issued for review is a quad core Xeon E3 1265L V2 with 16GB of RAM, a pair of 320GB 2.5-inch OS disks and 4x 3TB 7200 RPM drives crammed into a footprint the size of your average home NAS. It comes with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials and retails for $,3960 USD. This unit comes with two power supplies and has a slightly more capacious 16 TB version available for $4,560 USD.The new generation has multiple possible configurations. At the low end you can pick up a Xeon E3-1220L V2 with 8GB of RAM, a single OS disk and a pair of 2TB hard drives making it 4TB usable with two bays free. This configuration is branded as the DS 5100 and retails for $2,560 USD. It comes with a single power supply.
There is a chipset raid controller that ships with the unit and is capable of doing RAID 5. In this configuration you'll get a respectable 120-ish megabytes per second of sequential write and a little under 500 megabytes per second of sequential read. Naturally, that falls off a cliff the instant you start hitting it with lots of random I/O, but that's nothing new for 7200 RPM SATA drives.I recommend using the chipset RAID over the Windows Storage Spaces or Windows-based RAID 5. The software RAID basically cuts your write speed in half.From a practical standpoint, I found the system able to handle the needs of five real-world heavy users while I was busy hitting it with another 25 users' worth of simulated moderate office traffic. It is consistent and stable in its file delivery and performance degrades quite gracefully as additional load is introduced.Bonus features this round include a video output port and a dedicated IPMI port. These resolve some of the set up issues that were encountered last time. Also, if you add a USB sound card it makes a heck of an HTPC.
Being an Essentials server it sets itself up as a domain controller and offers many of the standard Windows Server features. These include Hyper-V, Access Anywhere, iSCSI, NFS, SMB v3 and more.The glaring omission is Data Deduplication, which isn't included in Essentials. That isn't WD's fault – no conspiracy theories about selling more disks, please. It is nothing more pedestrian than Microsoft's typical disdain for small businesses. No surprises here.Essentials also ships with a full suite of integration hooks into Microsoft's Azure offerings (including a cloudy backup and Data Recovery service) as well as a surprisingly decent set of monitoring tools.Essentials allows for 25 users and 50 devices to be connected to the Sentinel without CALs. Should you desire to step beyond this you can purchase the full Windows Server 2012 R2 license and requisite CALs.In practice, I think these units are a little overspecced. There is plenty of headroom for growth here, more so than I would have believed possible for systems this size. Given that the official documentation talks about the ability to relicence the OS as a feature, I wanted to see if this little box could handle it.