Some recent developments led me to a whole new level of “wow that’s a cool product” regarding the USB to DVI High Res adapter. We got the latest model in today - the one capable of resolutions up to 1600×1200 (so it can drive a 20 in. display).

That’s neat. But what’s really cool is that, when coupled with some recently updated drivers, you can actually use more than one with a computer. I just finished playing with 5 displays at once - one on my laptop, one off its DVI port, one off my docking station’s port and two off of the USB to DVI adapters. The performance was great. I opened some sample business documents (as well as a YouTube video) and they all loaded fine on any of the displays. There is a minimal lag time when dragging a window from one display to another, but virtually none while working on a single screen.

While I couldn’t get it to show the 1600×1200 resolution as an option while driving two screens, I’m assuming it was because of the multiplication of the screens. So, maybe I’ll figure that out for another day. Maybe not. Either way, it’s way cooler than the low res version for the ability to drive multiple screens regardless.

It’s also a slick graphite color, which I really enjoy. Pic below.

The USB to DVI High Resolution Adapter retails at Sewell Direct for $150.

This is, by far, about my favorite StumbleUpon discovery to date. I don’t know if Anywhere.FM is unique in what it does, but it’s certainly the easiest to use and enticing option I’ve come across.

What is Anywhere.FM? It’s a free music backup service. Basically, you upload your music to an easy-to-create user account (hint: they don’t even verify your email address). It then gives you a very simple music player (laid out almost identical to a very popular music-playing software by Apple). Since it’s flash based, it’s happy with Windows or Mac, Firefox or IE - whatever. I imagine it would even work well on an iPhone or an iPod touch when in range of a WiFi signal.

Why would you want to do that? You’ve already got a music player on there. Well, say you have an iPhone w 4 gigs of storage but you own 8 gigs of music. You keep 4 on your iPod that you listen to most often, but can quickly connect to your Anywhere.FM account for the other 4 gig that just don’t fit there.

An even better practical application is if you want to be able to listen to your music (and the same library nonetheless) anywhere you happen to be on a computer. You load your customized page from any internet connection in the world and instantly have access to high-quality backups of all your music.

The player does have a system for tying into other people’s libraries by subscribing to their “radio station” - basically you don’t get to pick the order you listen to things in and can’t browse by song, but you do get access to their full library. The long and short of it: very cool stuff. Check it out.

Here’s a new toy we just recently got from Addlogix: the InternetVue 2020. Basically, it’s a way to stream whatever’s on your PC to your TV/projector (for presentations, watching videos, etc.). Now, this idea certainly isn’t new - we sell tons of the pc to tv converter at Sewell. What really stands out about this device is that you can connect to it remotely without any hardware on the sending side. For example, with the wireless PC to TV converter, you need a box by your PC that sends out the signal and then one by the receiver. This is a problem if you’re wanting to make a laptop acting as the video source that you want to keep portable.

The InternetVue 2020 uses a software interface to mirror your computer’s screen on the target display. This means that, provided you have the software installed, you can display the video from any computer on your network via LAN or use the player’s built in 802.11g antenna to stream over WiFi.

The downsides? Not too many. The display resolution isn’t fantastic (running it over component cabling on a high def projector, we could read text, but it certainly wasn’t very clear and not practical). It would work very well, however, for streaming videos or powerpoint presentations. I did hit a glitch with some video formats not displaying (just black on the screen). I’m assuming this is a codec issue and could probably be solved if you put more time into it than we did… but we didn’t. For example, it would play live flash-embedded videos on pages (eg. YouTube), but I couldn’t get it to play a DivX-embedded AVI or a standalone flash player (FLV Player) correctly.

The InternetVue 2020 is available from Sewell Direct.