Saturday, June 27, 2009

Nanovision Mimo UM-710 - USB ext monitor


Interested in a second, third, or fourth monitor on your computer? Nanovision makes a line of small external monitors that connect via USB and use DisplayLink technology to create a virtual graphics card. Unbox the monitor (in the box you get the mimo monitor, the stand and connector, a USB cable, a manual, and a CD-ROM); plug in the monitor with the USB cable; install the driver; and reboot the computer. A control button on the task bar allows you to tweak your settings.

You want to click on 'Extend To' and chose the direction you want e.g. if you choose 'Down' then you can move your mouse pointer from your desktop to the mimo by moving it down off the desktop screen onto the mimo screen. Click on 'Advanced Options' to pull up Windows' Display Settings... if you click on the appropriate monitor number you will see that the 'Extend the desktop to this monitor' is checked. Voila, ready to go!

Once I had the mimo set up, if I chose the 'Mirror' setting, the mimo mirrored the desktop. However, given the differing screen resolutions and sizes between the mimo and the desktop I could only see part of the desktop screen on the mimo, which did not seem particularly useful. Choosing the 'Extend' setting just gave a blank mimo screen (not blank, actually the background from the desktop without anything else...). Some head scratching ensued. OK, so perhaps this is totally obvious and assumed to be known by the user (since it isn't mentioned anywhere in the documentation!) , but all that is necessary to do is to drag the selected application or widget onto the minimo! For example, the picture and screen captures below show Windows Media Player on the mimo while web browsing on the desktop.

All in all, a nice addition if you want to keep an eye on a program, widget, etc., for example a Twitter client such as Seesmic, while working in another program on your desktop (or laptop for that matter). It "works "out of the box", only takes a couple of minutes to set up, and works very well. It is a little expensive, but definitely a cool gadget.

Note: there are other models with additional features. For example the UM-750 also has a microphone, web cam, and also a touch screen.

Mimo UM-710 Review: Amazing Alternative for Double Desktop
The Nanovision Mimo UM-710 - USB powered external monitor
Nanovision MIMO UM-710 & UM-730 USB displays Review
Review: Nanovision mimo UM-710
Unboxing: 7" LCD Mimo Monitor UM-710 model

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