Product:

ViewSonic VA712b

Manufacturer:

ViewSonic Corp., Walnut

Description:

17-inch monitor that can be placed on a desk or mounted on a wall, with an 8-millisecond response time

Price:

$249

ViewSonic touts its new line of LCD flat screen monitors as high-end products for the budget-conscious user. But you don’t exactly get a lot more screen for the green. The features are more impressive than the comparable and cheaper Dell variety, but just a bit.

One of the first notable plusses of the 712b is its bright, crisp image. Contrast between text and the white background in Word is excellent and DVD and Web videos are smooth and clear.

This product seems targeted to the home and office, where graphics requirements will rarely be stretched beyond word processing or DVD viewing. For users with such standards, the Dell E173FP 17 inch LCD monitor is a better deal at $223 (with a Dell Home customer discount).The improvements may not be noticeable enough to justify the extra $30.


Katherine Gray

Service:

DingIT.com, Los Angeles


Description:

Provides multiple estimates for auto-body repair


Price:

Free

Here’s a new way to get estimates on your banged up car, without ever having to leave your home computer.

DingIT.com users log onto the site and provide the year, make and model of the damaged car, along with a few uploaded digital pictures of the affected areas. The information is then sent to about 50 body shops around Los Angeles and the customer receives detailed and price estimates.

Each estimate includes the address of the body shop and in most cases the time it will take to repair the car. After comparing the estimates, the customer contacts the shop and gets the car fixed. DingIT gets a percentage in the range of 7 to 15 percent from the body shop, and it is currently offering 5 percent back to the consumer.


Spencer Kallick

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