Gadget Guru
Our tame tech expert lets us into his shed of knowledge. Can I use an OLED TV as a monitor? Eliot Wise
A Guru can’t control what you do in the privacy of your own home. You’re welcome to use just about any screen as a monitor. The question isn’t one of ‘can I do it?’, but ‘should I do it?’; mostly, Guru would recommend against using non-monitors as monitors, because monitors are meant to be used as monitors whereas non-monitors are not.
TVs are built to be enjoyed from across a room, playing content from distinctly non-PC sources. In the case of OLED, though, things aren’t quite so cut and dried. The precision and speed of its pixel updates tends to be vastly superior to that of LCD-based TVs, particularly in newer models like LG’s CX series TVs, which is great for PC gaming. It leads to what can be imperceptibly low latency, although you may find that LCD’s slower pixel response gives you what feels like a smoother experience.
Problem is, for all manufacturers’ efforts, burn-in is still a thing, which makes a TV a poor choice for using in a desktop capacity. What’s more, OLED TVs go from big to bigger, which is an ergonomic nightmare when you’re right up close – particularly if they have a thick rear construction that prevents them from being set right back on a desk.
All this aside, let it be known that Guru makes at least two calls a day to LG’s offices to encourage the company to make OLED screens small enough to be used as a monitor without GaGu’s neck feeling like it’s going to fall off. No results yet – but the company has put a new factory online for its 48-inch panels, so we’ll see what happens.
For all manufacturers’ efforts, burn-in is still a thing, which makes a TV a poor choice for using in a desktop capacity.
Wired security cam or wireless, Guru?
JAY HUNTER
The world is going wired, and GaGu can see why. Wireless cams are all fancy and aesthetically pleasing, sure, but they have a number of fundamental flaws baked into them. One, it is a monumental pain in the unmentionables to have to whip out the ladder every couple of months for a battery change, not to mention trusting one of the junior members of the household to hold it without wandering off while muttering about Pokémon and YouTubers or something. Two, they place a heavy reliance on the integrity either of your Wi-Fi network or their own wireless protocols. Three, wireless cams can be (but aren’t always) a little punishing on the wallet.
Some cameras mitigate at least a subset of these concerns with clever design. The Blink Outdoor, now rolling out to replace the XT2 takes two AA batteries, and lasts up to two years without needing to be rejuiced. The new Sync Module 2, which deals with its wireless communication, can store captured footage locally, improving on the online-only storage of the previous generation. Some cameras can also work with solar panels, like the Ring Spotlight Cam Battery, or Reolink’s rather nifty little line of cams.
But with a wired camera and the willingness to drill holes in your walls, you get reliability and often far finer features at a lower price. Guru has been testing, for example, the Ezviz C3N, which is a really rather good little camera with spotlights, strong night vision, and AI person detection. The company’s new C3X upgrades the ‘colour’ night vision of the lesser model (which really just switches on a spotlight at night) to actual dual-lens colour night vision, again at a more affordable price than many wireless alternatives.
Gadget Guru’s magic box
Because Mrs Guru is now working from home, GaGu’s mind is being forcibly turned once again to renovations. There’s a whole trickle-down list of jobs to be done, the first of which was for Guru to board the loft. Given the ample insulation of Guru Towers (GaGu will still not have turned the heating on by the time you read this) simply screwing boards onto the joists is a bad idea in terms of both damp and crushing the ceilings below. Cue a kit from LoftZone, with steel crossbeams and recycled plastic legs, which allows even DIY incompetents like Guru to install a raised floor above that lungscouring fibreglass. It’s not too pricey, either. Time will tell if GaGu’s installation causes a massive collapse. One thing his trip to the rafters proved beyond all doubt is that Guru’s poor back is not well suited to spending its days bent in two. In general that spine is treated rather well – ergonomic chair from Noblechairs and a standing desk riser from Yo-Yo Desk, if you must know – but it needed a little extra therapy. Cue the JaxJox Foam Roller Connect, a vibrating torture device that helps loosen those tight muscles using an app which doesn’t let you just sack off the unnatural-feeling back bends after 30 seconds. It does ask what workout you’ve just performed before bossing you around; annoyingly, ‘contorting yourself into the loft’ is not one of these...
Can you help me identify my dog’s breed?
TOM CMAPBELL
A Guru has long suspected that his dog Teeth is, in fact, part racoon, but was unable to prove it until the recent explosion of dog DNA tests. This sounds like a preposterous idea, much like human DNA tests, although it could offer some of the same benefits. You may be able to determine just how fat your dog should be, the diseases you might like to look out for, or if you’ve been sold a false bill of goods by the chap in the pub who swears a Dalmatian’s spots are supposed to be pink. Wisdom Panel’s 2.0 Canine DNA Test seems to be the best out there, with over 350 breeds and variants in the company’s database, but there’s a catch: it’s a US-based company, so you’ll need to hope both that the cheek swab doesn’t deteriorate on the journey over the pond and that the results bear any resemblance to your dog whatsoever. Most buyers seem happy, but some Amazon customers have had particularly poor results.