CPA Practice Advisor - 5

FROM THE TRENCHES
2020. Key attributes include:
■■Modern Connected Standby and
Lucid Sleep features implement fast
wake with a simple lid-lift, push of
a button or fingerprint recognition.
■■Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, Intel
Core vPro i5 or i7 processors with
Intel Dynamic Tuning Technology,
≥8GB DRAM dual channel mode
and ≥256GB NVMe SSD, including
Intel Optane memory H10 options.
■■Adaptive Intelligence: Features
such as far-field voice services and
support for OpenVINO. Designs
based on 10t h Gen Intel Core
processors codenamed "Ice Lake"
will bring broad scale intelligent
performance to the laptop with
Intel Deep Learning Boost.
■■Fast-charging over USB Type C,
integration and optimization of low
power components, co-engineering
support for power efficiency, along
with platform optimization.
■■Connectivity: A fast and persistent
connect ion w ith Intel Wi-Fi 6
(Gig+) and optional Gigabit LTE.
Connect to USB Type C devices with
Thunderbolt 3, the fastest and most
versatile port available.
■■Touch displays, precision touchpads,
and more sleek thin-and-light 2 in
1 design with narrow bezels for a
more immersive experience.
Radical improvements in monitors were announced at CES. While
we recommend purchasing 8K
television products because of their
upscaling capability, office monitors
had notable breakthroughs, too. The
HDR standard added a new level
of brightness and clarity with the
HDR standard. Refinements in the
standard have solidified our recommendation to purchase HDR 600
monitors for your desktops and HDR
500 certified laptops. While there
were dozens of impressive monitors
for business, the winner of this CES
was the HP S430c 43.4-inch Curved
Ultrawide Monitor.
A single 43" monitor with two
separate virtual screens, and a built-

in USB hub lets this monitor serve
as a KVM to TWO separate devices
(Win/Mac OS/Ubuntu/Android)
using any USB-attached keyboard/
mouse. The monitor favors USB Type
C, but also has a single DisplayPort,
and a single HDMI input as well.
The technical specifications are
impressive at 3840x1200, 600 Hz;
350 nits' brightness; 65W of power to
devices over the USB-C hub; a pop-up
Windows Hello compatible webcam
(1080p); and a built-in microphone.
You can see the full spec sheet online
at http://cpate.ch/s430c, and it is a
fine value priced at $999. The size,
features and comfort of this monitor
makes it a real winner for accounting
professionals.
Just as impressive was a portable second monitor from Espresso
Displays. This company has made
different size monitors including
a mobile 13" or 15" touch-screen
monitor that has a stand (picture on
previous page), and a wall mount for
the office. At 5mm thick (0.2"), the
monitor has an innovative magnetic
mounting system with wall mounts
and stands that use magnets to hold
the monitor in the desired position.
The monitor supports USB-C, HDMI,
PC/Mac, consoles, some iOS devices,
some Android devices. There are
plans for 17" and 19" models as well.
We knew that another innovation
cycle was due in scanners, and Fujitsu
did not disappoint with the new $700
Fujitsu fi-800R series scanner. The
fi-800R Automatic ADF Image Scanner sports a Dual Path Mechanism
featuring Return Scan, perfect for
reception use - scanning passports,
thick plastic cards and folded documents. Return Scan captures hard
cards and passports up to 5 mm thick.
With Automatic Stacking Control, the
stacker automatically extends when
U-turn Scan starts, then retracts
when scanning is complete, returning
scanned documents to the input tray
to save space.
Automatic Skew Correction

Athena Laptops presented at CES 2020.
straightens each document before
scanning, Active Separation applies
the optimal pressure to documents,
according to paper thickness and
condition to prevent multi-feed,
and Front Side Detection recognizes
faces on ID cards or passports. Even
if documents are scanned face
down, PaperStream IP automatically
rearranges images so that scanned
pages are organized in the correct
order. Information contained in the
Machine-Readable Zone of a passport,
like number, name and nationality,
can be extracted by PaperStream
Capture to efficiently manage customer information. We were told that
all issues reported using PaperStream
had been resolved, and plan to test
this with technicians in the first
quarter of 2020.

To make all things
technology work well,
there must be a reliable
base of hardware. 2020
is starting off with a
major wave of innovation
to enjoy now and for
years to come.
FEBRUARY 2020 ■

CAN YOU SEE THERE ARE
MANY NEW HARDWARE
PRODUCTS TO CONSIDER
IN 2020?
This article did not cover even a
tenth of the products introduced at
this year's CES. Other favorites like
SwiftPoint mice (www.swiftpoint.
com) and Matias keyboards (www.
matias.ca/products) were back with
new models and updated features
like iPad support for the mice and
programmability and improved
ergonomics for the keyboards.
Other products like SSDs, NAS
storage, backups and more had
notable improvements announced
at CES, too. We were also impressed
with continued improvements in
HDMI fiber optics from Silicon Line
(https://www.silicon-line.com/home.
html) and DisplayLink's incorporation of the Logitech Tap meeting
room touch screen controller which
works with Google Hangouts Meet,
Teams/Skype, and Zoom. The Tap
uses a small form factor computer
(e.g. a NUC or similar) and can add
conferencing cameras and a display
to have a complete easy-to-use
meeting solution.
To make all things technology
work well, there must be a reliable
base of hardware. 2020 is starting off
with a major wave of innovation to
enjoy now and for years to come. ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

5
http://www.cpate.ch/s430c http://www.swiftpoint.com http://www.swiftpoint.com http://www.matias.ca/products http://www.matias.ca/products https://www.silicon-line.com/home.html https://www.silicon-line.com/home.html http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
CPA Practice Advisor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CPA Practice Advisor
