Users needing a lower or higher resolution are simply out of luck. The output quality of the NIC's video adapter was poor at best. We tried several different monitors but were unable to eliminate the NIC's soft focused or fuzzy display quality. The front of the NIC provides access to the CD-ROM drive, power switch, and reset buttons. Both the reset and power switches are recessed enough to make them more difficult to use than need be.
Ease of use is key to any appliance, buttons and switches included.
We were disappointed to see the NIC using Netscape 4.7 as its browser. NIC has announced that an upgrade to Netscape 6 is in the works, but we are not going to hold our breath waiting for Netscape's long-delayed update to be debugged. The NIC does include a few useful applications such as a calculator, a Linux version of AOL's Instant Messenger, telnet, and a simple IRC client. A few simple games are included, the most notable being a Linux version of the insanely addictive Tetris . Other titles such as Freecell and solitaire are there as well as a Linux version of the Chinese tile game Mahjongg .