pocketprojector
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Lenovo's 16-megapixel Vibe Shot is a smartphone that looks like a camera
Even though Lenovo unveiled new tablets a little over 12 hours ago, it isn't quite done with Mobile World Congress announcements just yet. Now it's taking the wrapper off three more devices, two of which are Android smartphones that you probably won't be able to get in the US. One is the Lenovo Vibe Shot, a superslim handset that looks eerily like a camera, while the other is the Lenovo A7000, apparently the world's first smartphone to come with Dolby Atmos. The third new product of the bunch is the simply named Lenovo Pocket Projector, a tiny little projector that's pretty versatile for its size.
Vivitek outs the Qumi Q7 HD LED pocket projector, set to arrive this summer for $1,000
If diminutive, portable projectors catch your eye on the regular, Vivitek's latest may be worth a gander. The outfit has announced the Qumi Q7 HD LED pocket projector at CES, touting up to 800 lumens of brightness and a 30,000:1 contrast ratio. Packing 720p native WXGA resolution at 1,280 x 800, the unit is also 3D-capable thanks to Texas Instrument's DLP Link and sports 2D to 3D content conversion tech. In terms of connections, the Q7 wields HDMI, VGA, composite video, RCA audio-in and USB ports alongside 4GB of built-in storage. All of this is packed into a 3.1-pound (1.4kg) frame that measures 6.3 inches (16cm) x 4.3 inches (10.9cm) and is 1.3 inches (3.3cm) thick. If the list of specs piques your interest, you have until sometime this summer to save up the $999 it'll take to snag one. Looking for a few more details? The full PR lies just beyond the break with just that. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Brookstone's Pocket Projector, Big Blue speakers perfect for movie night
Gadget retailer Brookstone has taken to iOS devices like a baby duck takes to water, and the company supplied TUAW with a trio of review products last week that are perfect for hosting a movie night at your home or wowing a client with a presentation at their office. The Brookstone Pocket Projector for iPhone 4 (US$229.99) and a pair of Bluetooth speakers from Big Blue -- Big Blue Studio ($149.99) and Big Blue Live ($99.99) -- are useful and well-designed products that work just as well at home or in the office. Brookstone Pocket Projector for iPhone 4 I have to admit that I was dubious about this pocket projector, but it far exceeded my expectations. The Pocket Projector is basically a small iPhone case that you slide your iPhone 4 or 4S into. It has a 2100 mAh battery built in that not only powers the projector, but can serve as a backup battery for your iPhone as well. The Pocket Projector is thick enough (about .88") that your friends or co-workers will be wondering if you're happy to see them. The surprising thing is that the Pocket Projector only adds 3.6 ounces to the weight you'll be carrying. %Gallery-153390% The projector isn't particularly bright at 15 lumens, so you'll want to make sure that you are in a well-darkened family or conference room before switching it on. Once it's on, you can use the projector to show your Keynote presentations, movies, or slideshows to anyone in the room. The device projects images up to 50" diagonal, so it's almost like having a big flat-screen TV in your pocket. I was able to use the projector for about two hours before it shut down. The battery still seemed to have some juice in it as I was able to turn the projector back on in a while, but it appeared that the shutdown was due to overheating. There is no way to run the projector from an AC adapter, so you are definitely tied to the life of the non-replaceable battery. There's a focus adjustment for making sure that the image is sharp, and there's even a built-in .5 Watt speaker to supply sound. Frankly, you'll want a Bluetooth speaker like one of the Big Blue models I'll talk about later in this review. I watched some short segments of movies, some presentations, and a slideshow or two using the Pocket Projector, and for the most part I was happy with the results. However, this isn't a replacement for a much more capable projector for one very big reason -- the native resolution of the device is only 640 x 360 pixels. While the images seemed fairly sharp and colors were bright, small text suffered. However, as you can see from some of the photos included with this review, screen text was very easy to read so your mileage may vary. I think the best use for this device would be for showing images; giving slide shows to friends or clients, watching home videos or product videos. It's definitely doesn't have high enough resolution to be used as a projector for classes or meetings, but still a fun and useful product in the right use cases. Big Blue Studio and Live Speakers We get a lot of Bluetooth speakers here at the TUAW Labs, some of which are high-end units and others that are cheap. The Big Blue line seems to hit the middle ground, with a big speaker that's more reasonably-priced than some smaller devices like the Jawbone Jambox. The Studio Speaker comes in a white polycarbonate shell with a metal grid covering the front, dominated by a big blue "eye." There's a hefty looking AC adapter with a thin cable that powers the unit. The speaker has a total 30 Watt output, with two full-range 2.5" drivers, a 3" subwoofer driver, and a passive radiator. The Studio Speaker supports any Bluetooth 2.0 or higher device with A2DP, GAVDP, or IOP compatibility. %Gallery-153391% The Studio Speaker is definitely made to be left in one place, as you do not want to carry this monster around. The portable member of the family is the ten-ounce Big Blue Live Speaker, which can be easily toted around to wherever you need to push out some tunes. It has an output of 4 Watts (2 Watts per channel) and runs off of a rechargeable 1150 mAh battery for up to four hours. You can be up to about 33 feet away from the Live Speaker, which supports any Bluetooth 2.0 or higher devices with A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, or HSP compatibility. While the Studio Speaker is designed for music or movie soundtracks, the Live Speaker also has a secret life as a speakerphone. I tried it out with my iPhone 4S and was pleased with the voice quality of the incoming call, and the person I was talking to said my voice seemed clearer than usual. The Live Speaker would be the perfect companion on business trips where you might wish to have a conference speakerphone and a way of listening to music in a hotel room. The sound quality on both Big Blue speakers was very good. The Studio Speaker really took the prize, though, both in terms of raw sound power and how well it reproduced sound. The Live Speaker wasn't as powerful or as accurate, and seemed to lack punch in both bass and in highs. I think Brookstone has a winner with the Big Blue speakers, and you can see them at Brookstone stores around the country. For a portable movie viewing or presentation setup, the Live Speaker and Pocket Projector are a perfect pair of accessories.
Oregon Scientific's Portable WiFi Projector comes with a hinge, flirts with your ceiling
A projector from Oregon Scientific, you say? Nope, it's not one of those clock and weather projectors, but rather an actual DLP pico projector. At CES 2012, the company was kind enough to show us an early prototype of its Portable WiFi Projector that'll handle FWVGA (854 x 480) at 1,000:1 contrast and a good 80 lumens of brightness (50 if powered by USB alone). Apparently at 3.2 meters from the wall, such combination should produce a clear 120-inch wide picture in total darkness, so we shall see. The final unit -- dummy pictured above -- will be slightly smaller than the working prototype, yet it'll pack a 90-degree hinge (not a first, of course), a focus slide, a 3.5mm headphone jack and some buttons for brightness, power and volume.
MiLi slims down and shuts up with Pico Projector 2
MiLi's earlier attempts at pocket projectors not pico enough for your tastes? The company has shaved off a few precious millimeters, putting the straightforwardly named Pico Projector 2 at somewhere around the thickness of two iPhone 4s -- all said, the thing seems to look a lot like its predecessor to us, in spite of its "massively reduced bulk." The company has also dropped the fan -- rendering it effectively silent -- and has given the thing better battery life, at around two and a half hours of 10-lumen mini video projection on a charge, according to distributor, BeamBox. The bantam iPhone magic lantern is set to start shipping in the UK on May 25th for £280 ($452), with a US version coming in the next few weeks, because everyone loves a sequel, right? %Gallery-123911%
Texas Instruments announces DLP Pico HD chipset, slew of pico projectors CES-bound
Texas Instruments has just announced its latest DLP projector chipset, the Pico HD. The newest, tiny chipset offer HD WXGA resolution projections of up to 100 inches, and promises to be brighter and clearer than ever. So what does this mean to you, the consumer? Well, Texas Instruments is promising a host of hardware partners showing off their brand spanking new projecting wares. We don't have full details yet, but we do know that we can expect to see Acer unveil its HW300T pocket projector, while ViewSonic will show the PLED-W200 DLP Pico projector, and offerings from Optoma and LG to boot. We'll track them all down for you as soon as our tiny hands possibly can. And that, in a nutshell, is our Texas Instruments pico news of the day. The full-fledged, not in a nutshell press release is after the break.
Osram's new LED package 50 percent brighter, promises cameraphone flashes that suck 50 percent less
See those smiling twentysomethings up there? That, folks, is the kind of happiness that can only be achieved with 150 glorious lux of LED intensity. Fortunately, Siemens subsidiary Osram Opto Semiconductors has packaged a new LED chip that capable of putting up such impressive figures, a claimed 50 percent brighter than its predecessor -- and that makes it capable of evenly illuminating a 90-centimeter area from a distance of one meter away. Cameraphone flashes are an obvious application, but pocket projectors are another obvious benefactor -- it's nearly impossible to eke enough light out of 'em, and this should help. It's not clear whether a brighter pocket projector would have the same positive effect on the demeanor of a bunch of stylish youths, though -- more on that situation as we get it.
AAXA debuts L1 v2: world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector
The pico projector may have peaked a year or so ago, but AAXA Technologies is hoping to ride the coattails of success with the laser-based (read: focus-free) L1 v2. Predictably, this is the second generation L1, and it's being hailed as the world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector at 4.2- x 2.1- x 1.2-inches. Other specs include a native 800 x 600 resolution, on-board gamma correction, an inbuilt media player capable of decoding a slew of file formats, an LCoS imager, a USB socket and an internal battery good for 1.5 hours of use. We're told that it can blast images up to 50-inches in size, and while the $449 MSRP still stings, those who pre-order now can get in for $399. Not exactly a Black Friday special, but hey...
3M Shoot 'n Share camcorder projector gets reviewed, does what it says on the box
You should know by now that the 3M Shoot 'n Share is aptly named: it shoots 720p video and stills, and it shares with a 640 x 480 built-in pico projector. Simple, yes? What you might not know is how well the thing actually works, and for that we have a helpful review from PicoProjector-info. It basically confirms any fears you might've had about the combination: it's not the best pocket camcorder, and it's not the best pico projector (even 3M's own similarly-specced MPro-150 model bests it). The good news is that it absolutely works, and is certainly passable in both of its stated aims, along with being fairly easy to operate. Not too bad for $300.
Optoma PK201 pico projector now shipping, PK301 up for pre-order
We're still holding out for the faraway 1080p pico projector, but for those who need a display in their pocket before 2023, Optoma's latest aren't half bad options. The PK201 and PK301, both of which made their debut at CES earlier in the year, now have product pages at Amazon, with the former being listed as in stock ($299.99) and shipping this very moment. The other guy is up for pre-order at $399.99, though you'll get an 854 x 480 resolution output with either. 'Course, you may want to hold out for the 301 and its 50 lumens of brightness if the 201's 20 lumens seem a little weak, but hey, the ball's in your court now, vaquero.
Microvision's Show WX laser pico projector available to buy today, will ship March 24
Okay, so maybe Microvision is a little late with the release of its pocketable Show WX pico projector, but we'd rather have a truly useful projector late than a useless one on time. This laser-based beaut will offer you infinite focus -- something we can vouch for having tried out the same technology integrated in a rifle -- which essentially means that no matter how much you twist or jerk the projector around, or how distant your projected surface is, the picture will remain in focus. An 848 x 480 resolution image can be scaled from less than six inches all the way up to 200, though you're most likely to stick with anything up to 30 in order to make the most of the 10 lumens brightness on offer. The contrast ratio is rated as being greater than 5,000:1 while the battery will last you up to two hours on a charge. The wallet damage is $549 for the standard edition, but the limited edition teased above jumps all the way to $999, for which you'll get a personalized splash screen, LE insignia, a certificate of authenticity, a VGA dock and some other trinkets. Come on, it has lasers inside, it was never gonna be cheap!
Sanwa's ultra-cheap pico projector available, probably worth the money
We're kind of fans of pico projectors around here, even if finding a way to justify spending big cash on them is occasionally a little hard. Sanwa's just unleashed a cheap little pico that may just be worth the money. There's nothing terribly standout about the Sanwa 400 PRJ-001 -- a Himax LCoS projector with a 640 x 480 resolution, USB connectivity and the little guy weighs in at only 85 grams. The best part of the story here, is of course, the price -- for $119, well, maybe we'll grab two. We can't be sure it's the cheapest pocket projector in the history of micro projecting, but it's pretty close. Hit up the source link to buy one for yourself.
3M rolls out MPro 150 pocket projector with 1GB of inbuilt storage
3M just got done pushing out its MPro 120, and here at CES we're already feasting our eyes on the MPro 150. For all intents and purposes, this is just an MPro 120 with 1GB of internal storage and a microSD expansion slot. We spotted it over at CES Unveiled, and while the VGA video wasn't anything special, the ability to open and display PDFs, Excel files and PowerPoint documents (in addition to the traditional movie and audio files) was indeed a nice add for the traveling salesperson. Hit up the full release after the break if you're thirsty for more details, and you should see it ship next month for just under $400. %Gallery-81594%
AAXA cranks up the brightness on M1 micro projector
We can't say with any degree of certainty that AAXA's recently announced M1 "micro projector" truly is the brightness of the miniaturized bunch, but it's certainly brighter than the vast majority we've had the displeasure of seeing ourselves. Most pico projectors pack between 8 and 12 lumens, and up until now, AAXA's own P2 was widely consider the best for using in partially lit rooms due to its 33 lumen rating. The M1 doubles up on that figure, bringing 66 lumens to the table along with a native SVGA (800 x 600) resolution, 1GB of onboard memory, an SD card reader and optional iPod, PSP and DVD cables. Said display is up for pre-order as we speak for $299, while the M1 Plus -- which supports VGA and composite AV inputs -- will set you back $359.
AAXA P2 pico projector gets tested and lauded
The first batch of pico projectors weren't exactly world-beaters; the resolution was low, lumens were lacking and MSRPs were startlingly high. Such is life on the cutting edge. But AAXA's P2 is riding the second wave, boasting a higher-than-average 800 x 600 resolution, 33 lumens of brightness, 1GB of onboard storage, a microSDHC expansion slot, VGA / AV inputs, a built-in speaker and an integrated media player to boot. Our good pals over at Gadling just got their paws around one, and they seemed duly satisfied with the performance. Unlike many first-generation units, this one managed to throw up a respectable image even in dimly lit rooms, and while the 40-inch image was understandably the best, it did manage to toss up a 100-inch visual when pressed. Hit the source link for the full writeup, and if you're planning on buying in now, it's available for a sale price of $319.
WowWee Cinemin Swivel iPod and iPhone pico projector review
The first time we saw a pico projector some of us thought: "Err... What's the point?" Slide show presentations from your phone? Doubt it -- not powerful enough for practical use. Cinematic experience in the toilet? Maybe, but you'd want a built-in projector on your PMP instead of a separate brick. Funky dance? Only in Japan. Finally, WowWee took a break from robotics to give us the answer with its foldable Cinemin Swivel pico projector: for watching videos on the ceiling while lying in bed, obviously. Still, we have our doubts about image quality, portability and practicality -- especially for $299. Read on to find out if this little guy is worth it.
Lancerlink pico proj features ARM processor, Windows CE
If you're a fan of both Windows and projectin' stuff, this is your lucky day! Hot on the heels of news that LG's WinMo-powered pico projector-packin' eXpo is heading for AT&T, Lancerlink has announced a little something called the MPJ-104WCE. This 5.5-inch long projector ships with Windows CE 5.0, 4GB memory, 64MB flash storage, an ARM9 (400MHz) CPU, a USB port, and two 0.5 watt speakers. This guy will project your various docs (including PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WMV, and MPEG-4) at 640 x 480 resolution, but only in Japan for the time being. We'll keep our eyes peeled for domestic price and street date.
Sparkz projector / dock for iPhone displays your videos, empties your wallet (video)
If you're in the market for an Apple handheld-friendly pico projector, you're in luck. Sparkz is a bulbous white dock that will play nice with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPod video, as well as your favorite A/V and VGA sources. Featuring 640 x 480 resolution, a 60-inch viewing area, and stereo speakers, it can be yours for the low, low price of -- $495? Well, it will charge your iPhone. And it does come with a tripod. And, to be honest, a 60-inch viewing area is none too shabby. If you think it's worth it, by all means hit that read link and snatch one up. In the meantime, we'll content ourselves with watching the video of the thing in action. It's after the break, and it's free.
FPS hopelessly leaps into pocket projector game with Pearl M3
The world needs another VGA pico projector about like it needs another ton of plastic goop swirling in the Pacific, but thanks to FPS, that's exactly what we're getting. (The former, just so we're clear.) The LCoS-based beamer puts out an image between 5- and 66-inches and packs a native resolution of 640 x 360; there's a composite input, stereo output, USB socket and a microSD expansion slot. You'll also find a one-watt internal speaker and a 2,500mAh battery for projecting on the go, while most every file format you can think of is supported. If, for whatever reason, you've found yourself overcome with want (and you can't hold off for Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX), it's available to purchase right now for $219.[Via PicoProjector-Info]
3M's MPro 120 pocket projector fights the good fight at CEATEC (video)
3M's MPro 120 didn't really add a whole lot of spice to the currently drab pocket projector lineup, boasting a simple VGA resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio and image quality suitable for presentations alone. Granted, the 12 lumens and 4 hours of battery life both trump figures on the decidedly impressive SHOW WX (which has 10 lumens and 2 hours of life), but in the wide world of beamers, it's the picture quality that matters most. We took a peek at the latest MPro here in Japan, and while the results were less than impressive underneath the lights, the sub-$330 street price in the US is definitely admirable. If you'll recall, the laser / PicoP-based SHOW WX is slated to retail right around $500, while this bugger can be found right now in trusted e-tailers for over a Benjamin less. 'Course, 3M might want to inform its booth attendant of this little matter, as the (erroneous) $600 price quote we got from a certain someone definitely shocked us momentarily. Video's after the break.%Gallery-74851%
