pico projector

The trend these days in pico projectors is bigger, brighter, and more affordable.

Take Acer's new $259 100 ANSI lumens C120 projector. It's slightly bigger than some of the early ultraportable pico projectors, but it's still very compact, measuring 1 inch by 4.72 inches by 3.23 inches (HWD) and weighing 6.34 ounces. It has native WVGA resolution (864x480) resolution, but Acer says you can upconvert to WXGA (1,280x800). Also, the projector has a USB power option if you want to connect it directly to your computer sans AC adapter.

It's worth noting, however, that if you do go with USB power, you can't project at full brightness; you get bumped down to 75 ANSI lumens. … Read more

Andy Rubin dishes on Android tablets, we examine a bowl of jelly beans, and we discuss the exciting new devices coming out of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

ANDROID NEWS:

-Android chief: We must ‘double down’ on tablets, win the market

-Google VP Dishes On Android Tablet and App Strategy

-Android crosses 850,000 activations per day with 450,000 apps in the store, Andy Rubin says

-Andy Rubin speaks out on Google, Motorola acquisition; wants nothing to do with Moto… Read more

Wow.

A couple of years ago we reviewed the Cinemin Swivel pico projector from a company called WowWee. However, that company is not the same as Wowee One, which is releasing its own pico projector in March called the Wowee Vue (notice the slight spelling difference).

For the record, Wowee One until now has been an audio company, known for its portable audio speakers, the Wowee One and the Wowee Slim, which incorporate "unique audio gel technology that turns any surface into a speaker."

The company is actually releasing a portable Bluetooth speaker in March called the Wowee Pro for $139.99, which looks intriguing, but the pico projector was the gadget that initially caught our eye.

We've got some specs and pricing, but there are still a few unknowns, such as what, if any, built-in speakers the Vue offers (sound is more important than you think when it comes to pico projectors).

Here are the Vue's key features:… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Tiny projectors might soon be a standard feature on smartphones, but until that happens there's the LightPad.

Demoing here at CES, the LightPad is a pico projector mixed with a keyboard and trackpad. You plug in your phone and it beams out whatever is on the screen to a nearby wall. But its main feature is that you can flip up the lid and turn it into a laptop of sorts, with software that adds a virtual mouse.

Part of that idea has already showed up in a mass market product, specifically Motorola's Atrix smartphone, which can … Read more

BenQ's Joybee GP2 LED mini projector looks a lot like its predecessor, the GP1, but there are a couple of big enhancements.

For starters, while the housing's the same, the $549.99 GP2 integrates an iPhone/iPod dock, which is a big deal. It also features 1,280x800-pixel (WXGA) resolution and native support for 720p video.

BenQ also says that it has improved the interface and now offers an optional battery pack that will power the unit for 3 hours at half brightness (100 lumens) or 1 hour at full brightness. Two built-in 2-watt speakers deliver sound, and … Read more

Up until now tiny pico projectors have been mostly disappointing. But picos like the Velocity Micro Shine are growing up a bit in an effort to offer better picture quality.

According to the company, the Shine's claim to fame is that it's the smallest HD-capable projector with a native resolution of 1,280x768 pixels (WXGA). While that's far from full 1080p resolution, the company says it can accept a 1080p (1,920x1,080) signal. It uses DLP technology with LED illumination and weighs 9 ounces and measure 4 inches on its longest side. … Read more

Early in 2011, when the Optoma Neo-i iPhone/iPod projector made its debut, the price tag was a stiff $450.

Today only, and while supplies last, Woot has the Optoma Neo-i projector for $219.99, plus $5 for shipping. Unlike much of what Woot peddles, this Neo is new, not refurbished.

The Neo-i combines an iPhone/iPod speaker dock with a 50-ANSI-lumens pico projector. To put that another way, when you plunk your iThing onto the connector and load up your library of, say, "Arrested Development" episodes, the projector beams them onto any available stretch of lightly colored … Read more

Pico projectors and even smartphones with integrated projectors already exist, but researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany are looking to take the technology one step further with a phone that allows you to interact with callers in a whole new way.

Designers at the university's Mobile Human Computer Action group have come up with a concept that marries a pico projector with a smartphone to beam a user's home screen, as well as that of their caller, onto a wall or desk for easy collaboration.

The idea is that once a call has been initiated and the other party accepts your share request, you can then work on projects together or exchange content using an interactive side-by-side display of both smartphone screens. For example, you can swap photos with one another simply by dragging files from one screen to the next. To help keep tabs on who owns what, each person's content is highlighted in a different color. … Read more

Optoma makes some of the better Pico projectors out there, and its new PK120 offers some intriguing specs, including a relatively affordable $249 list price.

For starters, the 18-lumen PK120 weighs in at 5 ounces, is less than an inch thick, and is powered by Texas Instruments' new nHD DLP chipset with advanced LED technology, which delivers 640x360 pixel resolution in a 16:9 wide-screen aspect ratio.

The projector has 2GB of built-in memory and a microSD card slot that accepts memory cards up to 32GB. Optoma says it's made several improvements, including an "all-new file viewer that delivers direct playback of MS Office and PDF files, photos and movies." Supported video formats are H.264 (.avi, .mov, MP4, 3GP), MPEG4 (.avi, .mov, 3GP, .wmv), M-JPEG (.avi, .mov), Xvid (.avi, .wmv). The company also claims the new projector delivers improved clarity of text or other black content by creating a smoother image. … Read more