pico

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

A newly published Apple patent application has provided additional hints that projectors could one day end up in future Apple products, including the company's phones, tablets, and as an accessory for notebook computers to help make it easier to share content with one another.

The application "Projected display shared workspaces" was filed in February 2010 and pulled up this morning by Patently Apple. It outlines a system for taking what's on screen and projecting it onto a nearby surface. What's interesting about the system proposed in this particular patent filing is that it can combine … Read more

We've been waiting years for smartphones to gain built-in projectors. What's not to like about your phone being able to project a 50-inch display?

There are a few projector phones on the market--outside the U.S.--but the predicted flood has been slow to materialize. That could be changing, thanks in part to a speck of glass not much larger than a grain of sand.

One reason phone projectors have been just out of reach is that they have to be bright to be seen well, and projecting a lot of light takes a lot of power. So while it's possible to put a tiny powerful projector into a phone, doing so involves trade-offs.

The grain-size speck of glass, a lens from Japanese component maker Alps Electric, transmits more light than previous lenses, which means fewer trade-offs. A projector using the lens requires less power to put out a given amount of light. When component makers address efficiency like this, watch for more phone makers to take the plunge.… Read more

Pico projectors haven't really taken off like some people thought they would, but Optoma has an interesting new take on the compact projector genre: it's called the Neo-i, and it combines an iPod/iPhone speaker dock with a "tabletop" projector.

Though the Neo-i isn't cheap at $449, its specs are better than your typical pico projector. The Neo-i is a 50 ANSI lumen DLP projector that offers WVGA (854x480 pixels) resolution in 16:9 format, with a "full-bodied" 16-watt stereo system (yes, it's built right into the dock). The Neo-i can also … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The early class of "pocket" pico projectors hasn't taken off as quickly as some people expected, largely because the image quality hasn't been good. Texas Instruments hopes to kick-start the category with a new DLP Pico HD chipset that will make its way into products shipping later this year.

The company says the new chip delivers "stunning" HD (WXGA) video and images on "nearly any surface, with more brightness and greater energy efficiency than ever before," and that it will usher in "a new era for portable high-definition entertainment." … Read more

Pico projectors haven't really taken off like some people thought they would, but this new one from Optoma looks interesting. That's because Optoma has combined an iPod/iPhone sound dock with a "tabletop" projector, which seems like the way to go with these sort of projectors.

Though the Neo-i, which was supposed to ship in mid-December, isn't cheap at $449, its specs are better than your typical pico projector. The company says the Neo-i is a 50 ANSI lumen DLP projector that offers WVGA (854x480 pixels) resolution in 16:9 format, with a "full-bodied&… Read more

Mainly because of mediocre image quality, the Pico projector market just hasn't taken off as some thought it might. But we're seeing a new trend in mini projectors: go a little bigger and offer improved performance.

That's the idea anyway behind the Aaxa M2, which the company is calling the "world's first" XGA micro projector. It weighs in at a pound, produces a "vivid" 110-lumen image, and has some built-in memory and a media player (you can play files right off the projector). Here are the specs that Aaxa is highlighting (the … Read more

Pico projectors haven't really taken off like some people thought they would, but this new one from Optoma looks interesting. That's because Optoma has combined an iPod/iPhone sound dock with a "tabletop" projector, which seems like the way to go with these sort of projectors.

Though the Neo-i, which ships in mid-December, isn't cheap at $449, its specs are better than your typical pico projector. The company says the Neo-i is 50 ANSI Lumen DLP projector that offers WVGA (854x480 pixels) resolution in 16:9 format, with a "full-bodied" 16-watt stereo system. … Read more

In 2009, Nikon released the Coolpix S1000pj, a compact camera that had one very notable feature: a built-in projector for on-the-spot viewing of photos and videos. It was otherwise a fairly standard point-and-shoot, and since you couldn't beam content other than what was taken with the camera, it definitely fell under "niche product"--especially at $430. It was a solid idea, though, so it's nice to see a second generation on its way in the form of the S1100pj.

This time around the 14-megapixel camera is fuller featured, but most importantly you can connect it to … Read more