Hasta La Gadget!

Luminus Devices’ new LED chipset is promising to improve the brightness and overall quality of new small projectors, starting with Acer’s upcoming K10 hand-sized gadget.

The just-announced PhlatLight LED PT39 chipset (with RGB LEDs) will combine with Texas Instrument’s DLP technology to push out improved images to microdisplays ranging from 0.4" to 0.55." The LEDs will light up to 100 ANSI Lumens in the light-output range (where predictably, the brighter the projector, the higher the ANSI rating will be.)

Brightness levels for projectors are important because they’re in the mix that determines the quality of an image, but maybe even more important, they help users determine the room environment that’s better suited for a projection.

For example, a projector with a low level of brightness looks better with a quality projector screen that reflects light. With higher levels of brightness, a projection could be set upon any surface (like walls or friends’ faces), which reflect light poorly. A projector with greater ANSI levels will also be able to be used in rooms with slightly higher levels of light output. Currently, most of the picos need absolute darkness (or something close to it) to project accurate images.

The Acer K10 projector is one of a number of upcoming small projectors that are not quite Pico-sized. Instead, they are about the size of an outstretched hand, like slimmer version of Nintendo’s old Gamecube system. They’re not quite portable, but can easily fit in a bag. You can bet manufacturers will face them off against the Picos, who generally have lower ANSI brightness levels and a lower pixel count.

With small projectors coming just a bit higher in price than the Picos, Optoma, 3M, and the rest of the Pico pushers need to keep up the innovation, or lose out the burgeoning market to rigs with better video quality.

The K10 will come out at the end of this week, with a native resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, a contrast ratio of 1000:1, weigh 1.2 lbs., and cost about $450.

Photo: AboutProjectors.com, 3M

See also:

• CES 2009: Bug Labs Shows New Pico Projector and 3G Modules
• Microvision’s ‘Plug-and-Play’ Pico Projector Prototype Is Easy to Use, Won’t Come Out Until Next Year’s CES

LeapFrog‘s really into this learning stuff, apparently. Their latest offering, Tag Junior, is for the two- to four-year old age range, and it builds on the company’s previous Tag Reading System tech. The toy “reads” aloud (via downloadable MP3s) using an infrared camera that can recognize letters and words on the page, and can store up to five books’ worth of material at a time. The custom-made books for the device include such august characters as Winnie the Pooh and Dora the Explorer. Tag Junior will be available this summer for $34.99, with each book running $10.99. Anything that keeps them off the video games for a few hours a day is probably pretty cool.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio

LeapFrog intros Tag Junior reading companion for children originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hy Tric Motors, a company based in Ventura, California that offers electric vehicles and electric retro fit kits, has introduced the somewhat puzzling Hy Tric Electro Cycle, AutoblogGreen reports. The Electro Cycle has a top speed of 125 mph and can run up to 250 miles on a single charge, according to an extremely sparse Web site the company has set up for the car.

Hy Tric Motors lists the Electro Cycle for sale for $24,000… and that’s about all it says. This wouldn’t be significant except that the company already sells at least three other electric vehicles, including a little $10,000 runabout called the 2009 AFS HYTRIC Mini XR, and a couple of larger vehicles (one of which looks a lot like the Electro Cycle, but is apparently different). At any rate, it sure looks interesting—if extremely confusing.

The folks from Bug Labs certainly represented themselves well enough at CES with a slew of new BUGModules, but we’re guessing they would have attracted even more attention if they would have had this perennial favorite on hand. If you can’t quite make it out, that’s Quake running (rather well, we might add) on the BUG and, yes, it is indeed being controlled by a Rock Band guitar thanks to the newly developed Xpad driver, which should work equally well with a standard Xbox 360 controller if you’re a little less ambitious. Head on past the break to check it out in action, and hit up the link below for all the necessary details.

Continue reading Quake gets ported to the BUG, controlled by Rock Band guitar

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

Quake gets ported to the BUG, controlled by Rock Band guitar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well, it looks like the long saga of Mark Papermaster’s transition from IBM to Apple is now finally drawing to a close, with the two companies each issuing press releases today announcing that the pesky legal issues have been resolved and that Papermaster is cleared to begin work on April 24th. He’ll be replacing Tony Fadell as head of Apple’s iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams, and will boast the title of senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting directly to Steve Jobs. Dueling press releases are below.

Read – Apple, “Mark Papermaster to Begin at Apple as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering on April 24”
Read – IBM, “IBM Resolves Lawsuit against Former Employee Mark D. Papermaster”

[Via Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Mark Papermaster begins work at Apple on April 24th, for real this time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments