The pico projector has always walked a fine line — the smaller they are, the less features they typically boast. 3M‘s been cranking out the picos for a long time now, and its just outed two new ones firmly aimed at the business crowd. The MP160 and MP180 are both small (no surprises there), with the MP180 being the most full-featured of the two. That one packs WiFi, a touchscreen, Bluetooth, an integrated MP3 player, 4GB of storage, an SD slot and USB for all your quick, on-the-go projecting needs. The stripped down MP160 doesn’t have any of those extras, but both feature external speakers and audio output. As far as the actual projectors are concerned, but the MP160 and MP180 have 30 lumens of brightness and a two-hour battery life with SVGA resolution — a good showing for projectors of this type. Both are available for pre-order at 3M right now, with shipments in early October. The MP160 sells for $349 while the MP180 will run you $399. The full press release is below.
Are video games too violent? Yes, says pretty much every grownup, ever, apparently. This is according to a new study commissioned by Common Sense Media, a parent watchdog group.
The study of 2,100 adults conducted by Zogby International found that 72 percent approved of a law that “prohibits minors from purchasing ultraviolent or sexually violent video games without parental consent.”
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed gave the video game industry a “negative rating when it comes to how they protect kids from violent video games.” More than 50 percent of those surveyed rated the classified the industry’s handling of the matter as “poorly,” according to Game Spot.
The matter is set to become one for the U.S. Supreme Court, which will decide the constitutionality of a violent video game bill signed into law by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.
The Looxcie wearable camcorder is the first in what may be a new category of gadget: the combination Bluetooth headset and camcorder. Soon to be available through Amazon, this 1-ounce video headset is a sleek- and shiny-looking unit that will both turn heads and record their reactions.
As a Bluetooth headset, the device is a monster, weighing nearly three times as much as the svelte BlueAnt Q2, and costing quite a bit more. Unlike the average Bluetooth, however, this device records everything you see at 480×320 pixels and 15 frames per second.
The makers of the Looxcie (pronounced “Look See”) claim it can record continuously for up to 4 hours, provided you don’t use the headset for taking a call. Using the Looxcie app on your Android smartphone, you can save and edit your video, or “instant share” bite-sized 30-second clips straight to YouTube.
While other wearable cameras on the market are sold to the extreme sports crowd, the Looxcie doesn’t appear to offer the rugged durability that snowboarders and mountain bikers need. With its sleek lines and shiny white exterior, it looks more like a delicate prop from the latest Star Trek film.
Ultimately, the Looxcie doesn’t offer much beyond a low quality novelty camera, paired with a middle of the road Bluetooth headset. Whether this unique gadget fills an untapped niche remains to be seen, but for most headset users, this is an opportunity to hold on to your money.
We’ve seen a few examples of touchless, gesture-based interfaces for mobile devices, but it looks like Texas Instruments might be closer than most to making it a reality — it’s just announced a partnership with Extreme Reality (also known as XTR) on a new gesture engine and framework specifically designed for its OMAP 4 platform. The two companies actually showed off such a system back at MWC earlier this year (check out a demo of ti after the break), but they’ve only just now made the partnership official, and they’re promising plenty more advancements to come — including the ability to not only recognize simple gestures, but even things like whole body movements and two-handed gestures. Head on past the break for the complete press release.
With OnStar’s “Responsible Connectivity” announcement Tuesday that it’s enhancing mobile phone links and possibly adding Facebook and text messaging hooks, there’s a tacit admission that the old OnStar model – sell safety for $15 a month, sell safety, navigation, and operator services for $30 – needs updating in the era of cellphone navigation, free crash notification at Ford, and Facebook everywhere including, soon, the car.
This season the hockey world is being presented with a trio of titles, including the first-ever EA-published hockey game on the Nintendo Wii. There’s a lot of puck talk to come, so hop over the boards with us as we skate through each of the games in our hockey video gaming wrap-up for 2010.
It’s a revelation. It’s the way the iPad always should’ve been. With iOS 4.2 there’s multitasking, a unified inbox, folders and… Helvetica in Notes. More »
In our excitement over HTC’s announcements this morning (that’d be Desire Z, Desire HD, and Sense enhancements, in case you missed it), we missed one other nugget of good news. The HTC Media Link wireless DLNA streaming adapter does exactly what you’d expect from a name like that — namely, it’s a box that allows you to stream media (photos, audio, video up to 720p) to TVs that don’t natively have DLNA support. The pic above shows off what appears to be micro-USB and mini-HDMI ports. According to SlashGear, it’s due out in Q4 this year, but price is still TBA.
After a year of lackluster handset launches, Nokia may have a winner on its hands with the N8 smartphone. We spent some time with the new device at Nokia World 2010 in London, and while it wasn’t enough time to draw up a full review, we were able to get some hands-on first impressions.
First off, the hardware is fantastic. Wrapped in a beautiful anodized aluminum body with a 3.5-inch OLED display, the N8 will ship in green, blue, orange, silver, and graphite colors. While the display size is a bit smaller than the 4+ inch options on the market, it strikes a nice balance between “too small” and “way too big.” At 4.76 ounces, the phone is lightweight, feels good in the hand, and can easily be slipped into a tight pocket or purse.
The unit ships with Symbian^3, the newest version of the Symbian platform. Among the improvements, the user is greeted with three homescreens and the ability to add up to 24 shortcuts to each. Simply press and hold the screen for a few seconds to add or remove widgets and applications. It’s a nice revision to Symbian versions of the past and does a decent job of bringing the platform into the 21st century. Despite the updates, the OS still seems a bit tired at this point.
The phone is powered by a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, which falls below the typical 1 GHz benchmark in today’s high-end smartphones. In our hands-on time with it, we noticed a bit of lag when transitioning between homescreens and opening apps. It wasn’t terribly alarming, but could be a point of contention for those used to the speedy performance of Android and iOS.
Thanks to the capacitive touchscreen, the virtual keyboard is responsive. In portrait mode, the N8 displays a T9-style keypad, while in landscape mode, the user is given a full QWERTY layout to work with. We tested it by typing out several messages, and within minutes, we were clicking away with ease.
The device sports a non-removable battery, so for those that travel on a regular basis, the inability to replace the battery on the go could prove to be frustrating. That said, Symbian has proven itself to be a warrior in the battery life department, and early reports claim over one day of juice with moderate use.
The N8 packs a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash, so pictures look great. It also has the ability to capture HD video in 720p resolution at 25 frames per second, and offers an HDMI port for direct connections to the television. The combination of powerful camera optics and a mechanical shutter creates a bulge on the back of the unit, but Nokia has done a decent job of integrating it with the overall device design.
The Nokia N8 is a solid step forward for the Finnish manufacturer, and given Nokia’s name recognition, it’s a device that should sell well worldwide. The hardware is top-notch and feels fantastic, but the user interface seems a bit tired in comparison to other options on the market.
What’s more, no carrier partnerships have been announced in the United States, so those wanting the device will be forced to pay the full retail price.
The combination of an unsubsidized price and inability to view it in a retail store (yet) will likely lead U.S. buyers to choose other devices.
The Nokia N8 is expected to be available in the last week of September, and you can pre-order it for $550 from NokiaUSA.com.
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