Hasta La Gadget!

German researchers have managed to shrink a pico projector down to just 6mm thick. That’s less than a quarter-inch. The researchers, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, use a new lens-system to make sure that the projected image is bright, even from such a tiny device.

Instead of making the light-source bigger, which would make the projector bigger, they used 45 micro-lenses. Each of these has a 200 x 200 pixel LCD on the back, and the lenses are colored variously in red, green and blue. The images produced by these lenses are combined in an overlapping patchwork to make a bright 800 by 480 pixels image.

The 6 x 6mm box still only puts out 11 lumens of light, whereas the best of today’s already small pico-projectors manage 15 lumens. However, the researchers say that if the unit was scaled up to the size of regular pico projectors, it would pump out 90 lumens, removing the need to use these things in dark rooms.

The quest for ever-smaller projectors means that we will be able to fit them inside cellphones, and Marcel Sieler, the researcher behind this projector is working to reduce his LCD pixels from 8.5 to 3 microns. But what we really need, as anyone who has used a pico projector will tell you, is bigger, brighter images. As it stands these little magic lanterns are little more than neat novelties.

Mini-projectors – maximum performance [Fraunhofer Institute]

An Even Smaller Pocket Projector [Technology Review]
Photo: Fraunhofer Institute

See Also:

• Pico Projector iDevice Dock Beams Movies, Games
• IOS-Ready Pico-Projector Turns Your Phone into a Theater
• CES 2010: Laser Pico Projector, Netbook E-Reader Combo – Video – Wired
• Pico Projector Film Fest Turns Ice Sculpture Into Screen …
• Pint-Sized Pico Projector Parties in Our Pants

This is the Scomber Mix Table from Hoerboard, and you might be forgiven for thinking that it’s a giant iMac with its neck broken and its head forced back to stare at the stars. A second look will quickly reveal its true purpose: it’s a portable DJ desk.

The foot is fashioned from laser-cut, powder-coated steel and the console on top is MDF. The top section can be customized to order, and has spaces for a pair of turntables and a mixer, along with a slot-loading CD-player hidden inside and accessed through a slash in the front. In fact, a lot of your gear is hidden, with cables routed internally and ending in terminals under the desk for quick hookup to the venue’s own audio system.

You can add accessories, from a perspex laptop stand to a CD-player “clip” to a cover to keep dust (and beer) out of your gear.

The pricing for this stylish setup begins at €1,690, or $2,300. Alternatively, you could just toss an iPad in your bag and replace the whole setup with a single tablet.

Scomber Mix Table product page [Hoerboard via Uncrate]

See Also:

• Farewell, SL-1200: Panasonic Scratches Iconic Technics Turntable …
• Portable, Battery-Powered Turntable. For Playing Records
• $64000 Luxury Turntable Defies Recession
• Audiophile Turntable Your Vinyl Would Die For
• With IPod, Who Needs a Turntable?

This article was written on October 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

The next few months are going to be pretty big for Microsoft because there are going to be new releases of several different applications that they offer. A few days ago we mentioned that IE 7 is scheduled for release on October 18^th and it should be delivered via Automatic Updates after November 1^st. That isn’t the only big release that Microsoft has coming up though.

In a recent press release Microsoft announced that Windows Media Player 11 would be released in the coming weeks. They then go on to say that it will be available on October 24 for users to download. For those of you who haven’t tried out the WMP 11 pre-releases then you will be quite shocked at the differences. Everything is much more streamlined and well organized. It will definitely be a good compliment to Microsoft’s Zune media player that is supposed to be available later this year.

The biggest news (according to ZDNet), however, is that Vista will be released on December 5 to the general public! That’s right, Microsoft is pushing the release date FORWARD almost two months from the originally slated January 30, 2007 scheduled release. Microsoft also plans to make Office 2007 available that same day. The business community will still be receiving Vista in November but Microsoft will surely be recognized for shaving some time off of the public delay.

I think it is great that Microsoft has pushed Vista up but now I am a little concerned for the number of programs that will be Vista-compatible at the launch date. Hopefully Microsoft was able to make most companies aware, especially antivirus developers, of the change before today because they now have two-months less to work on compatibility issues. I have heard most companies repeatedly say that they will have a Vista-compatible version of their software when Microsoft officially releases it to the public but I wonder if that will still be true!

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Microsoft Office 2007 Gets A Small FaceliftMicrosoft Pushes Office 2007 Release BackMicrosoft To Release Office 12 Technical Beta In MarchLatest Vista News: Updated Pricing & New Release DatesHow to Get your Free Copy of Office 2007

The same Singapore event that brought us our first look at AMD’s humongous Radeon HD 6990 has also served as the stage for the company’s first showing of a new, even lower-powered Fusion APU. The regular dual-core Ontario (C-50) variant requires a 9W power budget to operate, but AMD’s managed to shrink that down to 5W in a chip designed specifically to be used in tablets. Clock speed remains at 1GHz and the core count hasn’t bee touched, but the memory controller has been dumbed down and peripheral ports have been reduced to one of each type. This streamlined C-50 has already found a home in Acer’s 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet and should prove decently popular among manufacturers looking for an x86 alternative to the coming tidal wave of ARM-based devices.

AMD has a 5W Fusion APU to put in your future tablet of choice originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One day somebody will write a book called “The rise and rise of Android” and this moment will be highlighted in bold. Canalys’ latest smartphone sales figures show that Android phone makers managed to shift a cool 33.3 million handsets in the last quarter — more than any other smartphone platform out there, including the previous leader, Symbian, which sold 31 million units. That’s a mighty leap from the 20.3 million Android devices the stats agency estimates were sold in Q3 2010. Symbian itself grew from 29.9m in Q3 to 31m in Q4, but Android’s pace of expansion has been so rapid as to make that irrelevant.

Update: NPD’s numbers are in as well, indicating that Google now has a 53 percent share in the US market, while Windows Phone 7 has managed to nab only two percent so far.

Continue reading Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world’s best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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