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The Pocket-Sized Projector Has Arrived
mallumax writes "David Pogue of New York Times has reviewed the Pico, which is a pocket projector from Optoma. The review is quite entertaining (Pogue projects the images on to a plane's ceiling, leaving passengers baffled) and detailed. The highlights are: It is a pocket-sized projector which runs on batteries and can project images and videos from a variety of sources like iPhone, iPod and DVD players with a 480x320px resolution, with a maximum screen size of 65 inches at 8.5 feet. It uses a non-replaceable 10,000 hour LED lamp and a DLP chip from Texas Instruments. The battery lasts for 90 minutes and can be recharged through USB or with its own power cord. The device weighs 115g and comes with an inbuilt speaker which is practically useless. If you want one, it will set you back by $430."
Angus Young has already said he wants one. Something about it having its very own power chord, I guess.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
It's a laser, so it should last like, 40 million hours or something. A tad longer than your average incandescent bulb.
It's an LED with an anticipated life of 20,000 hours. That's, like, a war-crime's amount of PowerPoint.
Can 'War Crime' be a unit of measurement for terribleness and quantity?
It sure is replaceable! Only $430!
A non-replaceable lamp on an LCD projector? No thanks.
Given that its a "10,000 hour LED" it should last over a year of continuous use. At 8 hours a day every day it will last 3 years.
At more realistic (but still high) levels of usage... say, 4 hours 4 times per week, we're looking at 12 years.
In other words, you'll probably have upgraded multiple times before the bulb burns out.
Mod parent idiot. First, it's a DLP projector, not an LCD projector. Secondly, it has a rated lifespan of 10,000 hours. That's more than a complete year of life, or 13 years at 2 hours a day. Probably more than you'll actually want to use this projector.
Also, while I'm boarding on flamebait, I'd like to point and laugh at the person who replied to me a couple of days ago when I posted about this claiming this device didn't exist.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Or you can lie in bed and point the thing straight up. In a dark room, you'll have yourself a huge, bright movie playing on the ceiling.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
It's 20,000 hours. Short, but that's 250 8-hour days of continuous use.
Your math is off. 20,000 / 8 is 2500 8-hour days of continuous use, nearly 7 years.
Thank you and god bless.
You had me until that part. Sorry, bro, no brownie points for you.
Then he spent some quality time with the Air Marshall and DHS ...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Being able to carry one in your laptop bag for impromptu meetings is a key use. Having one to project the latest episode of [insert favorite show here] from your cell phone is one of those cool applications you buy it for, even though you'll probably never use it that way.
BTW - not every presentation occurs where there is a mounted projector. In the architecture field, for example, we often give presentations to smaller clients (churches, non-profits, individuals) in class or meeting rooms with nothing but a table, some chairs, and four white walls. These people don't have their "dream buildings" yet...which is why we're working with them.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Poor form sir, poor form. What good is a paranoid rant without some mention of jew bankers, the international money cartel, black helicopters, and the plan to turn Mississippi into an al-quaeda training camp?
-1: discredit to the white race.
That's not much more than the cost to replace my *replacable* lamp for my home theater projector. Which is rated for only about 3k-5k hours.
I'm not exactly a gadget freak but I have to say I do want one of these (not at this price though). With the ability to store a whole bunch of video on a tiny device and the major problem of having to watch it on the little screen, this seems to fill the gap nicely. You just need a flat surface (as the review says, back of the seat in front of you on a plane or whatever) and you can watch it comfortably. And it still fits in your pocket. Why isn't everybody making them?
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
for those around here that remember 1998, the Rio PMP300 was the 2nd but the most important MP3 player that came on the market. Not exactly ripping it up at 32 MB of RAM but an important introduction nonetheless and ultimately led to Creative and then Apple following with their MP3 players. Given that, in 10 years we may all have them on our key chains next to the USB terabyte drives.
"The people on the plane were baffled when they saw *porn* on the ceiling . ." and you thought cell phones were annoying when they came out . .
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
3M makes and sells a very pocketable battery powered projector already. It has been for sale for a couple of months. Has better specs too, and it's cheaper. I'm not sure why we have articles that ignore stuff like this. I know we can't be experts on everything, but man, the author couldn't do a quick google search for pico projectors?
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Power Point? Who the hell is going to be using this thing for Power Point?
Sheesh, it fits in a your pants pocket. So does a video iPod. Add porn to this lovely mixture. Do I have to say anything more?
Well, Mr. Gates, three meters is nine feet. Perhaps I'm mistaken in assuming that's nine feet diagonal as monitors are usually measured, but that's twice as big as my TV, which is over twice as big as any screen I've ever owned.
It doesn't say that the room has to be smaller than three meters; that's the maximum size of the projection.
Free Martian Whores!
Not to mention if they can't spare 4 cents an hour, they wouldn't be able to afford the electricity to run a full-size projector in the first place.
While vi became vim, this is a huge jump in functionality for Pico
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
It sure is replaceable! Only $430!
The $430 price is only for new adopters. It'll be $19.95 by the time you have to replace it.
No HD, no wireless, no shaver. Lame.
This is where's it's at.
-Matthew Riley "TofuMatt" MacPherson
I have a website
traditional projectors, like LCD Monitors, actually use more energy to display black, because it has to activate the cells to block light.
That may be true in LCD shutter technologies, such as an LCD monitor. This baby uses DLP technology, which is essentially a chip covered in tiny steerable mirrors. To produce black, they simply aim the mirror off-screen. It costs essentially no more energy to produce black vs any other color.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I suspect the opposite is true, and it will find acceptance mainly as a display for iPods, netbooks, etc. As a replacement for business or home theater projector, it is mostly just less bright, since the size usually doesn't matter (most conference rooms have a projector available anyways). But screen size is a real limiting factor in making smaller iPods, laptops, and PDAs - they are totally size-limited by I/O (screens and keyboards).
This opens up entirely new uses for a projector for the nerdy crowd:
Some examples/ideas:
* Projector tiling
* Cheap, portable 3D Scanning
* Real-time photo sharing (obvious)
* Portable video-conferencing, telepresence (think projector-screen-like avatars around the screen with a tiny projector attached to each of them)
* Pseudo-Invisibility!! (Think helmet-mounted camera, white t-shirt, dorky looking wearable projector mount)
* Head-Mounted Projector applications (other types of invisibility, "Virtual Cockpit", freaking people out at night clubs, etc.)
...is a note played on an electric guitar played simultaneously with the note whose frequency is approximately 50% higher. The simple ratio means you get nice interaction between harmonics, even when the guitar is heavily distorted. They're very popular with many guitarists and are easy to play. Bands ranging from Hawkwind to Nirvana made/make great use of them. They don't usually come with projectors.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Posting AC doesn't undo moderation.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
When it goes on sale in two weeks, it will give parents a completely portable backseat-of-the-minivan movie theater for the kids.
Sure, provided you're driving at night, or with all the windows painted over.
"Pocket projector."
I can't believe no one made this pun before now.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
7 years! that isnt enough time. We will hardly be able to cover the new TPS Coversheets;
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
Who cares if the lamp is non-replaceable (not an LCD, anyway).
What is a pocket protector doing with a lamp anyway? I've been ridiculed enough for using one without a lamp, why would I want to light it up and draw even more attention to it?
Is this some new kind of nerd bling?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Now you'll be able to tell the geeks, because they will be the ones with the pocket-projectors.
This baby uses DLP technology, which is essentially a chip covered in tiny steerable mirrors. To produce black, they simply aim the mirror off-screen. It costs essentially no more energy to produce black vs any other color.
Then gray must be even harder because it has to aim the mirrors back and forth rapidly.
TFA states that it's a 20,000 hour bulb, not 10,000 as the summary suggests.
Just FYI.
A little known fact about /. : Anonymous Coward actually has infinite mod points, but since he can't help but post to every discussion, he reverts all his modding.
Even better, imagine making short clips of those creepy pale black-eyed children from Japanese horror movies and projecting them at random...
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
It's a laser, so it should last like, 40 million hours or something. A tad longer than your average incandescent bulb.
I'm not sure if we're talking about the same product, but the one in TFA uses a non-replaceable 9 Lumen LED rated for 20,000 hours (/.'s summary says 10,000)
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
The XBOX version or the PC version?
What's the average lifespan of a shark, cause I'd hate to need to replace a burnt out laser on one of those frickin' things.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
on the article... 9 lumens
They should make the battery replaceable. I think the battery will die long before the LED dies off.