Slashdot Mirror


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."

32 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. AC/DC by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  2. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by digitalchinky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a laser, so it should last like, 40 million hours or something. A tad longer than your average incandescent bulb.

  3. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  4. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by Gr33nNight · · Score: 5, Funny

    It sure is replaceable! Only $430!

  5. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by vux984 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  6. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  7. 'nuf said by fermion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  8. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  9. Re:Our New Leader Has Arrived by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank you and god bless.

    You had me until that part. Sorry, bro, no brownie points for you.

  10. Fun and Games by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pogue projects the images on to a plane's ceiling, leaving passengers baffled.

    Then he spent some quality time with the Air Marshall and DHS ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Fun and Games by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then he spent some quality time with the Air Marshall and DHS ...

      The American War on the Unexpected at your service.

  11. Re:does size matter? by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
  12. Re:Our New Leader Has Arrived by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  13. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by DigitalCrackPipe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  14. Its early for the technology by Hangtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  15. Baffled by terbo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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
    1. Re:Baffled by ozbird · · Score: 5, Insightful

      and you thought cell phones were annoying when they came out . .

      They still are.

    2. Re:Baffled by clarkkent09 · · Score: 4, Funny

      How about making a video of a crack appearing on a white wall (matching exactly the color of the airplane ceiling) and slowly spreading until sky starts to show through and then perhaps a goblin peering in or something, and projecting that on the plane ceiling. Fun.

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
  16. 3M did it first. by Facegarden · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?
    1. Re:3M did it first. by Smauler · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, and I should also point out it's cheaper as well.

    2. Re:3M did it first. by scharkalvin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Link is here:
      http://www.3mmpro.com/

  17. Talk about your feature creep by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 4, Funny

    While vi became vim, this is a huge jump in functionality for Pico

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  18. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  19. It's been done. by TofuMatt · · Score: 5, Funny

    No HD, no wireless, no shaver. Lame.

    This is where's it's at.

    --
    -Matthew Riley "TofuMatt" MacPherson
    I have a website
  20. Re:Huh... Didn't the thing use lasers... by camperdave · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!
  21. New Uses by cowtamer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.)

  22. A power chord... by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...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.
  23. 9 lumens. 9. by Phanatic1a · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  24. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Funny

    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
  25. Great! by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now you'll be able to tell the geeks, because they will be the ones with the pocket-projectors.

  26. Even better... by PontifexPrimus · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  27. Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Informative

    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!