Karl Guttag co-founder and CTO of Syndiant has announced that he will be leaving the company.  He states in his new blog that he is still a firm believer in LCoS technology’s and its potential to hit big volume markets with pico projectors.  His blog can be found at http://www.kguttag.com/.

About Syndiant:

“Hand-held consumer electronics are constrained by their small screen size. Ultra-portable projectors, or pico projectors, allow consumers to enjoy a large screen experience in portable electronics, such as smart phones, notebook computers, digital media players, game consoles and cameras. OEM Customers indicate that all key technology elements are ready with the exception of a light modulator that meets cost, form-factor, resolution and power requirements.

Syndiant’s technical advantage lies in its patented architecture, which uses powerful but elegantly simple parallel processing to enable the world’s smallest and highest resolution light modulating chips used in ultra-portable or pico projectors.”

LG now has 300 Lumen WXGA DLP projector available for $699.99.  It only seems to be available in select retailers and mostly outside of the United States.
This micro projector features a built-n TV tuner, HDMI, VGA and USB ports.  Weighing 1.72 lbs its one of the heavier micro projectors but is also one of the brightest.   Its dimensions are  6.3″ x 2.1″ x 4.7″ which also make it SLIGHTLY bigger than their micro projector but it is definitely still a micro projector.

LG has their HX350T projector at 250 lumens and also has a TV tuner built in.  It looks like LG is still very strongly tied to their TV bonds and their customers still want to use LG products to watch TV.

As everything is getting smaller and downloadable, I would imagine people will start streaming their shows from their TV onto their micro projectors.  For how LG seems to have a customer base big enough to warrant the need for TV tuners.

Viewsonic has recently released their PLED W200 250 ANSI lumen WXGA 1280×800 projector.

With dimensions of 5.1” x 5.0” x 1.3” and lightweight at only 0.9 lb, it’s designed for portability and convenience to move from location to location.

This projector along with the Vivitek Qumi Q2 and LG HW300T are the latest micro projectors available that can are 250+ lumens.

This is a pretty nice projector if you have $600 laying around for a projector.  The auto keystone correction and 120hz/3d ready are all great features that many people are looking for.  With its LED bulbs it also has a 20,000 hour lamp life.

We recently wrote about how great the iPhone 4s mirroring ability was that allowed us to project everything on the phone onto a projection.  We know the iPhone is a popular phone but another popular phone is the blackberry line.

As we all know the BlackBerry, better known as the CrackBerry is used by many business professionals out there and I can only imagine how many of them wish they could easily connect their phone to a pico projector to do a presentation.  With the combination of the BlackBerry Presenter and a pico projector this is now possible.

AAXA Technologies made a nice little write up on how to hook up the BlackBerry presenter to their P4 pico projector but the steps will be pretty similar to any other projector with VGA input.

Pictured is the BlackBerry Presenter along with a BlackBerry Bold 9000 and an AAXA P4 Pico Projector.

After hooking it up the BlackBerry Presenter start up screen looks like this.  

Once you open your document on your phone and press present it shows up like this.

Obviously I skipped some steps, but I just wanted to show essentially how easy it is to present with BlackBerry phones for all of you who complained that we only talk about the iPhone here.

The Full Tutorial can be found here:

http://www.aaxatech.com/support/faq/BlackBerry_Presenter_AAXA_P4.php

The Benq Joybee GP2 is Benq’s latest projector replacing their previous GP1 model.  It’s pretty small but not small enough to classify it into the pico range.  It is however small enough to be a micro projector.    The GP2  looks similar to the previous model as it still has the same black and white casing but the features have been greatly improved.

Features:

The BENQ Joybee GP2 features short throw projection, integrated iphone/ipod doc, a multitude of connections and an external 3hour battery pack.  Unfortunately the extra battery pack does double the size of the projector, but it is still a nifty thing to have.

The GP2 also features 200 lumens led light engine with 2 2w stereo speakers.  With its WXGA(1280×800) resolution it can be be a great viewing device.  You can now get the this micro projector for $549

Right now there are three main pico projectors made specifically for the iPhone.  There is the Brookstone iPhone case which is the newest one getting all the buzz for the holiday season. The mili Pro v2.0 has been around for quite a while but never seemed to catch on because of the giant price tag.  The is also the Thanko pico projector attachment just connects to the bottom of any iPod, iPhone, or iPad.

Brookstone iPhone case/projector/battery pack

$229.99,

15 lumen,

64×360 native display

.5w speaker

2100mAh battery with ability to power iPhone

Mili Pro v2.0, iPhone, iPad, iPod Video Projector

$398.99

10 lumen

native 640×480 resolution

integrated speakers

Thanko iPhone, iPad, iPod Video Projector

$202

10 lumen

320×240 resolution

Analysis

From looking at all three, I’d have to say that the Brookstone projector probably gives you the most bang for the bug.  With its recharging ability it won’t put a drain on your iPhone.  One MAJOR flaw I did notice is that headphone jack is placed right above the projectors lens.  If you wanted to put in some headphones and watch some videos , you might have some problems.

Main problems

The other main problem I have with these projectors is the lumens.  With 10 and 12 lumens you will need very dim ambient light to get good images.  You can get a standalone 10 lumen pico projector like the aaxa p1 jr for 100 bucks and it can hook up to iPhones through its a/v jack.  The don’t think being made specifically for apple devices constitutes the dramatic increase in price.

Solution: get a stand alone pico projector

There are plenty of 50-80 lumen projectors available in the $200-$300 dollar price range.  We had the chance to test the AAXA p4 and we love the 80 lumens that it has.  For $339 we think its well worth the price over any of these specifically tailored iPhone projectors.

The device can be attached to a wall and plug in a usb cable and you are ready.  There are also BlueTooth versions which would let you not need that usb cable.

Pair this system with a micro projector or even a pico projector since they are getting brighter and you have an interactive whiteboard solution.  With the stylus you can choose from a palette of controls to change colors, line sizes and other features.

With the ebeam hardware being small and portable, it would be easy to put all your essential tools in a small bag and carry it from classroom to class room.

                We recently discussed how useful the mirroring ability of the iPhone 4s was and we got a large amount of readers asking exactly how connect it.  It’s as easy as counting, 1..2..3!(well almost)

For this example we will again be using the AAXA P4 pico projector.

What you will need

• AAXA Technologies p4 pico projector
• iPhone 4S
• AAXA P4 VGA Cable
• APPLE  VGA adapter

Step 1:

Insert APPLE VGA ADAPTER into iphone 4S

Step 2:

Insert AAXA P4  Pico Projector VGA Cable to APPLE VGA adapter

Step 3:

Insert small end AAXA P4 Pico Projector VGA cable  into the side of the P4 labeled VGA.

Step 4:

Turn on AAXA P4 Pico Projector by pressing power button on top.

Step 5:

Using the arrows on the projector, highlight the icon labeled source and press the center button

Step 6:

Using the arrows on the projector, highlight the 1280×768 Resolution and press the center button

Congratulations you now have your Iphone 4s screen mirrored using your AAXA P4 Pico Projector.

You can now watch videos, share pictures, play games, give a presentation and do all the cool things that the Iphone 4S lets you do.  But now…. Its 1000% bigger!
Here are some videos in case you missed the last post!

You can get the iPhone 4S at http://store.apple.com/us
You can get the AAXA P4 at http://www.aaxatech.com

Although the IPhone 4S looks almost identical to the Iphone 4, they are most certainly not the same phone.  Along with the new camera, the faster processor, and antenna changes, the feature that fits our blog the most is its ability to mirror video output.

What this means is, when plugged into a projector, the iPhone 4S will project on your wall exactly what you see on the iPhone’s Retina LCD Display screen.    This ability really makes it the perfect pico projector accessory.

We tested various apps from the app store on our AAXA Technologies P4 Pico projector and found that it worked amazingly.  It’s the newest, brightest pico projector so we thought it was a good fit to test with the iPhone 4S.  AAXA has a iPhone cable available but we had a spare apple vga cable around so we used that.

That is all the information we currently have on this pico projector but we will update you when we find out more.
If you’re in a rush you can always check out some other pico projectors from manufacturers like AAXA Technologies, Optoma, or 3m.