Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Samsung's Big Time, Pocket-Sized Pico Projector [Pico]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5559245/samsungs-big-time-pocket+sized-pico-projector

Samsung's Big Time, Pocket-Sized Pico ProjectorYou may not be able to tell from this context-deprived picture, but Samsung's SP-H03 pico projector is small. Really small. Like, hockey puck small. And it puts 854x480 resolution and 1GB of internal memory in the palm of your hand.

The SP-H03 weighs just half a pound, and brings grownup specs to the pico category. In addition to that WVGA resolution, it's got impressive 30 lumen brightness, microSD memory expansion up to 16GB, and an itty bitty 1W stereo for media presentations.

It'll be available this month for $300, which sounds just reasonable enough that you should be able to get your company to spring for one for all those "important business presentations" you've got coming up. And if you end up using it more for putting home movies up on the garage door, well, who's gonna know?

SAMSUNG SEES BIG PICTURE WITH PALM-SIZED PICO PROJECTOR AND MEDIA PLAYER

New SP-H03 Pico Projector Packs Performance and Multimedia Integration Into Self-Contained Personal Media Device

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., June 9, 2010 – Samsung Electronics America Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation, today announced the SP-H03, a self-contained personal media device. The palm-sized pico projector features a bright, high resolution LED output and integrated multimedia player for the user on-the-go. The SP-H03's 1 GB of internal memory allows users to load content directly to the device with seamless, built-in multimedia playback without being tethered to a computer making it ideal for easily sharing images, videos, music, and documents on a variety on surfaces in business or personal settings.

"With portable design, high quality projection, and built-in multimedia playback features, the SP-H03 is an expansion of Samsung's expertise in LED technology and mobile productivity," said Tom Grau, senior manager of projector marketing at Samsung Electronics Information Technology Division. "The H03's robust and intuitive features make it an easy, efficient and affordable choice for everyone from tech-savvy travelers to mobile presenters, professionals and educators."

PINT-SIZED PERFORMANCE
The new ultra-portable SP-H03 offers a small, well-balanced industrial design that weighs only 6 oz., allowing it to easily fit into a pocket, backpack, purse or briefcase. The solid-state LEDs and DLP® technology heighten performance with a picture output of up to 80 inches, ensuring everyone enjoys the show.

The use of an energy-efficient LED light source also highlights Samsung's continued dedication to creating eco-sensitive products. Designed to last for the life of the product, solid-state LEDs maintain their brightness and eliminate traditional lamp replacement, contributing to a more-affordable total cost of ownership.

EXCLUSIVE SAMSUNG DESIGN INNOVATIONS
Not only does the SP-H03 boast a computer-free experience, but it also allows users to project their content on-the-go via external memory or entertainment devices like USB storage devices, microSD memory cards or MP3 players. For added versatility, users can enjoy audio playback through the SP-H03's integrated 1W speaker or utilize the output connectors for personal headphones or external speakers.

For business and education applications, Samsung's built-in Document & Media Viewers enable PC-free projection of Microsoft® Office Suite (PowerPoint, Excel, Word) documents, Adobe® PDF, movie, image, and audio files, in their native file formats.

The SP-H03 will be available through Samsung authorized retailers, including Best Buy, beginning in June 2010 for $299.99 MSRP.

SP-H03 KEY SPECS
· Unparalleled brightness in pico category with 30 ANSI lumens
· LED light source rated at 30,000 (max) hours of life
· WVGA (854x480) native resolution
· Image size ranging from nine to 80 inches
· 1 GB internal memory, expansion available via microSD card (up to 16 GB) or with input from a USB storage device
· Computer-free Document Viewer allows for content playback for Microsoft® Office Suite and Adobe® PDF documents and movie, image and audio files in native formats, including:
o Movie: AVI, MP4, ASF, MPG, RM, FLV, WMV
o Image: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
o Music: MP3, MP2, WAV, WMA, FLAC, APE, RA
· Supports standard VGA signals (PC), composite video (smart-phones, DVD players), and USB storage devices with included or optional adaptor cables
· Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery: 2 hour (max) battery life
· Dimensions: 2.5 W x 1.5 H x 2.5 D inch
· Weight: 6 oz.

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Four-Ton Transformer Tribute to Ancient Chinese General Meshes History and Sci-Fi

Source: http://www.popsci.com/

In the U.S., we often complete the run-up to graduation by writing 25 pages of extremely dry thesis that is typically read and appraised by a single person before being relegated to the library stacks forever. Bi Heng, a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, decided that instead he would create a 4-ton, $43,000 Transformer-inspired sculpture honoring legendary Chinese general Guan Yu.

The sculpture was assembled from components of an old Jiefang brand vehicle, a 25-year-old military service truck employed by the People's Liberation Army. Robo Guan Yu stands about 32 feet tall and wields a dynastic-era weapon that makes for a nice juxtaposition with the post-Revolutionary scrap he's assembled from.

As for the real Guan Yu, he was a respected general at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and a key player in the civil war that ended it. Though his military exploits and valor have been pumped up to mythical standards over the years, he was apparently legitimately revered for his prowess at kungfu. Though Robo Guan Yu is unfortunately static, check out the accompanying promo video below to see the general's latest moves.

[MMO]

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Office Web Apps Offers Free Doc Editing with 25 GB Storage [Microsoft Office]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5557862/office-web-apps-open-for-use

Office Web Apps Offers Free Doc Editing with 25 GB StorageOffice Web Apps, the free, cloud-based viewing and editing suite that Microsoft promised would be available to everyone, has opened wide its doors. It's a decent set of basic-plus editing tools, powered by SkyDrive's generous 25 GB of storage space.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Microsoft's free editing tools, like Word, aren't anything close to a replacement for its desktop suite, but it is an experience fairly comparable to Google Docs. They've even added in real time collaborative editing, and, presumably, there's greater formatting compatibility with Office documents you upload.

Office Web Apps Offers Free Doc Editing with 25 GB Storage
Head to office.live.com in your browser—any browser, it seems—and you'll get a list of the documents you've uploaded to SkyDrive, with Bing-powered search and some basic filtering. Head there in a smartphone, and Microsoft promises you'll be able to at least view your documents in most smartphone browsers. If you're a Live Messenger users, there's additional functionality in store for you, and Hotmail die-hards should get some extra neat features soon.

Office Web Apps are a free set of tools to use, and require a Live account. If you're not in the U.S., UK, Canada, or Ireland, you can access a no-country-restricted version of the Web Apps here, though not in any language but English at the moment.

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Preview Google Maps Links in Gmail [Gmail Labs]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5558022/preview-google-maps-links-in-gmail

Preview Google Maps Links in GmailJust out of the Gmail Labs is a Google Maps preview function, which appends a miniature map—with full scaling, zoom, and other Maps features—to the bottom of any message containing a Maps link.

As always, you can enable the feature by heading to your Settings in Gmail and heading to the Labs section, where you'll find "Google Maps previews in mail" available to enable. The feature only works with U.S. addresses at the moment, but international support is being developed. By the same token, Buzz social network users get the same kind of instant preview of Maps links when posting their updates or viewing others'.

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Dual Monitor Tools Manages Your Multiple Monitors with Open-Source Tools [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5558216/dual-monitor-tools-manages-your-multiple-monitors-with-open+source-tools

Dual Monitor Tools Manages Your Multiple Monitors with Open-Source ToolsWindows: There are some great multi-monitor management tools available but if you're trying to keep things free and open-source the pickings get a little slimmer. Dual Monitor Tools is a collection of open-source applications for managing your multi-monitor setup.

Dual Monitor Tools isn't a single application but a suite of individual apps. Load only the ones you need and conserve memory in the process. The suite currently includes four applications Swap Screen, Dual Wallpaper, DisMon, and Dual Swap.

Swap Screen enables hotkey management of windows across your multiple monitors like moving, minimizing, and rotating the contents of monitors from one to the other. You can also restrict the mouse movement to a single monitor. Dual Wallpaper is a simple wallpaper manager that offers different wallpaper on each screen or spanning wallpaper. DisMon allows for selective disabling of monitors—handy for gaming and particularly picky applications that don't play nice with multiple monitors. Dual Snap is a screen capture application designed for capturing images from the secondary monitors. As noted above each application stands alone so if you see at tool that interests you, you can pluck it from the suite and use it without the others.

Dual Monitor Tool is open-source, Windows only. For more multi-monitor goodness make sure to check out how to make the most of your multiple monitor setup under Windows 7 and the five best tools for managing your multiple monitor setup.

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