Monday, November 1, 2010

Newest Projectors from 3M

coolpix camcorder projector
In the past few months manufacturers have been getting fancy and have started producing hybrid gadgets that include mini-projectors in their design. There were the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj and S1100pj cameras that featured built-in projectors, the LG Expo GW820 smartphone that included an optional projector attachment, and about a month ago, 3M revealed their Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector.

The Shoot ‘n Share allows you to do just what its name suggests. You can easily capture pictures or videos and project them from the same device that you shot them with, and the great thing is that you can do so instantly. The 3M Camcorder Projector can shoot video at up to 720p at 60 frames per second. The video is shot in a MPEG4 format, and as I said, it can be viewed immediately with its 15-lumen LCOS projector. All you need is a surface on which to project the image. You can view the image at any size ranging from 6 to 65 inches. The Camcorder Projector features a 2.4-inch screen, an embedded speaker, a two hour battery life, and a MicroSD card slot in case you need more than the device's 32MB of internal memory. The Shoot ‘n Share is currently available for $299.

At the same time that 3M released the Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector they also released two new pico projectors, the MPro180 and the MPro160. The 3M MPro180 has a variety of useful features including: 30 lumens of brightness, SVGA resolution, two hours of battery life, still and video image projection, touchscreen controls, wireless connectivity, MP3 capabilities, Bluetooth compatibility, 4GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot for additional storage, and two 0.75-watt stereo speakers. It also supports Adobe PDFs and Microsoft Office applications including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Normally the smaller a projector, the less features it has, but this little projector is jam-packed with features despite its size. The projector is able project an image at sizes ranging from 10 to 80 inches. It is now available for $399.

The MPro160 is extremely similar to the MPro180 except it’s about $50 less and has a few less features. The MPro160 lacks Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as MP3 capabilities. There also is not an internal memory or card slot which means that it is dependent on an external device such as a MP3 player, laptop, PC, etc. as the image source. This projector is available now for $349.

3M has been releasing some very interesting products lately. The Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector just seems so convenient. To be able to take pictures or video and then instantly display it is amazing. The pico projectors from 3M are great as well. They offer so many features for their size. The fact that you can surf the Web from the MPro180 is incredible. If you’re looking for a pico projector, the MPro180 and MPro160 are definitely two that you should keep in mind. It will be great to see more projectors emerging from 3M. I think that they have definitely hit some home runs with their latest releases.

Not sure how to take care of your projector? Check out these guidelines and tips.

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