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This little Pico projector looks like a gadget lovers dream. A small projector, fits in the palm of your hand, that can display a 60" image from your media player on a wall or screen. Imagine the possibilities, your friend still has that 19 inch color TV that they have owned since high school but always insist that everyone hangs out at their place to watch movies or the game? No problem…grab your AAXA P1 pico projector and your all set.

This projector is a mini projector so it has "mini" capabilities. For example, the image it displays will only be 640×480 so you wont be displaying any HD content. The Pico projector also only has about 12 lumens (brightness) so you will have to make sure you can make the room pretty dark. Other than that, for something you can put in your shirt pocket, you have a nice little mobile media device.

As far as what you can use as a media source, the Pico projector has inputs for iPods and other USB based storage devices. You can also connect anything to the projector as long as it has RCA outputs. There is a built in speaker and a headphone jack. There is also a 1gb of storage on board and a microSD card reader. you could potentially put a bunch of media on a microSD card and carry just the Pico Projector and the memory card and be set for a night of watching all of your bittorrented or ripped movies and tv shows.

The AAXA P1 Pico Projector is on sale now for $259.99

This years CES was a pretty scaled back affair. There were announcements and products, but the excitement of the previous years has been very minimal. Thats not to say that there wasn’t anything worth talking about. I haven’t blogged about anything that went on during CES, mainly cause I wanted to wait till the smoke clears. Now that it has, I want to talk to you about the product that I was most excited about.

The Palm Pre

If you have been reading this blog for a while, You’d know that I was a big fan of my Treo 650. A big fan of Palm’s Treo line of smartphones in general. Palm has been pretty quiet in the last few years but at this years CES they announced the Palm Pre. The Palm Pre is an all new smartphone, sporting an all new OS built by Palm. From the pictures and information Ive read about the Pre, I can say for now…Palm Is Back!!!

First the Pre combines 2 things that I have wished for, a nice big 3.1 inch touchscreen display, and a full slide out QWERTY keyboard. First lets talk about the keyboard. Currently, I own a Apple iPhone and my main complaint with that phone is how much I hate using the touchscreen for everything. I want a real Keyboard for typing. The Pre’s keyboard is very similar to the keyboard on Palm’s Centro, but a little bigger. Its also a vertical sliding keyboard. To be honest, the orientation of the keyboard doesn’t matter to me, as long as it has one.

In the past year, there has been many phones released that has touchscreen displays, but we all know that a touch screen is only as good as its interface. the interface on the Palm Pre is powered by an all new OS, the WebOS, developed by Palm and this OS looks to be a smoker.

Some of the other features of this Palm Pre include

MMS (which the iPhone still doesn’t have)

GPS

3 Megapixel digital camera (with LED flash)

WIFI (802.11 b/g)

Bluetooth (2.1)

8 gb storage

3g

Push Email

App store

Full media capabilities (3.5mm headphone jack)

Theres just one problem….Its going to be exclusive to sprint. Right now I cant leave AT&T (I have an awesome plan I cant give up). But according to what I heard on PC Mag radio, that sprint exclusivity will only last 3-6 months then the Pre will be released on all carriers. when it does, if its as good as It looks, I will be replacing my iPhone with the Pre. For now, looks like my New years wish number 7 has came true.

Read more about the Palm Pre here.

Its a brand new year and I’m looking forward to all of the exciting things that will happen in the world of gadgets. What do you wish will happen this year? Well, like I did yesterday on my other blog, I’m going to share a few of my gadget related wishes for the new year

My 09 tech and gadget wishes

1. Media from any download service will work with all devices

If I download a movie from iTunes, it only works on iPods. If I download a movie from Xbox live, I have to watch it on my Xbox. I know this is a long shot, and will never happen but I wish drm and formats will consolidate so that any movie, song, or tv show downloaded from any service can be viewed or played on any device. Give the customers a choice, let us price shop. Stop forcing us to buy specific equipment to watch specific content.

2. I wish for an iPhone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard

Another long shot. If you kept up with my rants about the iPhone, you’d know I have a love/hate relationship with that phone. One of my biggest complaints is the lack of a QWERTY keyboard. I know, some of you think the touch screen is so cool that you make yourself think that you don’t need buttons. Adding QWERTY with real buttons would greatly improve the iPhone, to a point where my next phone would be a QWERTY iPhone (right now, I’m pretty sure my next phone will be something other than an iPhone). Steve Jobs and Apple in general have a thing about buttons, so this will probably never happen. but one day, someone is going to release an Android phone, with a real QWERTY keyboard, and many will switch over to it. I just wish Apple would do it first.

3. Netbooks with better processors

One thing that has kept me from buying a netbook thus far is the lack of options when it comes to the CPU running them. Yea the Intel chip is good as far as battery life and power consumption, but I would like something with a little more umph. I would like to plug a netbook into my LCD TV and play Blu ray movies (via usb Blu Ray drive) if I want. I would like the opportunity to encode, convert, burn video at similar speeds as I do now with my desktop when I want. Is it too much to ask to have a highly portable Netbook device that can do some of the things "I" want to do on the run from time to time? Add a dual core processor? Id even be happy if they added one of those cheap ATI cards with AVIVO (Ive seen Desktop version for $30 bucks). I don’t want a high end laptop in netbook form, just the option to get a netbook with better components.

4. $99 Netbooks

I really think by the end of 09, this will be a wish that becomes a reality (and will top the holiday sales charts) I wish the prices of the minimal Netbooks, the ones that sale for $299 today, will drop to about $99 bucks sometime this year. Imagine how many people will be getting $99 dollar netbooks as gifts during the 09 holidays if this happens…Get on it Asus.

5. News of the Next..next generation consoles

I know, many console gamers want their Playstation’s and Xbox’s to last 10 years, but that’s not me, I’m from a PC gaming background, and I like new hardware. I like improvements, I like new features. While many are predicting 2011 or 2012 before new consoles are announced, I’m hoping for new console announcements in 2010. What I wish for is not announcements, but leaked information to give me an idea of what to expect the next go around in the console world. (I actually think holiday 2010 is when a new generation should start)

6. A drop in Blu Ray disc prices

This Blu Ray disc price drop I wish for isn’t just for movies, but also the blank Blu Ray media. For one, I wish the Blu Ray movies will drop to the same price as today’s DVD. Second, I wish that blank Blu Ray media would drop to a sensible purchase price (which right now it isn’t)

7. Palm’s CES announcement will rock your world

As many of you know, Palm is announcing something at CES this year. There has been much speculation, but no one knows what it is (as far as I know). I was a big fan of the Palm Treo 650, and even though that phone is long outdated, and there are better devices available, I still haven’t been as satisfied with anything Ive owned or read about as I was with that Treo. I’m wishing for a renewed life for Palm with an announcement of a awesome device, and a new awesome OS. Will it happen? Well we got about a week before we know.

This may be a little outdated but for the price this Jornada 728 has got me thinking about making that purchase. If you remember, back in about 2000- 2002, there were a few handheld PDAs that did a little more than what was popular at the time (palm). The problem with all those devices, they were a little too expensive for what they did. With a little work, this device can still hold up, as long as you arent too demanding.

A handheld PC style device  with a 6.5 inch screen running Microsoft Windows for handheld PC 2000. A few I/O slots and you got your a portable computer that can do everything you’d need. Well not quite. There is no wifi, but you can get wifi access through an addon card (PC Card type II). There’s no USB but there is a compact flash slot. Lets be honest, this is old tech and there are better cell phones out today. But Geeks.com has it for $139. Very tempting

If you have been waiting for the new Palm Treo Pro, your wait has just been shortened a bit. Over at Palm, preorders for said device are now being accepted. According to the palm website, The Palm Treo Pro should be shipping September 23rd. The phone is unlocked, and I think it isn’t going to be carried by any particular carrier but it works with GSM networks. The price is $549. Here is another picture and spec info taken from Palms website.

I’m still torn on whether I want the Treo Pro or the new Blackberry Bold (whenever that releases) but I’m keeping my eye on both.

Heres the link to the pre-order page.

Just when I pretty much made my mind up on getting a Blackberry Bold as my next cell phone something great happened. The Treo Pro. I owned a Treo 650 and I really loved using that phone, when it finally died on me I was kindof upset. The iPhone has been quite a pacifier for me, but I still want more (and a real keyboard). One thing that I am curious about is how life will be with a smaller screen.

The Palm Treo Pro will be sporting the new Windows Mobile 6.1 and include a lot of the Mobile Office software (that I probably will never use). It looks pretty sweet. Wifi, GPS, Blutooth, MicroSD slot.

Reading over the specs remind me of my old Treo, but with features I wish the old Treo had. Edge and GMS support leads me to think that this will be released on ATT but no word on price. did I mention it looks sweet?

Check out Palm’s website for more information and pictures.

It may look like something from Palm’s cutting room floor, but the features of this hybrid house phone may be perfect for you text addicts. The qwerty keyboard of Vtech IS6110  is what caught my eye initially when browsing my local Best Buy. At its core, its just a regular cordless phone, but plug the base station into your PC (via USB) and you have a choice of making regular landline or VOIP calls. There’s a good reason for the qwerty keyboard. Support for several instant messaging services, such as AIM and MSN messenger is included. Yep, you can  IM all the people you met on Craigslist personals  and call your mother with the same gadget.

I wish WiFi was supported, but it isn’t and you have to keep a PC running if you want to use the internet related features. The cordless (landline) phone features include most of the usual’s: speaker phone, caller ID, 50 entry phone book storage and selectable ringtones. This phone is from Vtech’s DECT 6 line, which should mean better sound quality. Don’t know about that, but who cares about sound quality when your texting your buds…Actually I do. The Vtech IS6110 is available now, retailing for $99 bucks.

I know Ive had my gripes with Apple’s iPhone. I actually said that I hate the phone but you know what? I’m taking that all back right now. I’m not changing my mind about the problems I have with the phone, I still think the touchscreen keyboard is horrible, I still think it is a crippled device. I’m just taking back my complaints. I’m going to keep them to myself from now on. You know why?

Apple deserves to monopolize the cell phone market.

Apple should make a version of the iPhone to fit every category of phone and put everyone else out of business.  What brings this thought to mind tonight you ask? I’m sitting here watching Heat and browsing Joystiq.com when I notice an ad banner for Alltel wireless. The only reason I even noticed it is because my wife has Alltel and she wants a new phone. Well the ad was for the LG Glimmer. I click on it cause LG makes so many phones that I cant keep up with them anymore. What do I see?

Another fake iPhone wannabee lookalike.

On January 9th 2007 I wrote a blog post talking about Apple’s iPhone announcement at CES. That was over a year ago. And to be honest, Apple fumbled out the gate with this phone. Its tied to AT&T’s slow data network, it was overpriced, then reduced by $200 2 months later. Its crippled and you have to hack it to really make good use of the phone (which I haven’t done to mine yet). When they finally do announce that they are going to ad 3rd party support, that end up being crippled. The way Apple has handled this phone would’ve brought about cries of damnation if it was any other company.

After all that, it is a year later and no other cell phone company has even came close to competing with this phone. As a mater of fact, the only phone that I would put up against the iPhone is a phone that was already out when the iPhone was released, the Nokia N95. What is wrong with everyone else? Why is it that every cell phone manufacturer is either doing nothing at all or making some fake iPhone lookalike out of their already existing phones. Do they think slapping a screen with icons on a phone is competing with the iPhone. Its a year later, there should be something else other than the iPhone to talk about.

What is Motorola doing? What is HTC doing? What is LG doing? What is Palm doing? Well I take that back about Palm, people think they are dead but they do have that Centro that I’m starting to see a lot of people with. I just don’t understand how Apple can come into a market that they were never in, and create a device completely unanswered and win everyone over. Has everyone given up? The iPhone was suppose to push creativity out of the other cell phone makers and we should be seeing some amazing phone from everyone by now. But we are not. What we have instead is the LG glimmer, the HTC touch, the Voyager. They don’t even want to compete. To me it seems like all they want to do is make a "pacifier" for people that aren’t on AT&T. They are basically sitting back and handing the market to Apple.

 These other companies need to step it up, or every phone in every persons hands will be an iPhone. If that happens, they all deserve it.

I remember when I was a teenager, there use to be a group of hobbiest that met in an industrial park near where I lived on the weekends. They got together to fly remote control airplanes. The airplanes that they use to fly around the empty parking lots were really expensive, and would cost a lot of money if they happen to crash one of them, but it was so cool to watch them fly around.

Ive looked into getting one myself, but they were just too expensive for me at the time. Especially since it was just a mild interest, and not something I wanted to go all out getting involved. When I ran across the Hornet 3 RC helicopter the other day, those memories came back. This time it was something that was completely affordable.

The Hornet 3 is a miniature remote control helicopter, fits in the palm of your hand. Looks like its more suited for indoor play, annoying people at the office, or chasing the cat around the house (if I had a cat) but its a very inexpensive remote control helicopter.

It also has what they call a crashproof design. The motor that runs the helicopter is enclosed safely inside the body of this miniature aircraft. If you crash it, not a big deal, pick it up and start flying it again.

It runs on a rechargeable battery, and lets be honest, its pretty much a toy. The batteries last for 9 minutes but recharges in 5 minutes. Quick burst of fun.

The Hornet 3 retails for $79.99 but you can get it over at Handhelditems.com for $27.95

Being a Treo owner for about 2 years now, I tend to get excited about any news about a new Treo. Over at Palminfocenter.com there has been talk of maybe a new Treo preparing to be release. The Treo 800p has had some pictures floating around and if youve followed the Treo over the years, you’d probably notice the blurry pictures that area always released when they have been "leaked" for us to drool over.

As you can see, they have made some changes to the device, its a little slimmer and thinner, but another thing I cant help but notice is that it looks like the screen is a little smaller too.

As far as info on the device, rumor has it that there will be a GSM and CDMA version of the phone. There will also be a Palm and Windows version. The Windows version will not have a touch screen. The Palm is still sticking with a touch screen and will use the new Garnet OS.

As far as features, it will have a microSD card slot that is hidden…..But little else is known about the device. So while we wait to see if this is something that will hit the stores, we can drool over the pictures….Which to be honest, I’m not sure if I like the new look yet, maybe in black.