Category Archives: Fun News.

Kodak Luma 150 Vs. AAXA HP2 Portable Mini Projector Comparison

What features do you look for in a projector? Are you looking for something portable and ready for any occasion? Well if you are, then you’re in the right place. Today we’ll be discussing the Kodak Luma 150 portable projector and AAXA’s HP2 DLP Mini DLP Special FX Halloween Projector. Also before we start off do NOT let its title fool you, this AAXA product is way more than just a Halloween projector. You can use it to watch your favorite movies or share your necessary meeting presentations like any other portable projector, providing quality projection anywhere and anytime. 

For today’s breakdown, we decided to highlight three main categories – image quality, price, and portability.

*Scroll down for shop links of the two mini projectors.

Image Quality

The Kodak Luma 150 offers a native resolution of 840x360p and does not specify what its maximum support is, along with a contrast ratio of 1,500:1. While the AAXA HP2 offers a native resolution of 640x360p with a maximum supported resolution of 1080p full HD resolution along with a contrast ratio of 2,000:1.  On top of that, the Kodak Luma offers a brightness of 50 ANSI Lumens (converted to about 100-110 LED Lumens) while the AAXA HP2 is listed at 100 LED Lumens. All in all these projectors offer very similar key specs when it comes to image quality but see the images below to decide for yourself!

 

Portability

Next up  we have Portability; The Kodak Luma 150 weighs in at only 0.3 lbs with the dimensions, 0.87″ x 3.90″ x 3.90″. Whereas the AAXA HP2 projector weighs in at 0.31 lbs with the dimensions 2.75? x 2.25? x 2.5?. Once again when it comes to portability, you cannot go wrong with either projector. Both of these devices are extremely light, miniature, and can be used practically anywhere. 

Price 

Lastly, we have price; The Kodak Luma 150 is listed at $219.99 MSRP while the AAXA HP2 is listed at $129.99 MSRP. Luckily for those of you interested in AAXA’s HP2 I see it going for even cheaper on Best Buy right now for $20 off at a generous price of $109.99 which I will provide in a link below. Nonetheless when it comes to price, the HP2 offers an unbeatable price at over $90-$100 off (with the current discount).

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In conclusion, both the Kodak Luma 150 and AAXA’s HP2 DLP Mini DLP Special FX Halloween Projector are outstanding projectors that will get the job done. For key specs like image quality and portability, both these devices are second to none. The only thing the Kodak Luma 150 sacrifices is a little bit more money out of your pocket with the HP2 being over $90 cheaper at MSRP. Although, regardless of which mini projector you decide on they will both give you a bang for your buck. 

Link: Kodak Luma 150 $219.99

Link: AAXA HP2 $119.99

Link for Limited Time Discount Best Buy Deal: AAXA HP2 $109.99

Interactive Projector: Amazon Glow

Amazon’s newest innovative tech is the Amazon Glow, an interactive video-conferencing device with a built-in tabletop projector. The main goal is to allow kids to be interactive while communicating with friends and family across different locations. The ability to project games, books, pictures, or puzzles, allows the kids and parents(also grandparents) to play and talk together at the same time

The Amazon Glow comes with new features such as a shared display, showing what the kid sees and mirroring it on a remote iPad. Books, games, and some basic learning apps are different activities that the Amazon Glow can display. This is all connected to Amazon’s Kids Plus ecosystem, a subscription-based to connect the whole family. Parents will need to learn how to set up the Glow and teach their children the basics. Amazon targeted children between the ages of three through nine, so setting up age restriction content might be important for many parents. The Amazon Glow projects an 8-inch screen for video chat and is able to project a 22 inches screen using the screen mat. At the moment, the Amazon Glow is not yet released, but has a retail price of $299.99 and is looking to release around mid-October 2021.

Mini Projector Mask Tricks AI Facial Recognition

As kids, we were always told us not to stick our face to close to the screen. This new wearable technology makes it so the screen gets stuck to your face. Designed by product designer Jing-cai Lu, this wearable micro projector shines a variety of faces on top of yours in order to confuse even the top AI facial recognition systems. The use of facial recognition is becoming in various countries, and soon the United States, the daily privacy of the individual has become a hot topic.

The wearable pico projector mask gives rise to a new form of mystery to the wearer and is currently in limited productions. Going this extreme for privacy begs the question, is this necessary? According to Lu, it is. Lu is quoted as saying, “In the future, the advertisement could call your name when you walk along the streets. The companies would know your personal interests and may set different retail strategies for you. It could be convenient for customers, but personal thoughts and opinions should be kept private. This product protects you from this privacy violation”. As scary as this may look to some, this is one cool use of projection technology! Talk about a portability!

© Photo by Jing-cai Lu

AAXA P7 HD Projector Review: A Small Package With A Big Punch!

© Photo by AAXA

The AAXA P7 Mini HD Projector fits snuggly in your had and is one of the smallest 1080p projectors that we have seen. The P7 does a wonderful job at displaying small complex designs and can function as a media player for your videos, photos, and music. It is remarkable how portable this projector is. A downside is that compared to some of AAXA’s other pico projectors, the P7 is not as bright which makes some video quality only okay.

© Photo by AAXA

The AAXA P7’s body is a sleek black and gray, and measures 2.7 x 4.7 x 4.4 inches and weighs an incredible 1.4lbs. Like AAXA’s other projectors the P7 is a DLP projector that uses LEDs as its light source. The LED’s lamp life is rated at 30,0000 hours which is impressive for an LED. The AAXA P7 has a 600-lumen output when it is plugged into its AC adapter and 450 lumens when it is going portable. According to AAXA, the battery should last 90 minutes on a charge.

Unlike others on the market, the AAXA P7 is a true 1080p projector. There are many 1080p projectors on the market but many don’t have a true 1,920 by 1,080 pixel (1080p) resolution. This little projector does and proves it. The biggest and best advantage is really the portability of this projector. The size lets you take it into any meeting, small church, school presentation, or even a movie night without much hassle or setup. It really is plug and play.

© Photo by AAXA

On the front of the P7, the lens is positioned in the upper left-hand corner. On the back of the body, you will find an HDMI port, an Infrared Receiver for the remote, and a USB Type-A port to put your media via flash drive. The projector’s right side comes with the power adapter plug, a VGA adapter port, and a slot for a Micro-SD card. On top is a small panel cluster that acts as a manual control.

When testing the image quality of the P7 mini projector I noticed a slight degrade in image quality with the introducing another light source, in this case, the screen size had to be shrunk to get the image back to normal. I tested both data- and video-image quality over an HDMI connection. Looking at the text quality on score there were no issues with both black and white. The colors themself are rich and realistic looking.

Even though the P7 shined a little less bright than other pico projectors, and there were hiccups in the image quality, this is a great buy for only $399. The portability and its true native resolution make it a true steal. It would be great for the traveling businessman and does a pretty good job of showing movies and playing music.

Walmart Tests LED Projectors For Floor Ads

© Photo by Talk Business

The grocery mega-giant known as Walmart has begun using LED pico projectors to test floor ads in order to boost sales. These mini projectors are a great way to draw attention to special price rollbacks, specifically on toys. During the test, the majority of shoppers (75%) said that the LED projections were more effective than traditional signage ads. The move to using LED projectors, both standard and pico, is extremely important to move for the company. Walmart hoping that this is the most efficient way to cover advertising real estate of its 5,000 stores that each have an average of 150,000 square footage. Stefanie Jay, vice president of the Walmart Media Group, describes the need for this type of advertising by releasing this statement, “With 90% of America shopping at Walmart every year and nearly 160 million visitors to our stores and websites every week, Walmart Media Group enables brands to reach more customers at scale and measure advertising effectiveness across the entire shopping journey”.

This much real estate needs multiple projectors not only portable in size but also equipped with a brightness that can project a high-quality image. Thankfully companies like Optoma, Epson, Sony, LG, and AAXA have made great progress in lumen outputs for their LED pico projectors. The mini projector market is the perfect solution to cover all this floor real estate. Their compact size, affordability, and high lumen output make them a great asset for this type of advertising.

AV Professionals In 2020 Are Still Choosing Standard and Pico Projectors Over Flat Displays

© Photo by My Projector Lamps

In 2020, a time when cars have become electric and the bulky projectors you remember from grade school have been turned into micro projectors big enough to fit in your pocket. The AV industry is still choosing LED projectors over flat panels. You may ask yourself why is this? Shouldn’t flat panel displays be just as technologically advanced as the newest projectors? One answer to this question is simply the statement that sometimes size does matter.

While the graphics on flat-panel screens are impressive, that does not matter when you factor in size screen. When it comes to applications that require text and numbers to be displayed on-screen, screen size is the most important factor. Yes, I understand that there are currently TVs that support 8k picture quality. But something to take into consideration is that a good chunk of LED projectors and even pico projectors the size of your hand supports a picture resolution up to 4k. Companies like Acer, AAXA, Optoma, and others have created a product line of mini projectors that can not only cover a wall with an image or video enough to comfortably give a classroom of students optimal viewing but have also achieved a high lumen output in such a compact electronic.

Another factor that these projects particularly micro projectors have over traditional flat panel displays are there portable design. We all remember the days in school when the class would get a substitute and the poor guy or gal would have to roll in a zenith on a cart with broken wheels to play an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. With pico projectors, AV professionals and teachers alike are able to carry a projector that can display a 200″ picture for there students that is the size of there hand. The AV professionals have it right with using LED and Laser projectors for a bigger screen. One day both standard and micro projectors will catch up to the picture quality of TV and maybe then the rest of the world will follow the advice of the AV professional.

Imagine a World with No More Adapters

Do you ever find yourself annoyed with the fact that you have to buy additional accessories and complementary tools to maximize the use of a product? For example, purchasing a projector doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you can open it right out of the box and display whatever you want. Often times consumers will find that they need additional cables and adapters to display a projection from their electronic devices. Sure, projectors these days come in compact sizes and are very portable, but the fact that the inputs require users to have an adapter of some sort readily available poses a red flag for some. Most pico projectors today have HDMI inputs, which then require adapters if users are to display multimedia content from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. In a way, this can defeat the purpose of convenience, and ultimately introduces a problem with the product’s pitch.

It seems as though Asus understands this issue, as they recently introduced their latest product–the E1Z, an LED projector that links to an Android device solely through a microUSB connection. They’re calling this “the world’s first.”

 

What To Expect

Interestingly, Asus has not yet revealed intricate specs such as the brightness, resolution, and the product’s availability. What we do know is that it boasts a 100% NTSC color gamut and a full RGB color spectrum support, both of which should create a vivider video-watching and game-playing experience. It can also serve as a 6,000 mAh charge station, as it has a rechargeable battery. The E1Z will most likely be around $200, as informed by Engadget.

The real question here lies in how the E1Z compares to its competitors. Yes, it does feature a microUSB connection, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a revolutionary product. Sure, it provides users with an easy connection method, but users can get a substantially better experience with a different product using an HDMI adapter.

Assuming the E1Z is sold at $200, Asus looks to be putting out an affordable and easy-to-use projector for the traveling family or the entertainment enthusiast. It’ll definitely be a product worth experimenting with. Whether or not other competitor companies will follow in Asus’ direction of developing an adapter-free projector remains to be seen!

Leverage iPhone 6 Video Output Modes with a Pico Projector

P3x

Now that the iPhone 6 has been out for a few months, we have noticed a whole bunch of users exploring different methods of utilizing its many features. One particular use has caught our eye, and it is using the iPhone 6 as a primary video output with an LED pico projector. With the influx of streaming apps and services, from Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube, to Chromecast, Kickflip, Liveleak, Ustream and more; streaming mobile video seems primed to take a bite out of cable’s stranglehold on live content. Anyone who has had to deal with cable companies customer service is ready to cut the cord, and this generation of mobile devices and applications are making it easier than ever.

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The iPhone 6 is a perfect example of a piece of hardware that can be used to set up a New Media Order, and provide users the flexibility of having a high definition video stream from anywhere. Now, couple it with a portable, powerful pico projector, and suddenly the iPhone 6 goes from having a 4″ screen to having a 100″ screen which you can display anywhere. Imagine setting up a rooftop movie night with your friends and being able to carry everything you need in your pocket. Or creating an impromptu marketing display you project onto any wall at will. Or setting up a “Face Time” conversation, Star Trek style, with a huge projection on the wall of your spaceship (or basement, whatever is available). There are limitless applications for the technology once people are aware of its capabilities and we would like to show you how easy it is to set up an iPhone 6 with a pico projector today.

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What do I need?

First, you will need an iPhone 6 and an Apple Lightning Digital A/V Adapter. The digital AV adapter is a critical piece of equipment which is what allows the iPhone to connect to a wide variety of devices using HDMI. Second, you will need an HDMI cable to connect from the adapter to whatever device you want to use your iPhone’s video output on. Third, you will need a pico projector, there are a wide variety to choose from but some of the industry leaders are AAXA Technologies, 3M, Optoma, and Phillips. Finally, you need a place to project your video, this can be a screen, a wall, a ceiling, or pretty much any flat, neutral surface.  The photo below demonstrates practically everything you need to amplify your iPhone’s screen size by 25x.

P3X (2)

 

 

For the purpose of our demonstration, we used an AAXA Technologies P3-X Pico Projector with native WVGA resolution and the ability to turn your 4″ iPhone screen into an 80″ screen. This is a an ideal projector because it very portable and at about 70 lumens, it runs quietly and without much heat thanks to the LED bulb technology. Also, it has a lithium ion battery which is good for about two hours of projection on a full charge. Plus, it can fit in your palm and only weighs about 10 oz pounds, making it portable enough to use practically anywhere.

Don’t just read it, see it!

Check out the video below for a demonstration of how to hook the projector up to an iPhone 6 to play Netflix, Youtube, Hulu or whatever. With technology like this, it makes cutting the cord and throwing away the TV an ever more realistic prospect.

 

Keecker, the worlds first “Homepod” (And possibly the last)

We get most if not all of our projector news from people that we follow on twitter and recently we came across something very interesting.

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This is Keecker, noted as being the worlds first “Homepod”.  We had never heard of a “Homepod” before and were intrigued, what we found was definitely surprising, but we’re just not sure HOW useful it will be.  Keecker is shaped like an egg, it’s fairly large (About 2 feet tall and 3 feet around), and has wheels on the bottom that allow it to move.  It sports a 1000 lumen LED projector, 3D surround sound, a high res camera, a 1TB storage drive, air quality sensors, WIFI, and runs Android 4.3.  It can move around on it’s own similar to a Roomba and can drive to any room in your home via a command from your smart phone (given that it’s on the same floor), it also has a charging station that it can drive to to charge it’s self.

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Keecker has a unique motor that can control the angle of the projection that it emits,  this allows it to project anywhere from low parts of the wall up to the ceiling.  It can project as close as 2 feet and automatically adjusts it’s keystone and its focus.

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With all of it’s built in sensors and camera it is also a good home automation/security device.  Although it has not been confirmed yet, there are apps available to android that allow for motion detection from cameras and also to communicate with a nest and change temperature etc.  Apps like this could automatically automate your home and control things like your thermostat, lighting, and even watch out for home invasion.

 

The Keecker definitely has a lot of functions and can be a useful device in certain situations, but now for the bad stuff.

 

Even though it is literally the most mobile projector in the world, its still very immobile in many senses.  It’s slow moving and must use sensors to look for walls and other obstacles, this can create a fairly long travel time to where you need to use it.  Also for any building that has a set of stairs, the unit will need to be physically picked up and moved up or down the stairs.  The unit clocks in at 25 lbs and can’t really be considered light, for some people this could actually be a problem especially if they would like to use it in an upstairs meeting room or perhaps in an upstairs bathroom.  Right now the most mobility the unit has is to dodge people and objects in it’s way while it’s travelling around.

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As cool as it seems, the Keecker just really feels like too much technology crammed into one thing and many of those things seem like afterthoughts if anything.  A mobile projector was the original goal of the Keecker and its original prototype was very true to this, basically a motorized scooter with a projector strapped to it.  Over time more and more technology was added to the unit that brought it to where it is today, a giant egg shaped robot that drives around your house to deliver entertainment to anyone in it’s way.  Cool? Yes.  Functional? Maybe not.

Another big factor that we’re considering is the price, although not yet released based off the Kickstarter reward pricing we’re guessing it’s somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500 which we unanimously decided was just too much to pay for a roomba projector.  But either way, it’s definitely blog worthy, and if a giant egg projector robot is something that you think your business or home could benefit from, check out their kickstarter page and even consider donating to the cause!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keecker/keecker-the-worlds-first-homepod

In our next blog we’re going to be covering the new HP Sprout, the worlds first projector/3d scanner/computer all integrated into one!

Navdy, for those who don’t have an M5 but still want a HUD in their car.

The BMW M5 has had a pretty sweet HUD integrated into it’s dash for a couple of years now. It’s mostly used to show your speed, RPMs of the engine, and navigation. Although it’s use is limited it’s still a pretty cool concept and if you’re anything like me leaves you wishing this feature was in more cars and that you also had an M5.

BMW 750Li Aug 2009

 

However for those of us who just can’t afford a $94,000 car, not all hope is lost thanks to Navdy.

Navdy is a pico projector built into a small unit with a screen that can add a HUD to any car with an OBDII connection.  Navdy can do things like reading your text messages to you, Video Chat, Navigation, and even reading information from your cars computer.  All of this is packed into a compact hands-free unit aimed at making driving in the age of cellphones a much safer activity.

Don’t just take my word for it, check out this video that Navdy made, it should fill in any questions you have about what it can do.

For those of you who just can’t keep their hands off their cell-phones while driving or for those of you who just like to keep your eyes on the road at ALL times, Navdy could be a pretty nifty gadget for you, and might just save you some money on tickets.

The technology that it employs is a fairly simple concept however the implementation of it is what makes it special.  It is basically a small projector that projects backwards onto a mirror which then reflects onto a piece of glass.

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What makes it cool is that it seems to work just as well if it’s in dark conditions or light conditions, this is a technology that Navdy will not release details on and it is what makes it’s product stand out as surely other companies are soon to jump on the bandwagon with an idea like this.

Right now you can pre-order a Navdy for $318 including tax, however the company claims that this is a promotional early price and that the actual retail price of the product once it is out will be 40% more.  So if this looks like something you would want it’s probably a pretty good idea to order now while it’s almost half off.

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As Navdy gets closer to release we will cover more as more details come out and also provide some news on if there are any competitors coming out of the woodwork looking to compete with the unit.  But for now, adding a HUD to your car is not far off, and you won’t have to spend  $94,000 to do it.