Besides now being able to hold pictures and video, the Pico PK102 also now has a new universal port capable of receiving VGA and component video. This should make connecting it to a laptop easier and the component port will let you hook it up to your iPod or portable gaming device with the bundled cords. Other than that there aren’t any substantial updates—it still got the same 480 x 320 native resolution and a DLP engine as the PK101.

The Pico PK102 is now available for $US250 (which is significantly less than the $US450 that the PK101 hit the market at and its 3M MPro120 competitor). The now slightly chunkier PK101 has been lowered to $US230. [Optoma PR via Engadget]

The last 3M projector was a mixed bag: Passable video quality was tainted by poor build quality and low battery life, and the overall experience, while promising, just wasn’t quite there yet.

The MPro120 is a replacement for the MPro110, and on top of the verifiably awesome image quality from its liquid crystal on silicon imager, it multiplies battery life by a factor of six, adds speakers and pushes the life of its 12 lumen lamp to 20,000 hours, and keeps the prior product’s $US350 price tag. Another difference: Assuming this thing been tightened up on the quality front, people might actually buy this. The MPro120 is due to land on September 1. [3M]

COMING SOON TO A POCKET NEAR YOU: THE MPRO120
3M’s New Handheld Projector Set for September Launch
ST. PAUL, MINN. (August 26, 2009) – This fall, Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters are coming to a pocket near you! Less than a year after launching the MPro110 – the handheld digital projector that won the “Grand Award” in the gadget category of the Popular Science 2008 Best of What’s New Awards – 3M announced today the September debut of the MPro120, the newest member of the MPro family. The MPro120 provides improved functionality, increased portability and an expanded feature set.
The MPro120 is the first projector to incorporate 3M’s MM200 projection engine, the next generation of the MPro family. As announced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the MM200 engine uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager and boasts enhanced image quality with a full colour gamut. The MPro120 provides users with a robust battery life of two to four hours (depending on brightness setting) – enough to watch a full-length film – and, in full brightness mode, achieves a brightness of 12 lumens. Featuring an integrated flip stand, tripod, stereo speakers and a variety of input cables, the MPro120 is ready to use “out-of-the-box” with a wide range of today’s most popular video output gadgets. And, as with its predecessor – the MPro110 – the MPro120 will be the ideal projection solution for laptops and netbooks. Available optional accessories include an adaptor cable for Apple® products, component video cable and car charger.
“Following the success of the MPro110, the MPro120 will further reinforce 3M’s leadership position in the development and implementation of advanced projection technologies,” said Mark Colin, general manager, 3M Projection Systems Department. “The functionality of the MPro120 represents technical achievements that were manageable only by the long-term commitment to research and development that is 3M’s hallmark.”
The MPro120 will be on-sale September 1 with an estimated price of $US349. Optional accessories are sold separately.

No, this isn’t a lost Beyond 2000 segment from 1997—this is a real thing, that is happening. Here’s how Nikon expects customers to use their new mutant camera/projector hybrid, the S1000pj.

It’d be irresponsible to try to glean too much from a promotional video like this, but I live dangerously: I’m going to say those images, as you’d expect, look a little washed out, despite most of them projecting at well below the claimed 40-inch max. And where’s the video projection? That’s the coolest part!

You can sit through the whole video to get a pretty broad spec rundown, and peruse the press release here. Or you can just wait until your Spring 2010 Hammacher Schlemmer catalog comes through the mail slot. This’ll be on page 73, in the sidebar, next to the inflatable litterboxes. [Crunchgear]

I just don’t see Apple announcing a multimedia projector dock for the iPhone/iPod anytime soon, but in my imaginary world where Jobs and I sit together eating cucumber sandwiches every afternoon, he’s birthed me one.

The E-Pod is a dock concept that fits a projector, speaker (with subwoofer), and alarm clock all inside what looks to be a swiveling retro microphone case. It’s pretty small, but as incredulous as I was taking a first look at the design, there’s really no feature here that stops the E-Pod from going into production tomorrow (assuming that you could deal with a somewhat craptastic Pico projector smearing 30 Rock all over your wall). [Early Factory via Yanko]

[3M]

Guess which version is the second gen DLP Pico projector. (Hint: It’s the smaller one on the right that’s better in every way.)

There’s really nothing exciting about micro projectors now other than where they can go. And TI’s second generation projector is a promising step to mobile media “is that HD in your pocket?” nirvana. 20% smaller than the first Pico (and, maybe more importantly, 20% thinner as well), the new Pico projects an 854×480 (DVD quality) image with a contrast ratio of 1000:1. The missing spec is, of course, probably the most important one—brightness.

Still, how cool is that picture? Really cool. OK? Really cool.

AU: Obviously the US has a different view on what DVD quality is with their NTSC standard. PAL regions have 576 lines, which this doesn’t quite manage.

[TI via bbGadgets]

The resolution is just 800×600 (SVGA), and its LED bulb only puts out 25 lumens of brightness at a measly contrast ratio of 100:1. Stretch that image several diagonal feet and you will not like what you see.

But back to the neat stuff. It docks for more speaker power! I mean, how cool is that? Order yours from Japan for $US434. [Sanko via Slashgear]

Yep it’s a bit chubby, as any projector-toting phone most certainly will be, but it’s not as horrible as some of the other projector phones we’ve seen. Aside from the 480 x 320-res projector that uses Texas Instruments’ DLP tech, the Show also has a fine-looking 3.2-inch, 400 x 240 OLED touch screen, 5MP camera with LED flash, and Samsung’s widget-based touch OS. It’s dropping in South Korea soon, but there’s of course no news on a US release.

I’m actually pretty surprised at how good the image looks here. I’m still pretty sceptical that anyone will ever find an actual day-to-day use other than novelty from any pico projector, but if it’s built into your phone in a bulky but not Zach Morris bulky package, maybe that’s the answer. Check out more photos and impressions over at: [PopSci]

Some of these shots could use a penny for scale, because it’s unclear exactly how small we’re talking. But basically the entire optical module is squeezed into that tiny matte metal box up front, which includes an amazing sugarcube-sized fly-eye lens, with tiny facets used to focus light from the RGB LED light source (one tiny LED for each colour) onto the microscopic mirrors of the DLP image processor, with accuracy down to the micron. One day all of our mobile phones will have these; until then, marvel at how something that used to be size of your massive audio receiver can now fit in your pants. More images and details at: [Tech ON]