When you find a projector under £500, if you’re a home cinema enthusiast (but without a home cinema enthusiast budget), your first reaction will always be a sigh as you think of those £1500 models that your new purchase just won’t live up to. Well the InFocus X9 may just surprise you.

InFocus has cottoned onto the fact that there are plenty of people out there who are interested in buying a bright projector to use in their lounge but have been scared off by the widespread misnomer that these machines are super-expensive and therefore are only to be found in the homes of the rich and famous.

Thereby we have the X9, which is a penny under £500, but packs in DLP technology, and the brightness of much pricier machines.

OK so it’s 720p not 1080p, but the 1800 lumens brightness - which is one of the best levels out there – more than makes up for this. The 2500:1 contrast ratio is pretty average but again, the picture quality really stood out so we’re not complaining. The X9 supports WXGA in both 1280 x 720 and 1280 x 800 (16:10 aspect ratio).

Onto the image quality and Texas Instruments has included its BrilliantColour tech in this machine and this, coupled with the brightness levels (both in normal and eco mode) delivers colours that wowed. InFocus also claims that the colours will not degrade over time. I would add that we picked up on practically no noise in the images.

Set-up was beyond simple. There could be more image controls but the menu is designed for consumers who may not have had a projector before. For those who are seasoned pros, the projection quality delivered by the X9 may make it worth a peek but if you want more control over your output, you’ll probably have to look to pricier models.

Connection-wise, the X9 offers HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite and VGA, plus RS232 and IR as control options, and there is a credit card sized remote included with which to navigate through the menu. A nice detail is the fact that the remote control fits into a specifically designed dock on the top of the projector so you’ve got less chance of losing it down the back of the sofa.

Images from the X9 can be as big as 9.13m wide but this can only be achieved if you have the projector a whopping 12m from the wall and let’s face it, not many of us have rooms that size.

Related links:

• News - InFocus X9 projector delivers 720p content

Tags: Home Cinema Projectors InFocus InFocus X9

InFocus X9 projector originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000

We have discovered that having a projector to use with the Nintendo Wii doesn’t mean you are less prone to injuring yourself or indeed breaking things just because there’s no TV in the room. In fact, having the MP512 ST projector from BenQ made us even more frenetic as we threw caution to the wind absorbed in the huge projected image on the wall.

The main advantage of this shiny new, Wii-styled projector is that it is short throw model (the ST of its name) and therefore you can have it close to the screen or wall you are projecting onto. And, at just a metre away, it will project a 55-inch or 140cm image. The maximum size is a 300-inch image.

As long as you resist the temptation to get close to the projection to get an advantage over your competitor, the projector does not get in your way.

Also worth a mention at this point is the included Wall Colour Correction Technology which means that you can project onto non-white walls.

The only snag with it being short throw is the keystone correction is less than impressive and so to get the best effects, you need to have the projector ideally at the same sort of level you want to project.

You get analogue RGB, Component video: S-Video, Composite video, Audio and also an HDMI connection. The latter is great for hooking up your Xbox 360 and PS3 as it can handle their 1080p signals but just keep in mind this is not an HD projector, and it will downscale the picture.

On the sound front the MP512 ST has two internal 5W speakers. OK, so that’s not a huge amount of sound but if you have taken your projector to a mate’s house, it’s fine (and I mention now that this is a very portable model at 255 x 90 x 214mm and weighing 2.2kg).

And as this projector moves away from tradition in its design - being as sleek, white, compact and shiny as the Nintendo Wii - it doesn’t look out of place in even the starkest of modern homes.

But as a general use projector, especially for watching movies, there were some issues, most glaringly, the low resolution at 800 x 600 pixels. When you’re playing games, the bright colours and obviously the fact that you are contentrating on playing not just watching, mean that this resolution is less of an issue. But it is when you are watching a film.

The brightness is a respectable 2200 ANSI lumens brightness, but this again emphasises that this is not a machine for home cinema enthusiasts. However the MP512 ST does have a Texas Instruments DLP chip, and offers a 2500:1 contrast ratio, which ain’t half bad in a projector at this price point.

Related links:

• News - VIDEO: The MP512ST gaming projector in action
• News - BenQ demos MP512ST gaming projector
• Link - BenQ

Tags: Home Cinema Projectors BenQ Gaming BenQ MP512 ST Projector

BenQ MP512 ST projector originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

The P5260i DLP projector is essentially aimed at businesses. Upon its launch in June, Acer described the new wireless model as "designed to offer cable-free projection in various presenting environments".

Software bundled with the projector reaffirms this. You get Acer eView Management which adjusts your projector settings to suit any lighting environment and any type of content, and includes a Blackboard Mode, that allows users to project onto a traditional green chalkboard without the need to set-up a separate white screen.

Then there’s the Acer Quad-View technology, that divides the projection screen into four sections, allowing the user to display content from different PCs simultaneously.

There’s also the Acer eTimer Management tool that provides an onscreen visual cue to help keep presentations on schedule, and Acer eProjection Management for easy set-up of a video conference.

But is it suitable for a home environment?

Design wise, it fits right in. It’s 299 x 229 x 93mm and weighs in at 2.9kg so is fine on a shelf, but is also sleek and curvy so doesn’t stand out.

You can get an image anything between 58-762cm and the projector can be as close as 1m to the wall or screen, or up to 11.9m away. You have to be careful with positioning as the P5260i doesn’t have horizontal keystone correction.

Tech-wise this is a mid-range model. We weren’t blown away by the depth of the projected image. There was colour wheeling in some movies too, but it wasn’t distracting. The contrast ratio is a middle of the road 2000:1. At 2700 ANSI Lumens, it definitely wasn’t bright enough to have withstood daylight, but was sharp and bright with the curtains closed.

The Native XGA resolution on this HD projector is 1024 x 768 but the key feature of this machine, which really sets it apart from other projectors in its price range, as it features wireless technology based on 802.11b/g protocols that supports 1080i and 720p HD video projection.

This really does make a difference as, if you don’t want to spend cash on hiding cables in walls or putting them under carpets, you are then stuck with wires criss-crossing your lounge with most projectors.

The P5260i’s HD streaming video projection supports MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, AVI, DivX 3.11, 4x, 5x, XviD, ASF and VOB files (without encryption).

But what was really impressive is how easy the whole home cinema system is to get running, whether you are wireless or not. For wireless viewing, you use the included dongle and then follow the instructions that you can download from the Internet (or use the booklet provided). You can also download software if you need to. I couldn’t however, connect to the Internet wirelessly and use the projector wirelessly at the same time, which was a bit of a pain when I wanted to watch content from the BBC iPlayer.

For wired viewing, the P5260i has Analogue RGB, Component Video (D-sub), Composite Video (RCA), S-Video, DVI (HDCP), HDMI (Video and HDCP),and PC Audio (Stereo mini jack) inputs.

The fan was quietish, but there are also in-built speakers to distract from this, although for better movie viewing, it’s best to connect up to your home speakers.

Related links:

• News - Acer P5260i wireless projector launches
• Link - Acer

Tags: Home Cinema Hardware Acer Projectors Wireless Acer P5260i Wireless Projector

Acer P5260i wireless projector originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0000

OK so it’s been out a while, but everyone from grannies to grandkids seems to have an iPod, so this could be the perfect Christmas pressie for one, if not five, of your family members.

The Edifier iF200 is an alarm clock and a speaker system which is compatible with some iPods (although not the iPod touch, 4G nano or iPhone). But what stands out is its retro design. It looks like an updated version of the alarm clocks most of us would have literally jumped out of bed to turn off at some ungodly hour on a cold British morning - the metal ones with two bells on top.

Well instead of giving out a brain shaking ringing, the "bells" are now speakers (3W) and will play any tune of your choosing from your iPod collection to ease you out of your slumbers. It’s also better looking, in my opinion, than its close competitor - the Cygnett GrooveToons iPod nano alarm clock.

As well as styling (and it’s worth mentioning at this point that the Edifier comes in black, white and pink and white) - the other key advantage of this player is ease of set-up. You can literally take it out of the box and an easy to read dial plate at the back of the cradle indicates which setting you need for whichever iPod model you have. This dial is the plate depth dial and you also have to adjust the 30-pin collector, before slotting your iPod in.

The next step is also easy - but only if you read the three-stage instructions which are enclosed. The Edifier has to "recognise" your iPod, which means navigating to options on my iPod I didn’t realise I even had. And all the while your Edifier will be beeping at you, which adds slightly to the pressure. It basically entails getting to the Extras option in the iPod menu and then "showing" the Edifier where your clock menu is.

Once this is done though it’s plain sailing, picking the track, album or playlist you want to wake up to. But remember that you have to go through the process again if you dock a different iPod.

Features I particularly liked include the chrome volume dial on the back, the sound level you can crank it up to (which was particularly amusing one morning when I was out and about but my other half was expecting a lie-in), and the fact that the Edifier has a 9-minute snooze option, activated by the snooze button on the top.

The sound quality is good in a device this size (14 x 14 x 7.5cm) but not brilliant - a little more bass (yes even in the morning) would have made a huge difference.

Power-wise, the Edifier comes with a UK mains adaptor, but doesn’t have a battery option so isn’t one for taking camping.

The instruction manual warns it doesn’t like the rain or moisture just in case you were tempted though to take it on your travels, this is strictly a gadget for your bedside table.

Related links:

• News - Retro iPod Alarm Clock adds a touch of old-school to your iPod
• News - Cygnett GrooveToons Speaker and Alarm Clock System
• Link - IWOOT

Tags: Gadgets Audio Speakers IWOOT iPod Apple Clocks Alarm clocks Edifier Alarm Clock

Edifier iF200 alarm clock and speaker system for iPod originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of solar lamps out there from sturdy models for camping through to the ones you stick into your flower bed.

But the Sun and Moon jars, which are available now from IWOOT, must win out in the dinkiness stakes.

As their name suggests, these solar jars, designed by Tobias Wong, take sunlight, store it up, and then, when the day is ended, glow. The Moon Jar gives out a gentle blue light while the Sun Jar gives out a mellow yellow glow.

But what’s novel about these is that they look good even whilst sitting on your kitchen window sill during the day.

And you also get a green badge for eco-friendliness as they have already won the Eco Friendly Gift of the Year Award because they use a "highly efficient" solar cell, as well as a rechargeable battery and low energy LED lamps. So you leave them in the sunshine, and then they will give out as much as 5 hours of light on one charge.

The jars have a light sensor so will come on as the sun goes down but there is an override switch inside the lid so you can turn off the light at night and conserve battery life if you want.

As we found out by mistake - balmy evening, soggy morning, they are also watertight so are perfect for the garden.

Also worth a mention is that the jars are safe for kids aged 5 and above so could make a great, low cost night light for any littlies worried about monsters under their bed.

Related links:

• Link - IWOOT

Tags: Gadgets Eco Solar power Home And Kitchen Lamps Sun and Moon Jars

Sun and Moon solar powered jars originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:00:00 +0100

Want a touchscreen interface that promises a decent email experience? That's what RIM want to achieve with the launch of the Storm, but have they created that Mecca? Pocket-lint managed to get hands on with the new smartphone ahead of the global announcement to find out.

Apparently Vodafone sent RIM back to the blackboard several times before it gave the thumbs-up to the BlackBerry Thunder - or Storm as it is now called - which was finally launched officially today after months of rumours, leaked pics and speculation.

RIM has been making increasingly Bold moves (ha ha!) into the space between business users and high-end, or simply adventurous, consumers with the likes of the Curve, the Bold and the Pearl. As RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis told Pocket-lint: “Smartphones are penetrating the mid-tier market, and soon the bulk of contract phones will be smartphones”.

On a basic level - you get a 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.55-inch HSDPA phone capable of 7.2Mbps data transfer, which supports quad-band: 850, 900, 1800 and 1900MHz GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks.

But here’s the key development. Rumours were circulating that the Storm would boast full touchscreen capabilities with haptic feedback. But it’s got something better.

How many times have you managed to cut off a call on your smartphone simply by touching the screen with your cheekbone, or have had to type an email really slowly because your fingers are just too big for the keyboard - virtual or not?

RIM thinks it has come up with something that will change all of this. It has combined a capacitive multitouch screen with a new suspension system, which is underneath the screen itself. As Mike Lazaridis told us: "This combines the navigational tools you need with the confirmation tools" - in other words - you can scroll using the touch tech you have on other smartphone models, but to type a message or open an email, you press on the screen, which will click you through (and you actually feel the screen click, which is comfortingly like a real computer keyboard).

This really does make a huge difference especially coupled with the good sized virtual QWERTY keyboard the Storm has. The keyboard orientates itself to whatever way you are holding it, and RIM has made sure that the quick access keys at the bottom of the screen are easy to use whether you are left- or right-handed.

But this new touch tech has also enabled all sorts of nifty tools. Like the Bold, for example, when you are looking at a list of emails, you can click on the name of a sender, and the Storm will then pull up all of the emails sent to you by that person (you can also quick search using the date).

And, yes the rumours were true, it also means that the storm follows the Nokia 5800 in giving users a Cut and Paste option in a touchscreen smartphone. You simply use two fingers to designate the text you want to copy and then paste it where you need it, whether in an email, in your calender or on a word doc. You can’t do this with pics as yet but you can with content on the web.

The click through tool also makes it easier to browse the web as your cursor will change (as it does on PCs) when hovered over a live link, and you can then push your screen to go through. (Incidentally, you can also take calls when browsing the web, which is handy.)

This click through feature is bound to enamour the device to business users and consumers alike, but, when coupled with the array of apps (and there are more to come thanks to today’s launch of the BlackBerry SDK), and also media features, you really realise that this phone could contend with music-focused Nokia and Sony Ericsson devices right through to, yes, bravely stated, being an iPhone alternative.

The high-resolution 480 x 360 pixel colour display is surprisingly sharp and is big enough to comfortably watch a movie on without squinting. Movie support is for MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile and WMV files, and audio-wise, you can listen to MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA and WMA ProPlus files.

If you want to create your own content the Storm has 30fps video capabilities and a 3.2-megapixel camera. There are apps pre-loaded on the phone that let you load your pics and vids straight up to YouTube, Facebook and Flickr amongst others.

The phone takes microSD cards so you can snap or film as much as you want.

The phone also packs in stand-alone and Assisted-GPS, and comes preloaded with BlackBerry Maps, which disappointingly is still poor, although you can get around this by downloading Google maps.

But with all of these energy hungry applications, does the Storm run out of power fairly quickly? Time will tell, but the RIM rep who showed us the new model claimed that he had been using his all day to demo and only one-third of the battery was gone. The official specs say you get 6 hours of talk time and don't mention what happens when you start to use all the other features.

Related links:

• Reviewed - BlackBerry Storm Full Review
• News - VIDEO: BlackBerry Thunder caught on film
• News - More BlackBerry Thunder details surface
• News - BlackBerry Thunder gets unofficial US launch date
• News - BlackBerry Thunder's touchscreen keypad gets snapped

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry RIM BlackBerry Storm

BlackBerry Storm - First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:01:00 +0100

The first thing you have to decide with the LG KC910 is whether you are going to view it as the successor to the Viewty or an iPhone killer. The latter it ain’t – the interface isn’t as sleek or intuitive as the Apple device, but it does have some serious advantages – especially if you are a keen snapper, or have a library of DivX files you would like to be able to watch on your phone whilst sweltering on the train.

But it is the touchscreen that has led to comparisons between the two models – so let’s start with this. The Renoir has a 3-inch full touchscreen, which we found to be very responsive even in the pre-production model LG supplied. The touchscreen is a little tougher to use when typing texts and emails however.

The QWERTY keyboard that appears is much quicker to type on than the touchscreen phone pad – and all you have to do is turn the phone horizontally to access it. But, in the absence of a stylus, it can be a little fiddly to type at any kind of speed. Despite having small hands we still hit the wrong letter fairly often. But for accessing the variety of tools on the phone, the touchscreen was fine (although smudgy finger marks all over it are a pain).

Beneath the touchscreen are three buttons – the green one for picking up calls, the red for dropping them and a nifty multi-tasking key which opens a screen showing all of the applications that you have open so you can access them quicker. But it is in conjunction with the camera that the touchscreen really comes into play.

There is a button on the right-hand side of the phone dedicated to shutter release, and you can also use the up and down scroll buttons on the same side to zoom (incidentally this phone has up to 16x digital zoom but no optical zoom). But you can also use the touchscreen to access not only a whole host of editing and capture tools (gallery, flash settings, and brightness/exposure adjustment), but there is a slider on screen for the zoom and if you press the screen, the camera will focus where your finger is and then take the shot. There is a degree of shutter lag when pressing either the button or using the touchscreen method, but perhaps this will be faster in the final phone.

There are scene and creative modes that are accessed through touchscreen icons – you’ve got the usual portrait, landscape and night modes but also beach and sport, sepia and black-and-white colour effects, and you can also fiddle with the white balance and ISO (up to 1600). There’s also the usual inner camera option – which turns the camera back on you (although you do look slightly odd because your eyes will be looking at the screen and not the lens).

If you’re feeling a bit creative the screen also has an icon for accessing the Creative Modes which include a smile detection tool (which did work despite the delay), beauty shot, (which got rid of all of my freckles), and art shot – for warm, cold and again black-and-white images. There’s also an option to frame your pics with hideously kitsch frames (a Noddy car and teddy bear ears) that one hopes you would only use after several hours in the pub. Also worth a mention is the fact that the camera won’t work until you manually open the lens – which means you won't be taking pics of the inside of your pocket.

Onto the video, which is recorded at a perfectly reasonable 120fps (QVGA). There’s a whole host of video editing tools in the Muvee Studio, which is accessed through the entertainment interface. But it is with movie viewing that the team-up with DivX comes into play. Video content (and still images, documents, flash content and games) are all accessed through the entertainment UI, under My Stuff, which is nice and simple.

I played the DivX movies that LG had preloaded and the quality was impressive although the shiny screen does affect viewing if you are under bright lights. When you turn the screen horizontally, the picture quality is even better.

As is the sound which brings us to Dolby. This is the first global phone launch to feature specially designed Dolby tech and it is noticeable. Sure – the sound is still a little tinny through the phone’s speaker, and it does distort on home shot vids at full volume – but through the headphones (even the poor ones that LG has bundled with the phone) it was great. I tried listening to tracks I had loaded up from my lappie on the tube, and didn’t have to blast up the volume. I would recommend getting decent headphones though, and there is an adaptor included as the phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack.

While we’re on music – it is worth mentioning at this point that there is an option for picking tunes you have loaded onto the phone as your ringtones, and you also have an 8GB microSD card bundled with the phone so there’s plenty of room for storing content. There is also going to be a DivX software package for converting files into the DivX format, but we were not given this to test.

This phone also has AGPS and a tool called the Jogging Buddy, which uses GPS to tell you how far you’ve run and how long you’ve been out. This is hidden away under Utilities and then tools, along with the stopwatch, converter and calculator.

And finally, this phone is HSDPA (7.2Mbps), and has, of course, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. The connection was a little slow and sometimes temperamental but, again, this could be down to the fact that this is a pre-production model. Once connected, however, there were no problems navigating between pages, nor getting content to load. And the option of adding online widgets was handy, though the screen quickly looks cluttered.

LG say the battery life is "comparable" to other models at 220 minutes for talk time and 350 hours 3G standby, and we’d say these values were fairly typical, but obviously depend on your usage.

Related links:

• News - LG KC910 to get UK launch as "Renoir"
• Link - LG

Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG Dolby DivX 8 megapixels LG Renoir KC910

LG Renoir KC910 mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

When the BenQ W5000 arrived all boxed up, you can’t help thinking it must be mighty precious to afford so much packaging. But this £1500 projector is also 9.6kg and 492 x 180 x 420mm so there isn’t much in the box apart from this monster. But it has an awful lot to pack in to produce the image quality that it delivers.

Straight out of the box, and the quality is markably increased over sub-£1000 models. It is also encouraging that this model is very user-friendly, so although it punches in the high-def 1080p HD arena, it isn’t going to take you several frustrating hours with a manual to figure out how to use it. There are options, though, for the more experienced projector user with both a basic and advanced picture menu.

You turn the projector on from top control panel, which has buttons for menu, power and the source controls, and there are also LEDs showing power, temperature and lamp status. The System Setup menu contains the items which you will probably configure once and then not touch again, including the projector position, language, splash screen, sleep timer, menu position and auto source search.

Once on, you can adjust all four feet to make sure your image is centred onto the screen or wall but with a projector this size (and quality), getting a ceiling mount may be the best option especially as the W5000 doesn’t have horizontal lens shift. The W5000 has a throw distance of 2-8m and can project from a 40-300-inch image so you may want to take a tape measure to your room just to check you have the space available.

Note the W5000 lacks the motorised zoom and focus that you see in even pricier models, including its big brother, the W20000, which, incidentally, is no longer being sold because it proved a little too expensive.

The W5000 has its exhaust vents in the front, so shelf mounting is an option, but it is worth adding that we did notice the room heating up as the fan kicked in - a fan that is surprisingly quiet for a projector of this size.

We connected the projector up to a Blu-ray player and opted for Cinema mode – there is a Bright and Brightest mode as well if you don’t have a black-out blind or heavy curtain but, to be honest, we never needed the latter even with the curtains open. On the normal setting, brightness is 1200 lumens.

Input wise – you get two HDMI inputs (HDMI 1.2.1 not HDMI 1.3), a Component video input, Composite and S-Video inputs, as well as five BNC jacks for a second Component video source, an RGB HV source, or a computer input (with the right adapter).

To get the image in the right place the up and down arrows on the top of the projector control the motorised, vertical lens shift. This allows up to +120% and -80% adjustments. The left and right arrows handle keystone correction.

On the all-important image quality, we found the colours were fantastic, the shadows detailed and the picture offered a depth that you simply don’t get in cheaper models, but equally can be lacking at this price. Images displayed no colour wheels, a little noise, and were generally very good.

Related links:

• News - BenQ launches W20000 and W5000 projectors
• Link - BenQ

Tags: Home Cinema Projectors BenQ BenQ W5000 Projector

BenQ W5000 projector originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Adobe introduced journalists to its revamped version of Lightroom with a photo session and hands-on of the new tools. It wasn't the final retail version of Lightroom 2.0, Adobe's photo editing and organising tool, but as close as we could get to try out, as the company still had some tweeking to do. Nevertheless here is a quick rundown of what to expect.

Changes have been made to the workflow focus on speed. If you are professional photographer and have returned from a shoot with literally thousands of images, you need to be able to sort these as quickly as possible to get an edit to present to your client.

Alternatively, you may just be a recreational photographer, returning from holidays with hundreds of photos and need help whittling your selection down so you don't bore the family.

When you first open up LR2, you notice the new interface - this now includes task orientated modules - which basically means quicker access to the tools you need for certain jobs.

Another key improvement you'll notice at this stage is dual monitor support, which, again, is a great thing for whe nyou have lots of images to sort.

What will also make for faster working are the new naming and searching tools for images' metadata. With Lightroom 1.0, you could set up naming rules and apply them to individual photos or groups, as well as apply custom keywords to organize your images in a way that makes sense to you.

The software also allows you to store related photos in named collections, recall your collections with a single click, and modify them at any time.

Lightroom 2 adds the Smart Collections tool, which allows photographers to set certain parameters, or search criteria from their images' metadata, and then the software will automatically create collections.

You also now get keyword suggestions, to save you time when typing in metadata, and an improved keyword list. There is also now a Metadata SDK for custom metadata.

Lightroom 2 also allows you to keep tabs in where the image originals are - whether on your internal hard drive, external drives, or on removable discs. You can also now create virtual copies of an image without taking up more than a few kilobytes of hard-drive space.

The Library Filter Bar lets you seach through images using the filename, title, captions, or keywords or you can alter your grid view by attributes such as flags, star ratings, colour labels, or type of file.

You can also, as with the original Lightroom, sort by detailed criteria such as date, lens or camera used, country
where the photo was captured, and copyright. With Lightroom 2, Adobe has essentially made all the searches faster.

Like the first version of the editing package, Lightroom 2 lets you edit images non-destructively. But new tools have been added, including tools that let you apply corrections only to the portions of an image that need adjustment, instead of the whole image. This means you can fine-tune your photos by selectively pinpointing the areas of an image you want to adjust.

This improved local adjustment brush and the new gradient tool allow you to alter exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpening and toning.

Other new features include Lightroom Web, Export and the previously mentioned Metadata SDKs, as well as the new camera profiles that are accessible through Adobe Labs.

Before final printing, Adobe has also added tools to make sure you get the best output possible.

A good one for social photographers - there is now an automatic cell layout facility in Lightroom's Print Package - which means that you can make quick duplicates of one image on one page, or indeed create quick contact sheets. Also, you can now export your image slideshows to JPEG.

Finally, if you are someone who likes feedback on your pics, Lightroom 2 includes access to the Lightroom Exchange for community interaction.

Related links:

• Link - Adobe
• News - Adobe launches Lightroom 2

Tags: Cameras Photo editing software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adobe Photoshop Photoshop Lightroom 2 Photoshop Lightroom 2

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 - First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:00:01 +0100

When a projector has a price tag under £600, you automatically want to know what’s going to be missing and whether you are going to lose out on picture quality. Not so with the Acer H5350 home cinema projector.

First up, this machine is compact at 267 x 187 x 80mm and weighs 2.3kg.

While you can just hear the fan when it is projecting, and obviously more so when the machine is cooling down, it really won’t distract your movie watching. In fact, the noise level is just 32 decibels in normal mode and under 28 decibels in power-saving mode.

The projector is supplied with an infrared remote control so you can take control without having to move from your favourite armchair., which is a nice touch.

The projector delivers 2000 ANSI lumens brightness or the eco conscious among us (or those with black out curtains), have the option of 1600 ANSI lumens in power-saving mode.

The picture isn’t bright enough for daytime viewing, despite Acer’s Colorboost technology, which is claimed to provide "more than a 50% increase in mid-tone image brightness".

The projection distance delivered is between 1-10.4m and you can get a screen size of between 67-762cm (around 300 inch if you want to compare to flat TV screen sizes).

Obviously at this price point, the zoom is manual, you get a slightly disappointing 2000:1 contrast ratio, and the projector only has vertical keystone control, but the adjustment tools in the menu system were easy to follow, although you don’t get the detailed adjustment options possible with the more expensive projectors out there.

But you do get HD-ready 1280 x 720 resolution so a 720p cinema experience, and the colours are vivid (but not overpowering) thanks to the six segment colour wheel - although we did occassionally see colour-wheel flashes, which, as a general rule, you don’t get with LCD projectors over DLP models like this one.

Connections-wise you get PS3/Xbox 360 and Blu-ray friendly HDMI (though this doesn’t take sound), Component, S-Video, one analogue/RGB, one PC audio stereo mini jack port and VGA.

The projector is equipped with SmartFormat technology, which means that you don’t have to change resolution when you change the input device because the projector will do it for you (so great if this is your first projector and you’re still experimenting).

Replacing the lamp is one of the biggest disadvantages of owning a projector. The Acer H5350 has an Osram 180W P-VIP lamp, which you can at least replace yourself without too much hassle, and is claimed to deliver 3000 hours of viewing in standard mode or 4000 hours in power-saving mode.

The H5350 comes complete with a 2-year carry-in warranty and was priced £589 upon its launch, but a quick check online and you’re sure to get it for as much as £80 less than this, which makes it even more of a bargain.

Related links:

• Link - Acer

Tags: Home Cinema Acer Projectors Acer H5350

Acer H5350 home cinema projector originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0100

The iPAQ 914 may aimed at business users, but, with its ease of use and media features as well as the office tools that come with Windows Mobile 6.1, it’s perfectly suited to anyone who needs a feature-rich smartphone.

On a basic level, the phone sound quality was crystal clear although the touchscreen is very sensitive so you can sometimes cut off a call without meaning to if you hold the handset too close to your face.

On the business front, you can set up a remote desktop mobile, use the usual Microsoft Office programs, ClearVue PDF, as well as calendar and task recording tools, and of course, the notepad so you can scrawl reminders to yourself.

The touchscreen was far quicker to use for typing than the QWERTY keyboard, but, when scrolling with documents using the track pad on the right, you have to get as close to the edge of the screen as possible otherwise the phone sometimes won’t pick up the movements of the stylus. Alternatively you could use the wheel on the top right hand side of the phone.

Multimedia-wise - first one gripe - the 3-megapixel camera was slow to start-up, so not the best for catching sudden excitement, and it is on the back of the device so video conferencing is out.

If you whacked in a large enough microSD card into slot (to top up the phone’s 128MB RAM), you could load up pics or videos for watching on the go, although, at 2.5 inches, there are plenty of PDAs out there with better screens for viewing.

But, that said, the screen size means that HP has managed to keep this smartphone down in size.

At 146g, it is lighter than the HP iPAQ 214, which we reviewed in April, and both thinner and smaller at 113 x 64 x 16mm than the bulkier older model.

As well as offering portability, the new iPAQ is quick to connect up in Wi-Fi hotspots and offers tri-band UMTS/HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, as well as quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Bluetooth.

And, the big bonus on this device, is the integrated GPS and HP have also been smart enough to include Google Maps, which most people are used to now.

Also worth a mention are the built-in Cyberon Voice Commander, which tells you what to say to get what you want, and HP Voice Reply features, which enable handsfree emailing and other device commands.

Related links:

• Link - HP

Tags: Phones PDAs HP Windows Mobile HP iPAQ 914c Business Messenger

HP iPAQ 914c Business Messenger mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100