Nick's Naked Gadgets

ViewSonic PJ258D iPod Projector

The buzzword of the electronics industry is “convergence”. Sometimes it makes sense. Putting a camera in a mobile phone was a clever idea. Combining a telly with a personal computer has certain logic. But hooking up an iPod to a projector seems somehow pointless.

 

Yes it is frustrating to watch videos on an iPod’s tiny, but perfectly formed, screen. Nobody said it was going to be a cinematic experience, not even Apple’s messianic boss Steve Jobs. Watching a short music clip does, however, help to pass the time when waiting for a bus, train or the boss to get back from lunch.

 

The picture quality of iPod videos doesn’t have to be fantastic. Again, it’s a matter of size. It’s small so it doesn’t show, but blow the movie up to the size of a wall and the low resolution is going to be revealed. And what’s the best way of enlarging the image? Yep, a projector.

 

So the snappily-named PJ258 is a gimmick, or perhaps more accurately, has a gimmick. Beyond the unique selling proposition is another good projector from ViewSonic. Feed it with decent-quality video from a PC, DVD player or digital television decoder and you’ll get a picture worth watching.

 

The resolution is an HDTV supporting 1024x768 which makes the price seem quite reasonable when compared to LCD and plasma screens. And with a projector you don’t need to reinforce your living-room wall to take the weight of your giant telly. (You may laugh, but it’s just cost a mate of mine a fortune to do just that.)

 

This projector weighs just over three-and-a-half pounds and 2,000 lumens of brightness you can watch it even if the sun’s shining. But it still seems a less than logical way to charge an iPod, let alone watch its video content.

This article originally appeared in The Scotsman in March 2007

 

You can see more of Nick Clayton's Scotsman gadget columns at Gadgetonia

 

 

Intempo rebel Radio

Once again my past flashes before my eyes as the latest gadget offers a substitute for a task I used to do myself. This time I’m impressed by the wizardry of the software, but I’m not entirely sure it’s not too clever for its own good.

 

In the olden days when life was analogue and MP3s weren’t even a twinkle in their inventor’s eye we used to record music on cassettes. Sometimes we borrowed our pals’ LPs, but just as often we’d tape stuff off the radio.

 

It was a highly-skilled process. First you’d have to place the microphone in a perfect position near the radio. Too close and you’d get distortion. Too far away and you’d pick up other sounds. There was anyway always the danger that your favourite song would be marred by your mum calling you for your tea in the background.

 

The real talent however was timing. You’d have just a split second to start recording between John Peel finishing talking and the track starting. And with the top 40 you wouldn’t even have that. You’d end up with drivel at the beginning of every hit.

 

The Rebel radio’s “PopCatcher” removes the drivel. Leave it switched on to an FM station for a day, with the sound down if you want, and it’ll store the 40 most popular songs without advertisements or deejay chat ready for you to play on your iPod or other MP3 player. It’ll do the same if you plug in a digital radio or a computer playing internet radio stations.

 

It’s very clever and totally legal apparently. With so many sources of music today, however, I’m not convinced PopCatcher isn’t a solution in search of a problem. But then the thought of restricting my listening to somebody else’s top 40 is my idea of hell even if the tracks are free. It could be heaven for somebody else.

 

This article first appeared in The Scotsman in March 2008

For more of Nick Clayton's gadget columns visit Gadgetonia