Look, here's what you need to do: reach into the appropriate pocket on your personage, take out your phone, and throw it into the nearest wall. It sucks. The N70 from Lanye (or ChinaKing, or... somebody from China), which we've drooled over previously, is a candybar phone with a 2.4-inch screen, Bluetooth 2.0, and a little bit of dual-band GSM. Oh, and a built-in projector. And an interface that almost perfectly mirrors that of the iPhone with the addition of voice recording and MMS. It's awesome, and it's now available for import for a mere $345. A bargain at any price.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Sigh. We're still stoked about phones with built-in projectors, but we're not at all okay with the first commercially-available unit being the nasty Epoq EGP-PP01 iPhone clone -- yet we've got to hand it to China King for being the first out the gate with a handset that'll beam a 30-inch VGA image on the wall for two hours off the built-in battery. Of course, that doesn't mean we think anyone should actually drop $550 on this uninspired piece, but if you've absolutely got to show off your witty texting banter to the entire bar, this is your only option.

PS.- Please don't be that guy.

[Via About Projectors]

We've seen a couple handheld 3D devices, but Infosys just announced that developed a chipset capable of capturing and projecting 3D holograms from ordinary cellphones, and that it hopes to take the tech mainstream by 2010. The system captures a series of 2D images from normal cameras and uses them to develop 3D holograms, projecting received images using a laser projector and micro optical elements. Infosys also had a patent granted on the system required to transmit 3D data over normal telecom networks without clogging them up -- the data is transmitted unprocessed, and the chipsets at either end do the heavy lifting. There's no word on what devices this stuff might appear in, but we're wondering what that laser system is supposed to project onto -- or if we'll have to take up smoking to get our 3D on.

[Thanks, Bucky]

We imagine that when micro projectors in cellphones are finally mainstream (if they do, in fact, ever become mainstream), people are going to be shooting 'em onto all sorts of bizarre surfaces that you'd normally never dream of shooting a projected image onto. Enter Sony Ericsson, which intends to make that reality just a little less painful with a recently-filed patent application that suggests an image be shot of the projected image (by the phone's camera, of course) and uses it to adjust color, intensity, and the like. Again, at this point, we'd be happy just to take a micro projector period, never mind a fancy one like this -- but we're glad these guys have their eyes on the prize.

[Via Cellpassion]

It's not ready for prime time just yet, but Texas Instruments (among others) appears to be getting closer to a projector that'll cram inside a phone with enough brightness and clarity to make it usable. How cool is that? Granted, this isn't a real phone here that we got to play with -- but it's phone-sized. You get the idea. Read on for the full pictorial!

Microvision's subminiature projector hasn't even found its way into a single production cellphone yet, but that's not stopping the company from going back to the drawing board and improving the lil' bugger. Round 2 (our terminology, not theirs) improves viewing angle significantly, giving it a projected image size four times as large as the original without increasing the device's 7mm thick size. The so-called PicoP rocks out with wide VGA (854 x 480) resolution to provide passers-by with a "DVD-quality viewing experience." Guess the only thing left is to integrate it into something we can buy, right, Microvision?

[Via Business Wire]

If anyone doubted Texas Instruments' sincerity in taking the mobile projection world by storm, now would probably be a good time to start boiling some crow. Making good on its wishes to cram DLP into even the most minuscule of locations, the company will be demonstrating its newfangled DLP pico-projector to select media groups, and apparently, those interested in taking a peek better have a front row seat. The mini projector will supposedly "fit in your fingertips," but beyond that vague descriptor, we're not exactly sure about the hard measurements. Notably, it appears that TI's wee PJ could act as a standalone unit "or as an integrated component in a mobile device," which would definitely spruce up current smartphone offerings. Sadly, there wasn't an estimated timeframe as to when we'd (barely) see these devices crammed into cellphone enclosures, but it's just a matter of time before we're streaming live television shows and simultaneously beaming 'em up for all of the subway car to see.

Micro and mobile projectors aren't exactly fresh goods anymore, but Neochroma Ltd. is looking to bring a simplified approach to getting big screen action out of your diminutive LCD. Rather than concocting some new proprietary cable or force you to rock a gaudy head-mouthed display, the Viewmaster-esque Neochroma prototype simply requires users to place their (preferably clamshell) mobile's screen atop the mirror-packed device, and then the internal magic does the rest. Unfortunately, details about its inner workings are scant, but we do know that the finalized design should measure around 4- x 2- x 1.2-inches, utilize stereoscopic technology, and sport a viewing angle "roughly equal that of a 19-inch monitor at a 30-inch viewing distance." While already tested with Sharp's VGA-rockin' 904SH, we've no idea what future phones will indeed be "Neochroma-ready," but if these guys and gals keep their word, we'll be seeing all we can handle "within two years."

[Via Textually]

It's not terribly uncommon to see a manufacturer try to push a product (or platform) into every crevice of your life, and it seems that Texas Instruments is diverting quite sharply from its calculatorish ways of old and making an aggressive push to get that DLP logo slapped on everything you own. While we've seen (literally) the diminutive Microvision display do its thang here at CES, TI is hoping to steal that thunder away by talking up its forthcoming palm-sized DLP projectors. The "fully featured" Pocket Projectors, which are co-developed by OMAP, would weigh "less than one pound," use the .55 DLP chip, and could purportedly connect to handsets or PDAs to beam up that big(ger) screen imagery for a crowd to see. Unfortunately for TI, these devices are not (at least initially) supposed to be integrated units, which could easily get overlooked if those built-in alternatives can muster acceptable quality. Additionally, TI is hoping to get that DLP logo stamped on your brain even when you visit the cinema, as the company now has its technology in 3,000 theaters worldwide and is frequently throwing logo-clad splash screens onto the canvas during pre-show advertisements. So if you wonder why you're strangely drawn to the DLP sets during your next HDTV shopping trip, trust us, it's not the mirrors, it's the marketing.

[Via AboutProjectors]

There are monstrous projectors, run-of-the-mill renditions, small versions, and then there's ridiculously tiny ones, but we've got love for 'em all. It looks like Microvision tends to favor the diminutive kind, however, as the company is looking to showcase its "ultrathin, miniature full-color projection display" at next week's CES. Hoping to cram this bad boy into your next mobile phone, PDA, or other handheld gizmo, the firm is touting its incredibly small form factor as the next coming of mobile displays. Taking up the same amount of space as Apple's 2G Shuffle, the display can project "extremely sharp and vivid" imagery onto walls, bodies, screens, or skyscrapers, with a maximum image size "similar to a big screen plasma TV." Sure, we're fully aware of the sensationalism they're tossing in, but this type of development could refine mobile video and the ability to view it on a decent sized screen, so hopefully we'll catch a glimpse of this miniscule PJ in just a few days.

[Via Uber-Review]

Sure, a good deal of these newfangled ideas to somehow cram an actual projector into a phone's casing are a bit far fetched, but Project-a-Phone's ICD-5000 utilizes an external mobile projector platform that essentially works with any smartphone, PDA, or mobile computer. Similar to contraptions used by math professors showing off the on-screen magic on their favorite flavor of TI calculator, this device sports an overhead camera that channels the text, documents, slideshows, or movie clips from your mobile's screen onto a connected monitor or projection screen. Any device small enough to clamp into the machine's frame (8- x 6-centimeters) can be utilized, and the integrated USB 2.0 camera boasts a five megapixel sensor capable of taking 3 megapixel screenshots and delivering "VGA-quality video at 30fps." The ICD-5000 is currently available to ease your mobile projection woes for $395.

[Via TGDaily]

We're a little confused, since yesterday the word was that Samsung had teamed up with Iljin Display for packing a projector into their phones, but we guess they need to have their bases covered. Samsung has just been granted a patent they submitted in 2004 for a virtual input interface, a bit similar to that virtual keyboard from iTech. It involves a phone-based projector, an "electronic pen," a "position detector" and some handwriting recognition stuff. Yeah, we know, real technical-like, but it sounds like yet another vain attempt to create a better way to input text and other info into a mobile phone. Can't fault them for trying, but let's hope the mind-reading efforts are well under way.

[Via Unwired View]

Most of these projects to squeeze a projector into your phone seem to be all talk and no projection, but this new effort for Iljin Display seems to be, dare we say it, grounded in reality. So far they've only got a prototype of their coin-sized unit on display, which can throw a 7-inch color image onto a wall, but they've got deals with Samsung and LG to start including projectors in phones starting next April. Iljin apparently hasn't been just playing around with the idea, with 156 million US invested in their Single LCD Panel tech so far, and they see projectors making their way to five percent of handsets by 2010, of which they hope to have a 30 percent market share. If everything pans out we might not have to wait quite as long as we thought to start projecting our own in-flight movies, but we'll believe it when we see it.

[Via picturephoning.com]