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Gifts
If you're in love with a geek, or plan to make a Hail Mary pass at one this Valentine's Day, the Wind Valentine Edition PC might be a gift worth fighting for.
With a shell that's covered in pink, and a pink heart-shaped design on the back of its screen, it will be making a brief appearance before the lovers' holiday, according to its manufacturer, MSI Computer.
The Wind Valentine Edition comes loaded with Windows XP Home Edition. It has a 1.6GB Intel Atom processor and a 160GB hard drive.
It also includes everything today's social networker needs: WiFi, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, a microphone, multimedia controls, and a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam.
If this all sounds a bit familiar, that's because the Wind Valentine Edition is basically a prettied-up Wind Netbook U100, which is itself available in some juicy colors.
The price for either laptop is the same: about $430 at the MSI website, www.msimobile.com. (The U100 comes closer than most to fulfilling anyone's fantasy of a $100 laptop.)
The downside to the U100's portability and low cost is its 10-inch screen. MSI includes screen-magnification software with its 10-inch models, to help compensate for their puny displays.
Of course, you can upgrade to one of MSI's more expensive laptops to get a larger screen. But none of those are available in a Valentine theme.
If you're feeling lucky in love, or merely lucky, MSI is giving away 15 Wind Valentines before the holiday. It's also giving away pairs of blue and pink "his and hers" Valentine's Day-themed USB memory sticks (gag).
Audio-Visual presentations
Pocket-size projector may be a standard-setter
A new LED "pocket projector" might be setting the standard for bring-your-own projectors, the kind many folks truck to their boardroom presentations and lecturing gigs, to avoid conflicts between their PCs and their hosts' hardware.That's because the device, the BenQ GP1 Pocket Projector, weighs only about 1.5 pounds and fits in the palm of your hand. Its LEDs are also brighter and more energy-efficient than traditional projector bulbs, according to Billerica-based Luminus Devices.
Luminus, which is making the GP1 Pocket Projector's LEDs, says its diodes will last for the life of the projector. (Traditional bulbs frequently burn out and are expensive to replace.)
The Pocket Projector also includes Texas Instrument's DLP technology, a combination of microscopic mirrors and a color wheel that produces millions of colors.
But the projector, available for $500 within a few weeks, according to Luminus, is intended for more modest uses than lecture hall presentations. I imagine that owners of GP1 Pocket Projectors will be pointing them at upright tray tables, headboards, and dorm room walls.
For example, Luminus and BenQ are talking up the device as a great tool for displaying documents and images from hand-held devices and memory sticks. They also suggest the GP1 will make an excellent output device for watching videos and playing hand-held video games.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
