Megabucks projector promises magic

Samsung's SP-A900B, which will be available next Monday, is a 1,080p HD marvel, with a 1,920 x 1,080 image resolution, 1,000 ANSI lumens brightness, and curved chassis to makes the thing look less ugly than most projectors. (The SP-A900B is still ugly.)

The SP-A900B ($10,000) and its precursor, the SP-A800B ($7,500), share many of the same features, such as a single DLP chip.

But the SP-A900B, according to Samsung, boosts image contrast by about a third over the SP-A800B. The projector also comes with a more-flexible user menu and presets for video and PC, which should make it more useful as a gaming, or design, output device.

Locative apps

Android phones show the way to the next advertiser

HTC, Motorola, and General Mobile are among the phone makers expected to release new devices this year that run on the Google operating system.

And developers are preparing to harness the Android phones' GPS transponders, accelerometers, and compasses to create new locative applications.

Most of the locative apps deliver information that relates to the spot you are standing on. They tap your phone's GPS coordinates and distances from cell towers and WiFi sources to help you find taxi stands, nightclubs, or a room for the night.

The apps will also help advertisers pester you.

We first heard about locative apps in the 1990s. Back then, marketers threatened to turn our Bluetooth phones into receptacles for coupons and ads, tossed at us by computer servers lurking in the storefronts of Chinese restaurants and delis.

The latest locative apps for the Android range from an obnoxious, carbon-footprint tracking Ecorio (www.ecorio.org), to more practical comparison-shopping tools, CompareEverywhere (http://compare-everywhere.com) and ShopSavvy (www.biggu.com).

All three won Google's Android Developer Challenge (ADC1) last year.

Google kicked off ADC2 last week.

Ecorio runs in the background on your Android phone (such as the G1, available through T-Mobile). The app tallies your car and bus rides by tracking your mobile phone's movements throughout the day. It then tells you how much carbon you are responsible for shooting into the atmosphere.

Ecorio offers you the opportunity to purchase carbon offsets, which subsidize the construction of wind turbines, solar arrays, and whatnot.

At least CompareEverywhere and ShopSavvy might save you money. With each of the shopping apps, you use your Android phone's camera as a barcode scanner. The apps then tip you off to better deals on a product online, or in nearby stores.

Another new locative app for Android, Geodelic (http://www.geodelic.com), attempts to match your interests with information about nearby venues and in-store promotions.

Geodelic displays a map that shows write-ups of the movies playing at a local cinema, for example, as well as Yelp restaurant reviews.

The app also marks the distance to the nearest in-your-face marketing blitz.

That's the problem I have with Geodelic: While the app promises to stuff your Android phone's screen with useful information, I suspect that much of it will be advertiser-driven, and therefore useless.