LED Projector Tips: Getting Better Results From A Lit Room

A LED projector is best used in an enclosed space, where walls or thick curtains prevent light from streaming in. This is allows the LED beamer to produce clear, crisp pictures that are easily discernable even from a long distance away.
But what if you have to use a LED projector in an environment where dim lights are turned on for participants to see in the dark? Worse still, what if you have to use a projector in a fully lit environment like an open-air stadium or an auditorium with the lights on full blast?

If you ever find yourself in such a dilemma, then these tips ought to help you and your technical support provider get better results from projecting in a lit room:
Block as much sunlight out as possible
If you ever have a choice between using your LED video projector in an indoor and outdoor environment, choose the indoor environment. Sunlight is insanely powerful and is much more effective at obscuring the light from a LED projector than some measly light bulbs. If you are in an outdoor venue, then make sure the projector and the surface are at least inside the shade. Fighting direct sunlight with a projector will be futile.
Point lights away from the projector’s path
If the venue must be lit, then do your very best to block the lights from hitting the screen and the projector’s lens. You can do this by redirecting the lights away from the screen’s surface or by covering the top and sides of the screen so that it has a little alcove of darkness for the projected images to be a little clearer.
Bring the projector closer to the screen
If all you have is a relatively low-power portable projector with you, then you will need to move it to within a few feet of the screen itself. Doing so will focus the beams of the LED projector so that it will produce a much clearer image for the audience. The downside is, of course, that the image won’t be as large as you want it to be. Small text and images will be made even smaller to the point of being illegible, so keep this in mind when working with larger audiences.
Max out the projector’s brightness
Every digital projector has a button or configuration somewhere that will allow you to ramp up the brightness of its lamp to the max, allowing it to work better in lit environments. This will, however, significantly ramp up the heat generated by the projector. Make sure that it is an open environment and that its exhaust ports are unblocked, and keep it running in short stretches at a time to give the LED projector some time to cool off.
Invest in powerful projectors and high-gain screens
Some bulkier and more expensive LED computer projector models have really, really bright lamps that can create better images even in direct sunlight. These work extremely well with high-gain screens focus the light that hits it and is much better at reflecting it than most other screens. The downsides here are that both options are quite expensive while the clarifying effect of high-gain screens is only visible when viewed head-on.

Bargains of The Year: The Best 5 GPS Tracking Systems

The GPS tracking systems of today are a lot more affordable than they used to be back in the day. Advances in manufacturing technology have cut down the costs of GPS tracking devices well below the 100 USD mark, even down to as little as 45 USD.
If you are on the lookout for GPS tracking systems under 100 USD, then you will definitely want to keep an eye out for these particular pieces:

eZoom Portable GPS Locator (55-99 USD)
This particular line of GPS locators comes with its own car installation kit as well as a pouch for added resistance to water. These options make it much easier to set up, while its battery can last up to 21 days without a recharge if it will only update its location once a day. It is, however, limited to areas with T-mobile coverage. Without T-mobile coverage, you will need to search a much wider area in order to find the tracker.
Children’s Mobile Phone (40-70 USD)
This piece is a pretty decent device to help kids that find themselves in emergency purposes. First and foremost is the SIRF III GPS receiver that allows parents to keep track of their children as long as they keep this colorful gadget near themselves. Up to five preset phone numbers can be loaded into the phone, with an additional SOS slot that will simultaneously send out a text message with GPS coordinates showing you where the child texted you from. It even has a voice monitoring feature that lets you listen in during emergencies.
5Star Urgent Response (40-50 USD)
This particular line of GPS tracking systems is another SOS device designed to help individuals – especially children and the elderly – in case of an emergency. The best feature of the 5Star is the ability to immediately call up a crisis professional if the SOS button is pressed. This professional will then instruct the individual on what to do, which is a pretty handy feature to have when you get lost or figure into an accident.
Real-Time Tracker (60-75 USD)
This line of GPS tracking systems is designed to take a lot of punishment, capable of operating in temperatures between 60 to -25 degrees Celsius and in environments with 5 to 95% non-condensing humidity. This tiny piece can send you its coordinates via text message. You can even monitor the tracker’s location via the Internet as long as you set up a fixed IP for the tracker. If someone does manage to jack your car, you can then send an SMS command to these tough and tiny GPS trackers to remotely shut down the engine.
Car GPS Tracker (55-90 USD)
This is a slightly smaller and more affordable variant of the real-time tracker, but its geo-fencing capabilities make it an ideal solution for safeguarding your vehicles as well as monitoring them. This particular line of GPS tracking systems will alert you if it leaves a predefined area, which can be immensely useful for logistics and courier companies that limit their operations to a very specific zone. You can then choose to track the vehicle in real time or even disable the fuel lines if you believe your vehicle has been stolen.

1 billion smartphones shipped in 2013, Samsung and Apple take the lead

 

According to the International Data Corporation or IDC, global smartphone shipments have reached a staggering 1,004.2 million units in 2013, a few million short of its forecast of 1,010.4 million units. This represents another milestone in the smartphone industry, which has grown by 38.4 percent from the 725.3 million units shipped in 2012.

2013 also saw smartphones taking up majority of the total number of mobile phones shipped across the world. In 2012, smartphones only comprised 41.7 percent of 1,7381. million units shipped. Last year, however, the scales tipped in favor of smartphones, reaching 55.1 percent of all 1,821.8 million mobile phones shipped. In comparison, only 494.4 million smartphones were shipped in 2011.
Samsung remains the top vendor, probably through sheer number of models alone. That said, it’s fourth quarter shipments actually declined, but not enough to let its biggest rival take over. Apple, on the other hand, suffered the lowest year-on-year increase, despite the frenzy over the new iPhone 5S and 5C. However, its recent partnership with China Mobile might see it climb higher in 2014.
The other contenders in the world’s top five vendors are also interesting. Huawei has managed to market itself better in 2013, maintaining its spot at third place. Lenovo also surprisingly made it to fourth even though its presence in the US and Western Europe is rather weak. Lenovo might become a force to reckon with as it pushes more mobile devices in developed countries this year. LG has switched places with ZTE and has landed in fifth place, but its rank rests precariously on a 5 million unit lead over the Chinese manufacturer.
via AndroidCommunity

The age of the iPod is over (?)

Over the holidays, Apple’s iPad and iPhone sold better than they’ve ever sold before: 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads in a single quarter. The lowly iPod, however, didn’t do nearly as well. The company moved just six million of the trademark MP3 players, a 52 percent decline compared to the same period last year. All told, iPod accounted for just $973 million of the company’s record $57.6 billion revenue last quarter. While some would probably be happy to claim they ran a slightly-less-than-a-billion-dollar business, it’s getting pretty small for a company the size of Apple. You might even call it a hobby — if not now, then by this time next year.

What happened to the iPod? Simple cannibalization, for one: every one of those 51 million iPhones can take the place of an iPod. (Steve Jobs famously called the iPhone “the best iPod we’ve ever made.”) And as people increasingly get their music from streaming services, a constant internet connection could be key, something you don’t get with an iPod or even a iPod touch unless you have a Wi-Fi hotspot to pair with.

The decline of MP3 players shouldn’t be news to anyone though, certainly not to anyone who follows Apple closely. In June 2009, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer admitted that cannibalizing the company’s MP3 players was all part of the plan:

For traditional MP3 players, which includes Shuffle, Nano, and Classic, we saw a year-over-year decline which we internally had forecasted to occur. This is one of the original reasons we developed the iPhone and the iPod Touch. We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod Touch and the iPhone.
The lack of new iPods could certainly be responsible for the most recent decline in sales. Usually, purchases pick up drastically every time Apple releases a new iPod, and this year they clearly did not. Still, that’s not the whole story: as you can see in the chart above, the peaks had been shrinking even before Apple stopped updating the iPod nano like clockwork.
via TheVerge