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

How to Take a Screenshot on Android system

Taking a screenshot of your Android phone’s screen can be a bit confusing, since the process isn’t the same on every device. Here are the different ways to take a screenshot on Android.

If You’re Running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Above

If you have a phone with Ice Cream Sandwich or above, screenshots are built right into your phone! Just press the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time, hold them for a second, and your phone will take a screenshot. It’ll show up in your Gallery app.

If You’re Running Android 2.3 and Below

Unfortunately, Android 2.3 and below doesn’t have screenshotting built-in. However, some devices (like many Samsung phones) do have these features, but it varies from phone to phone. for example, on many Samsung phones, you can press the Home and Power buttons at the same time to take a screenshot. Google around to see if your own phone has a built-in shortcut.
If your phone doesn’t have a shortcut built-in, you’ll need to use an app like No Root Screenshot It. You’ll need to install it on your phone and install its free companion app on your computer, which will enable screenshots. You’ll have to plug your phone back into your computer every time you reboot it, but you’ll be able to take screenshots directly from your phone which is great.

If You’re Rooted and Running Android 2.3 or Below

If you’ve rooted your phone, you have a few options. You can install an app like Screenshot UX, which will allow you to take screenshots through a variety of shortcuts, or you could flash a custom ROM that has screenshotting built-in (like CyanogenMod).
There are more screenshot methods than we could possibly list here, but these are some of the easiest (if you aren’t rooted but know how to use ADB, you can get a screenshot from the command line, for example). Check your phone and see what it supports out-of-the-box.

(via Lifehacker)

How to Unlock Your Android Phones If You Forgot the Unlock Pattern or Passcode

Forgetting your Android phone unlock pattern or passcode can be frustrating, and many users actually end up forgetting it at some point. While there are many solutions posted on the Internet about how to deal with this situation, only a few of them actually work. Some of the solutions that work require you to download apps and install them on your Android phone, others need you to sign in with your Gmail account, and finally, others will erase all of your data from the Android phone, returning it to factory settings.

Depending on your particular situation, you may want to choose a certain solution to bypass your unlock pattern or passcode. If you have just bought the Android phone and did not have time to store any information on it, erasing all of the data will certainly not be a problem. But if you had the Android phone for a long time and have many contacts and personal information stored in it, you may want to look for alternatives. Especially if you haven’t backed up your information anywhere else. Here are three simple solutions to unlock Android phones:
- Logging on to Android phones with the Gmail account
1. Type the wrong password or pattern for five times
2. After the fifth mistype, an option called ‘Forgot Pattern’ will appear in the bottom right side of the screen – click on it
3. Log in with your Google username and password associated with the respective Android phone
4. You can now draw a new pattern and confirm the change.
- Downloading Apps
1. Log in to the Android Market on your computer
2. Install the ‘Screen Lock Bypass’ App to your Android phone
3. Install another application – the application will run and disable the screen lock
4. The application runs each time you boot the Android phone and bypass the screen lock.
- Restoring the Android phone to factory settings
1. Switch off the Android phone
2. Press the volume button up and down
3. Press the power button and keep holding it with the volume up button
4. Keep pressing until the terminal interface appears on the Android phone
5. Navigate through the terminal using the home button
6. Choose the option to delete all user data
7. Your device will restart after several moments and it will reboot with factory settings.
Be careful if you want to use the last solution to bypass your Android phone’s code, as you will actually lose all information on it, including contacts. Only choose this if you have a backup for any personal or important information. The first option has been known to fail for some users, but others managed to use it successfully. The second option is optimal for most users, but it’s not a solution in itself, as it never changes the password, but it simply bypasses it every time you open your Android phone.

Wholesale Cell Phone News: There’s Still Life In Feature Phone Market

Luxury smartphones may be the in-thing right now, but there is an interesting market in wholesale cell phones that was thought to be dead but is really not at all – the humble feature phone.

These so-called dumbphones and are often thought of as cheap, disposable pieces meant to be sold as packaged bulk phone orders. They are obsolete, lacking in power and nobody simply wants to buy them – or so most people think.
Feature Phones Fill An Oft-Ignored Niche
The major players in manufacturing premium phones – Samsung and Google in one camp, Apple in the other – are slugging it out in the high-end market. They are all struggling to outmatch in other in the extremely lucrative end of the mobile phone industry, with every one of them vying for customers with deep pockets.
Feature phones, however, are an ideal solution for wholesale cell phones in the entry-level market. The big players are so busy hunting for high rollers that they forget all the folks with tight budgets that have very specific needs from their phones. A well-informed consumer can easily find a lot of affordable bulk phones that meet their needs (like Internet access) without overpaying for features they don’t need.
Feature Phones Are Getting More Features
Another reason wholesale phones are becoming a force to reckon with is because they are actually getting more features while still keeping costs way down low. The feature phones of today are capable not just of handling calls and SMS but can also come with cameras, can hook up the Internet via web browsers and even handle social networks like Twitter and Facebook. There are even some with basic digital camera capabilities.
The best part is that these phones are still as low-cost as they were before, with many feature-rich feature phones well under the 50 USD mark. They’re still not as all-around as smartphones but they will definitely appeal to individuals with very specific needs in mind. This allows suppliers to stock the phones in bulk without worrying about costs going up over time to compensate for more essential features.
Huge Opportunities In Untapped Markets
Markets in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are all markets that have a very high demand for feature phones. Low-cost wholesale cell phones with basic features will thrive in these markets where the consumer is much more mindful of his or her budget. It also helps that white label bulk phones will be hit the least by local customs and tariffs – a factor that makes expensive smartphones virtually unreachable for most people in developing markets.
An entrepreneur in these markets with links to suppliers of wholesale cell phones can make a killing with feature phones, especially if the local culture is one that embraces feature phones over the scattershot approach of smartphones. One solid example of culture impacting phone sales is in Japan. The people here have gotten so used to feature phones that it continues to dominate the market even when smartphones try to muscle their way in.
Feature Phones Can Thrive With New Mobile OS Players
Google’s Android mobile operating system is constantly under siege from Apple’s legal department, with both operating systems getting butchered by claims and counterclaims. Manufacturers of bulk phones are looking for new mobile operating systems that will not suddenly be pulled out because another company won a claim from the local courts.
This is where new players like Firefox come into the picture. Manufacturers of feature phones will be the first to embrace these new mobile operating systems – paving the way for wholesale cell phones to become ‘smarter’ without having to push up prices. This in turn is due to the low – even non-existent – costs of adopting these new mobile operating systems. They can even be better secured with rudimentary anti virus and anti spam software.