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Early Apple Employees Auction Killer Collectibles

If there’s a good thing about the recession, it seems to be bringing some fine Apple memorabilia out of storerooms and closets.
Cliff and Dick Huston — ex-Apple engineers, for the record employees 27 and 25 — have decided to part with a treasure trove of Cupertino collectibles by auctioning them on eBay.

What’s on the block:

Apple [...]

Video: There’s Sexy Technology, Then There’s This…

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You’re all going crazy with your iPad ordering. Meanwhile, over on Vimeo, BrewBeau has some craziness of his own going on.
BrewBeau writes: “I’m a recent PC convert who waited patiently while Apple worked out the kinks with their latest iMac release of the 27″ Intel powered 2.8GHz quad core i7 iMac. It’s a thing of [...]

Bottom-Feeding Jeweler Unveils Despicable Diamond iPad for $20,000

We all know the wait for the iPad, at least in the U.S., will be over on April 3, right? Wrong. True connoisseurs know they need to wait until June 1, when Mervis Diamond Importers will unleash the hideous and despicable Diamond iPad on the world. It’s a bejeweled and bedazzled monstrosity boasting 11.43 carats [...]

iPhone App Magnets To Appify Your Fridge

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If – like me – your fridge is black, then these shiny iPhone app fridge magnets from Jailbreak Collective will look very smart indeed displayed on the door.
Just 13 bucks gets you a set of these icon almost-replicas. I say almost because if you look carefully, you’ll see they’re not identical to the Apple originals. [...]

CES: iPod Pico Projector Uses Lasers to Project Video Up To 100-Inches

Wired.com reporter Brian Chen demonstrates Microvision's SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector for the TV cameras at CES. The projector is coming to the U.S. in March for about $500. Photo by Dylan Tweney.

LAS VEGAS — Lasers make a big difference for pico projectors, says Microvision, which, coincidentally, is showing off the first laser pico projector made for iPod at CES.

Although pico projectrors are a crowded field, Microvision’s SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector is the first powered by laser, which gives it better color and infinite focus, the company says. Most other pico projectors are powered by LED.

Infinite focus means a bigger picture. The further from the wall the projector is, the bigger the image gets. But the further away you get, the dimmer the image becomes.

In a dark room, the SHOWWX can project video up to 100-inches wide, said Michael Carmean, the projector’s project manager at Microvision, which is based in Redmond, Wash. That’s twice-the size of most big-screen TVs and comparable to the truly giant TVs on show here in Vegas.

In a living room or office, the image is best at about 30-40-inches wide. And under the bright lights of the CES show floor, the projector looked pretty good at about 24-inches. It was quite watchable.

“In optimum conditions, a really dark room, you can get a really big image,” Carmean said. “And it looks pretty good even under bright light.”

The projector is currently sold in Europe and Asia and will be coming to the U.S. in March for about $500 (pricing is still TBD), Carmean said.

The SHOWWX outputs 10 lumens at WVGA resolution (848×480). It offers about 1.5-2 hours of battery life and for sound uses the iPhone/iPod internal speaker, headphones or an external speaker. It comes with an iPhone/iPod dock connector and is Apple “Made for iPod” certified. It can also be connected to a laptop or cell phone with TV out.

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About the author

Leander Kahney

Leander Kahney is the editor of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

Email the author | Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

2 comments

    Hey, wow! I got a photo credit on Cult of Mac! Thanks, Leander!

    I gotta get one :O

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