Price

$350, just like its predecessor.

Verdict

What a difference 10 months make.

While the 12-lumen projector isn't noticeably brighter, the throw is substantially tighter, so at the same distance you get about 25% more picture. In terms of use, I could comfortably watch a screen of about 32 inches on the 120 (as opposed to the 110's 20 inches) and could get nearly 50 inches out of it in a very dark room before the picture just got too blurry to enjoy. A 32-inch screen size may not be great shakes in the age of $1000 50-inch plasmas, but in a dorm room or other close quarters, it sure beats a laptop.

The MPro120 is a bit larger than the 110, owing not just to better optics, but to a larger battery—with up to four hours of juice, rather than just one—and built-in stereo speakers. (The 110 is really just a monitor.) The speakers are loud, and not as tinny as one would expect. It won't give you the full butt-shaking DTS treatment, but I was surprised when I started a video, left the room, and heard everything clearly, 20 feet away through a doorway. As you can see from the slides, the video handled the Blu-ray of Generation Kill surprisingly well via composite output, and I wasn't even vexed by the 480x640 resolution. Given what I was trying to pull off, it looked good.

Connections & Accessories

• VGA adapter for laptops
• Composite adapter for AV sources
• Female-to-male RCA converters so any video output kit for your phone, iPod or camera will work
• Small Gorilla Pod-style tripod
• Built-in flip-down stand for just a bit of lift

When I reviewed the MPro110, I bitched that it was pretty flimsy too. Not so with the MPro120. It's sturdy, has nice firm buttons for volume and brightness, and has a focus dial on its face that stays where you put it. The MPro110 and MPro120 are so different despite their naming, my theory is that 3M shot the guy who built the 110 and hired his arch-nemesis to build the new one.

Does this mean you should buy a pico projector? If you have $350 to spend and find yourself in situations where a very portable 32" monitor that requires relative darkness would come in handy, go for it. It's still not good enough for corporate presentations, and it's still not a true theater-on-the-go. My thought is, if it got this much better in just 10 months, why not wait another 10 months for even more improvements—and perhaps a tiny cost drop? [Product Page]

Vast improvements in build quality and image size, compared to predecessor

New features such as stereo speakers, plus included tripod, make it a more self-contained theater

Cost didn't go down from last version

As improved as it is, the video experience could be much better

This is still a very niche product

The last 3M pico experiment, the MPro110, was a mixed bag: Passable image quality was tainted by poor build quality and low battery life, and the overall experience, while promising, just wasn't quite there yet.

The MPro120 is a replacement for the MPro110, and on top of the verifiably awesome image quality from its liquid crystal on silicon imager, it multiplies battery life by a factor of six to four hours, pushes the life of its 12 lumen lamp to 20,000 hours, and adds stereo speakers, while hanging onto the prior product's 640x480 resolution and $350 price tag. Another difference: Assuming 3M's tightened up their hardware quality, people might actually buy one this time around. The MPro120 is due to land on September 1st. [3M]

COMING SOON TO A POCKET NEAR YOU: THE MPRO120

3M's New Handheld Projector Set for September Launch

ST. PAUL, MINN. (August 26, 2009) – This fall, Hollywood's biggest blockbusters are coming to a pocket near you! Less than a year after launching the MPro110 - the handheld digital projector that won the "Grand Award" in the gadget category of the Popular Science 2008 Best of What's New Awards – 3M announced today the September debut of the MPro120, the newest member of the MPro family. The MPro120 provides improved functionality, increased portability and an expanded feature set.

The MPro120 is the first projector to incorporate 3M's MM200 projection engine, the next generation of the MPro family. As announced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the MM200 engine uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager and boasts enhanced image quality with a full color gamut. The MPro120 provides users with a robust battery life of two to four hours (depending on brightness setting) - enough to watch a full-length film – and, in full brightness mode, achieves a brightness of 12 lumens. Featuring an integrated flip stand, tripod, stereo speakers and a variety of input cables, the MPro120 is ready to use "out-of-the-box" with a wide range of today's most popular video output gadgets. And, as with its predecessor - the MPro110 - the MPro120 will be the ideal projection solution for laptops and netbooks. Available optional accessories include an adapter cable for Apple® products, component video cable and car charger.

"Following the success of the MPro110, the MPro120 will further reinforce 3M's leadership position in the development and implementation of advanced projection technologies," said Mark Colin, general manager, 3M Projection Systems Department. "The functionality of the MPro120 represents technical achievements that were manageable only by the long-term commitment to research and development that is 3M's hallmark."

The MPro120 will be on-sale September 1 with an estimated price of $349. Optional accessories are sold separately.

3M's Nuclear Grade Performance Plus Duct Tape is certified for low leachable halogens and sulfur and can handle temperatures up to 200-degrees Fahrenheit. It's also UV resistant for up to one year. A 600-yard roll runs around $15. [3M via Toolmonger via Red Ferret]

They had two prototypes on view: one played video off SD cards, the other plugged into an iPhone and played videos off that. Unlike other pico projectors, these have an RGB LED inside rather than a straight white LED, which is a significant step forward. Both were very nice looking, but alas, both were mere prototypes. The projector the prototypes were based on is smaller than ever, which is great, but until we see these things built into actual phones rather than in relatively bulky separate devices, I don't know how far they'll go.

The Price: $300

The Verdict: If you have the cash and really want a little projector that can go wherever you go, this is the one to get. It's got a much better build quality than the visually comparable 3M MPro110, but it's got so many more goodies, you'll be entertained for hours before even loading your first movie.

The key difference is that, unlike the 3M, the Aiptek has an SD card reader so it's always ready to play something, even when nothing's wired to it. You transcode files to Motion JPEG AVI or MPEG-4 ASF—you can use whatever software you want, but if you don't have an app, the thing comes with ArcSoft's PC-only Media Converter—and they're recognized with ease by the projector, along with JPEG stills and MP3 music files, which play fine by themselves, but not in the background of a photo slideshow where they belong.

The 3M, if you recall, had a VGA input along with a composite A/V input, but of course no SD reader. The Aiptek doesn't have the VGA input, but it's a tradeoff I can live with. The Aiptek does have a basic component video input, so you can run low-grade standard-def sources in there with no trouble.

You get a lot more for the money, too. Aiptek's projector comes with a nice little tripod for quick-and-dirty setup, and a remote control if you're going to give a presentation. (Speaking of that, the manual recommends converting PPT and PDF files to JPEG and loading them on SD card for best results. Like I said, "quick and dirty.")

The beefs I had with it were basically the same as with the 3M: You really can't set the thing back more than five feet or so when by which time the picture—at that point about 50 inches diagonal—really starts to blur. I'm not even going to begin to talk about contrast, color accuracy, motion blur and all of the things we examine in higher TV technologies, but I do have to admit, in a sufficiently dim setting, the video for both projectors was entirely watchable.

In two weeks I've gone from not believing much in the pico movement to being a fervent supporter. And if you're going to be an early adopter, I am happy to say that, because of the Aiptek PocketCinema V10's better geek features and much improved build quality over the 3M MPro110—and $50 cheaper price to boot—I found a pico projector that I can genuinely recommend. The only hold back is that they're just gonna get better and better. [Aiptek Product Page]

The Price: $350

The Verdict: I am in love with the concept, and this little LCOS-based 640x480 projector does some amazing things given its size and resolution. But even understanding its limitations, it still has some major build-quality issues that prevent it from true awesomeness.

As a portable projector for still presentations and videos alike, it has its strengths and weaknesses. It powers up easily, connects to composite and VGA sources (including component if you have the right cable adapters), and never gets so hot you can't touch it. It's got a tripod screw like most cameras, so you can easily position it where you want to. 3M doesn't disclose the lithium-ion battery life though it should given the LED's constant brightness. Still, plugging it into a wall isn't a big deal, so battery life may not matter. (I will continue to test that and update if there's anything significant.)

The MPro110 isn't going to be of help in a big boardroom—you can only get up to a 40-inch screen (by positioning it about 6 feet), but even then, fine details are blurred. Your best bet for readable viewing is a 20-inch screen at 4 feet. Update: It supports up to 1024x768 resolution input, but it doesn't display at a resolution greater than 640x480. Ironically, the fuzziness is more of a problem for the businesspeople for whom the product was intended—I didn't suffer much watching slightly blurred DVD rips or cable-box TV at the full 40 inches, though like most projectors, near-pitch darkness is required.

As you can see from the shots, there's some pinch distortion and not a lot you can do about it. There's no optical or digital compensation like on larger projectors—in fact the only control besides on/off is focus, and that only goes so far. Brightness-wise, it's okay, but it suffers noticeably the farther back you pull. Its colors are impressive, especially here, given the fact that I was projecting against a dark yellow wall.

Again, I was forgiving of limitations based on size and functionality—my biggest problems were in construction. The focus dial felt flimsy and wouldn't hold its place if jostled. Worse, it was hard to keep my computer connected, because the projector's VGA cable wouldn't stay inside the projector's jack.

Yeah, $350 is a lot for a toy, but it's not the reason I wouldn't recommend this. If 3M could apply more quality control, this would be a novelty more of us might carry. I can see it being a fun way to watch movies in hotel rooms when traveling, and as the technology behind brightness, throw and resolution improves, these could become hot sellers indeed. [3M MPro110 Product Page]

The Mobile ID Reader boasts an 8GB capacity, so when hackers crack the “encrypted formats feature,” they'll have access to tons of personal and privileged data. Other features include a sunlight-safe touchscreen and a capacitive fingerprint sensor. The device is meant to be used by authorities at event checkpoints, like its first tryout at the Euro Cup 2008 soccer tournament, but it shouldn't be long before you see it at your local Trader Joe's, checking up on the hippies. [Wired]

The Gadget: Case-mate's Clear Armor film for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic (80GB and 160GB) or BlackBerry Curve protects against scratches using a military-grade Scotchgard film from 3M.

The Price: $19.99

The Verdict: Yes, yes, we know that the 3G iPhone is here, but if you are anything like me and on the fence about upgrading, Case-mate's Clear Armor will do a good job of protecting against scratches while preserving the natural beauty of your original iPhone, iPod or BlackBerry Curve. However, there is some major bullshit involved with their advertising campaign that put me off. First of all, Clear Armor is basically the same thing that Zagg has been selling for years under the name Invisible Shield. The difference is Zagg uses their own nano-memoryTM technology instead of 3M. However, Case-mate has tried to differentiate by relying on gimmicks like throwing a BlackBerry Curve 8300 wrapped in Clear Armor into a blender to demonstrate its durability. As Giz reader Shaun and others pointed out in the comments on the original Clear Armor post, it appears that the BlackBerry used in the demo is absolutely caked in this stuff.

The other issue I came across involved the application of Clear Armor. The video on the site makes it seem as though it is easy to pull the film off the backing before applying—but the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, using my gigantic man-hands I managed to tear off the portion of the film that covers the top of the phone on both sets of rear films. All I can say is that it is a good thing that each set of front and back films comes in doubles, because you will probably need them both to get it right. In retrospect, I probably should have used a pair of tweezers or an X-Acto knife to ensure that I got the film off in one piece.

Again, the technology behind Clear Armor is great. I mustered up enough courage to scratch my keys along the back of my iPhone and it came away completely unscathed. However, if you were foolish enough to put your phone into a blender wrapped in a single layer of this stuff, I can guarantee that it would not survive the beating. That having been said, my advice is to stick with Invisible Shield. They offer a lifetime guarantee on their product, they protect a wider range of devices and they are already taking pre-orders for a 3G iPhone version. [case-mate]

Case-mate's Clear Armor is available now for $19.99. It may not have been released in time for the iPhone case Battlemodo, but look for a review soon. [case-mate]

We also know that 3M is still planning on launching the device later this year, but it is unclear whether or not this device would be available as a stand-alone product or whether it will be integrated in Samsung devices. Although, given the interest in applying this technology to cellphones, integration into Samsung products seems likely. [Twin Cities via About Projectors]

3M vows not to release the identity of the partner company, but if things move forward as planned, 3M could snatch the "first to market" spot from the likes of companies like Texas Instruments and Microvision. Estimates put the price point of the device at around $300-$400 at launch with prices falling to $150 in five years. [West Central Tribune via About Projectors]

They even come with some self-adhesives to keep the screen in place when closing and opening your notebook. – Jason Chen

3M Laptop Privacy anti-peek filter [Reg Hardware]

Actually, it was only $500 of real currency stacked on top of fake money, and people could only use their feet to try to break it. A security guard was present to make sure no one broke the rules and that people couldn't get to keep the money if they broke it.

Nevertheless, a glass that can stand a double-footed kick from a man with a 30 foot head start is impressive. Don't you wish your iPod screens were made out of this?

3M Security Glass Ad [37 Signals]