Panasonic announces new projector at Cedia

Panasonic has just announced its new heir or replacement in the front projector market. It is the PT-AE3000, which replaces the PT-AE2000. Panasonic has said it maximizes the image qualify of Blu-ray and broadcast HD content. It has added some new features, starting with a new optical system that achieves a 60,000 to 1 contrast ratio and 1,600 lumens of brightness. Signal processing technologies include Detail Clarity Processor 2 and Frame Creation Interpolation, and a maximum of 16-Bit digital processing. What that all adds up to is a new projector from Panasonic that sounds like an excellent performer. Availability is scheduled in October 2008 for a price of $3,499. For more details, check out Panasonics web site at http://www.panasonic.com/business/projectors/ae3000/index.asp.

MIO C230 GPS Review

For those of us who may hate to stop and ask for directions, the best solution could be to get a GPS. Up for review is the C230 from MIO Technology. It is your basic GPS receiver with a nice looking color touch screen display. GPS receivers are getting quite fancy these days with additional features such as built in media players and digital camera. For those of you who think, I just want a GPS receiver, and too much is well……too much, this may be just the device for you. It does not have those fancy additional features (but if you want them, MIO Technologies has other models you could check out). It does have a nice looking interface, a built in card reader for additional maps, and is preprogrammed with plenty of points of interest.

Having spent some time with the unit, I can tell you that it worked well. At the same time, GPS units can be a little quirky. Programming in an address of a location where I knew how to get to, I ended up doing a little extra driving and did not get the most direct route. But any GPS receiver can do that, and I only had that situation come up once. On a road trip that I took where I did not know where I was going, it worked flawlessly and was a lifesaver. The text to speech directions was also very nice. I would not have a concern recommending the C230 to anyone. If you want a little more than just simple GPS functionality, such as that media player, check out MIO’s C520. For additional info on the C230 and it complete specs, feel free to check out their website at http://www.mio.com/us/gps-navigation-products-c230-overview.htm.