In April 2007 I wrote this article about a projector on a phone using the Texas Instruments DLP chip. More than two years have passed since then and there isn't yet a sign of this technology that you can buy. Finally the wait has been reward and surprisingly this time the camera manufacturers have decided to take a lead with this technology integrating a projector into the camera.

Nikon has unveiled the CoolPix S1000pj featuring a resolution of 12 megapixels, Image stabilization and 5X Optical zoom. The key feature being the projector with a brightness up to 10 lumens and image sizes of 5 to 40 in and a throw distance of 26 cm to 2 m at a resolution of 640 X 480 pixels. The camera can project images and videos. What this means is that we no longer have to crowd behind a camera to preview a recently taken picture.

While the resolution is not much to talk about the technology is still in its infancy and we can soon expect projectors integrated into mobile phones and cameras becoming as common as cameras in phones. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a resolution race for projectors integrated into cameras and phones henceforth.

Yet another technology that seems like a dream making itself present in the real world. Kudos to Nikon for being the first to market.

Here is a video from Whatdigitalcamera.com showing off the camera:

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I will admit that I am not a big fan of the call handling capabilities of the iphone. However, the handy applications developed for the iphone make it worth having. A cheaper alternative is to get the iPod touch, but without a camera it is not as handy as the iphone.

1. Units:
Units is a tool for converting units of measurement from one standard to another. The tool is neatly grouped into different types of measurements like Area, Temperature, Length, Time, Speed etc. The application also comes with a ruler with inch and centimeter markings which can be used for measurements.

2. Dictionary.com:
This dictionary application references dictionary.com dictionary and thesaurus with 275,000 words and 80,000 synonyms. Wedict is an alternative which was earlier available for free download but is now a paid application for 6$ which I feel is a little too expensive for a dictionary. But the interesting thing about wedict is the downloadable dictionary files for multiple languages and even different types within a single language.

3. Flashlight:
There are many flashlight applications for iphone that help search for things in the dark. However, the Flashlight application from the Cydia or the ICY installer (you need to jailbreak the iphone for this) is brighter than the applications found in the Apple appstore.

4. Wikipanion:
Wikipanion is your wikipedia companion allowing you to search the entire wikipedia database after you have downloaded it to the iPhone. Beware that the database is a massive 4+ GB of information and an 8GB iphone is recommended at the very least.

5. Kindle:
Kindle is a book reader utility from Amazon that helps download the digital copy of books purchased from amazon into the iphone. Amazon also sells "Digital only" versions of books that are much cheaper than a real book. You will also find a lot of free books in amazon if you search for "0.00$" or "$0.00". Some of the free titles are Paranoia by Joseph Finder, The angel Experiment by James Patterson, Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes Collection and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea.

6. Snapture:
Snapture is a replacement for the Camera application that comes with the iphone. Snapture adds features like digital zoom, burst mode, multiple image sizes, easy snap (you no longer have to click on a specific icon on the screen to take pictures), timer mode and multiple color modes like sepia, monochrome etc. This application is available only via Cydia or Icy.

7. Cycorder:
One of the best applications for the iphone that the original iphone should have come with. A must have application for the older iphone models that do not permit video recording, cycorder records video with brilliant quality that puts other cameras of 1.3 MP to shame. Cycorder is available only for download from cydia and not the appstore.

8. Batterystatus:
Battery status is a battery monitoring tool for the iphone that gives you information like % battery level, talk time over 3G, talk time over 2G, standby time, browsing over edge time, browsing over wi-fi time and audio and video playback times. Very handy application that can give you the time within which you have to find the next recharge point.

9. Epocrates:
Epocrates is a medical database with drug and disease information that is handy with detecting spurious drugs, general medication, drug interactions and other details. For more details about Epocrates refer to this article.

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