Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Usually it’s “the bigger the better” but with Acer’s new S1 series of LCD TV screens it certainly looks like “less is more”. Announced this week, the super thin and small screens not only keep the high quality goods in a smaller space but also are “wallet friendly”. So if you’re interested in a smaller TV for your house or a decent quality, decent sized, space saving monitor, read on.

Housed in a nice glossy black outer shell the Acer S1 series truly indicate that size doesn’t matter. Opting to keep the screens small (18.5” to 23”) these little beauties only measure 15mm thick and a staggering 13mm in depth. Now I know you’re thinking squashing it so thin will mean it’ll lose out elsewhere. WRONG! They offer Full 1080p HD and a whopping 12million : 1 contrast ratio which alters frame by frame to deliver super sharp images. Couple that with a response time of 5ms and you’re looking at a belter. Now there is a downside in that the smaller screens only have VGA and DVI ports where as the larger 21 and 23 get HDMI too. Not only that with EcoDisplay low power consumption, you can sleep easy knowing your helping the environment too.

Prices start at an ultra-low £119.99 too.

The thing with netbooks in my opinion is they’re all well and good to carry about and do the odd bit of word processing or web surfingin a coffee shop, but they cant really do much else. Acer has obviously noted this and has updated its range to allow HD video capabilities but also given them extra connectivity but still giving decent battery life.

The Aspire One 533 has a 10.1” 1280 x 720 screen. Alright it’s not Full HD but 720p is still pretty good. Powered by either the Intel Atom N455 nor N475 you can opt for 1GB or 2GB of memory. It also has up to 250GB of storage. The standard WiFi comes too but you can also have the option to include 3G connectivity and the latest Bluetooth 3.0. Battery wise, there’s 3 options for you to pick from. The highest being a six-cell affair which will give up to 10 hours of use, but also will add weight.

Available in July there’s no price but with so many options to choose from they’re going to vary anyway.

If you’re looking at some future-proofing tech for the 3D revolution, but don’t fancy forking out a fortune for a new TV maybe a projector is what you should be looking at. Normally only a select breed go down the projector path but this one shows that you can have the ability to access 3D technology of the future without destroying your bank balance.

Obviously you’ll need a large enough, “spare” wall to view the images, but the ViewSonic PJD6531w(catchy!!) projector can show images at 720p(ok it’s not 1080p but read on). It has a 3000 Lumens lamp for super bright images and has a fantastic 120Hz refresh rate. Couple that with a HDMI socket it’s capable of everything you throw at it, even 3D. This will be obtained via a firmware update sometime in the future, in time for the roll-out of Sky 3D and 3D Blu-Ray.

Out This month the ViewSonic PJD6531w will only cost a measly £649.99

The world of the SatNav has come in leaps and bounds over the past few years and its hard not to know a car owner who hasn’t got one and now with the increase in well “smartness” of smartphones (most now have free GPS Navigation software) where next for the SatNav. Well it appears this is it.

The Mio Moov V780 is a massive 7” in size and has a capacitive WVGA display. A little excessive you might say for a SatNav but this is also disguising itself as a PMP/netbook. Packing Wi-Fi and optional HSPDA and WiMax for online use, it also has an external TV aerial to catch TV on the move. It also has DivX, MP4 and H.263/264 support allowing video playback obviously for when the SatNav is not needed and the kids are restless in the back of the car. What is odd id the HDMI out which can playback its stored video content at 720p on a flatscreen. Unless you’ve recently been on “Pimp My Ride” i can’t see most average folk having a HDTV in their car.

Going back to its connectivity, the Mio Moov will also have a keyboard dock and as it runs Windows CE, you can access Exchange and GMail to get your email on the move, not recommended whilst driving but I’m sure your passenger can or if you’ve stopped at the services. Expected to debut at CeBit this week, more news on release and price will be available then.

A lot of new phones and PMPs are claiming to be HD or can output 720p but this is the first to actually have a 720p 4.3”screen.

We’ve looked at the Zune HD and the Archos 5 in the past, both very good PMPs that can output 720p to your TV. The F43 itself has a 4.3” screen with a resolution of 1280x720 and has HD video support so you can watch sharper, clearer videos on the go.

It has 8GB of internal storage(not much for HD) but this can be extended via microSD. The F43 will play MP4, FLV, H.263, AVI and DivX files so its covering most bases but it lacks the “apps” ability of the other top PMPs.

Only available in Japan at the moment we’re unsure as to when it will or if it will be released over here. However our friends at Akihabara have said you’ll be able to pick one up from importer GeekStuff4U.

With the Flip HD and Creative Vado doing well in the small video camera stakes, Sony is trying to get in there with this little beauty.

Sony PM1 Mobile HD Snap Camera certainly should put itself in there with its sharp looks, 27 degree swivel lens, 5MP sensor with 4x digital sensor to boot. It has five different scene selections for you to use including auto, sports, landscape, low light and back light.It sports a slightly small 1.8” screen but due to the fact the camera is so small, it doesn’t make the camera bad at all.

Everything can then be loaded straight onto your PC or Mac or can be directly uploaded to Youtube, Picasa and Dailymotion. Unfortunately, no news on a price yet.