PopSci has a great video hands-on of the Samsung Show W7900 that has an integrated micro projector. The projector is best used in a dark room, but basically, the phone can project a 40" image with a decent brightness - which is amazing for such a small device.

The OLED 240x400 display also looks fantastic. The contrast and saturation are just unbelievable. At the moment, the user interface homepage is widget-based, which is comparable to the Samsung OMNIA that we just reviewed. (Video in the full post)

• Micro-projector: 10 lumens, 480x320 pixels
• OLED display (240x400)
• 3.5G data connection
• 5 Megapixel Camera
• 4.4x2.2x0.7"
• No pricing yet.

[CES 2009] Alongside its updated version of the Camera Mask, Liquid Image is coming up with two new HD models. The Scuba HD320 shoots 720P(1280x720) video at 30 fps and will be certified for 115 feet (35 meters) underwater. Additional lighting is recommend below 5 meters, check out the photo gallery to see the lights attachments. It will be available worldwide in Spring 2009 at an estimated price of $215.

Other features:

• 5 megapixel camera
• USB port and cable
• Micro SD /SDHC card slot (up to 32 GB of storage)
• 64 MB Nand flash Internal memory

[CES 2009] Liquid Image is coming with a line of new products for CES 2009. The Videomask 310 is an upgrade of the award winning Camera Mask launched in 2008. The original version recorded 20 frames per second in VGA, had a 3 megapixel camera and was certified for a 5 meters depth. The new version is 720x 480, records 30 frame per second , and will be tested and certified to a depth of 33 feet (10 meters). In addition there are 3 light attachments (see picture in the photo gallery) that allow the underwater photographer to keep the image quality when diving below 5 meters. It will retail worldwide for an estimated price of $159 in February 2009.

Other features:

• USB port and cable
• Micro SD /SDHC card slot (up to 8 GB of storage)
• 16 MB Nand flash Internal memory

YouTube has been playing with higher quality movies for some time, but it seems that the feature has now been fully deployed for all to use and watch. Often you'll see or hear the term "HD" and in general it really means "higher quality". It might be possible to upload 720p (1280x720) movies, but so far, I have not seen anything that remotely feels like 720p quality when viewed in fullscreen. Yet, this is a great improvement for YouTube.

From a business standpoint, this is even more interesting: YouTube is still not profitable due to the high cost of storage and bandwidth and this cost is just about to go even higher. In return, better video quality will attract video makers and viewers. At the same time, competitors are going to find themselves in a place where it is tough to compete, given that they too are having a hard time to monetize their sites. The difference is that Google has much deeper pockets than anyone else in this field.

Samples
YouTube HD Video
YouTube "Normal" Video

Watch the above video of Remi Kart from French prankster Rémi Gaillard and have a good laugh - after all, more than half the work week is gone and you deserve a break even if for a couple of minutes. Rémi Gaillard must've loved Nintendo's karting franchise so much that he actually took the pains to dress up like Mario and drive a go-cart around the streets of France. You won't have as much fun watching this compared to playing the actual thing though, take our word for it.

[South Africa Blogging Tour 08] Nic Haralambous is part of the Blogging Tour and the General Manager of Zoopy. Founded in 2006 by Pat Elk, Jason Elk and Gerry da Silva, Zoopy is the South African Youtube and a new version was just launched on Monday. I took the opportunity to talk with Nic about the new website during the bus trip to !Kwa ttu, the cultural center of the San people.

In South Africa, the bandwidth is expensive and Yoututbe does not have a server there, so it takes forever to upload movies. There was a real need for a local video sharing site and Vodacom, one of the three mobile carriers in South Africa, is an investor in the company since early 2008. The new features include the launch of Zoopy TV, 3 channels where journalists with “extreme blogging training” (Nic), post breakings news nation wide, the multiple uploads capability (up to 20 files simultaneously), and the mobile version, available at m.zoopy.com.

Read more after the jump

Today, Radus is launching a sleek media browsing website that allows users to search, discover, share, post and view digital content from various internet sources, including blogs and social networking sites. I like the "iphone' looking user interface and the search function that gives fast access to different type of search results: videos, text, photos or all type. The relevancy of the search results is not as satisfying as it is with Google, I tested it with several words like "G1 phone", " iPhone" or "Blackberry Storm", the results are sufficiently relevant but not as good as what I get from Google from a pure information prospective. However, to search and discover videos and photos, Radus' user experience is better than Google. When you resizes the window, the user interface adapts itself very well, allowing the application to make the most of its surface, that's neat.

I did not test too much the social component (friend list, interacting with other members, sharing...), I was able to quickly post a video on my Facebook profile. I am not a fan of the way the articles from the various news and blogs sources are displayed: the source name is not visible inside Radus, you can only discover it once you clicked on the article, it takes you the original article page in another window. I saw this product for the first time at DEMOFall 07 under the name metaRadar, and I was immediately drawn to its design and user experience (this version is a bit different). The mobile version will be available later.

Scott Davilla, a developer for the ATV-bootloader project, has adapted the AppleTV so people can install Boxee as an AppleTV plugin using an AppleTV's , or atv, bootloader on a USB flash drive.

Boxee is a media center based on XMBC that has a social component: in addition to browse and play media content from the computer or the internet, users can share it with their friends, send them recommendations etc...

The ATVUSB-creator installation is pretty technical and Boxee is still in private alpha, we might be able to get a few invitations for our readers. I did not test either Boxee or the ATV bootloader yet , so for those who already have an access code and want to try it for the AppleTV, read after the jump for the step by step "how-to" (provided by Boxee).

What level of geekness do you think you need to try this?

The video is professionally made to look like an amateur shot it. The integration of the small characters is cool. It leads to this site - oh yeah we're falling into their marketing trap! To be fair the youtube page says:

"PROMOTIONAL CONTENT: Today we were asked by Samsung to make a video unboxing their new phone, the Omnia (i900). Many thanks to Samsung" (technivator)

Our friends from from digitalhomethoughts have received their Dell studio Hybrid small and "green" desktop computer and have uploaded a video for those who want to see what it looks like in the real world. If someone out there tries to add a USB TV Tuner to the Studio Hybrid, please post a comment here. We are curious to know what the options are and if it works well with Media Center (Vista).

The UMPC was unboxed by wow-pow blog yesterday from conics.net. At 7 inches and weighing 798grams, the specs are as follows:

• 1.3 GHz Intel Atom processor
• 60GB HDD
• 1GB RAM(2GB max)
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0
• WiFi
• 1024x600 rotatable touchscreen
• Windows Vista Ultimate

The SC3 is slightly smaller compared to the company's SX series but is about the same size as a VAIO U101 except for the keyboard size which is bigger. There is more information on umpcportal. If you want to watch the unboxing video in the full post.

We told you about Mio’s upcoming Knight Rider GPS (see Mio Knight Rider photos) but the synthetic voice of Kitt (William Daniels) being the star of the show, there’s nothing like a good video (with audio!) to get a better idea. The GPS will ship with a database of hundreds of pre-recorded names so that you don’t have to rename yourself into “Michael”. A subsequent update will add even more names (300 or so). It will cost $269 and will be on the shelves on August 8.

Developed by the Hirose Fukushima Lab (Japan), this “snake” is quite interesting to watch when it moves underwater. It needs water resistance to propel itself. It can also move on firm ground, but I suspect that the fins make it a lot more efficient in a liquid. Each section of the ACRM-R5 has its own micro-processor, motor and battery and knows where it is in the overall body, by counting how many siblings separate it from the head, which is unique. That might mean that the snake could be very long, but most importantly, researchers can easily replace a body part. Watch the video in the full post.

Videos of the all-dispay Samsung OMNIA mobile phone are showing up on the web. Shot during the OMNIA launch in Singapore, the first video shows someone from MobiFrance playing with the device at the event. The second video (in the full post) shows the marketing material from Samsung, it is interesting nonetheless to see how the company is promoting is “cool” phone. From what I can see, I would say that the Samsung OMNIA hardware is very good, but that the software and particularly the user interface still needs work (and design) to catch-up with the iPhone.