Mouse pad or Cat pad?

Here's my small collection of mouse pads with cat prints. The Hello Kitty is the oldest, bought from a store in the so-called IT alley in Taipei. The other two were gifts that probably came from abroad, too. I hardly use a mouse pad now, but I keep these fine proofs that show how cats invaded the mouse's pad. :)

Epson EB-450Wi projector

The first time I had to use a projector was in college, and the last time was during one of my graduate classes. Projectors, for me, are one of those appliances I didn't personally want to own because they were pretty much one-trick pony. They project images, that's it...but that was before.

Today, projectors are projecting a better image in more ways than one. Aside from shedding off some pounds by not being too heavy and clunky, projectors are also trying to get into the multimedia, high-definition and even 3D space.

I'm very skeptical when it comes to media events that showcase projectors. I really drag my feet to these events thinking the technology I'll see will be downright flat (read: boring). Epson, however, recently put something in front of me that made me interested. The company's EB-450Wi is an innovative projector that turns any standard whiteboard or smooth, flat surface into an interactive presentation area.

The EB-450Wi comes with its own mechanism so it can be installed overhead and from there beam images onto the flat wall. Presentors will appreciate that having a projector overhead eliminates the nuisance of getting them blinded by the projector's light. The EB-450Wi comes with a digital infrared pen so users can electronically write over their presentations and manipulate on-screen objects as if they are using a chalk or a computer mouse. The changes in the presentations as a result of that digital pen doodling could even be saved as jpeg files onto the computer where it's connected to. Of course, this projector could also be very well used for projecting movies and computer games.

Okay, I don't think these new features are so revolutionary but I'm happy that projectors get to dust off their old image somehow. So, bravo projector, you are no longer just a simple source of light. Yeah, that's how lowly I used to regard projectors. But Epson proved there's more to projectors now to justify its continued use in classrooms and boardrooms, at least for now.

Acer Liquid E Ferrari Smartphone

Want a thoroughbred with a standby power of up to 400 hours or a running power good for five hours?

I’m not talking about an actual purebred horse but a smartphone that distinctively sports on the back the famous Scuderia Ferrari Shield with the Prancing Horse logo. Acer’s partnership with Ferrari again bore another fruit: the Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition smartphone.

First unveiled at the last Computex 2010 in Taiwan, the Acer Liquid E Ferrari smartphone is hard to miss with Ferrari’s corporate glossy red color. It’s Acer’s first Android-based smartphone that supports 3G HSDPA and features full capacitive 3.5-inch touchscreen with high pixel count.

The Acer Liquid E Ferrari smartphone runs on the powerful Snapdragon mobile processor and Android 2.1 operating system. It offers a 512MB internal memory that can be expanded to 32GB with an optional microSD. It has a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, geo-tagging and accelerometer so photos can automatically rotate how the screen is positioned.

As to be expected, it covers all the bases for connectivity with WiFi, Bluetooth and A-GPS support. It also comes with a Ferrari-branded Bluetooth headset to boot.

Being a special edition, Acer and Ferrari filled it with Formula 1 themed content from ringtones, screensavers, wallpapers, and other widgets.

At 115mm x 64mm x 12.75mm (HxWxD), the unit weighs 135g. And it’s very red so it can’t be mistaken it’s by the famous Italian brand.