There are some weird phones at every CES (I'm looking at you, Neutrano) but the weird-award winner so far goes to something called the Logic Bolt. According to Logic Wireless, the brand-new company behind the phone, the Bolt is a GSM phone that will be sold subsidized by T-Mobile for $100 and has a built-in pico-projector.
Logic Wireless is a 19-person, Arizona-based company founded by Aasim Saied, the former owner of two software companies. "I built the whole company in the last three months," Saied said. "There was an existing company that made a prototype of the projector-phone. I took over the exclusive rights and redesigned all the features of the phone," he said.
According to Logic, the Bolt can project a two-hour movie on a 36-64" screen. The projector can route video from almost any source, including an XBox or Nintendo Wii, Saied said.
The phone uses an LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) projector with an LED backlight from Butterfly Technology, a Chinese company that makes micro-projectors and projector modules.
The phone also has a 320x240 touch screen, the ability to read Microsoft Office documents, Bluetooth, GPS and a 3-megapixel camera. The Bolt runs a Java-based OS on its 100 Mhz MTK 6225 main chipset, and is made in China, Saied said. Bizarrely, the phone has a huge 1800 mAh battery but only gets 2-3 hours of talk time, which seems very short for a battery that size. Said said they're working on a 5-hour battery.
According to Saied, T-Mobile will sell a future version of the Bolt in T-Mobile's stores and "is working on an infrastructure" to support the phone.
Unfortunately, T-Mobile disagrees. "The comments made by Logic Wireless that T-Mobile is the carrier is inaccurate," the company said through a spokesman.
The current version of the Bolt is a limited run just to get press and retailers interested in the product, according to Saied. They'll only make a few thousand, he said. The big production run will come with the second version of the phone, which will run Windows Mobile and debut at the CeBIT trade show in Germany a few months from now.
"The next version is as small as a BlackBerry [Pearl]," Saied told me.
Sounds weird, right? Sounds maybe too good to be true? I'm going to get some face time with Saied and the phone at the show and follow up.
For PCMag's full CES coverage, go to http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,2235882,00.asp.
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January 30, 2009 1:58 PM
ive seen another good projector phone and they have been on sale for about 2 months now you can see the spec of the device here
http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php?ref=6616&products_id=3547&channel_id=16154
March 5, 2009 8:17 PM
hay jo how did you find that site theres loads of cool gadgets on it do you know any more like it
March 18, 2009 2:33 PM
This projector is capable of projecting much larger than 7 inches. If you go to the microvision web site, which is the company who invented the projector, they show a demonstration. This was also demonstrate at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show. It shows a youtube video of a much larger screen. It is really awesome!
May 5, 2009 9:30 PM
Not exactly a great way to announce your company... getting caught in a lie. I think the phone itself (from chinavision) is pretty nice except for the interface. When will these chinese manufacturers figure out the only phone we want an apple interface on is a real apple device. Have some balls, make your own UI.