The last projector I played with was one of those tiny pico projectors that was not bright enough to use in any room with ambient light. Sanyo has announced a new projector that promises the most brightness you can get in an 110V unit at 12,000 lumens.

The projector uses two lamps to get all those lumens and offers a 4000:1 contrast ratio. Sanyo builds in its active maintenance filter as well. The projector uses the Sanyo QuaDrive optical engine that adds a yellow light controller to the red, green, and blue chips of the 3LCD system.

I have seen several iPod/iPhone alarm clocks hit the streets over the last few weeks. A few of them are now sporting dual docks to keep more than one Apple device charged up. Sanyo has jumped into the iPod alarm clock action with a couple new devices today including the DMP-P1 Cube Alarm Clock Radio and the DMP-692 Dual dock music System.

The DMP-692 is one of those snazzy new dual dock devices that can charge your iPhone and your iPod at the same time. The clock has three alarms and can wake you to a buzzer, AM/FM radio, or your favorite playlist. The radio also has an auxiliary input for CD palyers and non-dockable PMPs. A remote controller is included as well.

Everyone texts today, even my mother in law uses texts and she didn’t get a cell phone until last year. With text messaging being so popular, even the most basic handsets are now being designed for friendly texting.

Sprint has announced a new mobile phone that is aimed at entry-level users and has a QWERTY keyboard for texting. The handset is the Sanyo SCP-2700 and it sells for only $29.95 after instant and mail-in rebates and a new 2-year contract.

Sanyo Japan has just announced a new high-end projector dubbed the LP-WXU700. It’s the world’s first WiFi-enabled projector supporting the IEEE802.11n standard. It measures 334.2mm × 78.4mm × 257.5mm and weighs 3.6kg.

Sanyo says that users can conveniently stream video from their PCs through the projector (it also supports the Windows Vista Network Projector standard). Some other features include a 275W lamp, a 500:1 contrast ratio and 3,800 lumens brightness, HDMI and a USB interface. The LP-WXU700 will be released in Japan on June 19 for a stunning $6,300.

Video Projectors have replaced the filmstrip projectors and overhead projectors that teachers used when I was in school. Today the teacher can simply pull up a page on her computer or run software and let the whole class view it on a screen or the blackboard. Projectors are certainly much better than fighting those stuttering filmstrips that always seemed to get out of sync with the audio.

Sanyo has announced four new projectors aimed at both the classroom and the boardroom called the PCL-XU355, PLC-XU350, PLC-XU305, and PLC-XU300. The most interesting pair out of the quartet are the XU355 and the XU305, both of which offer the industry’s first Simple Wireless Setting feature via a USB memory stick.

I really like projectors; they allow you to get larger images from your TV or movies without having to spend $10k on a massive LCD TV. With a projector you can get images 100-inches or bigger for only a few thousand dollars. Sanyo has announced its latest HD projector called the PLC-WXE45.

The projector has a 16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, and 2000 lumens of brightness. The screen resolution for the projector is 1280 x 800 making it capable of 720p HD resolution. The device is designed for short throw distances and can produce and image of 80-inches from 34-inches away.

Spring is here and before you know it the hot days of summer will be in full force and staying cool in the pool or at the lake and beach will be top priorities. Any outings with family or friends near water mean someone will have a camera or camcorder handy, but most camcorders can’t take even small splashes without going to the big recycling bin in the sky.

Sanyo has announced a new camcorder that records in 720p HD resolution, and can record at depths of up to 10 feet of water for one hour. The video is recorded at 30 fps and the camcorder has a 30x optical zoom. Still shots can be taken with the 2-megapixel still shot feature and sequential shooting at 13 fps is featured.

Projectors come in many different shapes and sizes. Each projector is aimed at a specific usage scenario from giving presentations in the boardroom or office to watching HD movies on a massive screen in the home. Sanyo announced its latest professional projector today that is appropriate for movies and more.

The projector is called the PDG-DHT100L and it offers full 1080p resolution. The single chip DLP projector uses a dual lamp system for increased light output when needed and has a user changeable twin color wheel system that increases color reproduction.

One thing that many projectors have in common is large size, high cost, and long startup/shut down times. The startup and shutdown times can be a big hassle if you are in a hurry to get a presentation or movie going or in a hurry to get home after a big presentation is done.

Sanyo has introduced a new projector called the PLC-XW57 that is very portable with dimensions of (W x H x D) 13-inches x 3.15-inches x 9.3-inches and weighs 6.4 pounds. Despite the smaller size of the projector, it has 2000 lumens of brightness and a 1.2x optical zoom short throw lens. Fast start up allows the projector to work with a cold bulb and users don’t have to wait for the bulb to cool at shutdown.

If you want a really big picture for your home theater, there are several ways to go about it. You can spend tens of thousands on a really big LCD of plasma TV screen. That’s far outside the capability of most of us. Or you can opt for a projector and get about 100-inches or more of home theater goodness.

Sanyo has announced a new projector called the PLV-Z3000 that would make for a great home theater. The Z3000 can throw an image 100-inches from 10 to 20 feet away from the screen. The projector also features the first utilization of 5:5 pull down that allows users to watch broadcast TV and more in movie theater quality.

Projectors can be used for all sorts of things from projecting that boring PowerPoint project at the office to playing some Warcraft with a 100-inches of gaming glory on your living room wall. The catch is that often projectors are bulky devices that cost a lot of money.

Sanyo introduced a new projector today that it claims to be the industries smallest and lightest XGA LCD projector. The PLC-XW60 has a resolution of 1024 x 768 and weighs only 3.6 pounds. It’s not only light, but it is physically small as well with dimensions of 10.4 x 2.17 x 7.40 inches (WxHxD).

[UPDATE: Turns out this phone has actually been out for awhile. Shame to Sanyo for dating the press release for this week!]

Sanyo and Sprint together have announced from CES the availability of an upgraded model of the popular Katana cell phone. The new one is known as the Sanyo Katana DLX and it’s priced at around $130 with mail in rebate and two year contract.

The Sanyo Katana DLX is optimized for broadband related Sprint multimedia content. It is available in several body colors and offers features like phone as a modem, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera built in and support for microSDHC memory cards.

Sanyo has launched the new Xacti DMX-HD700, solid state based high-def camcorder today touted by the company as the world’s “smallest and lightest” 720p camcorder. It has the ability to record 720p video for as long as two continuous hours on the batteries and can store up to 2 hours and 46 minutes of full-resolution video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format on an 8GB SDHC card.

The new Xacti and can also take 7.1 megapixal still photos through the 5x optical zoom lens and can track and focus on up to 12 faces with its Face Chaser feature. It even has a decent sized viewer for the size of the camera with a 2.7-inch LCD display that flips open. It also has an HDMI output built-in and comes bundled with Adobe’s Premiere Elements 3 to get you ready to take and edit high-def videos right out of the box. It’s expected to be in stores by the end of October and comes in colors of brown, red and silver for a very reasonable $600.

You ever notice there’s always a “smallest and lightest” something or rather being announced by CE manufacturers? The newest gadget to fall into this category is the Sanyo Xacti HD1000, the “world’s smallest and lightest full HD digital camcorder.”

The Sanyo Xacti HD1000, priced at around $800 and due out in September, weighs 9.5 ounces and has a total volume of 16.6 cubic inches. It’s capable of full 1080i HD video recorded in the AVC/H.264 standard and sports a 2.7-inch widescreen display. Sanyo is also proud of this camcorder’s hardware and software interface for file saving and television playback.

What happens when a Japanese electronics manufacturer gets back to the basics when teaming up with a Japanese PHS operator? Something only Sanyo and Willcom could produce, The Wilcon!

This little gem of technology has a battery that is capable of 250 standby hours and 5 hours of talk-time. What kind of special battery is this you ask? A single AAA battery, making this the first ever cell phone to have such a power source. Now if only they could make the device a little more aesthetically pleasing and bring it stateside I’d have a phone to recommend to all those people who complain about having extra “bells and whistles”.

But this phone is so basic it ironically almost makes up for the lack of features. The Wilcon, however, will not work on 3g networks.

via AkihabaraNews