Starting today the Nokia N97 mini is available in any Nokia store in Europe. The N97 mini is just a smaller sleeker version of the N97 (which maintains a pretty
loyal following of its own) kind of like a barebones mini laptop with a
unique “flip-out” QWERTY keyboard and 3.2 inch touch screen.

The N97 mini is part of a wider offering of mobile connectivity with wi-fi, GPS enabled maps, an apps store and movies available to watch on that 3.2” screen. All this is well and good, but really what are the chances that this will give the iphone a run for its money?

	Nokia N97 mini Nokia Available now

Virtually zip; and that is why Vodafone and Nokia had to make a serious offering to would be consumers this Christmas season in order to try to cut out some market room next to the likes of Apple.

Vodafone has nabbed a deal with Microvision! No idea what that means? Well here’s the breakdown.

Microvision is a small company that has been making the rounds at electronics trade shows for the last couple years demoing a picoprojector; but not just the same-old-same-old LED pocket projector. Microvision’s model, called the Showwx, uses lasers to fit into a nice tight case (half the size of the smallest LED projectors) with very sharp color/contrast and the unique feature of being always in focus (thank you lasers) video here.

	Showwx laser picoprojector Microvision Just smaller than the N97 mini itself.

The Showwx can project an image up to 100” across (in low light conditions) with WVGA resolution of 848x480, rest of the specs here.

The Showwx finding a route to market is the big news here (a nice price break bundled with the N97 mini is just icing on the cake).

Now why would I report on this?

Because finding ways to reduce our energy/materials footprint while at the same time maintaining a level of technology and connectivity is vital in a world of diminishing available resources. Incremental efficiency advances are necessary, but rethinking our solutions to fit the size of our needs is smarter.

This first public offering from Showwx will provide the economic foundation for the planned next step; imbedded laser modules in cell phones, laptops, cameras, camcorders, you name it.

The display is a disproportionately hungry energy hog, finding a solution that improves efficiency while actually increasing the visual experience is a pretty fantastic advancement. I’m glad to see that Vodafone thinks so also. If you are interested in picking up a Showwx on its own you’ll have to go through Vodafone for the time being (€289 for the initial offering) press release is here.

	The FitPC-2 FitPC palm of the hand PC

I’m thinking a Showwx teamed with a FitPC-2 for a sub-10 watt replacement to the home entertainment system (TV, VCR, DVD player) and computers (laptop, PC). What do you guys say, would you be interested in reading an Ecolab test of that setup?