In the field of pico-projectors there is a delicate compromise between size, price and capabilities. Photo: Tom Sawyer Small size, low cost and fair picture make it desirable, despite weaknesses. One must expect sacrifices for 3M’s MPro 150’s $300 price and tiny size, considering full-sized projectors run up to $3,000 and can weigh as much as 25 lbs. With limited viewing options—only 12 lumens and unsupportive of most video codecs—the unit is hard to use and its image hard to see in normally lit rooms. But we found it bright enough for small meetings in a typically dim conference room.

In late June, Magellan Navigation Inc. released the IPX-7 waterproof ToughCase for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Designed with the clumsy and adventuresome in mind, the case is meant to make the devices water- and shock-resistant while maintaining full functionality. Photo: Tom Sawyer The exterior looks rugged, but high-tech enhancements are hidden inside. The ToughCase’s $200 price tag buys 30 minutes of protection underwater to a depth of one meter. Although we would not recommend tossing your iPhone into a water-filled bucket, our still-functioning iPhone gives evidence that you can. The ToughCase’s bulky 7.5 ounces do far more than protect

Under the gun to stay on schedule with more than $4 billion in Base Realiagnment and Closure Act projects at Fort Belvoir, Va., post program managers have developed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ first 4D, Google Earth-based animated construction model for an entire military installation. Using Google Earth as a backdrop, the model links a mountain of facility and site data with nearly 140 project schedules to enable more effective construction coordination on or around the 8,600-acre garrison. Belvoir New Vision Planners, a joint venture of PBS&J, Tampa, Fla., and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago, developed the model with

Texas’ capital city is living up to its reputation as the U.S. city most poised to quickly recover from the economic downturn. Forbes, for one, made this prediction last summer when it said the Austin-Round Rock area tops the list of “best cities for recession recovery.” Then, on June 9, as if on script, Samsung Electronics, Seoul, South Korea, announced it will invest $3.6 billion to expand the capacity of its existing semiconductor plant in Austin. The investment in the 300-acre Austin campus, the company’s only semiconductor fabrication site outside South Korea, will build out the second phase of its

One growing pain many construction companies endure comes from a need to shift business and project management processes to a system that integrates data across all processes. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems do just that, and there is an upsurge of interest in them. But vendors and companies aren’t consistent when they use the term, and excessive claims are made. Slide Show Photo: Dave Jarosz PROJECT: Robert Diemer Water Treatment Plant PLACE: Yorba Linda, Calif. BENEFITS: ERP pays off for Shimmick on a $190-million project, tracking 600,000 hours of time and labor. As an idea, ERP, when used to unify

California Engineering Contractors, Pleasanton, Calif., was not happy with its high-speed Internet options. Even while paying thousands of dollars a month for bonded T1 lines or similar high-end connectivity at its main office, field offices at projects were often stuck with limited broadband. “In construction, sometimes you just don’t have the facilities for a T1,” deadpans Sam Hanna, CEC Internet technology director. Photo: Mushroom Networks The Truffle can bond up to six internet connections. But most of the company’s data traffic moves between project sites and the main office, and slow connections and digital bottlenecks can cost money. So CEC

Mapping existing broadband service is a requirement for states angling for a piece of the roughly $4.2 billion in matching American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for high-speed Internet expansion. But with a deadline approaching, states and municipalities have been scrambling to find the data. Photo: Connected Nation Michael Ramage (left) explains BroadbandStat at its debut at a Congressional policy exhibition in Washington, D.C., where it attracted interest from local officials seeking to expand broadband. Now, a new tool is available to help. In February, Connected Nation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding high-speed Internet access, launched BroadbandStat, a

The Haitian government has estimated it will take 10 years and $3 billion to repair the damage caused by Jan. 12’s magnitude-7 earthquake, although some warn it may cost more than three times that amount.

Realizing that software interoperability only represents the potential to pass data between differing software products and is not an end in itself, Bentley Systems Inc., Exton, Pa., has developed and is offering for free a set of workflow tools to help designers actually make good use of it. + Image The company announced on Jan. 27 that it is releasing free plug-ins that not only pass back and forth and back again models and tracked revisions within Bentley’s 3-D structural modeling program and two of Bentley’s analysis programs, but it also is giving away a plug-in for San Rafael, Calif.-based

The majority of the focus within the telecommunications sector is on building data centers, the power-hungry, industrial-strength warehouse buildings with sophisticated MEP systems that house racks of servers and network switching gear. While the sector was impacted by the economic meltdown last year, with its share of project cancellations and lingering funding problems, it is poised to recover quickly and continue strong for the foreseeable future, say contractors and industry analysts, who paint a picture of a dynamic, rapidly evolving construction market with high growth potential. Photo: DPR Construction Despite a slight downturn in 2009, demand for data centers is