Large viewable pictures for less money than a similarly sized TV — who wouldn’t want to consider a projector for home entertainment? Add to it the bonus of portability that mini projectors like the BenQ Joybee GP2 offer, and your entertainment continues even when you leave the house.

Pull the GP2 out of its box and you get a stylish little box that’s no larger than half a dozen CD cases stacked one on top of the other. The dual-tone black-and-white glossy finish is a fingerprint magnet, especially since the projector’s touch controls are located on the black top. You can use the included remote if you’d like your GP2 to remain smudge-free.

Despite its diminutive size and weight of under 600gm, the GP2 can throw a very usable 1,280 x 800 pixel (720p resolution) image to up to 160in! You’ll probably be hard pressed to find uncluttered walls that can support this massive display size. For the specs geeks, the projector offers a middling 2,400:1 contrast ratio and maximum brightness of 200 lumens. What’s really interesting is that BenQ has pulled out all the stops with the projector’s connectivity options.

Apart from the very obvious inclusion of an iPod/iPhone dock, you get a full-sized SD card slot, HDMI for video playback, a proprietary port that offers VGA and composite through an included adaptor, plus ports for standard-sized and micro USB. While the micro USB is handy to connect to any PC directly, the full-sized USB reveals an interesting capability — the GP2 can work as a media and document viewer, without the need of a PC driving the content.

So, you can play back the most common movie, image and music file formats and PDF and Microsoft office document formats directly off a thumb drive, SD card or the 2GB of internal memory. Pretty neat feature, though the on-screen navigation is a tad clunky and slow. Oh, and there’s an audio out for external speakers as well — no matter how loud these speakers get, it just doesn’t hurt having the option to connect a better set of external speakers. And if you’re on the road much, you might want to consider the GP2’s optional battery, which allows the GP2 to last upto three charges on each charge.

Like most small LED projectors, the image quality the GP2 delivers is quite decent, with vibrant colours, nice and deep blacks — results that will satisfy all but the most demanding users. A worthy buy, in my books.

• Rating: 8/10

• Price: Rs 39,167

• URL: http://bit.ly/Hozw2x

Web block

It starts with you opening a random link on YouTube or an innocent Wikipedia diversion, and before you know it, an hour or two has passed, and you realise that you haven’t finished what you sat down to do. If staying away from distractions on the Internet is something you’ve tried to do, and failed, help is at hand with a simple and easy-to-use website blocker called FocalFilter.

It allows you to block websites for pre-specified time intervals without muddling you with any confusing configurations. All you have to do is edit the blocked site list, select one of many time intervals (from five minutes to 12 hours) and hit go. Now, unlike a lot of other tools, which can remove the block by exiting or uninstalling the application, this one is serious about its job. To reset the block while it is active, you will need to reboot your computer. If that doesn’t cure the temptation, nothing will.

• Price: free

• URL: http://bit.ly/GYXCxU' http://bit.ly/GYXCxU

Sound check

No one’s going to give JBL’s Tempo headphones any design awards, but the moment you slip them on, you realise how easily one would forsake design for long-duration comfort. The padded headband and ear-cups allow you to wear the Tempo through the entire duration of a Bollywood movie, and then some more, without the associated ear-fatigue. While clarity of playback is above

average, there are a couple of issues with the headset. Bass is on the weak side, and there’s simply too much sound leaking out the sides of these cans. Tad pricey too, if you ask me.

• Price: Rs 2,749

• URL: http://bit.ly/HozS9e' http://bit.ly/HozS9e

technocool@kanwar.net, follow me on twitter @2shar