3M Mobile Projector Provides Home Entertainment Fun

When I was first offered a chance to try 3M’s Mobile Projector, I thought “Cool, we can project our favorite movies on the wall.” And we did. And it was cool. But my mistake was in not thinking past that obvious use of the machine.


First, let me give you some back ground on the 3M Mobile Projector. It is designed show the videos on your Apple products like iPods, iPads, and iPhones right out of the box. You can also hook up your iPad 2 to show whatever is on the screen (like apps) with an extra cable.  The best part?  It’s tiny. I mean really tiny! 

Here it is next to LJ’s iPod for comparison.

 Looking at it, you would think that it would send out a weak, fuzzy picture. You would be wrong, as it projects a sharp, clear picture no matter what the distance.


Of course, the obvious use is to watch movies – you can project them anywhere you’d like: the wall of our playroom was a fun choice during a recent sleepover.

The boys wanted to camp out in the playroom.

They loved watching (through the tent door!) a movie on the wall.

 We also figured out that the slanted cathedral ceiling in our living room makes a huge fun screen, plus you can watch while laying on the floor!  We started envisioning movies in the backyard. Hey – we could hang a sheet for a screen and watch while floating in the pool on a hot night!  The rechargeable batteries mean it can go anywhere.  How about watching in a tent when camping? Yep – that would work.


Soon, we moved past the novelty of watching movies and realized that we can view all of the pictures on my iPhone as a HUGE slide show on the wall.  And all of the video I’ve shot on the iPhone. Then we remembered YouTube and things really started getting fun.  You know how usually you show someone a YouTube video and you either have to crowd around your computer or iPhone?  We got to watch the crazy guys singing Gotye (admit it – you know which one I’m talking about!) from the comfort of the couch.


The educator in me started thinking about all the uses in the classroom. With that extra cable, you can project an exact mirror of the iPad screen and make any app a teaching tool for the whole class.


And then I started thinking about business applications.  How cool would be to be able to show a presentation on your iPod to a room full of people without having to arrange for a huge projector, have to go through hooking it up, plus half the time it doesn’t work right…you know what I mean.  This little portable wonder would fit perfectly in your laptop bag or even a purse and be perfect for those situations!


We’ve toyed with the idea of dumping cable TV and just using an antenna for local stations and streaming the rest.  The idea of streaming TV through the different channel apps on the iPad and then watching them wherever we want is one I could get used to.


So basically, I said “yes” to reviewing what I thought would be kind of a cool thing to have around for once in a while and wound up realizing that I could easily use it everyday and that it can do so much more than I even imagined it could.  I love when that happens!


Can you come up with any other things you might use the 3M Mobile Projector for???


Be sure to connect with 3M on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about this cool product!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of 3M and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.