Pico projectors for phones are old news. But Pico projectors built into iPhone cases are brand new, and way more practical than stringing cables from box to box.
The Pocket Projector case comes from Brookstone, and includes a 2100mAh battery and a 0.5-watt speaker, which is sure to blow the windows out on movie night. Your iPhone 4 (or 4S) slides into the case and engages the dock connector, and from there you can beam anything beamable to a fifty-inch rectangle on the wall.
Fifty inches is of course an optimistic number, and will require a very dark room. The Brookstone projector puts out 15 lumens, the same amount of light as Microvision's SHOWWX+ which I tested last year. If you want anything bigger than a small TV screen, you'll need to turn out the lights.
The battery should keep the 640 x 360 display going for a couple of hours, and can also work as a backup battery for the iPhone within.
One curiosity is that the projector has a manual focusing dial, unlike the "infinite focus" of laser projectors. Then again, it's relatively cheap at $230.
Phone projectors don't appear to be ready for use quite yet, but at least this one is a lot easier to use. Right until a new-shaped iPhone ships next year.
The Pocket Projector can be ordered now and ships on November 21st.
Pocket Projector product page [Brookstone via MacWorld]
