Sorry Anker: JMGO now makes my favorite flagship portable projector.
Technology
A designer's wild 'wind turbine wall' idea is actually becoming reality
You may have seen renderings of an eye-catching wall covered in vertical wind turbines making the rounds online. That bold concept is finally spinning into reality with a product called Airiva from designer Joe Doucet.
The initial vision was ambitious: a mesmerizing array of 25 vertical-axis turbines each connected to a generator for a combined peak output of 10 kilowatts.
While that’s an attractive figure on paper, the intermittent nature of wind means actual daily energy production could be significantly lower.
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Wind turbine wall (Airiva)
Years of refinement and testing
But Doucet didn’t just run with that initial concept. Over the past few years, his team has tweaked and tested 16 different blade configurations before settling on a helical design. They’ve refined Airiva into a modular system made up of sizable turbine units.
Each unit houses eight turbines and is expected to produce around 2,200 kWh annually. Not a massive amount on its own, but it’s enough to put a dent in domestic energy bills. In fact, an average U.S. home would need around five units to meet all its electricity needs, though that’s quite a large footprint.
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Wind turbine wall (Airiva)
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Targeting urban infrastructure
While residential is a potential market, Airiva seems aimed more at urban infrastructure projects. Multiple units could line highways, span bridges or be installed at company campuses, airports, harbors and transport hubs.
“Airiva integrates within the architecture and infrastructure of our urban and suburban landscapes to bring clean energy closer to where we live and work,” Doucet said on the company’s website.
Wind turbine wall (Airiva)
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Sustainable, smart and competitive
Beyond its unique design, Airiva touts five impressive eco-friendly and technological credentials:
1. At least 80% recycled materials in manufacturing
2. Modular and scalable for diverse installation needs
3. Compatible with other distributed energy systems
4. Remote monitoring for smart control
5. Competitive energy costs compared to similar solutions
The company is still prototyping but plans customer pilots in late 2024 before opening orders in 2025. The upcoming tests will reveal if Airiva’s performance and pricing can live up to its bold promises.
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Wind turbine wall (Airiva)
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Powering the future: Sustainable tech solutions for today’s home
Innovations similar to Joe Doucet’s Airiva are making waves in the realm of residential energy efficiency. Here are some technologies that are also being used to reduce domestic energy bills:
1. Solar panels: Rooftop solar panels are a popular choice for homeowners looking to harness renewable energy. They can significantly reduce electricity bills and even generate excess power that can be sold back to the grid.
2. Smart home devices: Smart thermostats, lighting systems and appliances can optimize energy use, leading to lower energy consumption and costs.
3. Ultra-efficient heat pumps: Next-generation heat pumps can warm and cool homes more efficiently than traditional systems, reducing primary energy consumption by up to 30%.
4. Energy-efficient windows: Advanced window controls and materials can minimize heat loss during winter and reduce heat gain during summer, improving overall energy efficiency.
5. Reflective roofing materials: These materials can reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat, leading to lower cooling costs.
6. LED lighting: LED bulbs use up to 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times longer. They also produce less heat, which can help keep your home cooler in the summer. By replacing the most-used bulbs in your home with LEDs, you can save about $75 per year.
Also, consider using smart light bulbs, which are LED light bulbs that connect to the internet through Wi-Fi or a hub. When connected to the internet, you can control when, how long, how often and how brightly (and even what color) your bulb shines from the comfort of your cellphone, tablet, smartwatch or voice assistant. Smart light bulbs use at least 75% less energy and last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Be sure to check out my top smart bulb picks here.
7. Geothermal systems: Geothermal heat pumps use the stable temperature of the ground to provide heating, cooling and hot water at high efficiencies.
8. Wind turbines: Residential wind turbines can be installed on properties to generate electricity, though they require a suitable location with enough wind.
9. Hydropower systems: Microhydropower systems can be a viable option for homes near flowing water, converting the energy of flowing water into electricity.
These technologies, along with Airiva’s wind turbines, represent a growing trend towards greener, more sustainable living. They not only help in reducing energy bills but also contribute to a lower carbon footprint, aligning with global efforts to combat climate change.
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Unexpected ways to lower your energy bills
Be sure to check out some unexpected ways to lower your energy bills that I’ve discovered. You’ll learn about new and traditional products that can help create a cooling strategy that gives you more control and saves you money. To see my list of recommendations, click here.
Pro tip: Best gear to keep you cool during a hot summer
Beat the heat this summer with some great fans, coolers and sleeping solutions to help you stay chill this summer. You can check out my picks here.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
As we look towards the future, it’s clear that a combination of these technologies will be necessary to meet our energy needs in a sustainable way. From the integration of wind turbines into urban landscapes, as seen with Airiva, to the adoption of smart home technologies and the continued improvement of solar power systems, each innovation brings us closer to a more energy-efficient world. The walls that once stood as mere structures are increasingly becoming canvases for sustainable energy production, transforming the way we live and work.
What are your thoughts on the future of domestic energy production and the role of technologies like Airiva in reducing our carbon footprint? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.
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The N3 Ultimate is an excellent portable 4K projector that defeats moderate ambient light at severe placement angles and can rival more expensive home theater installations at night. After a few weeks of testing, I think the raw adaptability exhibited by the JMGO’s N3 Ultimate justifies its current $2,399 price ($500 off its $2,999 list).
Modern all-in-one projectors built around Google TV are already super accommodating when it comes to placement. Set one down on a living room table or campsite rock and it will begin searching for a screen or blank wall while avoiding obstacles to project a focused, color-corrected image that’s properly aligned. But these techniques typically resort to digital optimizations that degrade image brightness, resolution, and responsiveness. To avoid this, it’s always best to place a projector directly in front of the projection surface.
JMGO’s N3 Ultimate projector promises “lossless placement” by mounting it on a motorized gimbal that rotates horizontally and vertically. That, combined with optical zoom and generous lens shift, increases off-center placement flexibility without resorting to digital trickery. You can even drag the image Wiimote-style to the exact spot you want it using the included remote control. Handy!
The N3 Ultimate doesn’t live up to all of its marketing hype, however. It’s pitched as a 5800 ISO lumen projector that I found to be unwatchable in its brightest mode for reasons I will explain later. In modes you can actually use, you’re getting about 4,600 ISO lumens, which drops to 3,000 ISO lumens if you want more accurate colors — that’s noticeably brighter than Anker’s Nebula X1 flagship 4K portable running in comparable modes.
Even though the N3 Ultimate misses the advertised ceiling, its class-leading brightness and impressive picture could make this a television replacement for some.
$2399
The Good
- Unbeatable physical placement options that preserve image quality
- Incredibly bright, daylight-ready output
- Excellent out-of-the-box color reproduction
- Very good sound for a portable
- Snappy menu navigation and native Netflix support
The Bad
- Horribly green and loud at max brightness
- Automatic eye protection is wonky and slow to react
- Clumsy menus required to swap into Bluetooth speaker mode
- It’s portable, so where’s the handle?
The first spec I look at on portable projectors is the lumen rating. If the number is listed as anything other than ANSI or ISO, I just assume they are lying. JMGO isn’t exactly lying with its 5800 ISO lumen spec, but it’s not being completely transparent, either.
The N3 Ultimate only comes close to hitting that incredibly bright mark (I measured closer to 5,200 ISO lumens) when running in Dynamic mode, which skews the colors horribly green and causes the cooling fans to roar. The colors produced by this triple-laser RGB DLP projector are most accurate in Movie mode, but at almost half the advertised brightness.
Display Mode |
Calculated ISO Lumens |
|---|---|
| Movie | 3,066 |
| Office | 4,209 |
| Vivid | 4,624 |
| Dynamic | 5,216 |
Out of the box, I found the colors and tones produced by the N3 Ultimate’s factory tuning to be more true to life than many projectors in this class. Typically, I’d select Vivid during the day and then switch to Movie mode in darkened rooms. Sometimes I’d forget because the differences weren’t always obvious. The projector’s brightness allows its Dolby Vision support to meaningfully improve picture quality in both dark and not-so-dark rooms.
I tested the N3 Ultimate for an unhealthy number of hours on displays as large as 110 inches and as small as 32 inches; on painted walls, a glossy tabletop, a matte-white screen that increased the intensity, and a gray Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) screen that boosted the contrast. It adapted admirably to each scenario with little intervention.
Typically the projector ran whisper quiet — I had to strain to hear it. In warmer rooms and with adaptive brightness turned on, I could hear the fans kick up a notch to about 30dB from their usual 26dB, at a distance of one meter. At max brightness, the fans peaked at a very distracting 50dB.
Optimizing image placement is a little tricky at first due to all the menu options and descriptions that aren’t exactly consumer friendly. Fortunately, there’s an optimization button right on the remote that removes the guesswork. Hold it down and you can drag the projected image around the room to center it wherever you want. Double-click the button and you’re presented with four menus that guide you through image-tuning options for Lossless Lens Shift, Gimbal Motion, Zoom, and Rotate. It’s very well done and makes the projector fast and easy to set up at new locations.
The sound is decent for a portable all-in-one of this size. It’s essentially an Anker Nebula X1 turned on its side, but lacking the optional satellite speakers that make Anker’s portable projector unbeatable for sound. Without those satellites, however, the Anker and JMGO sound roughly the same. The N3 Ultimate produced clear, detailed, room-filling sound with a respectable amount of bass. So, it’s a shame that JMGO doesn’t make it easy to quickly switch the projector into Bluetooth speaker mode from the shutdown screen like many portables — instead, you have to clumsily enable it through the settings menu.
The N3 Ultimate runs Netflix out of the box and menu navigation is snappy — two things you can’t take for granted with portable Google TV projectors. The one thing missing is an integrated handle, which makes this a two-handed portable. Fortunately, JMGO does ship the N3 Ultimate inside a reusable carrying case that came in handy when transporting it by car.
1/18
I also found the projector’s automatic eye protection feature to be wonky. Even at the default sensitivity, it can be triggered for no reason. Worse, it’s slow to respond when eyeballs are actually at risk from the laser optics. And besides an on / off button, the N3 Ultimate lacks on-device controls — don’t lose the remote!
“Ultimate” is a dangerously high bar to set when naming your projector, but JMGO gets close to the mark. If audio quality is your absolute highest priority, Anker’s bulkier Nebula X1 speaker bundle remains a tempting alternative — though it will cost you significantly more cash. But if you are looking for class-leading brightness and unmatched physical placement flexibility from a 4K all-in-one projector, the JMGO N3 Ultimate at $2,399 is the way to go.
Listed Specs: JMGO N3 Ultimate
Display & Picture Quality
- Light Source: MALC 5.0 Pure Triple Laser / RGB Laser
- Resolution: 4K UHD
- Brightness: 5800 ISO Lumens
- Contrast Ratio: 20000:1
- Color Gamut: 110% BT.2020
- Color Accuracy: ΔE ≈ 0.7
- HDR Formats: Dolby Vision, HDR10
- Image Size: 40 to 300 inches
- Display Technology: DLP
Optical & Placement System
- Throw Ratio: 0.88–1.7:1
- 3-in-1 Projection: Combines Optical Zoom, Lens Shift, and an AI Gimbal base
- Projection Types: Front, Rear, Front Ceiling, Rear Ceiling
Smart Software & AI Features
- Operating System: Google TV with native Netflix integration
- Smart Features: Auto Screen Fitting, Auto Keystone, Auto Focus, Adaptive Brightness, and Wall Color Adaptation, Eye Protection
- Custom Memory: AI Spatial Memory System to remember preferred walls, zoom levels, and shortcuts
- Processor: MediaTek MT9679 chipset
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Storage: 64GB ROM
- Motion Tech: MEMC motion compensation
- Speakers: Dual 12.5W stereo speakers (25W total output)
- Sound Enhancement: Dolby Audio
- Refresh Rate: Up to 240Hz
- Input Lag: 1ms ultra-low latency
- Extra Features: Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support and specialized game modes
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
- Wired Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1 (with one port supporting eARC) and 1x USB 3.0
- Dimensions: 308.3 x 229.85 x 274.13mm
- Weight: 6.95kg
- Power Consumption: up to 300W
Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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Technology
Fox News AI Newsletter: Sanders bill would seize 50% of stock in OpenAI, Anthropic for sovereign wealth fund
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– Bernie Sanders unveils plan to take 50% stake in AI companies for government wealth fund
– College grads expect to earn $80,000 a year, but the math isn’t mathing
– Jensen Huang says Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip will reinvent the PC
Sen. Bernie Sanders reacts to questions from a Fox News Digital reporter about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s resurfaced Reddit posts while walking through the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
SOCIALIST SHARE-UP: Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is arguing that the federal government should establish a sovereign wealth fund that’s financed by taking possession of half of the stock in AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, among others.
PAPER CHASE: If you want to understand what’s broken about higher education in America, look no further than one statistic.
According to a recent survey, the average college student expects to earn $80,000 a year shortly after graduation. The reality? The average starting salary is closer to $56,000. That’s a 30% gap between expectation and reality before a graduate even receives their first paycheck.
THE AGENTIC ERA: Nvidia on Monday unveiled a new chip that will bring artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities onto laptops and desktop computers.
The new AI chip, known as RTX Spark, was built as part of a collaboration between Nvidia and Microsoft to make personal computers that are built to power AI tools.
A student walks across the campus grounds at Harvard University. (Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Getty Images)
CRACKED IN DAYS: Apple devices have earned a reputation for being tough to break into. That comes from Apple’s tight control over the hardware, software and many of the protections standing between you and an attacker. However, a new claim from security startup Calif shows how quickly the cybersecurity world may be changing.
FINANCIAL DYNAMITE: Billionaire Jeff Bezos just detonated a financial hand grenade in the middle of America’s tax debate.
The Amazon founder recently suggested that the bottom half of American earners should pay zero federal income tax. Not lower taxes. Not a temporary rebate. Zero.
BIG BROTHER BOSS: The NewsGuild of New York has accused The New York Times of using artificial intelligence technology to monitor and surveil the performance of unionized tech workers in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.
The New York Times Building is shown in Midtown Manhattan. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
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Fellow Traveller, the publisher behind games like Titanium Court and 1000xResist, just wrapped up its Story-Rich Showcase, which featured a bunch of narrative-driven indie games. With more than 20 games on display, there was a lot to follow, but we’ve pulled together some of the most notable announcements below. You can also catch the full show on Fellow Traveller’s YouTube channel.
Ambrosia Sky is getting its second and final episode
Ambrosia Sky, a sci-fi game about death where you have to clean up alien fungi, will be getting its second act as a free update on August 6th. The game was originally planned to have three acts, but developer Soft Rains announced in March that it would be brought down to two. When Act Two launches, the game’s price will go up from $14.99 to $24.99.
The Citizen Sleeper games are coming to Nintendo Switch 2
The sci-fi RPGs Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector are getting Switch 2 versions on June 25th. If you already own them on the original Switch, you can play the Switch 2 versions at no extra charge. Developer Gareth Damian Martin also says they will be revealing their next game during Sunday’s PC Gaming Show.
Desktop Explorer, a spooky game about looking through an old computer, launches in July
This trailer for Desktop Explorer, a horror puzzle game where you click through a creepy version of an old, Windows-like operating system, might be the scariest way to use a computer. It’s launching on July 17th.
Demonschool is getting DLC and will launch on the Switch 2
The upcoming paid DLC for Demonschool, a tactical RPG from Necrosoft that channels Buffy and Persona, has a focus on “puzzle battles” where players work to clear out enemies using certain characters in one turn. Both the DLC and the Switch 2 version (which includes mouse support and an improved frame rate) will launch sometime this year.
The developers of a point-and-click thriller are making a fantasy game
Powerhoof, the studio behind last year’s retro-styled mystery game The Drifter, is now working on The Telwynium, a “fantasy adventure epic.” “Book One” of the game is now available on Steam, though you can also grab it from Itch.io if you prefer.
The Mermaid Mask, a new detective game, is launching in July
SFB Games, the studio that made games like Tangle Tower and Crow Country, is releasing its next game, The Mermaid Mask, on July 16th. It’s a locked-door mystery that’s fully voice-acted and features hand-drawn animations — looks like a great story to settle into this summer.
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