Posted 06/22/09 at 05:59:37 PM by Andy Salisbury

Recently HP announced their brand spankin’ new HD Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web, allowing users to print web content straight from the printer.

The Photosmart’s TouchSmart Web UI system works on a 4-inch widescreen panel that features a row of thumbnails that you flick through in order to access what you wish to print. It also comes with an open API, allowing any web content developer to create their own widgets.

HP expects that the new Photosmart will revolutionize and “change the way people think about printing.” Typical taglines, but for those interested, the printer is WiFi enabled, can copy, scan and fax, and will cost $399.

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Posted 01/07/09 at 04:57:37 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Need a good reason to "go green" by recycling your old electronics? How about getting some green (money, that is) for your old desktop or laptop computers, digital cameras, monitors, PDAs, smartphones, inkjet or laser printers, table PCs, or workstations? HP has teamed up with Market Velocity, Inc. to offer the HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program. Whether you think you're sitting on a potential gold mine of old stuff or are looking for a painless way to get worthless digital junk out of your office, give it a try.

For details, join us after the jump.

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Posted 12/23/08 at 05:48:27 AM by Pulkit Chandna

The prevailing zeitgeist has got people adamant upon conserving as much as possible and that obsession manifests in ways you don’t generally expect. A Dutch firm, Spranq, has come up with a font that can save ink consumption by 20%. The secret of the font, aptly titled Ecofont, lies in the fact that every character is pocked with holes galore. And quite obviously, rocket scientists, this implies that less ink is required to print a character compared to a generic font devoid of holes. The innovative font can be downloaded free of cost.

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Posted 11/13/08 at 04:32:12 PM by Andy Salisbury

No, it won’t teach you Kung Fu. But what it will do is actually provide a pretty suitable 3D printer for the masses.

Mcor’s Matrix has already been released to the UK, and works with some pretty basic technology. Using some time-honored A4 paper and PVA glue to create complex 3D objects, it provides a nice, cheap alternative to current polymer-based options.

While it won’t be able to make your World of Warcraft character into a FigurePrints quality statuette, it will consume far fewer resources. According to Mcor, up to 40 times less. If something like this is down your alley keep your eyes open in Q1 of 2009, when the Matrix is slated to make its US debut.

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Posted 10/15/08 at 04:21:49 PM by Andy Salisbury

So you just got a snazzy new printer, huh? Funny thing, so did GE! While they think your photo quality printer is nice, they’re much happier with theirs that prints OLED lights.

GE’s printer, which is about the size of a semi-trailer, coats an 8-inch plastic sheet with chemicals and seals it up with a layer of metal foil. Once an electric current is applied to this sheet, it lights up with a blue-white glow.

GE has been heralding the countless possibilities of these sheets. Given that they’re flexible, one could wrap them around a pillar, tack them to a wall or even make a translucent version and attach it to a window (though, nobody’s really sure why). And given that these panels provide diffused light, they’ll be much easier on the eye than current lighting technology.

Lawrence Gasman of Nanomarkets LLC, a research firm in Glen Allen, Virginia is suggesting that these OLEDs could become very common sources of lights, with sales reaching $5.9 billion by 2015.

Bob Sagebiel, the technical marketing manager for lighting at Arrow Electronics Inc. isn’t as confident in these figures though. He points out that these fixtures won’t fit into the 20 billion light-bulb sockets worldwide, and that since they’re so different from current lighting technology they may have issues being accepted. Not to mention commercial buildings would need to be rewired in order to take advantage if potentially bigger OLED panels that wouldn’t fit into existing fixtures for fluorescent tubes.

Only time will tell, but the future for this technology looks pretty bright (see what I did there?).

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Posted 07/03/08 at 03:50:03 PM by Gordon Mah Ung

I still own a vintage Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera but feeding it was expensive then and now nigh impossible thanks to the end of instant film. Polaroid’s POGO portable printer brings back some of the fun I had with the SX-70. This pocket printer is the first to use Zero Imaging’s Zero Ink paper that does away with ink in favor of billions of embedded crystals in the 2x3 sheets of paper.

Hook your PictBridge-enabled digital camera up to the POGO via a Type A USB cable and let the fun begin. Once the camera has finished chewing on the image, it will take about 30 seconds to print out. The POGO will print full bleed to the tiny pieces of paper and the adhesive back lets you stick ‘em anywhere. Fun, right?

Hit the jump for more impressions and a gallery of sticky photos.

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Posted 08/09/07 at 12:17:34 PM by Michael Brown

Belkin's new Network USB Hub delivers a sweet solution for an all-too-common problem.

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Posted 03/26/07 at 05:03:35 PM by Michael Brown

The Brother P-Touch is a slick product in a dull category.

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