budgeting

A good printer is a cheap printer

So you bought a brand new computer for your home and want a desktop printer to go along with it, but don't have a ton of cash leftover? No problem. Prices for single-function inkjet and monolaser printers have dropped significantly in the past five years, and you can easily pick one up that'll handle the job for less than $150. Leave the high-volume documents for the laser monster at work and invest in a scaled-down, simple printer for the home. Take a look at our roundup of inexpensive printers for the home.

Mino among sharks: New Flip camcorder coming

Hot on the heels of the launch of Creative's new budget video camera, a reader tipped us off to take a look at a little item in B&H's print catalog. Newsjeff wrote: "I just got a B&H big catalog and it lists a new camcorder from Flip Video, the Mini Flip...check it out."

Well, we happen to have recently received a catalog as well, and lo and behold, there is indeed a listing for a new Flip. However, it's not called the Mini, it's called the Mino. The only … Read more

Creative introduces superslim Flip competitor

With the success of the Flip Video Ultra, a lot more companies are taking a hard look at the budget video camera market, and Tuesday Creative jumped into the fray with its $99 Vado Pocket Video Cam.

From what we can tell from the news release, the Vado offers features very similar to the Flip Video Ultra. However, the Vado comes with 2GB of built-in memory and a removable rechargeable battery for less money. Creative also claims that the sub 3-ounce Vado is "dramatically thinner and lighter than competing video cameras," which we assume means the Flip Video … Read more

One more reason for open source: Australia blows $51 million on Microsoft Office

Australia just got hit with $51 million in license fees for Microsoft Office on computers that didn't need the software.

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith yesterday said the computer "blunder" saw thousands of Health Department computers loaded up with $675 versions of Microsoft Office software, which the computers did not use or need. Just 4000 of the 16,000 computers actually used the software, Mr Hamilton-Smith told Parliament.

Health Minister John Hill was quick to defend the decision and insisted that all of the licenses are in use (on "computers that monitored patients, analysed pathology data or … Read more

Defense Dept. doubles spending on systems that don't deliver

The price tag on the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (PDF) has gone up 168 percent--just one of the military's flagship programs that cost more, take longer to produce, and deliver less, according to a government report.

The military has doubled the amount it will spend on new weapons systems since 2000, but many are behind schedule or cannot deliver on the crucial technological innovations, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) found in an annual review of 72 high-profile programs.

Proposed spending has rocketed from $790 billion to $1.6 trillion since 2000, a 26 percent increase, according to the … Read more

Report: IT budgets expected to have a steady hand in 2008

Despite gloom and doom hitting the economy, the fear factor largely hasn't eroded IT budgets for this year, according to a Gartner CIO study to be released next week.

IT budgets worldwide are expected to grow 3.3 percent this year, and 62 percent of those surveyed by Gartner expect their budgets will remain unchanged despite the changing economic winds.

And surprisingly, 15 percent of the CIOs surveyed said they plan to increase their budgets this year, by 15 percent on average. Woohoo.

While all this may cause a sigh of relief among IT providers, the industry isn't … Read more

Fujitsu announces low-cost LifeBook V1010

Not one to be topped by Sony, whose VAIO NR160 lowered the price threshold for owning a Sony laptop to $829, Fujitsu has announced a budget-friendly addition to its LifeBook line. The LifeBook V1010, which starts at $799, combines a 15.4-inch display, 120 GB hard drive, built-in DVD burner, and spill-resistant keyboard in a hefty 6.2-pound package. So far so good, though the baseline configuration includes the super-budget Pentium dual-core processor, which occupies the bottom rung of Intel's dual-core options. The $799 price also only includes 1GB of RAM, so it's a good thing that Fujitsu … Read more

DXG's new budget do-it-all camera

DXG just announced the latest member of its pocket camera family. The DXG-572V can shoot 5-megapixel still images, or record VGA (640 x 480) video at 30 frames per second. While it doesn't have nearly as many settings as your typical digital camera, the 572V does let you change white balance settings, so your incandescent-lit shots don't come out all yellowed. It also features a voice-recorder mode, for taking down voice notes.

Unfortunately, do-everything devices like the DXG-572V tend to end up being jacks of some trades, masters of none. With just a 5-megapixel sensor, a tiny 2-inch … Read more

New eMachines desktops hit the shelves

eMachines has become so regular with its quarterly refreshes, it might be more newsworthy if they didn't announce new systems every three months. But rest assured, if you head to your friendly-neighborhood desktop retailer next week (and possibly even today), you'll find three new eMachines budget PCs on the shelves: the $500 T5230, the $450 T5062, and the $400 T3616. All come with a $50 mail-in rebate as well.

We've been lukewarm on eMachines the past few releases, mostly due to questionable CPU selection. This time, though, we're particularly impressed with the T5230 and its Athlon … Read more