Crave

HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One Printer

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Shopping for a budget printer doesn't have to be an exercise in anger-management and self-abasement. Contrary to the stigma, many printers can produce great quality photos and documents without breaking the bank or eating up expensive consumables. Now release your fingers from your hair, put down that club, and check out these tips for getting the best deal for your money.

Before you even start shopping, decide whether you want a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Laser printers use bulky toner cartridges and are typically reserved for home offices that print monochrome text documents and presentations. Businesses also steer toward lasers because of their quick output speeds and reliable text quality. Monochrome lasers like the Samsung ML-2851ND are a good choice for homes that print a large volume of documents, and can be purchased for less than $200.

Inkjet printers are the more versatile choice for color photo printing, Web prints, and creative projects like greeting cards and calendars. They come in a variety of form factors from small and simple personal devices all the way up to fully featured All-in-Ones with scanners, fax machines, and copiers built right into the machine. Of course, the more features you want, the more expensive the printer gets so be sure to make a thorough list beforehand and stick to it. Some of the pricier additions include:

• Auto-document feeder: commonly shortened to ADF, the horizontal input tray lets you scan/fax/copy a stack of papers at once.
• Auto-duplexer: a hardware addition that lets you print on two sides of a single-sheet of paper. Consider this option if you plan to print a lot of pages per month--it could potentially save you money on paper, and it's environmentally responsible!
• Wired/wireless networking: all modern printers use USB to connect to a computer, but many also offer wired and wireless networking at a higher cost.
• Full color/touch-screen LCD: a flashy 6-inch touch-panel LCD screen might look beautiful, but the functionality is extraneous and isn't worth the price jack. If you're on a tight budget, consider a single function inkjet like the HP Officejet 6000 that doesn't have a display and only costs $90.

If you do go for an inkjet, shop around and look for one with separate ink tanks for each color so that you don't need to replace everything when only one color runs dry. This technology used to be relegated to photo printers more than $300, but the prices have fallen and now it's common to see sub-$150 printers like the HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One and the Canon Pixma CMX860 multifunction that feature multiple cartridges. Also, be sure to do a little research to find out if your brand offers high-capacity cartridges. These inks are more expensive but they last longer and will save you money if you're printing a lot of photos.

One final word of advice: don't just think about the sticker price, consider the total cost of ownership. That includes the page yields of the manufacturer's ink and toner, cost of paper including photo and plain, how many pages you'll print per month versus stated duty cycle, and of course, the optional features you might want to add later. Stick to the list you make and buy a machine suitable for your printing needs and you'll be just fine.

This multifunction photo printer normally sells for $150 or more.

(Credit: Epson)

Epson's having a rare sale: you can get a refurbished Epson Stylus Photo RX595 all-in-one printer for just $55 shipped.

What's significant about this model? Most of the cheapie multifunction printers I come across have low-end print engines, meaning they're not great for photos. The Stylus Photo RX595, as you might infer from the name, was built with glossies in mind.

It accepts just about any memory card on the planet (USB drives, too), previews images on a 2.5-inch color LCD, and prints using a six-cartridge system. It can also print on CDs and DVDs, scan directly to PDF, and crop/edit photos--no PC required.

CNET hasn't reviewed this model, but it rates 3.5 stars from Amazon customers. It's Windows- and Mac-compatible; all users will need to supply their own USB cable. Thankfully, even though this is a refurb, Epson backs it with a full one-year warranty.

One final note: Yes, replacement ink is expensive. That's true of all printers. So you might as well get the best possible deal on the hardware.

Dear Lexmark,

We'd like to invite you and one of your printers to join our secret society: it's called Best 5, and although we don't have perverted initiations, secret handshakes, or kooky hats, you do get to feature your X7675 Professional on our list of the Best 5 printers.

We put the X7675 printer/scanner/copier/fax machine through a series of grueling tests to gauge its print speed, ease of use, and output quality, and we're impressed with the results. The front mounted control panel contains individual buttons that toggle commonly used preferences, and you can even plug your camera's memory cards into the media bay for direct printing.

The printer did tempt us to unleash the ceremonial paddle two times during our tests: first, the paper input tray can only hold up to 100 sheets of paper, while the competition offers similarly priced units that can support 250 pages. As long as you don't mind refilling paper every once in while, this is a minor irritation. Second, the tray that's supposed to catch paper as it rockets out of the printer is way too short; we actually stationed a pledge with a trashcan beneath the printer to catch the falling debris, but it's also a problem that is easily solved with five fingers and a little attention.

So congratulations, Lexmark--your X7675 Professional now joins the ranks of the most world renowned Top 5ers. Your inauguration will come at a time of our choosing--maybe tonight, maybe six months from now, but we recommend continuing to bring the heat--your membership depends on it!

I have a love/hate relationship with the Epson Artisan 800 multifunctional printer. Let's start on the positive end: after doing a thorough test of the features, I have no problem saying that the Artisan 800 produces some of the highest-quality photo and graphic prints I've ever seen, even on regular 20-pound white paper. Our standard sheet of colored text also looked very pleasing. On top of that, I have to applaud Epson for the 800's chart-topping print speed. The printer delivered a 4-inch-by-6-inch color photo in 18 seconds, almost double the speed of our comparison printers.

Unfortunately, the fun stops there. The testing process, although tedious and time consuming, has never given me a headache...until now. A combination of mechanical and software errors made the printer borderline unusable; I almost spent more time fixing paper jams and restarting the printer than actually testing it. Toward the end of the testing, images of a certain scene from the movie Office Space danced in my head. Luckily for this printer, the CNET office is currently suffering from a severe shortage of baseball bats.

Tuesday, Canon announced six new printers that are sure to appeal to a variety of users including small- to mid-size business professionals, photography enthusiasts, students, and creative hobbyists. This new release includes four new Pixma printers and two new Selphy compact photo printers. Let's take a closer look at the offerings:

Pixma iP3600

• $80
• 9600x2400 color dpi resolution
• Dual paper trays for plain and photo paper
• Five color individual ink cartridge bay
• Bundled with one ChromaLife100+ ink set and Easy-PhotoPrint EX software

Pixma iP4600

• $100
• 9600x2400 color dpi resolution
• Reported print speeds of up to 26 pages per minute for black, and up to 21 ppm for color
• Auto-duplexer with two separate paper trays
• Easy-PhotoPrint EX software includes Auto-Photo Fix for easy edits

Canon introduced two new Pixma printers on Monday, August 11, the Pixma MP480 and Pixma MP190. Both of them are all-in-one printers, meaning they also do triple duty as scanners and copiers. These new models are supposedly ideal for both work and home, and include several new features that make the printing, scanning, and copying processes much easier for the end user. In addition, they also take on a slightly updated look from previous Pixma printers, with a sleek, but versatile, style incorporating flip-top LCD screens and a matte silver and black palette.

The $70 Pixma MP190 is a low-level photo printer with a maximum resolution of 4,800x1,200dpi. The printer uses two ink four-color cartridges with a minimum two-picoliter droplet size for better quality photo print. In addition, the MP190 uses Canon's new ChromaLife 100 system that prevents photos from fading as a result of exposure to heat, light, and humidity. Another feature unique to the MP190 is the Advanced Z-Lid scanner that works on a vertical hinge, allowing you to pull the lid over bulky books and thick documents.

The $100 Pixma MP480 is a little more robust in its features, incorporating a large 1.8-inch TFT color display that flips up from the front of the console. The menu pad looks pretty basic with a minimalist design. The MP480 features two new software functions: the Auto Photo Fix and Auto Scan mode. The Auto Photo Fix uses Canon's Easy-Photoprint EX to detect whether the photo is a portrait or a scene, and automatically adjusts the brightness, contrast, color saturation, and facial tones without the use of Photoshop or other complicated software programs. The Auto Scan mode automatically detects the type of document being scanned and crops and saves the file based on the image type-- Photo, Post Card, Business Card, Magazine, Newspaper, or Document. Finally, the MP480 is also compatible with ChromaLife 100 dye ink that produces full color photos reportedly capable of lasting 300 years.

Both printers are available for purchase now, and look for a review of both coming soon.

If you're one of the many waiting for Apple to get its act together and offer a copy/paste feature on the iPhone, there's a promising development called MagicPad from software creator Proximi. It's an application similar to the notes tool that ships with the iPhone. The big difference is that it's got support for multiple fonts; rich text elements like underlining, italics, and strikethroughs; and the much-wanted copy/paste.

It manages to do all this by adding a small toolbar over the iPhone's onscreen keyboard. Using the small loop magnifier you can highlight strings of text, then copy them into a virtual clipboard. From there it can be pasted into other notes, then sent off. Unfortunately you can't carry the clipboard to other applications, which is what most people are hoping Apple will provide.

Posted after the break is a video of the yet-to-be-released application in action, which was made by AppleiPhoneNotes.com. One thing that might keep MagicPad from making it onto the device is if it does not meet Apple's stringent human interface guidelines, which protect things like the keyboard configuration to keep the end user from getting confused.

(Via Macrumors)

Write notes, and use rich text elements including copy and paste, with MagicPad.

(Credit: Proximi)

Convergence is the key to staying ahead in the technology game, so it's no surprise that printer vendors are offering more and more printers that do quadruple duty as scanner, copier, and fax machine. Today, Lexmark caters to the back-to-school shoppers with a handful of new All-in-Ones that are competitively priced but include all the features you'd find in their larger counterparts.

The $99 X5650 AiO is a printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine with an auto-document feeder for scanning/copying stacks of paper. It can reportedly print up to 25 black pages per minute and 18 color. Unique to this model is a port that sits on the front of the printer, making it easy to quickly connect and print through a laptop.

The $129.99 X6650 is also four machines in one and adds a wireless printer server built into the device. It also has a 2-inch OLED screen, an auto-document feeder, and the same reported print speed as the X5650.

Finally, the $149.99 X4950 only has three capabilities (print, scan, and copy), but also has wireless, two-sided printing (duplexing), a 2.4-inch color LCD, and an auto-document feeder.
All three models in the Home and Student series will be available in September.

It's software like Nero that makes copying optical media content so easy.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

Yeah, I know, it hit me as a surprise too. However, that's one of the findings found in a recent Consumer Home Piracy market research study carried out by Futuresource Consulting and sponsored by Macrovision.

The study was done in May 2008 in the U.S. and the U.K. with the sample size of more than 5,000 people. As it turns out, one-third of all the respondents in both countries admit to having made copies of prerecorded DVDs, on average about 13 titles each, in the last six months, up from just over a quarter of respondents in 2007. At this rate, before you know it, most of us will be copying DVDs.

The survey goes deeper and analyzes other information about the copiers, from their age, the kind of entertainment they would copy, to the method they use to get the job done and so on.

One of the motivations for the study is to find out the reason for the studios' decline in sale revenues of DVDs since the end of 2007. (Though the sale of Blu-ray media already largely offset it). It's interesting, though, the fact that the study didn't ask any questions about the consumers' renting habit (apparently they have to do this in order to make copies), but focus mostly to find out why the consumers would not buy more DVDs. What the studios want us to do is go see the movie in the theater, then rent the movie again to watch it at home, then go buy a Blu-ray copy of it, and while we are at it, buy a DVD copy of it, too. And they seems somewhate reasonable as most of the study's respondents indeed did admit that they would go buy the DVDs if they couldn't copy them.

In conclusion, the study showed that as studios' revenues from DVDs are in decline, protecting revenues is even more vital than 12 months ago. This basically means they don't feel like they are making enough money, and there's no definitive definition to what enough is.

So, who's to blame and what's the solution? I don't know and leave the answer to those who are directly concerned by the matter. If you are one of them, you can get the full report of the study by contacting Macrovison at cmurphy@macrovision.com.

In the meantime, the rest of us, guys, please either stop copying or be not so honest about it when it comes to filling market research questionnaires. Personally, I would rather see you do the former, but that's just because piracy is against the law, not because it has anything to do with me making enough money or not (which I don't, by the way).