News Blog

(Credit: Buy.com)

Here's the scoop: Buy.com has the Epson Stylus CX7450 printer/scanner/copier for $70. They also have a deal going where you can get a $70 mail-in rebate if you purchase a digital camera at the same time. Any digital camera. Like the $9.99 Argus Keychain Digital Camera. Add $6.79 for shipping and your out-the-door price is $86.78. Final price after rebate: $16.78. Woo!

The CX7450 employs four separate ink cartridges (one each for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) and promises print speeds of up to 28 pages per minute. It includes a memory-card reader, a 120-sheet paper tray, and fairly basic scan/copy features. It's new, not a refurb. As for the camera, well, it's junk. It does double as a Webcam, though, so maybe you'll get some use out of it. If not, it's a perfect play-camera for the kids.

No rush on this one: The rebate deal is good until March 31. Of course, the $9.99 camera may not be around nearly as long. (Via Deals2Buy.)

(Credit: Wal-Mart)

Ooh! Here's what you can do with the $34 you save on the iPod touch. (See previous post.) Wal-Mart has the HP DeskJet F2110 all-in-one printer for exactly that price, though you will have to pay shipping and/or sales tax.

The F2110 prints, scans, and copies in color. It features a 100-sheet input tray and works with Windows and Mac systems. You can find the complete specs on the product page--and almost nowhere else. Curiously, this model doesn't appear on HP's own site. Too new? Maybe a Wal-Mart exclusive? I'm not sure, but I can handle a little mystery in exchange for a $34 multifunction printer! For what it's worth, 171 Wal-Mart shoppers rated the F2110 4 stars out of 5 on average.

(Credit: Lexmark)

All-in-one printers are insanely handy to have around. Consider: you can make copies--color copies--without having to run out to Kinko's. You can send faxes on those rare occasions when e-mail won't do. You can scan documents for electronic storage. Oh, and you can print.

Most of these multifunction wonders start at around $100, but Buy.com is offering the Lexmark X8350 for $59.99, shipped, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

The specs look pretty typical for an all-in-one, but with a few highlights. First, you can connect your digital camera or pop in its memory card, preview photos on the 2.7-inch color LCD, then crank out borderless prints in a variety of sizes. Second, you can scan documents straight to a USB flash drive; for some reason I find that really cool.

Unfortunately, the X8350 lacks an Ethernet jack, so you can't easily use it as a network printer, and it's up to you to supply the USB cable. But with a final price of just $60, you can afford that extra $5. The rebate deal is good through January 30, 2008.

Though beaten to the punch by the FCC, Dell introduced the world to its forthcoming all-in-one PC at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco Wednesday.

Well, it wasn't a formal introduction as much as an all-too-brief glimpse of the XPS One A2010, which resembles a wide-screen TV with separate keyboard. Chief Executive Michael Dell drew the crowd's attention to the all-in-one during his keynote when he asked Chief Technology Officer Kevin Kettler, who joined him on stage, what "that" device was. Playing along, Kettler "guessed" that it looked like a TV, since it had a remote and was playing a Blu-ray disc.

The Dell XPS One leaked on the FCC site last month.

(Credit: Dell)

"It looks like an all-in-one machine. But I probably shouldn't say anymore about that," Kettler concluded, tongue firmly in cheek. He did mention that it will be announced "next week."

Though an enterprise software conference might seem an odd place to introduce a firmly consumer-oriented product, Dell certainly wasn't the only one to deviate from standard OOW content. And it didn't stop with the XPS One. While on stage, Dell took the opportunity to demonstrate its forthcoming convertible tablet PC, the Latitude XT (click here for video), which Kettler said is on track to ship in the next few months. And for good measure, Kettler briefly noted how the XPS M1330 laptop he was holding would be a great holiday gift for the whole family.

It wasn't all a consumer hardware commercial, however. Dell also talked up on-demand desktop streaming as an alternative to thin-client computing. On-demand streaming features a desktop client with its own CPU and graphics processor. Saying it had comparable security and costs to thin clients, and the performance of traditional clients, Dell said desktop streaming would allow IT departments to push software updates instantly to all stations and allow for better video playback.

And it wouldn't be a Dell keynote for the company's green initiative. Dell again challenged the industry to join his efforts in the greening of the IT industry. Citing a Gartner report predicting widespread data center brownouts several years from now, Dell called it "absolutely unacceptable."

Without revealing many details, he said that Dell will soon roll out a program called Greenprint, which allows companies to check their power efficiency and then enable them to find ways to make themselves even more "green."

He ended on the note challenging other companies to "consider the impact green technologies can have on (return on investment) and on our planet."

It looks like Dell plans to enter the all-in-one market after all, according to information uncovered on the FCC's Web site this morning (thanks PC Joint and Gizmodo).

When the Dell XPS One A2010 comes to market, it will join the Gateway One, the Sony VAIO LT19U, and the HP TouchSmart as Windows-based competition to the Apple iMac.

Dell's XPS One A2010, as leaked by the FCC

(Credit: Dell)

The reports indicate that Dell will have options for a Blu-ray burner, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, and a TV tuner, making it more in-line with the higher-end VAIO than with the more mainstream Gateway One. With those specs in mind, we'd guess pricing will be similar to the new XPS 420 desktop--between $1,500 and $2,500, depending on the options--although possibly higher due to the added cost of heat management and space savings in a confined chassis.

As we said, assuming Dell releases this system with the specs as reported, every major desktop vendor will offer a reasonably priced all-in-one. If you're not shopping for a budget PC, if you're not a gamer, and if you're not a video editor, these systems seem to offer everything you'd want in a modern computer. We have to ask, then, what again is the purpose of a traditional midrange desktop?