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Review of the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro4000 Color Inkjet Printer

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:32:20 +0000

More and more I'm seeing inkjet printers that are said to rival laser printers in quality, and it's not always just marketing hype. Given the difference in technologies, I'm not sure it will ever be completely equal; but for evaluation by mere mortals, the difference is certainly becoming less and less. That's the case with the new Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro4000 color inkjet all-in-one printer, which boasts not only laser-like quality but also some pretty decent speeds as well. At least, under some circumstances. But for the price point (around $250) it's going to be easy to overlook some weak points when an inkjet printer offers results as good as these. Check out the Full Review of the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro4000 for more details and pros and cons.

Panasonic's New Multifunction Laser Printer: Small in Size and Price

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:07:25 +0000

Panasonic's new monochrome laser printer, the KX-MB1500, retails for not much more than $100 but it feels like it should cost more, since it offers copy and scan capabilities in addition to being a perfectly acceptable laser printer. It's light on extras such as Wi-Fi or wired networking, and so home offices or small workgroups that need to share a printer might want to spend a bit more on another (larger) all-in-one printer. Otherwise it's hard to find major faults in a printer that costs much less than many inkjet printers. If you don't need to network a printer or require color prints, this might be a good deal for you.

Don't Miss Your Chance to Win $100,000 in 3-D Printing Prizes!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:07:09 +0000

Want to get your very own Objet 3D Printer, with six months worth of printing materials? You can, but you'll have to work for it. The folks at Instructables (an addictive site if ever there was one) are giving you the opportunity to win a host of fantastic prizes, including an Objet 30 Desktop 3D Printer (worth more than $50,000); 10 lucky winners will take home an Up! Personal Portable 3D Printer, and 20 more will get some unspecified "3D printing services." All you have to do to win is "post an Instructable that shows how to turn a virtual item into a tangible object," which can range from 3-D prints to "printed decals using an inkjet printer." Simple! Don't delay, enter today! Instructables' fine print: The contest is open only to entrants from the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. And not Quebec. Sorry everyone else.

No Computer, No Problem: Xerox Mobile Scanner Doesn't Need One

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:13:09 +0000

If it's important to you to be able to scan a photo and send it immediately to the cloud without having to first connect to a computer or laptop, you're going to like the new Xerox Mobile Scanner...

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Brother's New Multifunction Digital Printer Reviewed

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:20:27 +0000

Brother has cornered the market on consumer LED printers--most other LED manufacturers seem to be aimed either at large organizations or have not provided me with any review units. The company's newest offering is the MFC-9325CW...

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iModela Mill: The Opposite of 3-D Printing

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:17:29 +0000

3-D printing is commonly known as 'additive manufacturing,' since it adds layer after layer of material (often a type of plastic, but not necessarily) until the final product is achieved. iModela is a 3-D milling machine that works quite the opposite: Like a sculptor carving from a block of stone, the mill drills away at a block of material such as wood or foam until the final product is revealed. According to Roland DG, which makes the $1,000 machine, "iModela makes it easy to create a physical model from an artist's 3D rendering, using powerful 3D modeling technology to sculpt shapes, drill holes, create reliefs, smooth surfaces and engrave designs." The machine comes with 3-D design software as well.

3-D Printing: Fad or Paradigm Buster?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:48:11 +0000

Two well-argued article in MIT's Technology Review look at the promise of additive manufacturing and other forms of 3-D printing from different perspectives. The first, Why 3-D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality, by Christopher Mims, argues that thinking of 3-D printing as a technology that will, on "any reasonable time scale become a "mature" technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely is to engage in a complete denial of the complexities of modern manufacturing, and, more to the point, the challenges of working with matter." Mims notes that plastics are the most commonly used materials in 3-D printing, and these are simply unsuited for many real-life applications. (It's worth noting, as many comments do, that Shapeways can print using many different materials, including glass.) While the potential applications are thrilling, he cautions that the hype around 3-D printing could lead to backlash and consignment to the "too-deep trough of the Gartner hype cycle."

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Epson Offers New Wide-Format Printers for Small Businesses

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:35:28 +0000

Epson America has released three new business-class wide-format printers, aimed at business professionals who need to print in sizes up to 13"x19" and a scan bed that can accommodate paper as large as 11"x17". The WorkForce WF-7520 and WF-7510 are both all-in-one printers that offer fast print speeds (up to 15 pages per minute black and eight pages per minute color, per Epson), wired and wireless networking, built-in duplex printing, and a 2.5-inch color LCD screen. The 7520 has two 250-sheet paper trays and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF); the 7510 has one paper tray for 250 sheets as well as the ADF. The third addition to the WorkForce line, the WF-7010, is a single-function color inkjet printer that can also handle the same large formats as the other units. It doesn't include some of the pricier features of the other printers, such as wireless networking. The WorkForce WF-7010 will retail for $199.99; the WorkForce WF-7510 for $249.99; and the WorkForce WF-7520 for $299.99. All the printers should be available in box stores and online in early February.

Lexmark Introduces Two Heavy-Duty Inkjet Printers

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:52:26 +0000

Lexmark is offering two new inkjet printers "built for heavy-duty printing," according to the company, which cites a report from an independent test lab that ran 20,000 pages without a jam. Offices that do a lot of printing will appreciate that aspect of the OfficeEdge Pro5500 and the Pro4000, as well as the cartridges that yield as many as 2,500 black and 1,600 color pages--and what Lexmark claims is "a 50% lower printing cost on laser-quality documents" when compared to sub-$500 color laser all-in-one printers. Need speed? Lexmark says it's got you covered there as well, with print speeds as fast as 21 pages per minute black and 14 pages per minute in color. The OfficeEdge Pro5500 offers an optional second paper tray so you can get 850 pages printed without adding new paper. Printing from mobile devices will be simple using the Lexmark Mobile Printing App, and workflow solutions are easy to implement with downloadable SmartSolutions, productivity apps that streamline daily tasks. The Pro5500 will retail for about $399 when it hits the streets later this year. The Pro4000 doesn't have the Pro5500's handy 4.3-inch color touch screen but it will retail for $150 less. Check back soon for a full review of the Lexmark Office Edge Pro5500.

3-D Printing at Home: Are You Breaking the Law?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:35:05 +0000

If you pony up enough money for a 3-D printer at home (and that's not as much money as it used to be, as the newly released MakerBot Replicator proves), can you print whatever you like? The answer is that you can't--at least, not without some risk of infringing someone's copyright, as one 3-D printing fan found out last year when he created a CAD file that would allow a prop from the movie Super 8 to be printed via Shapeways. The shutdown of Megaupload underscores how sharp-toothed the argument about piracy has become, and 3-D printing is poised to be the next industry that gets intense oversight from corporate lawyers. The folks at Pirate Bay, home to countless torrents of every kind of media imaginable, intend to be at the cutting edge of that piracy discussion. They've announced that their site will host downloadable files for 3-D printed objects, a category they've named physibles. From the Pirate Bay site: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare parts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years."

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