BETTER, FASTER, BRIGHTER
The eternal promise of - that devices will keep getting cheaper and better - continues to play out among low-end printers.
Hewlett-Packard's newest printer for families, students and the home office, the US$49 DeskJet D2560, and a multitasking sibling that also does scanning and copying, the US$79 F4280, were announced last week and will ship this spring. They focus on being simple and reliable, without camera-card slots, wireless features or display screens - just a single USB port.
Their reworked mechanical guts aim to provide jam-free paper traffic while working faster than last year's similarly priced models, rolling out 26 black-text pages a minute, 20 in color.
New ink cartridges produce droplets that are a pin-prick 1.3 microliters for crisp text or smooth photo gradations, making two ink cartridges simulate the output of the six or so in photo-specific printers.
HP says these printers are built to last, and standard replacement cartridges will cost US$33. It might make sense, for a few dollars more, to buy a whole new printer every year.
OLYMPUS SLIMS DOWN SLR CAMERAS
Carrying a digital single-lens reflex camera has long required a certain amount of dedication. These cameras have long been heavier and bulkier and required more accessories - flashes, bags, fishing-style vests - than standard point-and-shoot models.
The Olympus E-420 tries to toe the line between high-end SLR and mini-shooter. This 380g camera is smaller than most SLRs yet still has a 10 megapixel sensor and even includes live view - the ability to frame and take a picture using the screen rather than the viewfinder.
The camera, which is 12cm long and 12.7cm thick, is available with a 25mm "pancake" lens that looks like a thick coaster. It is 2.3cm thick but gives an equivalent 50mm angle of view considered normal on a film-based SLR.
The camera can be used with Compact Flash and xD-Picture memory cards and includes an internal dust-removal system. It will be available in May. While some still might want to get the fishing vest to stash all those bits of gear, this camera's size and usability won't discourage the more sartorially aware.
SOLID-STATE DRIVES: THE NEXT NEW THING
When Apple unveiled the MacBook Air, much of the fanfare focused on its sleek design. But one of the most interesting things about it was hidden inside: a solid-state drive, the next generation of computer storage.
A solid-state drive, or SSD, is a flash-memory drive with no moving parts, which means laptops with the drives are cooler, quieter and more reliable than those with standard hard drives. These drives also consume about one-tenth of the power, according to Samsung Semiconductor, which makes them for Apple, Dell, Sony and Toshiba. Last week Samsung said Lenovo would start offering an SSD as an option in its ultraslim ThinkPad X300 laptop.
For now, consumers will pay a premium for these drives. Apple's 64GB MacBook Air with a solid-state drive retails for US$1,000 more than the 80GB hard drive option. For a Dell SSD laptop, add US$500 to US$900 to the price tag. As the capacity of the drives increases and manufacturing picks up, prices should drop. Samsung's 128GB SSD will hit the market later this year.
CHILDREN'S FAVORITE SHOWS GO ONLINE
Next week, preschoolers can watch Curious George and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on their computer screens as part of PBS Kids Play (www.pbskidsplay.org), a subscription-based service that mixes 14 games with clips from these and other shows. After you download the necessary software (a 3MB file) for Windows computers, you get free access for 15 days, but then must pay US$10 a month or US$79 a year.
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