Canon’s printer division has issued a warning this week about a group of gadget-squashing rogue Sumo wrestlers who have taken to squatting on consumer electronics and crushing them. The most recent victim is the company’s Pixma iP90v printer, which used to be the size of a small bus but is now compact enough to slot into your printer bag.
A little while ago I wrote an article on the HP Printing Mailbox from Presto. As you saw in my article, I wasn’t very impressed by what I saw. The good people over at Presto read it and wanted to make a believer out of me.
With all of the digital cameras on the market, people are printing out their pictures at home more than ever. Kodak is hoping to revolutionize the home printing industry by introducing a new type of ink that has an archival life of 100 years. Now you’re probably thinking that your prints should last about that long too, in reality, most inkjet prints last closer to 15. So 100 years isn’t too bad.
So you’ve just taken a great picture of your friend doing something really crazy on your cell phone. Now what if your best bud wants a copy of it? Well, soon you can just whip out your handheld printer from ZINK and print out a nice 2×3 of him acting like an idiot. Basically the printer is about the size of an average cell phone that can print off pictures using a specialized piece of paper. The picture is created by heating up and putting varying amounts of pressure on the polymer paper.
The obvious upsides to this unit is the fact that it has no liquid ink. No ink = no mess. This unit is still in testing, so we’ve not seen just how well the pictures turn out. Who knows, if it does well enough, this could be something to revolutionize the printing industry. Pricing is expected to be around $99 for the printer and around $19.95 for a 100 pack of paper. The only thing you’ll have to worry about is what your friend will do when he finds out you’ve made copies of his little incident for everyone.
Zink Bringing Printers to Your Handheld Gadgetry [via engadget]
Forget about finding the nearest Kinkos when you urgently need to print something while on the go. The MPrint line of handheld printers from Brother along with a trusty notebook or Windows Mobile handheld will insure you’re always prepared to print wherever you are. Brother’s latest MPrint device is the MW-260, which can handle a larger paper size of A6 rather than the A7 of previous models. At a maximum 300dpi resolution, the tiny printer can pump out an impressive 20 black and white pages per minute.
And with the ability to connect via Bluetooth, IR, or USB, you wont have the hassle of carrying around additional cables. This handheld printer is set to release first in Japan during March 2007 and then soon after in North America. There is no word yet on pricing.
Brother updates with larger mobile printer [Via: Electronista]
If my snarky post back in October about a printer that dialled up a preset email account and made hard-copies of the inbox that Hammacher Schlemmer were selling interested you, then Gear Diary’s latest review will be worth reading. Turns out that printer is HP’s Printing Mailbox, and the service ‘Presto’ – for $9.99 a month (or $99.99 for a full year) a PC-phobic user can receive all the photos and family news everyone else is enjoying. Judie reckoned one might be worth getting for her elderly grandfather-in-law Chuck, and has adopted the mindset of a cost-conscious pensioner for her review!
The service works as expected: the printer dials a toll-free number between preset hours, downloads the contents of a white-list governed inbox (i.e. only authorised senders can have mail printed) and spits it out onto paper for Chuck to enjoy. What I was particularly pleased to see, being unofficial (i.e. unpaid) tech support worker for my family, was the online setup system which could manage the printer and service remotely. If only I could do that with my grandmother’s VCR and the clock on her microwave!
Sometimes, when I’m wandering the cold, dark streets in search of some food or another victim, I spot an obvious business opportunity – taking the photo of a happy group of revellers, perhaps, or documenting a road traffic incident. Of course, I never actually get round to emailing those photos off, never mind printing them and posting them via snail “are we nearly there yet?” mail. What I need, I hear you grumble, is Fujifilm’s Pivi MP-300, a portable photo printer that not only fits into your (somewhat large) pocket but can connect via infrared and PictBridge USB to compatible digital cameras and cellphones to produce business card-sized snaps.
Okay, so it’s a mystery why they chose infrared and not Bluetooth – perhaps they’re planning a special edition “Beam it in Blue” for next Christmas or something – but I can see this being a useful little gadget. Sadly it’s Japan-only for now, and costs around $130.
Fujifilm [via Pocket-lint]
Those video-loving minxes at Hottech have been flexing their filmographic muscles again and have come up with a review of the Canon Selphy ES1. The latest photo printer from imaging specialists Canon, the Selphy ES1 differs from ostensibly similar offerings currently on the market by not only having an odd name but also (and perhaps more important) using special, pre-packed sets of both ink and paper.
Connecting direct to a camera via PictBridge standard on most semi-recent digital models, or by slotting in a memory card, you can edit images using the LCD screen and apparently straightforward controls. We’re not just talking red-eye reduction – if you’ve ever wanted to treat a loved one with a calendar made up of twelve photos of your wriggling buttocks then here’s the photo printer for you: the ES1 has a variety of in-built presets, a calendar being just one of them.
So your granddad is complaining that he doesn’t get included in the family’s Christmas mail-out, because he doesn’t have email (his gigantically swollen fingers just mash against the keys and keep re-formatting the computer) and nobody can be bothered mailing him a hard-copy because they’re all too busy IM’ing on their Sidekicks and flirting on Second Life. Zut alors. Why don’t you splash out 150 sweet American dollars on this PC-free e-mail printer, that dials a toll-free number and downloads all the delicious messages that’ve been sent to your “private email address”, printing them out on honest-to-goodness paper.
Hammacher Schlemmer (who else?) promise that your address will be spam-free, and also include a selection of “colourful templates” including “Holiday” and “Summer Fun”. Personally, my idea of Summer fun is drinking whiskey sours and pushing kids off of piers, but I guess that requires more than their $9.99 monthly subscription.
Hammacher Schlemmer [via Neatorama]
Print on the go with Epson. In collaboration with design firm, Industrial Facility, Epson Japan has developed a portable printer with built-in 2.5 inch LCD for previewing pictures and an IR port for printing from compatible mobile devices. Bluetooth connectivity upgrade is also an option. Currently only available in Japan.
Portable Printer With Built-In LCD [Via: Coolbuzz]
SlashGear Japan
