The Polaroid PoGo is a stylish and sleek 4 inch by 3 inch photo printer, available in pink or black for around $49.99. The PoGo is powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery that can be charged by plugging the device into the wall using the included charger. If you don’t want to wait for the device to charge, you can leave it plugged in and turn the power on. After you charge the PoGo, you’ll need to load the zinc photo paper into the printer. Each package of zinc photo paper is individually sealed and comes with 10 sheets of the specially designed photo paper for around $10.99 a pack. Once you open the wrapped package, you’ll be happy to know there’s a large blue card, instructing you which way to insert the paper into the printer. There will be no confusion over glossy side up or down. Remove the reminder blue card and insert the paper into the printer. Done! That was easy. Turn the PoGo on. Done! Also easy thanks to the large power button on the side. Now your printer is ready to sync with your cell phone.

On your cell phone, turn the Bluetooth sync on. Doing this obviously depends on the type of cell phone you have, but hopefully the process won’t be that difficult once you’re in the settings on your phone. Ok, Bluetooth is on. Your Bluetooth device should pick up a signal from the PoGo printer, which you will know because it calls out the Bluetooth device as “Polaroid.” Click on Polaroid, type in the passcode provided in the packaging, and press sync. Hopefully your Bluetooth cell phone will have no problem finding the PoGo. If your phone won’t sync with the PoGo, the package comes with a toll free help line number as well as detailed instructions.

Once you’re sync’d with the Polaroid PoGo, you’re ready to print. Go into your phone’s photo gallery, click on “Share via Bluetooth” and send the photo to the PoGo print. Presto! About 30 seconds later, the photo will print on the zinc photo paper. An adorable 2 inch by 1 inch picture. One thing I really liked about the printer is that it uses zinc technology so the picture comes out completely dry and smudgeproof. What’s great about the printer is that you don’t always need to print directly from your cell phone. If you’d like to print from your digital camera you can connect the camera via USB and print equally adorable 1 inch by 2 inch pictures from your camera. Or print from your computer! The possibilities are endless. Picture quality obviously depends on your camera’s resolution, which for cell phones oftentimes isn’t very good. This is a completely different story if you’re printing from your camera or computer.

The Pros:
-Detailed instructions including scenario instructions if things don’t work right away. Also a big card separate from the instruction manual that calls out the toll free number.
-Zinc ink makes for smudge free pictures that are instantly dry
-Easy to follow instructions and help is available if necessary

The Cons:
-From the time you click print to the time the picture actually prints takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute
-No way to print multiple copies of a picture at once

Overall the PoGo printer is an awesome way to print your pictures on-the-go. I love that you’re able to send pictures directly from your phone to the printer with Bluetooth, rather than sending pictures to your computer and then printing them out. The adorable 1×2 inch printouts are great party favors for your friends to remember a great night out.

 

The Planon PrintStik uses monochrome thermal printing, so it doesn’t require ink. It prints 3 pages per minute, and comes with a 20 page printer cartridge included. The 11” printer weighs only 1.5 pounds. In addition to printing from DocuPen, it will also print straight from your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Bluetooth printing enabled device. The battery lasts for 30 page prints. It even includes a carrying case. The cool thing is that it prints actual A4 and Legal sized documents, nothing gets shrunk down. The Bluetooth printers start at $199 and go up to $349, and is currently available. They vary based on resolution (200 or 300dpi native) and the extras that are included. The quality is pretty good for the size of the device. It prints very similar to receipts. The blacks may be a bit weak depending on the scan, but that’s probably just something you can fix by getting used to the device. The cool thing about thermal printing is you don’t have to worry about smudging, or other pitfalls of ink like drying up or leakage from temperature and pressure changes. If you find yourself needing copies of documents while on the go, then you will certainly want to invest in the DocuPen and PrintStik .

Once you get past the blister packaging, you click the tape cartridge into place, insert the 6 AAA batteries, and then you’re ready to start using the label for general label printing which is a cinch. All you have to do is type the label on the full keyboard and press print. What you’re typing reflects on the LCD screen and even if you type out a really long label, you can press the magnifying glass icon and see the entire sentence on the screen before your print. For simple label printing, this label maker is very easy to use: turn it on, type the label, and press print. It gets a little more complicated if you want to make fancier labels.

So let’s gets fancier – 
The first direction in the instructions manual is choosing a font: Helsinki or Bohemia. To change the font you simply press the F1 or F2 buttons, which are clearly labeled on the printer. Easy. The only bad thing is you can’t see what the font looks like until it prints because the font isn’t reflected on the LCD screen. Not so easy.

Making designs 
to use the more advanced design functions is a little more complicated than simply typing and printing. Once you type out the label you want to print, press Function (Fn) and the LCD will display various options. These options include Size, Width, Style, Underline/Frame, Tab, Tab Length, Label Length, and Auto Format. These options let you add pretty design features like hearts, stars, or leaves to your label, as well as change the size, style (bold, italics) and label length or width.  Choosing a design like “leaf” or “hearts” is easy, but when it comes to choosing the label length or auto format features, I was left scratching my head. Referring to the direction manual is a must and there will probably be a lot of trial and error involved when changing detailed formatting choices such as size and label length.

Conclusion:

Although the instruction booklet was quite complicated, but once I got the hang of it, the PT1290 was pretty easy to use for my needs. Reading the directions is essential to understanding how to print a label complete with designs and formatting. Once you get the hang of it and all its customizable features, irregardless of the instruction manual, it really is perfect for crafts fanatics, parents, or label freaks like myself. The PT Touch 1290 retails for retails for $39.99 at Amazon.

The Good: Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to use. I like that this label maker can either function as a really basic white labeler and that it can print fancier customizable labels.

The Bad: Had some difficulty figuring out how to change the design and change advanced functions, as well as understanding the instruction manual.

In the Box:
Packing was pretty standard, with a lot of plastic and little bits of tape to keep everything protected. There is our CD with the software, some sample paper, power cord and a set of four ink cartridges. The printer itself has a sleek look and a sturdy feel to all the parts. The paper trays were solid and opened and closed nicely. Unwrapping went quick and I was anxious to get printing. So I placed the printer on a desk across the room form my computer and started the setup process.

 

Setup:
Epson included a very nice, detailed (yet easy to follow) setup guide. I am always tempted to bypass the printed instructions and just wing it, but I’m glad I didn’t. There are a couple important details that our easy to miss without the guide. For instance, when installing the ink cartridges, they seem to click right into place, but you need to exert just a bit more pressure in order to hear the proper ‘click’ which tells you they are in all the way. Once they are in the printer needs a few minutes to ‘prime’ the system. A note on the ink. Some complain that the cartridges are too expensive and it’s easier to just have one instead of four (or more). However, we see this is an economical system. It’s true that they are a bit pricey when you buy them all at once. But you don’t often use all the colors equally. Many times on an HP I could see that one color was low, but I had to toss the whole thing and buy a new one. I very much prefer Epson’s method of single color ink cartridges.

Now let’s move on to the software install.

Software:
Installation is pretty straightforward, though when it said it may take a few minutes, they weren’t kidding. I waited about 10 minutes for it to finish. Then I continued with the bonus software install. I usually don’t use such programs, as I generally prefer to use Corel or Photoshop to make cards, calendars, etc. However, for those who want the simplicity of a few click to create a greeting card or calendar, the bundled software seemed quite nice.

Installation on the Mac was quite a bit faster and just as painless. It was interesting that the ‘test page’ (that was printed to confirm the install) was a completely different style than the one produced from the PC machine. A little Mac favoritism maybe.

Function:

All that aside, let’s get to the printing. The NX515 produces very nice photo prints. Compared to our HP, they were crisper, looking more like a photograph rather than a ‘print’ of a photograph. A nice feature is the quick drying ink. There is nothing worse than picking up a newly printed photo and smudging the ink with your finger. Not with this printer! The ink is dry to the touch as it exits. This is important with border-less photo printing, since there are no lil’ white edges to hold.

They also claimed that you could splash water on these prints and the ink wouldn’t run. So I tried it. Amazing! And I used the matte paper for the test. You can see in the photos that I did more than ‘splash’ water; I put it under the faucet. Then immediately touched it and drug my finger across the page…no damage. It is important, should your print get water on it, to ‘blot’ it dry rather than wipe. The fibers in the towel do scratch. But the point is, this ink is high quality. Very nice.

Printing from the PC/Mac is straightforward. Epson has a nice set of drivers with a good amount of options. There is feature to ‘auto fix’ your photos. For those of you who don’t want to mess with photo editing software, you’ll like this. The ‘auto fix’ corrects/balances the colors/contrast in your image giving a bit more vibrancy. The ‘red eye’ fix also worked surprisingly well (See a sample in the image gallery).

One of the features of this printer is the ability to print directly from your camera’s memory card. On the lower-left front of the printer are your slots. Simply insert the card and select ‘memory card’ on the keypad. You are then given the option to view your images one at a time, watch a slideshow (though I can’t imagine why) or even print out a contact sheet. After selecting which images, how many, etc. You then let the Epson scan it and print you images automatically. I had never used this feature before, but it’s actually kinda fun and it worked fine.

The scanner worked great. Again, Epson provides good software with a variety of options for scanning. Print speed was phenomenal. I pitted the NX515 against a HP 4200 in a race to print a 6 page email. I started the HP first, then about 10 seconds later the Epson. The NX515 finished 2 full pages ahead of the HP! And this in spite of the fact that I had to reload the paper on the Epson twice! Crazy fast for an inkjet. The print quality was sharp and the way it handled the email header/footer was better than HP as well. The color of the text was a bit richer from the HP, but I didn’t take time to fiddle with settings either, just standard printing. But despite that, the Epson was a hands done winner.
There were two problems we ran into.

First, a couple of photos printed ‘washed out’ when printed directly from the memory card. But when those same images were printed from via the PC, they printed fine. I tried this several times and with several images, but the same ones consistently came out ‘washed out.’ (See images) For all intents and purposes the image files were identical to the others. I contacted Epson about this and they have not been able to give a reason.

Second, when using the Matte Presentation paper, we could print only 2 or 3 pages before it jammed. Or rather, it was unable to pull the next page in. It gave the error on the screen that it was ‘out of paper’ even though it wasn’t. Many printers have this problem, but I would have hoped it wouldn’t be present on this printer. Not good if you can’t count on consistent output like this.

Conclusion:
The Epson NX515 is a solid machine, living up to its promise of speed and quality. Setup is easy and straightforward, though a bit lengthy. I’d like to see room for more paper, you’ll need to reload frequently, but that is the same with many printers. Aside from the memory card problem, everything works as expected or better. At $149 (now just $99 at Amazon) the NX515 is a good deal for a great all-in-one printer.

The Good: Great quality photo printing, very fast everyday printing, painless wireless network installation on PC or a Mac, affordable price tag.

The Bad: Lengthy Software installation, faulty matte paper loading, and an odd bug with printing images from the memory card reader.

The new SOHO Series is a good example of the latest lineup from Brother that feature nice style and with good quality. They have even covered them with the coveted high-gloss piano black, now you know they are a contender.

New MFC-295CN key features:
-    Built-in Ethernet
-    Up to 33B/W and 27 Color ppm
-    Media cards slots & Pictbridge/USB direct interface
-    Easy to change front-loading ink cartridges
-    14.4Kbps Fax Modem
-    Up to 100 sheet paper capacity

New MFC-495CW key features:
All the features of the MFC-295CN, plus:
-    Flexible Wireless & Ethernet network interface
-    Widescreen 3.3” Color LCD Display
-    Up to 20 sheet Photo Bypass Tray
-    Up to 35 B/W and 28 Color ppm
-    33.6 kbps Fax / Modem
-    Auto-crop mode which allows users to scan multiple documents and save as individual files or pages in one pass
-    Ink Save Mode
-    Up to 100 sheet paper capacity

New MFC-795CW key features:
All the features of the MFC-495cw, plus:
-    5” TouchScreen Color LCD Display
-    Built-in answering machine

The MFC-295CN will retail for $99.95 and make its way to stores mid-September. The same can be said for the MFC-495CW which will retail for $129.99 in mid-September.The MFC-795CW will retail for $179.99 and arrive mid-October.

I have to say I was impressed that the ink was easily replaceable with their new tube technology. It makes replacing an ink cartridge that much easier and without having  to expose the guts of your printer to get to it. With affordable pricing, sleek and compact looks – it looks like Brother has broken out of the office supply catalog stereotype with this line-up.

Both all-in-one printers feature built-in wi-fi, ethernet networking, automatic two sided printing, printing on CDs, support for memory cards and USB flash drives, built-in automatic photo correction, automatic red eye removal and the ability to restore old photos. The models also can print 4×6 photos in as fast as 10 seconds, and they can print up to 38ppm or up to 9.5ppm in laser quality.

Another neat and pretty unusual trick of the new Artisans is that their front USB port can be used to charge cell phones, MP3 players and other gadgets. Also, there is an app available that will even let the 710 and 810 print photos and documents wirelessly from an iPhone.

The Artisan 810 will retail for $299 while the 710 will retail for and affordable $179.99.

Update: You can actually Pre-order the Epson WorkForce 610 over at Amazon today.

Update: You can now Pre-order the Epson WorkForce 1100 on Amazon today.

We have always been a fan of the Epson Artisan series of printers. Well the Epson Artisan 50 is the newest addition to the line and lets users print their own images and text onto ink jet printable CDs and DVDs. This single function printer will of course allow you to print documents, e-mails and anything else your heart desires as well.  Printing speeds are 38 ppm in color and 37 ppm black (both in draft mode) or 5 ppm in black  and 4.8 ppm in color under laser quality setting. Once photos are printed they are smudge, water, and fade resistant due to the Claria Hi-Definition Ink. The Epson Artisan 50 will be available in June and will retail for a recession friendly $99.99.

Epson Stylus NX215
The Stylus NX215 is the first printer to have a color 1.5” color LCD on a printer that will only retail for $89. It packs a lot in a small machine. Select all your needs from copying, printing photos, and scanning all from the color LCD. The cartridges included are high capacity, which means more bang for your buck. Maximum print speeds are 32ppm black or 15ppm in color and it can handle all different paper types from premium glossy to plain paper. Copy speeds are 32cpm black text and 9cpm color. In addition it is compatible with both PC and Mac.

Epson Stylus NX415
This is another new affordable and economical printer from Epson. The Epson Stylus NX415 comes with a color 2.5” LCD and memory card slots for easy PC or Mac free transfer of photos. At fast speeds you will get 34ppm in black and color as well as a 5760×1440 dpi resolution. Maximum copy speeds are 33 cpm in both black and color. Because of the pigment ink that is used, everything printed instantly dries so you can experience rich colors without the fear of smudging. There is also easy two sided printing available. Another nice feature is that it restores old, faded, discolored photos back to their once original quality without the need of the computer. Everything can be done from the 2.5” LCD. This is a sleek and sophisticated printer that is great for families and only retails for $99.

Epson Stylus NX515
Well if you take the best features of the previous models I just mentioned and add just a tad more features you get the Epson NX515. Still compact and sleek with its high gloss black finish, the NX515 also has a 2.5” LCD, memory slots for easy picture transfers without a PC/Mac, automatic photo correction, DuraBrite ink, and printing at 36 ppm  in both black and color. The sweet spot is the built-in WiFi and Ethernet networking that allows others on your network to print as well. The best part is that there is no router or fancy setup required; in 4 easy steps you will be able to have network printer setup without any extra wires or devices. The Epson Stylus NX515 retails for $149.

Each one of these new models not only exemplifies the sleek and compact look of Epson’s printers but they also emphasize quality and affordable pricing. In this day in age we all certainly welcome that. Expect all of these new printers to hit store shelves in June.

Have you ever wanted to make a voodoo doll of someone? You know you want to stick some pins in that ex-bestfriend who stole your boyfriend. The Youdoodoll is the first voodoo doll you can customize and make in to an image of yourself or your worst enemy. You can use the included transfer kit provided with Youdoodoll to put a face on to the doll’s head using your own printer. It also comes with a t-shirt, skirt, and trousers. You can even personalize the clothing via the website and upload the images of your voodoo doll once its completed online, so that you can share your Youdoodoll with the world. Overall, this is a great novelty gift or a perfect way of subtly telling people not to mess with you and your voodoo dolls. The Youdoodoll retails for £9.99.

In the Box:
It may not be exciting to the average person but to me packaging is as exciting as whats in the box – because it makes you want to open the box. Upon opening the Artisan 800 box the first item that is revealed is another box, an Accessory Kit that holds the installation CD, a printable CD-R, 6 ink cartridges, and an extra bonus black cartridge too. An ethernet cable and power cable are also included along with some sample pieces of 4×6 photo paper. Once you remove the box that incorporates the accessories for the machine, you will find tucked in the box quite nicely, the Artisan 800 – easily accessible and nestled in between styrofoam. This set-up makes it easier to grab. The styrofoam sheet it’s wrapped in has a handle to easily grab it out of the box. Finally in front of me began the long arduous process of taking off stickers and wrapping etc…

 

Setup:
The process of removing the blue tape and clear wrap can be a pain but I’m used to it especially with printers. Don’t leave any stone unturned when removing the blue stickers. Be sure to lift up every lid, flap, tray and crevice to make sure you don’t leave any behind. If you do, you may be greeted with an error message later on while trying to print. Once I cleared everything of film I started placing the 6 ink cartridges into its each designated slot. Again make sure to rip off any additional stickers or tabs but be careful not to get ink on your fingers. I first installed the printer on my PC running Vista as a local printer via USB not through the network. If you want to do an installation this way you will have to purchase a USB cable as it is not included. As a rule of thumb never plug in the USB cable while the printer is powered on to your computer. A printer installation just never runs smoothly when you jump the gun no matter how plug and play it is. So I popped in the disk and the lengthy installation process began. It picked up the printer in a timely manner via USB. Then it preceded to install the software for the unit, which is ArcSoft the same software company that provided the video and picture software for the Kodak Zi6. Not only will the software work with PC but with the Mac as well.

Once I finished installing the printer on the PC I then attempted to install it on my iMac as a network printer. It installed flawlessly as it did on the PC. However I do suggest you attempt to do it with someone who is a bit tech savvy. It’s not difficult by any means if you follow the on screen prompts and screens, but if you miss a step and are not sure what to do next it may be good to have moral support to help you out.  In the end the Artisan 800 was picked up right away by my iMac and with all the same software options allotted to me on the PC install. This was certainly a nice change of pace because usually Mac users don’t get the same software options as their PC counterparts when purchasing a peripheral. The best part was that I was able to print from both a Mac and PC on the same network without ANY problems – on the first try, which is truly a miracle in itself.

Functionality:
The Epson Artisan 800 is not only meant to look stylish but it certainly works well too.

The standout feature is the color touchscreen interface. By the touch of a button on the touchscreen panel you can make a copy, scan, fax, or print to CD. You can also import images from the memory card slots. The touchscreen functionality is fluid and doesn’t lag at all. It is also very clear and easy on the eyes.  I dare say it works almost as good as an iPhone touchscreen… The touchscreen panel is also angle adjustable which is great for having flexibility for putting the printer anywhere in your home or office and still be able to operate it. The one thing that is a bit tricky is when you do adjust it upwards, which means basically you lift the panel with your hand. You then have to press the ‘Unlock button’ to make the panel go back down again. Don’t forcefully push the panel back down with your hands, even if by accident as you will hear a terrible plastic cracking noise which could lead you to breaking the panel off the printer altogether.When you are ready to operate the touchscreen panel and press the touchscreen’s buttons, there is a small ‘ding’-like noise heard to acknowledge the action.

So it has got a nifty touchscreen but can it do what it was meant too? – Like print?! Can it ever! I printed first on Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy and it was gorgeous!! I choose a photo of roses that was bright and had deep colors to really bring out what this printer was made to do. The high-definition Claria ink not only made the images vibrant but it almost felt like the image on the page was real. It dried instantly and left no smudges either. Next I printed on Epson Premium Bright White Paper which would be typical paper used in any household. It printed the same image again in outstanding quality. The paper absorbed a bit more of the ink leaving it a tad soggy but it did dry rather quickly and the paper was only slightly wrinkled afterwards. However that wouldn’t be an issue for most, since on that type of paper only text should only be printed and serious images should be reserved to print onto photo paper. Finally I attempted to print on Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte and it too printed excellently and without issue. I was blown away by not only the quality but also the speed of which everything printed. Epson claims photos print in as fast as 10 seconds and boy did it ever. Scanning was also very impressive, if you browse the gallery of images, I scanned in a EW magazine and the image that came through on the computer was as good as the original media that was scanned. It was just amazing – Such detail in less than a minute. So often manufacturers fall short on their speed promises, it was nice to see that Epson is true to what they advertise.

Another nice touch is that pictures can bleed off the page, meaning that you can produce borderless prints or stationary. There are no margins to cramp your style in creating those type of documents. The next exciting feature is the ability to print to CD and DVDs. On the front of the machine is a button to activate the tray. No more sticking CDs into weird plastic contraptions and then inserting it weirdly onto your printer tray. By the push of a button a CD printing tray ejects and then you can just insert the disk to be printed. It’s that easy! I printed an image from my SD Card onto the CD and the end results were terrific. You have a choice of several different patterns to print on your disk. So you can make a unique design all from the touchscreen interface of the printer.
The best part, regardless of how the print quality was, is the ease of printing as a local printer or as a network printer. On my PC, I set it up as a local printer without any hassle it printed within seconds. Whether it was a picture or a just a letter. The only thing I needed to set was the paper quality and it printed immediately without issue. After setting up the Artisan 800 as a network printer on my iMac, it was the same results. I also was able to print through Wi-Fi  quickly and efficiently. The iMac also had no issues printing, it was fast and painless.

Software:
I was very impressed with the software bundle included because not only did it work with PC but with Mac as well. Most printer software would allow the drivers accessible to both formats but not the actual printer software. However that was not the case with the Artisan 800, these programs included ABBYT FineReader 6.0 Sprint which is a great ocr program, ArcSoft Connect and Print Creations, and some Epson dedicated software for the Scanner and CD Printer. Out of all the included software, probably the ArcSoft print creations will get the most use as it lets you create photo calendars, greeting cards, etc…a great tool for birthday parties or for kids to get creative.

Conclusion:
The Epson Artisan 800 is everything you would want in a printer. It’s is not only great looking but it works well too. It sports an innovative touchscreen interface that is easy to use and look at it – it’s not at all frustrating to use by having to ‘touch’ things more than once. Printing with the Artisan 800 is a breeze as well as the setup. The software installation process on both the Mac and PC is a bit lengthy but it does include a lot of software options that other companies don’t include. The only draw back of the Artisan 800 I would say is the paper-tray. The overall quality of the tray seemed flimsy and it doesn’t hold that much paper. You can practically fit any type of media or size of paper in the tray or feeder on top. But it can get a bit frustrating having to constantly put more paper in the tray to print a big job. But in the grand scheme of things it’s a bit minutia to the overall quality of this feature packed printer. The Epson Artisan 800 retails for $299.99 which is a reasonable price for a such a great printer.

The Good: Great design with practical touschreen interface. Well rounded feature set. Quality and speedy prints. Wireless printing from Macs and PCs on the same network was a breeze. Software is included with full programs that worked for both PC and Mac.

The Bad: Flimsy paper-tray and lengthy software install.