Hasta La Gadget!

Image from Samsung Korea, via Gregory Han at Apartment Therapy Unpluggd

All-in-one printer/scanner/fax machines are so yesterday. Maybe the way to go is with better, single purpose devices: A compact, portable scanner combined with a fast, monochrome laser printer.

I hate my all-in-one machine. It sits on my desk, filled up with its expensive color ink cartridges, mocking me. I never print photos or make copies, and I don’t have a land line to fax anything. But I regularly need to print out black-and-white documents, and a little less regularly scan text or images. I need machines that perform these tasks cheaply and reliably, and then get out of the way when I don’t need them.

This is where two new buying guides might prove very handy.

The first is for scanners: IEEE.org’s “Speed-Dating Portable Scanners,” flirts with the MobileOffice (too big) and the DocuPen (too wimpy) before falling for the Doxie (just right, and which Wired recently reviewed). Pink hearts aren’t usually my thing, but I could really go for a scanner that fits in a laptop bag and Just Works, so I just might broaden my horizons.

The second guide is for printers: Apartment Therapy Unpluggd makes the case for old-school laser printers in “Stark Black and White: Why The Monochrome Laser Printer Still Makes Sense“:

Back when we had a color inkjet printer we were constantly running out of black cartridges. Those pieces of plastic we wasted and merely threw away requiring us to buy a new one after what only seemed liked 20 pages. Once we moved to a simple monochrome laser jet we began to notice that we could print literally thousands of pages before our toner cartridge went out. And instead of paying $35.00 for a shoddy black inkjet cartridge, that same cash can get us happily printing on our way for over a year.

In “Good Looking Printer For Small Space?” Unpluggd recommends the Samsung SCX-4500 monochrome laser — plus the Canon PIXMA iP100 and HP OfficeJet H470 for low-footprint printers with color.

The Samsung actually has a built-in scanner, but a portable model is still awfully appealing; if you’re anything like me, your papers wind up all over the house, while your all-in-one stays in just one place. If the mountain (of text) won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.

See Also:

• The $20 DIY Book Scanner
• Doxie Scanner Sends and Shares
• HP Plans Line of (Relatively) Affordable 3-D Printers
• Office Equipment Does Printer Jam at onedotzero

After a flood of leaks, Verizon’s just officially announced its prepaid data plan for smartphones. The new 3G Prepaid data package will offer smartphone users “unlimited” data for $30 a month, while feature phone users can score 25MB of data a month for $10 with a 20-cent-per-meg overage fee — all contract-free, of course. The prepaid smartphones include all of Verizon’s Android phones, the Pre and Pixi Plus, as well as most recent BlackBerrys, which is a pretty solid list of choices — and you can sign up for them today or online on September 28. Of course, you’re still on the hook for a full price phone and a voice plan (and there’s no mention of texting), so whether or not this works out to be a deal is up to you, but we’re definitely seeing the prepaid data market start to significantly heat up, and we like it. PR with full device list after the break.

Continue reading Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages

Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Simplicity has always been one of Apple’s biggest selling points–it’s one of the driving forces behind the switch from PC to Mac and one of the main reasons that the iPod and iPhone were so principle in redefining their respective spaces. The iPad, naturally, is a beacon for such simplicity. The device is incredibly intuitive–even for those who haven’t spent a lot of time on more traditional PCs.

That simplicity, coupled with the device’s size and the diverse functionality of its software, make the iPad an intriguing prospective educational tool. I’ve already heard a number reports of people using the device with young children–in his recent column for PCMag, “100 Days With the iPad,” Tim Bajarin mentioned that his grand daughters often tell him, “I want to play the iPad.”

We’ve already seen a number of apps–both educational and purely entertaining–developed with young users in mind. I suspect that number will only increase, given the popularity of the iPad. While there certainly are a number of parents who use their iPhones to keep their kids busy, there’s something inherently kid-friendly in the iPad’s formfactor.

It’s big–objects on the screen are easier to follow, and when used on a table or lap, it’s harder to drop and break. Not to mention the fact there’s no chance that young users will accidentally make a phone call while fiddling around.

Kindergarten teachers are apparently even testing out the device in their classes. DANO2, a toy manufacturer behind a number of educational apps for the device, cites the example of Diane Owen, a kindergarten teacher in Santa Maria, CA, who plans to introduce a device into her class in the fall.

Samsung’s upcoming laptops certainly look like they’ll be some of the more appealing mainstream portables this fall.

Skype updates Android app for Verizon users, lets you keep the WiFi on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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