I’m all for convergence, and Brother’s new model MFC-885CW takes the cake for being the most feature-packed on the marketplace. This color inkjet can of course print, copy, scan and fax. It also features a 4.2" flip-up widescreen LCD so you can preview, enhance and print photos directly from built-in memory card slots. It can even preview received faxes before you decide to print them.
MFC-885CW then adds wireless 802.11b/g for wireless printing, scanning and faxing, support for faxing from PC, and even a standard document feeder for fax, copy and scan.
Going above the multi-function printer, this model also bundles a cordless telephone handset and a built-in digital answering machine that can hold up to 29 minutes of messages + speakerphone.
If you decide to by one printer for your house or small business, this $230 USD machine can do almost anything you desire. Full specs after the jump:
Since cellphone’s camera megapixel count keeps going up and up (currently 5 megapixel is widely available), and stand-alone cameras are already over 10 megapixel, it surprises me that webcam world has been stuck on VGA or 1.3 megapixel. HP’s Elite Auto Focus webcam changes that by putting in a 3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It can record VGA quality videos at 30fps, 5X digital zoom and it can shoot pictures at up to 12 megapixels (4096×3072 pixels) by software interpolation.
Product price and availability haven’t been announced yet.
Apple’s just announced MacBook Air is indeed a very sexy machine and it rightfully holds the claim as the world’s thinnest laptop. However, a quick comparison to the offerings from Dell and Sony that offer the same screen size show, as it is the case most of the times, you do pay more for the sleek design.
That is what Microsoft is asking in its latest PR moves to pimp promote its Windows Home Server. What Home Server does is to act as a file server, a print server, remote access to your files and even automatically back up all your computers on the network in its drives. Most machines come with 1 drive, but there’s room for 3 more hard-drives making it perfect for houses with more than 1 computer on the network.
Unfortunately, selling this to mainstream consumer is difficult as most do not realize the benefits of a home server. Microsoft aims to change that by… publishing a children’s book about it.
Here’s an excerpt:
When a mommy and daddy love each other very much, the daddy wants to give the mommy a special gift. So he buys a stay-at-home server. Then he installs it. It’s easy! He does it all by himself.
The scary part is, this is an actual book that is available, and not just an internet banner advertisement.
Backing up data is necessary, yet many people do not simply do it. Main reason is the unfriendly software solutions which make backing up a bigger hassle than it has to be. Windows Vista already has a back-up system but it is not flexible as you cannot back up individual folders or specified files.
Microsoft’s free download SyncToy attempts to solve these issues by allowing you to back up to different drives (for example your external storage unit) or different computers on your network. There are 3 ways of backing up your files: synchronization will update both locations, echo will ignore changes to the backup and contribute will update files to the backup but will not delete.
Whichever method you choose, the program is a breeze to use. You specify the “left” folder, and how the folder on the “right” wants to be behaved. After that you can either preview what actions will be taken, or just run it. You can even schedule SyncToy so that your backup processes can run in the background.
Weighing in at just 1MB, and costing nothing, you would be foolish not to use this solution. Granted there are other programs on the market with even more features, but if all you need is simple file backup, you can’t go wrong with basic and easy-to-use software. Even though it is labelled beta, I haven’t encountered any performance issues while backing up to my external storage unit, or to a different computer on my home network.
The world of electronics makes strange bedfellows… Samsung, competitors of everything that Apple makes, entered into an exclusive retail contract with the Apple Store both online and offline for its sexy luxury laser printers until January 2008. ML-1630 ($199) and SCX-4500 ($299) aren’t the best performing printers in their classes but you can’t deny a few units will be moved solely on looks alone… after all, who could refuse the world’s most compact laser printer!
Gaming industry shows no sign of slowing down: even though PC gaming isn’t as glamorous as console gaming, there still is a big market out there. HP is unveiling its brand new Blackbird 002 gaming computer (what happened to 001?) featuring liquid cooling across all trims. To be priced between $2,500 and $7,500 depending on configuration, the computer is definitely a stunner in terms of visuals and price tag… what remains to be seen is what kind of components will be available.
Microsoft has finally released its 2 patches in order to improve Vista’s performance. They’re not available on Windows Update yet, so you’ll have to manually download & install.
Update ID 938979fixes memory leak with Windows Energy screen saver, corruption of AVI files, better performance after resuming from hibernation…
Update ID 938194 fixes graphics issues as well as improved performance of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks on the computer.
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