Printers
HP PhotoSmart Premium C309: A printer, but not as we know it
Here at Crave, we don't often test printers, so when we do, you can be pretty pigging sure they're among the best printers in the world. The new HP Photosmart C309 should theoretically fall into that category, as it's one of a new breed of machines that can be controlled via an integrated touchscreen display.
The touchscreen, which resembles an iPhone, allows users to access the printer's functions and settings. It can also be used to view previews of photos stored on USB, or online storage services such as HP's Snapfish system, thanks to the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptor.
This should make the C309 the most awesome printer in existence, but if our early tests are anything to go by, it is not. We can forgive the software installation taking approximately four weeks to complete, and the fact it constantly whirs, whines and clicks like a cheap, plastic R2D2, but we can't forgive the fact it's not particularly good at basic tasks you'd expect from a printer. Such as printing. Continue reading...
PrintBrush: The world's smallest printer -- and it's British
It's been a long time coming, but British company PrintDreams reckons it's ready to unveil the world's smallest printer: the PrintBrush.
The PrintBrush will print to A4 size, in black and white, at up to 600dpi resolution. As you can see from the video after the jump, you sweep it across the paper by hand, which means you can print on notebooks, greetings cards, boxes, sleeping midgets and other things that won't quite fit into a traditional printer no matter how much you wongle them about. It's also planned to be silent, so you can use it to print in meetings, recording sessions and funerals. And all this in a package weighing just 250g. Continue reading...
Lexmark Interact: The touchscreen printer with its own app store 
Here at Crave towers, we're pretty old. We remember the days when men were men, women were women and printers were modular: that is, they had three main parts -- the case, some jammed paper and a flashing red light.
Today, printers are a hell of a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Take Lexmark's new all-in-ones, for example -- the newly unveiled range have iPod-style touchscreen control pads, connect to the Internet wirelessly over 802.11n Wi-Fi and can receive RSS feeds. RSS feeds, we tell you. What's the world coming to? Continue reading...
Dell 2130cn: Big, black, will probably break your back
We're pretty rock 'n' roll here at CNET. When we're not cruising in drop-top Jags or riding through Sweden on a tractor while wearing kimonos, we're testing the latest in colour laser printer technology. Someone really should write a book about our lives.
This morning we took our pimpin' to level 8 and broke out the Dell 2130cn -- a printer suited to people with small businesses, large homes or cube fetishes. It's unashamedly boxy and weighs as much as a newborn horse, but we balanced things out by connecting it to the smallest, dinkiest netbook we could find, making it the penny to our Eee PC T91's farthing. Continue reading...
Zero ink, Zero Boundaries: Zink challenges designers
Zink, the company that prints digital photos without ink -- zero ink, geddit? -- has launched a competition for designers, students and the bored to imagine what the future holds for instant printing.
Zink products work by baking specially treated paper, creating the print-out from crystals impregnating the paper. The result is a printed photo, dry-to-touch in under two minutes. Zink first appeared a couple of years ago, and after a no-brainer tie-up with Polaroid is now the technology behind the Polaroid Two digital instant printer. The company is looking for creative types like you -- yes you, you with the arms -- to come up with an instant printing system that will "re-imagine printing and its role in the digital world using the Zink technology to fuel the future possibilities of this unique technology platform." And make Zink lots of money, obv. Continue reading...
Canon Selphy CP780: Print the great outdoors
Canon must know something we don't -- it clearly thinks spring is crouching and poised. It just released a new Selphy dye-sublimation printer, the CP780, which is designed to connect directly to a digital camera to instantly print anywhere outside the house -- a picnic, Easter-egg hunt, mountaineering expedition, meth-fuelled road trip -- whatever the joys of spring inspire. Continue reading...
Riti Printer: Uses tea or coffee for ink
We've seen plenty of printers in our time, but this one is most definitely to our taste. Korean designer Jeon Hwan Ju, probably a beans person, has created the Riti Printer, which uses coffee or tea dregs in place of ink. It's probably good only for sepia printouts, but it's the kind of green tech we like very much.
Coffee or tea dregs are placed into the cartridge, mixed with a little water. You then move the cartridge left and right in the slot to print. It's not the most efficient printer for your home business, but, whether it's Lipton or Lavazza, it produces aromatic printouts you can personalise. Continue reading...
Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera: Give it some stick
'Sharing' is an overused buzzword in the technology industry these days, but we have to admit there's a definite pleasure to be had from printing and handing round your photos. Polaroid may have ceased making film for its traditional instant camera, but isn't taking the advent of the digital age lying down: the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera takes a bow at CES 2009.
Sure, Tomy did get there first with the Xiao, but Tomy make toys and Polaroid make cameras. We got a sneak preview of the PoGo printer at last year's CES, where we were shown the ever-so-clever Zink technology. This replaces conventional ink with dye crystal-impregnated paper, bakes the image on to a print-out, and is dry to the touch within a minute. The original PoGo printer attached to camera or computer via USB, but now Polaroid has cut out the middleman with the PoGo camera. Continue reading...
Polaroid PoGo: Instant photo prints on the bounce
Hey kids: stop watching Hollyoaks for a second and come and look at this! Yes, we know Max has died, but this is way more interesting. It's the Polaroid PoGo Instant Mobile Printer! What is it? It's only a portable photo printer that doesn't use any bloomin' ink!
If that sounds familiar, it's because the PoGo was one of the coolest gadgets at CES 2008, despite then labouring under the name Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer. Fortunately the maketing wonks have been earning their Jaffa Cakes by coming up with the PoGo moniker. Continue reading...
Vapourware: The tech that never was 
Vapourware may sound like a technical term to describe the gradual corrosion of a kettle, but today we're using it to describe a product announced by a company with great fanfare, hoohah and occasionally hullaballoo -- but that never materialises.
Continual delays, setbacks and excuses are the calling cards of a product that becomes vapourware. Windows Vista ran the risk of joining the club, and the terrific multiplayer first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 was in production for almost a decade before it was released in 2007. Devoted TF fans feared it would become a distinguished entrant in the who's who of vapourware. You might say Google Mail is in the running, having been in beta since 2004. Continue reading...
