If your work involves lots of travel, you may find yourself needing a mobile printer. In the past, the smaller size and weight always involved a trade-off on quality. You would either need to carry something bulky or be content with low-quality prints. However, innovative printing technology continues to move forward, and the Canon Pixma iP100 is a great example.

The iP100 replaces Canon’s iP90v that was nearly the same weight and size. (The new model is actually a tiny bit bigger and heavier than the iP90v.) All together the iP100 is about a quarter the size and weight of the Canon PIXMA MX340, which is your typical All-in-One printer in terms of specs. Without the optional battery or Bluetooth adaptor, the iP100 weighs 4.3 lbs. It is 2.4 inches tall, 7.2 inches deep, and 12.7 inches wide, making it small enough to fit easily into a laptop bag, though you will certainly feel the bulk. It is meaningfully smaller than its closest competitor, the HP Officejet 100 (3.3 inches tall, 6.9 inches deep and 13.7 inches wide with a weight of 5.1 lbs.). The iP100 folds down into a conveniently shielded shape with a nice, matte-silver finish, making it almost feel like something you want to carry with you. Of course, the printer has a built-in battery for printing on the go.

Product Photos:

Specifications:

• Printer Type: Photo Printer
• Print Speed (Up to): 4″ x 6″ borderless photo: approx. 50 seconds, Black:ESAT Approx: 9.0 ipm2, Color:ESAT Approx: 5.9 ipm2
• Number of Nozzles: Black: 320, Color: 1,536, Total: 1,856
• Print Resolution (Up to): Black:600 x 600 dpi1, Color:9600 x 2400 dpi1
• OS Compatibility: Windows®7, Windows Vista™, Windows XP/2000 and Mac OS® X v.10.3.9 to 10.5.x7
• Standard Interfaces: PictBridge (Cable not included)5, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, IrDA, Bluetooth® v2.0 + EDR4(optional)
• Paper Sizes: Credit Card (2.13″ x 3.39″), 4″ x 6,” 4″ x 8,” 5″ x 7,” 8″ x 10,” Letter, Legal, U.S. #10 Envelopes, Photo Stickers
• Noise Level Approx: 38.5 dB(A) in the best quality mode
• Physical Dimensions: 12.7″(W) x 2.4″(H) x 7.2″(D)
• Weight: 4.4 lbs.
• Power Consumption: 9W (1.5W Standby)
• Software Included: CD-ROM including Printer Driver, Setup Software and User’s Guide, Easy-PhotoPrint EX

Where the iP100 performs impressively is with printing quality. The iP100 doubles resolution from the iP90v that came before it, though its HP competitor has slightly better print quality than the Canon. Still, the quality on both printers is excellent and equivalent or better than typical prints from a drugstore.

The Canon is also significantly faster than its competition, boasting more than 7 pages per minute on printed text and a full color 4×6 in only 55 seconds at photo lab quality. (These speeds are even better than some full-sized printers available on the market).

The sheet feeder on the iP100 holds 50 pages, and you can expect to print about 249 pages for each ink cartridge. The printer uses Canon’s ChromoLife cartridges which sell for $17. At this rate, printing multiple pages with the iP100 isn’t the most economical option, but Canon has included some software options to help with this problem. The printer driver allows you to choose between composite mode (generating black with all of the colors) and “save black ink” minimizes the black in text and grayscale graphics. Still, you shouldn’t ever expect mobile printers and ink jets to have the long-term life of laser toners.

There are several disadvantages for the Pixma iP100. First, since the key selling point is mobility, Canon should have at least offered a carrying case for the printer. This would significantly increase its usability for most people, with very little technical innovation or additional expense. The Canon also lacks Wifi connectivity or a media card reader. You can print with Bluetooth, using the optional adaptor that plugs into the printer’s USB port ($50). Of course, IrDA IR (infared) and wired printing are built in. You can also buy an external battery that will add another 290 pages of printing ($100). The optional car charger is also sold separately ($90).

Put all of these things together and you come to the biggest liability of the printer – price. At $250, the Canon Pixma iP100 is not worth the cost unless you are really serious about working on the go. Add in the optional accessories and your cost can go up very quickly. On the other hand, competing models are about the same price, though with less value. If you really do need top quality on the road, the Canon Pixma iP100 is certainly the one you’ll want at your side.

For those of you who work on your mobile office or are always on the go, what is your mobile printer of choice or what other printing solutions do you use? Please share your thoughts via the comments section below.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this week’s edition of the Weekend Roundup and hope that you all have a good week.

Blogging

• Avoid Blogger Burnout: 5 Tips to Save Your Sanity
• Get Angry: Blogger Sued For Comments On Their Blog
• How to One-Up the Best Blog Post Ever!
• A Four-Step Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

WordPress

• Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins
• Want Instant Delivery of New Blog Posts & Comments?
• WordPress and the Fatal Memory Error
• SEO for WordPress – Getting the Basics Right

Technology

• Nasty Data-Stealing Bug Haunts Internet Explorer 8
• Google coughs up $8.5 million to settle Buzz privacy suit
• Canon develops world’s largest CMOS sensor
• Mobile security: Your smartphone is safer than your PC, for now

Gadgets

• Sanyo’s Eneloop Stick and Mobile Boosters will juice your gadgets on the go
• Speech to text glasses let the deaf read what you’re saying
• Fujitsu outs Lifebook T580 convertible tablet
• Skitterbot Is A Creepy Electronic Cockroach

Pinoy Blogs

• MySpace offers ‘Sync with Facebook’ feature
• How to Receive Money via Western Union in the Philippines
• The Jehzlau Concepts Font
• A Glimpse of the Future

JaypeeOnline Weekly Recap

• Facebook Remote Logout Feature
• Gmail Priority Inbox
• Google Chrome Turns 2, New Stable Version Released
• Reinvigorate Now Open To The Public

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or want your article or find an interesting story that you want to be featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

The past few years we’ve been using the HP PSC 1410 All-in-One Printer for all our printing needs at home. It’s been a very reliable and useful printer, scanner and photocopying machine. A few months back, we started to notice some problems with the printer. One was alignment problems – all printed pages were not aligned. The other problem was the printer couldn’t print multiple pages, it would stop printing after the first page and would display a printing error message. The alignment problem was easy to fix with the help of the built-in troubleshooting features but it wasn’t true for the other problem. I tried all the possible solutions, searched the Internet for a possible fix but couldn’t find any.

We finally gave up and decided to get a new printer. As usual, I first searched the web for the best deals and prices. Found one from Amazon.com – the Canon PIXMA MX340 all-in-one inkjet printer. It was on sale for $79.99 and eligible for Prime Shipping. But since we needed it right away, we opted to get it from BestBuy who had it on sale for the same price. Paid for it online and chose in-store pickup (a better and cheaper option than buying it online and paying extra for shipping) and picked it up later that day.

Tech Specifications:

• Product Height: 7.8″
• Product Width: 16.4″
• Product Weight: 19 lbs.
• Product Depth: 18.1″
• Print Speed (B&W): Up to 8.4 ipm
• Print Speed (Color): Up to 4.8 ipm
• Print Speed (Photo): 4″ x 6″ photo in as little as 43 sec
• Black Printer Resolution: Up to 600 x 600 dpi
• Color Printer Resolution: Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi
• Media Types: Plain: Plain paper, high resolution paper; Super High Gloss: Photo paper pro platinum, Photo paper pro II; Glossy: Photo paper plus glossy II, Photo paper glossy; Semi-Gloss: Photo paper plus semi-gloss; Matte: Matte photo paper; Envelope: U.S. #10 envelope
• Media Sizes: Letter, legal, envelopes (U.S. #10); 4″ x 6″, 4″ x 8″, 5″ x 7″ and 8″ x 10″ paper
• Input Paper Capacity: Up to 100 sheets
• Type of Interface: USB
• Total Ink Tanks/Cartridge: 1 PG-210 black ink cartridge, 1 CL-211 color cartridge
• Drop Size: 2 and 5 picoliters
• Print Quality: For photos and documents
• PC-Free Printing: Yes
• Paper Feeder: Built-in
• Networking Capabilities: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g), USB 2.0 Hi-speed, Bluetooth v2.0, PictBridge
• Scanner Resolution (dpi): 1200 x 2400 dpi (optical) 19,200 x 19,200 dpi (interpolated) and ADF: 600 x 600 dpi (optical)
• Bit Depth: 48-bit internal / 24-bit external
• Scanner Type: Flatbed
• Copier Speed (Color): Up to 3.4 cpm
• Multiple Copies: Up to 99
• Reduction/ Enlargement: 25-400%
• Automatic Document Feeder: Yes
• Fax Transmission Speed: Approx. 3 sec./page at 33.6 Kbps
• Fax Memory: Up to 50 pages
• Fax Type: Black-and-white and color
• Document Feed Type and Capacity: Automatic; 30 pages
• Minimum System Requirements: Windows 2000, XP ,Vista or 7; Mac OS v10.4.11 ? v10.6.x
• Wireless Networking: Yes

Product Photos:

The Canon PIXMA MX340 is pretty much the same as the previous one we had except for the wireless printing capabilities. So far it has performed very well – printing, scanning and photocopying documents and stuff. We usually print our photos in CostCo so we haven’t tried printing photos from this printer. I also haven’t set up the printer to do printing via WiFi. But I plan to do as soon as I find the time and will update this post as soon as I’ve tried that particular feature. Overall, I can say that the Canon PIXMA MX340 is a very good choice for an affordable and reliable all-in-one wireless printer. If you don’t need the wireless printing/networking feature, you can get the Canon PIXMA MX330 for about $20 less.

Anyone else own a Canon PIXMA MX340 or any PIXMA MX series printer? What have been your experience using it? What are the things you like or dislike with the printer? Please share your thoughts.

[image source: Canon.com]

The past couple of months had been very “fruitful” and “rewarding” for my blog. As a reward to myself for the hardwork I’ve done, I decided to get myself a DSLR camera. A few months ago, I was thinking/planning of getting the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi aka Canon EOS 450D, but when the time came for me to pick out something to buy I changed my mind and opted for the Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i aka Canon EOS 500D.

I bought the Canon T1i online from BestBuy just like I did with most of the gadgets I purchased before. I got it for $799 with free 3-day shipping and got the package earlier today via UPS.

Basic Features:

• 15.1 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• Full HD movie recording with HDMI connection for viewing and playback on an HDTV
• ISO 100-3200 (expandable to 12800)
• 3.4 frames per second continuous shooting
• Max. 170 large JPEG images in a single burst
• 3.0” ClearView LCD with Live View mode
• 9-point wide area AF with cross type centre point
• High speed DIGIC 4 performance and superb image quality
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• Full compatibility with Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites, including new Speedlite 270EX, TS-E 17mm f/4L and TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II

Additional Photos:

Since I only got it today, I haven’t been able to fully test it or take different types of shots. I’m not an expert photographer and I’m still a newbie to photography so this will be the start of a fun learning experience for me. Now that I have the Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i, I’ll have more and better photos to put up on the photoblog that I’ve been planning to start.

He doesn’t know it yet, but my cousin’s gonna be very happy because I’ll be passing on to him my old camera, the Canon Powershot S3 IS which is a very reliable camera and still in excellent condition.

Btw, you can read a more detailed review of the Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i or also known as the Canon EOS 500D over at dpreview.

[image source: BestBuy.com]

Basic features:

• 12x optical zoom lens with USM and UD lens element
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• 6.0 Megapixel CCD
• Larger size 2.0” Vari-angle LCD
• 30fps VGA movies with stereo sound and Photo in Movie feature
• DIGIC II, iSAPS and Flexizone AF/AE for fast, precise results and 2.3 fps continuous shooting performance
• 20 shooting modes and My Colors photo effects
• High ISO Auto and ISO 800 for low light flexibility
• Widescreen (16:9) recording

Additional Photos:

Front View

Rear View

All Around View (click on image to view larger version)

It’s not as powerful and as nice as the Canon EOS 400D Digital Rebel XTi that I have on my wishlist but after giving it much thought, I decided that I would be better off with this camera since I’m still an amateur photographer and still have a lot to learn in photography. I thought that this would be a good camera to start with in honing my photography skills. Btw, I also got a SANDISK 2 GB Ultra II SD card, to go with it.

Friday afternoon, I bought a LowePro camera bag and then on Sunday, I went to BestBuy and got the Energizer 15-minute charger.

So far I’ve only taken pictures of my wife and kid but haven’t tried it on other stuff like scenery and objects. I’m still getting myself used to the controls and different settings of this camera so it might take a while before I get nice photos to share. I also plan to setup a separate photo album once I have enough photos to upload.

You can read a detailed review of the Canon Powershot S3 IS over at dpreview.com

[image source: dpreview.com]