We all know about Jay Leno’s collection of old cars. More interesting for gadget geeks is that he relies on a 3D scanner and printer to keep his antiques in tip-top shape.
Need a replacement part for a decades-old or exotic car? All Jay Leno does is get the part he wants to replace, and use a 3D scanner to convert into information his 3D printer understands. He then waits a few hours while the printer reproduces a plastic facsimile. After printing’s done (which can take as long as 33 hours), Leno checks if the newly-fabricated plastic part fits as a …read more

By far the best part of setting up the HP M1120 MFP is how easy it is to insert the cartridge. Holding the cartridge over the laser printer’s innards, it slipped from my grip, slid into the printer and literally snapped into place!
In fact, the longest part of the setup was installing the drivers (which work nicely on Windows 7 by the way). 5 minutes later, the Windows printer test page was out. Being a B/W laser printer, with less colors to process and worry about, does have it perks after all. At least the built-in scanner does color, which …read more

Not bad at all: a $200 printer retailing for only $92? There must be a catch right? Well, no rebates sighted, and free shipping promised. Even if the checkout process reveals a sales or state tax or some sort, that’s still around a hundred bucks for a WiFi-capable device that can print, scan, photocopy, and fax. Of course, you’ll have to figure out how to deal with refills.
Check out the deal at buy.com! (Thanks Crave)

NY Times’ Damon Darlin recently listed four reasons why we don’t use printers that much anymore:

We get road trip directions on the cellphone instead of printing them.
We share photos online at sites like Flickr or Shutterfly rather than printing them.
Rather than print out an article to read later, we hit “Read Later” or Read It Later, ShifD or Google Notebook and read the article on any computer anywhere.
Instead of printing out tax forms (the one time of the year the home printer gets heavy use), we do our taxes online, file electronically, save the file on the PC and back …read more

In what some would quickly label as propaganda for printer manufacturers and their business model, PC World recently tested several printers with OEM and aftermarket ink cartridges. Test showed that the former, which are more expensive than aftermarket variants, leave less ink in their tank before displaying low ink-level warnings. In the case of the Canon Pixma MP610, the difference was as much as 19 percent—24 for the OEM and nearly half for aftermarket variants.
Despite the (mostly) clear lead of OEM cartridges over their aftermarket counterparts, I wonder why most printer manufacturers don’t let their customers get every last drop …read more

Fellow b5media blogger Kirsten King can’t believe her good fortune, because Epson’s given her two WorkForce 600 All-in-One Color Inkjet Printers (around $200 value each) to raffle off to her loyal readers!
Joining is real easy. All it involves leaving a comment on this post before Monday, October 20, at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Kristen will be announcing the winner via a virtual random draw. So what are you waiting for? Comment now!
Bonus Feature: The post detailing the giveaway also contains Kristen’s short review of the printer.