Mashed Articles

Writen by Mike Singh

The flash drive was born in 1998 at IBM, as a floppy drive replacement for the ThinkPad line of products. Almost all people know what a floppy drive and a floppy disk is – but a larger percentage isn’t quite sure about the flash drive. Technically, it is a “NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB interface”. It is fairly new to technology, yet many computer literate people enjoy its small size, lightweight, removable and the fact that it’s rewritable. Another huge advantage is its memory capacity, ranging from 8 megabytes to 64 gigabytes – limited only by the densities of its current flash memory. Unfortunately, as its capacity moves up, so does the price. Almost all types of drive use the USB mass storage standard, supported by the modern operating systems, and most flash drives are active only when powdered by a USB computer connection. They require no other external power source or battery source.

There are several advantages of the USB flash drives as compared to the other portable storage devices, such as the floppy disks, Zip disks, and the CD-R/CD-RW discs – with the floppy disc as the most popular. The USB flash drive is much faster, definitely holds more data, and is more reliable due to their lack of moving parts. They ignore the scratches and dust that plagues any earlier forms of portable storage, such as compact discs or floppy disks. Their design means they often survive impacts, dropped, crushed, and washed with a load of clothing. Because of all of this, they are perfectly ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one place to another. The user also wants to use them for carrying around personal data that they can access in different places. Being available in 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB, they were marketed as the true floppy killer.

If you are the athletic type, a runner or jogger, who likes to listen to the tunes during your workout you want to look into a flash drive player. Even if you have a hard drive player it is smart to own a flash drive player because you’ll want to take it running or jogging with you because the hard drive is bulkier (hence “hard” drive) and weighs more. It will skip and even break, where a flash drive is more comparable to the old school walkman players in its durability.

Next, most flash drive players come with neat little additions like a stopwatch or voice recorder. At first this may sound worthless or pointless to you, but sometimes a stopwatch can be handy while running and who hasn’t had a great idea while exercising only to have it escape during the cooling off process? A flash drive player will give you more extras while coming for a reduced price tag.

Another nice extra when buying a flash drive player is you almost always have an FM tuner included, meaning if you are tired of the music you downloaded you can listen to your favorite local station. Flash drive players give you this, along with what was mentioned above, for a reduced price tag. Most flash drive players go for as little as $59 and as much as $149 depending on the brand and the size.

Six percent of the internet usage in year 2000 U.S. will jump to 62% in 2010, due to music downloading and the use of data compression, quickly transferring music over the internet. Also, a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players, and digital cameras became very popular due to their smaller sizes and much reduced cost.

Writen by John Sollars

Dedicated photo printers differ from all-purpose printers as they are designed to print photos only, as opposed to text or graphics documents in addition to photos. They are generally compact in size and lightweight, and some models even feature batteries that allow you to print without the need for an outlet. Most photo printers, including dye-sublimation (or dye-sub) printers, are built around a thermal dye engine, though there are a few that feature inkjet technology.

For many years, dye-sublimation printers were specialist devices used in demanding graphic arts and photographic applications. The advent of digital photography led to the entry of this technology into the mainstream, forming the basis of many of the standalone, portable photo printers that surfaced in the second half of the 1990s.

The term “dye” in the name refers to the solid dyes that were used in the process instead of inks or toner. “Sublimation” is the scientific term for a process where solids (in this case, dyes) are converted into their gaseous form without going through an intervening liquid phase.

The printing process employed by true dye-sublimation printers differs from that of inkjets. Instead of spraying tiny jets of ink onto a page as inkjet printers do, dye-sublimation printers apply a dye from a plastic film. A three-pass system (featuring solid dyes in tape form on either a ribbon or a roll) layers cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dyes on top of one another. The print head on a dye-sub printer uses tiny heaters to vapourise the dye, which permeates the glossy surface of the paper. A clear coat is added to protect the print against ultraviolet light. Although this method is capable of producing excellent results, it is far from economical. Even if a particular image does not need any one of the pigments, that ribbon segment is still consumed. This is the reason it is common for dye-sub printer compatible paper packs to contain a transfer film capable of producing the same number of prints. In addition, dye sublimation inks need a paper that allows the ink to remain on the surface of the paper.

Nowadays, a number of inkjet printers on the market are capable of deploying dye-sublimation techniques. The cartridges in such printers spray the ink, covering the page one strip at a time. The print head heats the inks to form a gas, controlled by a heating element that reaches temperatures of up to 500° C (higher than the average dye sublimation printer). A big difference in the results with dye-sublimation technique is that because the dyes are applied to the paper in gas form, they do not form distinct dots with a hard edge like inkjet printers. Instead, the edges are softer and blend into each other easily. Additionally, the infusion of the gaseous dye into the paper yields a more colour-fast picture.

Comparing Dye-Sublimation Printers and Inkjet Printers
Although it is difficult to point out every possible advantage and disadvantage when comparing inkjet and dye-sub printers, the following list mentions the major points that apply to most people printing photos at home.

Advantages of Inkjet Printers over Dye-Sub Printers:
· Prints are very precise with sharp edges
· Latest models offer incredible detail that exceeds most dye-sub printers
· Variety of papers/surfaces available—including matte, luster, glossy.
· Not locked in to one manufacturer’s paper
· Some archival inkjets can produce prints that long-lasting
· Most inkjets can print on many different surfaces that are designed to accept ink, including CDs, CD inserts, envelopes, etc.
· Inkjets have a considerably larger colour gamut and usually produce more vivid photos than dye-subs
· Easier to obtain large format inkjets that can print 11×14, 13×20 sizes, or larger
· Inkjet printing is often cheaper than dye-sub printing
Inkjet Printer Disadvantages:
· Often much slower than dye-sub printers
· Most non-archival inkjets produce prints that fade a little (sometimes a lot) faster than dye-sub prints
· Print heads sometimes clog and require cleaning, or even replacement

Advantages of Dye-Sub Printers over Inkjet Printers:
· Very fast
· Relatively maintenance-free
· Smooth with no dot patterns visible, even under magnification
· Produce excellent shadow detail in dark areas where some inkjets may be “blotchy”
· Prints are usually more durable and more waterproof than inkjet prints
· For many viewers, dye-sub printers produce photos that look and feel more like real photographs due to the smoothness of the prints and the absence of visible dot patterns
Dye-Sub Printer Disadvantages:
· Consumer level models often smear high contrast edges (like a black square on a white background) to some degree, making charts, graphs, and line art look a little less “precise”
· Dye-sub prints typically only last as long or slightly longer than a good non-archival inkjet printer and are generally not considered “archival”
· Paper type selection is very limited and while dye-sub printers produce excellent glossy photos, most fall behind or do not even offer the option of matte prints
· Dye-sub printers use an entire page and an entire page worth of ribbon even to print one small wallet size photo
· Pages cannot be normally fed through the printer twice to fill more of the page as they can in inkjets
· Dust can sometimes get inside and cause vertical scratches on prints
· Dye sub printing and the cost of paper and toner (ribbon) is often higher than inkjet printing

Few Popular Models of Dye-Sublimation Printers

Canon Selphy CP710
Dye-sub printer for 150x100mm photographs

Samsung SPP-2040 photo printer
Dye-sub printer with 300x300dpi resolution

Samsung SPP-2020
Digital photo printer that produces 100x150mm snapshots

HiTi Photo Printer 641PS
Dye-sub printer for 152x102mm photographs

Sony PictureStation DPP-FP30
A user-friendly dye-sub photo printer

Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000
A dye-sublimation printer for compatible Kodak cameras

Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000
A dye-sublimation printer for compatible Kodak cameras

Olympus P-10 Digital Photo Printer
A dye-sublimation printer that prints straight from your Olympus digital camera

Polaroid PP46d photo printer
A dye-sub photo printer

Olympus P-440
Dye-sub printer capable of printing A4 photographs

Sony DPP-EX50
Dye-sublimation photo printer

John Sollars is the managing director of Solar Electronics, which are both ink and fax toner suppliers based in Shropshire, UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original and re-manufactured printer ink cartridges including products by Canon please visit http://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/acatalog/Canon_Inkjets.html

Writen by Kwan Lo

Discount ink cartridges and toner cartridges are in great demand these days. Due to the drop in price, many families and small business owners can buy an inkjet / photo printer for under $100 and a discount laser printer for under $200. Increased number of printer ownership means that there is a larger aftermarket for printing supplies.

Nevertheless, consumers who bought a cheap printer would soon find out that their spending did not end there, but rather have just begun. For examples, many OEM laser toners are selling at $100 a piece, the same price of an inkjet printer or one-half of that for a discount laser printer. A family who print a lot of color photos with their photo printer can easily spend more than $100 on OEM ink cartridges in several months. Think about this, it is absurd that one would spend more on replacement cartridges than on the printer itself in such a short period of time. As a result, many consumers are looking for economical alternatives to expensive OEM cartridges.

There are two main groups of discount ink cartridges and toner cartridges in the market these days: compatible cartridges and remanufactured cartridges. Compatible cartridges are also called generic cartridges. They are manufactured with the same specification of name brand cartridges but without the brand name. These cartridges are offered at one-half or one-third of the price of OEM cartridges.

On the other hand, remanufactured cartridges are name brand cartridges which have been through one cycle of service. They are usually disassembled, cleaned, repaired and refilled before releasing to the market again. Consumers who buy remanufactured cartridges are not only concerned about the price, but their benefit to the environment as well. One consumer was quoted saying “I buy the remanufactured cartridges because it is good for the environment. The lower price is just a bonus”.

It is a well known fact that printer manufacturers cut price in printers but maintain a very high profit margin from cartridge sales. Instead of lowering the price of OEM cartridges to make them more competitive, they use different tactics to ban the use of compatible and remanufactured cartridges from third-party manufacturers. For examples, printer manufacturers may install software in your computer that warns you of the use of compatible cartridges as if they could damage your printers. Some manufacturers incorporate smart chips into their cartridges so that consumers cannot refill or recycle their cartridges. Others have sued the third-party manufacturers of printer cartridges or smart chips claiming that they have violated patent technology.

Consumer advocates have pointed that that these tactics only serve to protect the profits of printer manufacturers but provide no benefits to the consumers at all. In fact, consumers should have the freedom to choose the replacement cartridges they use.

There are many compatible and remanufactured cartridges in the market today. Be a smart consumer, you should always compare an apple with an apple. For example, some manufacturers produce compatible cartridges without the smart chips. These cartridges are usually cheaper than 100% compatible cartridges with new replacement chips. However, compatible cartridge without new replacement chip may have problem communicating with the computer as the latter would think that the cartridge is always low in ink. It is also wise to shop only with vendors who can provide a good refund policy and extended warranty.

To learn more about different types of printer cartridges and to see if they are available for your printer model, please visit http://inkjets.4reviews.net.

Kwan H Lo is the owner of http://inkjets.4reviews.net, an online review site, which promotes discount ink cartridge / toner cartridge for all major brands, including hard to find Sharp Toner and Samsung Toner Cartridge.