In short, the problem is very huge one. The HP LaserJet printers that were manufactured before 2009 will recognize the firmware updates devoid of identifying the actual source of their origin. This means (at least theoretically) that any hacker can use a malicious firmware modernize and can easily upload that on to a printer for stopping it working or for spying the print tasks and even to set it on fire by making the printer fuser overwork. The printer fuser is one of printers’ parts which actually are used for drying the ink on the paper.

According to HP, they’ve never heard of any hacking for their printers by criminals and also have mentioned that their printers come with “thermal breakers”, which at any condition will prevent their printer from such hacker inferno. But HP had accepted the fundamental problem of security breach.

The lawsuit against HP demands paying out of unspecified damages to the customers of HP LaserJet (HP InkJet printers are not compatible with remote firmware upgrade).

We haven’t heard anything from HP on the alleged lawsuit.

The material for the printer bone has already been certified for supporting the human cells during the lab testing and has also been proven successful in the bodies of rabbits and rats. Better models developed by 3D printers will also help surgeons for performing dental work, surgery or for even delivering medicine for osteoporosis inside the next quite a few years.

3D printers have already risen as hot tools in the coming year for generating a developing array of objects wherever on the fly, starting from human organs to robots to blood cells. Criminals even have used 3D printers for creating duplicate ATM card boaters for scamming the bank customers.

The newly released printers comprises of HP LaserJet Pro P1108, which is a monochrome single function LaserJet printer capable of delivering quick, dependable, specialized HP LaserJet printing in a pioneering, compact design, which can easily be accommodated on any desktop. This new line of printers from HO will be off great help for the small businesses and offices.

According to the latest reports, the all new Epson Colorio E820 flaunts a brand new advancement in the printer design and surely will intrigue the people who want generating documents on the move.

The newly launched Epson Colorio E820 looks like a cross of a microwave oven and a BBC Micro, but the good thing here is that while the retro styling for the printer disappoints many users, the functionality will make up for that.

The Epson Colorio E820 is compatible with both PC and Mac OS X. The Colorio E820 accepts documents through xD, USB and MS Pro without the need of connecting the printer to a computer.

The Epson Colorio E820 is offered with a handle, portable wireless keyboard and remote control, which allows it to be moved easily. Measuring 23.5 centimeter x 15.8 centimeter x 19.2 centimeters, the Epson Colorio E820 can easily be carried here and there.

HP recently proclaimed that they will be releasing a range of brand new ink cartridges and printers for the customers during Christmas season.

The Canon ImageClass MF3010 is a mono-laser multifunction printer targeted at small offices and dorm rooms which needs a laser printer for printing Web articles, e-mails, recipes, and some other printing tasks that doesn’t need a potent complete color output. The ImageClass MF3010 is priced at $150, which is one of the lowest priced we’ve seen for any all-in-one laser printer. So, what’s the catch here? This is what you must be thinking after reading all those good things about the ImageClass MF3010. So here it is, the major trade-off here is that you will not be getting any additional features such as ADF (Auto Document Feeder) permitting hands-free scanning, and neither will you get the advantage of multi-user networking.

But the Canon ImageClass MF3010 has its own assets, and the biggest that we found was the speed. The MF3010 performed exceedingly well in our performance testing without any sort of paper jams. So if you want a simple, reliable laser printer for your small office or personal usage then the ImageClass MF3010 is one fine choice.

Specifications:

• Price: $109.95
• Manufacturer: Canon
• Part Number: 5252B001
• Device Type: Printer /Copier / Scanner
• Printing Technology: Laser – Monochrome
• Copier Type: Digital
• Standard Memory: 64 MB
• Office Usage Features: Quick first print, Single cartridge system and I.D. card copy
• Weight: 16.8 lbs
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 14.7 in x 10.9 in x 10 in
• Shipped With: Power cord
• Operating System Support: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X 10.4.9 – 10.6
• Supported Media Type: Labels, Plain paper, Envelopes, Bond paper and Heavy-weight matte paper
• Included Accessories: Power cord and Starter cartridge 125
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty
• Service & Support Details: 1 year Limited warranty

Design and Features:

The all new Canon ImageClass MF3010 flaunts a brand new chassis shape from Canon. This new chassis has been designed to occupy least amount of space on any desk it is being installed. Measuring 14.7 inches x 10.9 inches x 10 inches (W x D x H) saves the additional room in the quiescence with a brand new collapsible paper output tray and a slim plastic door, which unfolds to reveal the routing for the paper for its input drawer having capacity of 150-sheet. The ImageClass MF3010 is rather light weighing less than 17 lbs only. Canon has give two string inlets at the bottom of the printer to help you in shifting the printer. The all new modular design of the printer makes it easy to use and store when it’s not in use.

The operation console for the printer is positioned under the scanner lid, and although initially it is a tad difficult to decode in the beginning, but once you are familiar with the meanings of all the different icons that are being displayed here the operation becomes easy. The operation panel is pretty intuitive as well. Canon has omitted the physical manual for the printer and ships it only with an online e-manual, which allows you to get complete details about the printer including every icons such as paper jam indicators, buttons for adding and reducing the number of copies to make and even a very small single-digit LED display, which shows the status of the printer or copy setting.

Sadly, in comparison to all the other laser printers the ImageClass MF3010 has few physical limitations. As we stated above, the printer doesn’t have an ADF and autoduplexing, and that it can only be connected to a single host computer using the USB port given on the rear end, though there isn’t any cable bundled with the printer. In addition to all that, the copy machine here is undersized by a maximum of 29-sheet copying ability, even the scanner bay here is smaller and is limited to 8.5 x 11-in prints at 600 dpi x 600 dpi.

The good thing here is that the Canon ImageClass MF3010 is friendly with approximately all the PCs running Windows and Mac operating systems, and has all the drivers that you need are provided on a single disc bundled in the box. Installing the printer is rather simple and it takes only a couple of minutes because there aren’t any wireless details to fit in and you could also install 2 addition tools: Presto PageManager and MF Toolbox.

Performance:

The ImageClass MF3010 didn’t excelled in our monochrome-text printing performance test, but the good thing here is that the difference between the scores was so less, which you even wouldn’t find a difference in speed, unless you aren’t printing in excess of 20 pages constantly. The ImageClass MF3010 didn’t reached the incredible score of 33.86 PPM of Oki B431dn in our text print speed test, but what was nice to see here was the printer still somehow surpassed the 10-page presentation test of Lexmark E460dw by in excess of 8 pages-per-minute. In addition to all this, we’d say that the Canon MF3010 is exceptionally good with outputting nonstop pages without any pause or for that matter even break, which normally affects the overall speeds of rivaling lasers.

As far as print quality for the print outputs are concerned, we neither surprised nor were impressed with the middling output quality of Canon ImageClass MF3010. Just as most of the monochrome laser printers, it also delivered incredible work for our text test documents. The output prints for pictures weren’t also all that great, but the prints still were sufficient for amateur photographers.

Service and Support:

The Canon ImageClass MF3010 gets one year of standard warranty from the purchase date, from Canon. The 1 year standard warranty includes replacement and repairs, and if the company finds that your printer is defected then a replacement. Canon also gives assistance with operation and installation of their printer through telephone support and online troubleshooting from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

Verdict:

The Canon ImageClass MF3010 is a normal daily-use printer, which is pretty easy to set up and delivers ideal print quality for office usage and college students. But the usability of the printer for high-volume printing gets limited with its lack of additional features and single-user connection. We would recommend the MF3010 for budget minded buyers and college students.

The newly launched range of LED printers comprises of, color and monochrome, all-in-one and single function printers. The LED technology used in these newly fabricated printers delivers high speed prints together with power savings. The small footprint of these new printers will also save a lot of space for you. These new LED printer series will be sold in the AcuLaser brand.

This new series of printer consists of single function Epson AcuLaser M1400 mono printer which has price tag of Rs 5,350; all-in-one AcuLaser MX14 mono printer which has price tag of at Rs 8,350; single function AcuLaser C1700 color printer which has price tag of Rs 10,800 and all-in-one AcuLaser C17NF color printer having fax and networking and price tag of Rs 19,500.

This new LED range of printers offers the users the common advantage, which comprises of low running and acquisition costs. These new printers deliver print speeds of around 24 ppm for black prints and 12 ppm for color prints.  These new printers have monthly duty cycle of around 20,000 pages and they also have 128 MB of buffer memory capacities.

The print quality of HP DeskJet 3050A might be limited by the dual-ink cartridge bay of the printer, but the printer surely has been developed for productiveness with mobile printing and wireless connectivity. The mobile printing of the printer can be done by the HP Smartphone apps and the ePrint remote printing service of the company which gives you access to content which is downloadable from any PC. With its small 60 sheet paper trays, the DeskJet 3050A surely doesn’t get our recommendations for big offices, but the DeskJet clearly is strictly recommended for the buyers who are on a tight budget.

Specifications:

• Manufacturer: HP
• Part Number: CR232A#B1H
• Printing Technology: Ink-jet – Color
• Copier Type: Digital
• Inkjet Technology: HP Thermal Inkjet
• Weight: 7.7 lbs
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 16.8 in x 16 in x 9.8 in
• Operating System Support: Apple Mac OS X 10.6,Microsoft Windows 7,Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later and Apple Mac OS X 10.5
• Supported Media Type: Cards, Iron-on transfers, Transparencies, Labels, Photo paper, Envelopes and Plain paper
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty
• Service & Support Details: 1 year Limited warranty

Design and Features:

The HP DeskJet 3050A has a free flowing curvaceous design, which makes it look like something that has been designed from the inspiration from furnishings designs of mid 20th century. The exteriors of the body have been napped with different shade of lusterless gray and scorched umber. The a 2 in monochrome LCD control panel for the printer comes out from the stencil on the top floor of the printer and provides access to set up menu, to application controls and for one-touch installing for ePrint service of HP and Wireless connectivity.

The DeskJet 3050A has a small 60 sheet paper tray which sits fits neatly into the body of the printer and the modifiable market of the printer could align with a wide range of media sizes, which comes down to media sizes up to No. 10-sized envelopes. Certainly there also are quite a number of markings for the normal size of papers of 4-in x 6-in and 8-in x 10-in photo paper. But considering the fact that the printer uses only a single tricolor cartridge the print quality for the photos printed on the printer gets compromised.

The DeskJet 3050A can easily be paired with a computer and the easiest way of doing it is using a USB hard-wired connection, but the wireless router also offers an incredible solution and allows you to get access to services like ePrint, which allows you to send print jobs straight to the printer using an exclusive e-mail address assigned to the printer at the time of establishing the connection.

The HP DeskJet has a starting price of $67.00 and that’s one another reason why the printer is more suitable for small home printing needs.

Performance:

Considering the price of the HP DeskJet 3050A we didn’t had high expectations with the printer, and we think that’s the case with most of the budget buyers, they always prefer cost over quality. And if that’s the case with you, then considering the DeskJet 3050A won’t disappoint you. The DeskJet 3050A is a capable printer and delivers respectable print quality and even the print speed for the printer is also pretty good if not best in the business. The best thing here is that the performance results for the DeskJet 3050A doesn’t vary by a huge margin with the performance figures delivered from its rivals in all 4 tests.

Expecting flawless print quality from an entry-level printer surely isn’t fair, and after knowing that the DeskJet 3050A we didn’t had our expectations high. The overall print quality here was not up to the mark, but that can be attributed to the graphics-rigorous samples and tricolor cartridge. The biggest problem her are the snapshot photos and hence printing photos on this printer is not a good idea. Overall the performance of the DeskJet 3050A was rather low than the average entry level printer, but that was expected, considering the price.

Service and Support:

The HP DeskJet 3050A is supported by the unique improved support services of HP: online troubleshooting through chat with tech expert of HP, a committed toll-free number, and a 1-year warranty, which assures repairing within “Next-Day Business Turn Around” and for the initial 30 days of purchase you also will get replacement units.

Along with all that HP also delivers a Pick-Up-and-Return service and an additional Accidental Damage Protection, which gives a sanctioned courier for taking your flawed device and delivers it straight to the an authorized HP repair facility.

Further warranty information could be got from the support website of HP, which also gives online tuitions; driver downloads, troubleshooting tips and FAQs, in addition to a fresh shopping buddy, which puts you directly into chat room with the sales representative of HP for clearing out any of your queries.

Verdict:

The HP DeskJet 3050A is a decent printer suffering from dual-ink cartridge bay but still offers plenty of features to enhance your productivity at home and at offices.

The Epson Stylus NX430’s smart touch panel and user friendly features results in fast control and setup. The double side printing feature of the printer saves a lot of papers as well. The en suite memory card slots and 2.5 inch color LCD panel of the printer supports computer-free image printing. The Stylus NX430 delivers incredible quality images with red-eye elimination, photo reinstatement and alteration.

The Epson Stylus NX430 is an ideal printer for fast and high quality scanning of vital docs, and it can scan at up to 2400 dpi.

The printer offers support for Epson Connect, which offers the Epson iPrint and Email Print solutions. The e-mail print feature of the printer allows the user to print directly from their mobile device to any Epson printer, anywhere and the only thing they will need for this is the Epson Email Print enabled printer’s e-mail address. On the other hand the Epson iPrint feature lets the customers to print photos, web pages and documents from their mobile device to any close by wireless Epson printer, in addition to scanning documents and saving them as files on their respective mobile gadgets.

The Workforce 845 from Epson is the most vigorous among the four all and is ideal for the places having high printing requirements. The 845 delivers print speeds of around 15 ppm for plain black printing, while for color printing it delivers 9.3 ppm. This makes it one of the fastest printers that we’ve seen till now. Also considering the fact that the printer is targeted towards the offices having high printing needs, it comes with an 500 sheet input tray. The printer also has an additional 7.8 inch Smart Touch panel, and it comes loaded with additional Extra High-capacity ink cartridges.

Just after the Epson Workforce 845, there comes the Epson Workforce 645, and as far as print speeds are concerned the Epson WorkForce 645 is pretty close to Epson WorkForce 845. The WorkForce 645 also delivers 15 ppm for plain black, but for color printing it delivers 7.2 ppm. Just as the 845, the WorkForce also comes with scanning through an ADF and two-sided copying along with the automatic 2-sided printing.

Move down a bit in the price range, and you’ll find the Epson Workforce 545. The Workforce 545 also delivers 15 ppm of print speed for black print and comes with input tray having 250 sheet of storage capacity, which again is pretty good for a lot of home and small offices. In order to make photo printing and viewing easy, the Workforce 545 has been fitted with a 2.5 inch LCD screen.

The last of the lot is the Epson Workforce 435 which has decent set of features that are expected from a sub-$100 printer.

All the newly launched printers could be obtained from the market now for the below price:

• Epson WorkForce 435 for $99.99
• Epson WorkForce 545 for $129.99
• Epson WorkForce 645 for $149.99
• Epson WorkForce 845 for $199.99

The Epson WorkForce 845 delivers incredible print quality and speed, and boasts an impressive set of hardware including wireless networking, autoduplexing and gets mobile printing support by means of Epson’s set of Connect mobile services.

Cons:

The photo print speeds of the Epson WorkForce 845 doesn’t support its inkjet status and is lower than some of the average inkjet printers and even the packaging here doesn’t include Ethernet and USB cables, which will be required for connecting the printer.

Introduction:

The Epson WorkForce 845 is an altogether-new flagship AIO (all-in-one) printer from Epson, and is targeted towards medium to big offices, which have high printing needs and need a multifunction printer for that. In addition to the conventional set of functions the print, copy, fax and scan, the WorkForce 845 is also a lot more useful for modern work stations with its features such as triple connectivity (Ethernet, wired and Wi-Fi) ability and other likes an ADF (automatic document feeder) for hands-free scanning, double-sided printing, and a 7.8-in touch-panel screen having instinctive navigation.

The WorkForce 845 has also been loaded with the latest Connect Portfolio of Epson for mobile printing, which not only works nicely with Apple and Google’s cloud printing services, but at the same time comes loaded with an Android and free iPhone app in addition to the potential to e-mail print tasks directly to WorkForce 845 straight from any device, which is connected to the web. All those impressive features in a catchy package make the WorkForce 845 ideal choice for anyone having high-printing needs and want an attractive printer.

Design and Features:

The Epson WorkForce 845 clearly is not a compact machine, but what’s nice to see here is that Epson somehow has incorporated those boat load of features and functionality into a machine measuring 17.6 inch x 14.5 inch x 11.8 inch (W x D x H). The complete printer along with the paper trays and inks weighs comparatively light with 22 lbs, and hence moving the printer around the office won’t be a problem.

Its closest rival the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus, has almost the same features and functionality, but it weighs 6 pounds more. And for sure, that figure will go once the 2 size-modifiable paper trays that come at the bottom comes into play.

The controls for the WorkForce 845 are all located inside a 13-in-wide control panel, which hosts the 7.8-in touchscreen display having a 3.5-in color LCD within, which lets you navigate through the menus onscreen. The navigation buttons for Page Forward, Home, Menu and Page Back are just a glimpse of the countless controls fitted on the printer and Epson has easily blacked out the switches where weren’t required during your working and hence has effectively eliminated the button clumsiness and confusion.

The remaining control panel stores 2 of the media card slots on the façade of the printer and a PictBridge-companionable USB port under for straight printing from the digital camera, although we would suggest using the Easy Photo Print software of Epson that has been given in the box, if you want to do any sort of image editing. The printer drivers are compatible with Windows and Mac and we didn’t have any trouble in running and installing the drivers on our Windows 7 system through USB.

Specifications:

• Manufacturer: Epson
• Part Number: C11CB92201
• Printer Type: Fax / scanner / copier / printer
• Copier Type: Digital
• Printing Technology: Ink-jet – Color
• Fax Technology: Plain paper
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 17.6 in x 14.5 in x 11.8 in
• Weight: 22 lbs
• Supported Flash Memory: Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard, SDHC Memory Card, Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCardplus, USB flash drive, IBM Microdrive and xD-Picture Card
• Inkjet Technology: Epson On-demand Inkjet
• Ink Cartridge Configuration: 4 cartridges (1 each: magenta, cyan, black and yellow)
• Printer Drivers / Emulations: Printer Drivers
• Supported Media Type: Envelopes, Bond paper, Plain paper and Photo paper
• PC Connection: IEEE 802.11n, USB host, Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX, IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11b
• Operating System Support: Apple Mac OS X 10.6.x, Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Microsoft Windows XP SP1 or later, Microsoft Windows 7, Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11, Apple Mac OS X 10.5.x, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit versions), Apple Mac OS X 10.7.x and Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Edition
• Direct Printing Specifications: PictBridge
• Service & Support Details: Limited warranty – 1 year

Performance:

Considering the fact that the Epson WorkForce 845 makes use of the same print engine that we saw in the WorkForce 840, and hence we weren’t surprised at all to see that both the printers delivered almost the same results. In our all-black print speed test the Epson WorkForce 845 delivered print speed of 12.52 PPM (pages per minute), which was pretty similar to the score of WorkForce 520. The WorkForce 845 performed nicely even in our slide deck and color graphics speed tests, by delivering print speeds of 6.73 ppm and 4.55 ppm respectively to stay on top of the competition. Unluckily, the same can not be said about the photo test and with the speeds of 0.89 ppm, its stayed behind its rivaling models.

Finally we would say that the Epson Workhorse 845 is an ideal printer for the quiet offices with its abundant features and murmur-quiet operation noises. The print quality and speeds are also satisfying and won’t hamper your productivity.

Service and Support:

The Epson WorkForce 845 gets a 1 year limited warranty from Epson, including a toll-free customer support from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT on weekdays. You can also get the support online through a model-definite troubleshooting guide, e-mail support, FAQs, document downloads and driver updates. You could also purchase repair/exchange coverage @ $39.95 for 1 year or $59.95 for 2 years.

Word from the Experts:

The Epson WorkForce 845 might not be the ideal printer for hardcore photographers, but as far as printing operations are concerned, we liked the WorkForce 845 and we would say that the printer has everything that you need from a printer whether its normal printing operations or mobile printing. The Epson WorkForce 845 earns our recommendations for general offices, homes and any place that needs a nice and potent all-in-one printer.