Apple Reviews

I've used my Intellimouse Optical for over a year now and I'm quite happy with it. The size is perfect for my average-sized hands and the performance is decent. I play PC games of all genres and have never had any response problems. An adapter lets you use the mouse through either a PS2 port or a USB port. Game players who rely on quick responses should use a USB port since the PS2 port has a lackluster execution. As with other optical mice, the tracking isn't as efficient on shiny surfaces. I therefore still use my mouse pad. The mouse has two extra buttons on the right and left side. I'm fairly happy with the position of these buttons. I do find however that sometimes while in Internet Explorer, I accidently press the button near my thumb. This can cause me a moment of confusion since that button is mapped to the IE "Back" button. Overall, the Intellimouse Optical is an excellent product.

like the title says, this mouse is a great value, sitting between the intellimouse explorer and intellimouse wheel. it fits my hand perfectly too, as it is not as big at the explorer.

fuctionwise, the tracking is unparalleled--the new intellieye scanning at 6,000 times per second makes the mouse virtually skip-free, unlike older optical mice. the 5 fully programmable buttons are awesome too. the inteiipoint software allows you to assign different functions to different buttons, in different programs! i even have a button that saves my document in microsoft word! it's really a brilliant invention.

my only gripe about this mouse is its weight. it is on the light side, and i hear the hollow cluck every time i pick it up when i'm playing a game. i've grown used to it by now, but it took a couple of weeks.

in short, i believe this is the perfect mouse for me. its optical eye works great, the buttons are ingenious, and the low price at amazon.com (...) make this mouse the best bang for your buck!

I got this mouse as a gift and loved it as soon as I started using it. It definitely provides skip-free performance, has a great feel to it, has
the scroll wheel, and my new favorite thing - those programmable buttons!
At first I wasn't used to those programmable buttons and I'd accidentally press them getting unwanted results (like going back to the
previous web-page when pressing the left button, or going forward when pressing the right). But then I got so used to it and realized how helpful it was - so much so that I got another one for my work because I kept trying to press those buttons that didn't exist on my mouse at work!
There's definitely no going back to a mechanical mouse in this day and age after so many optical mouses (or is it mice!) are available.
But if you haven't used a mouse with programmable buttons before, I'm telling you - give it a try and you won't ever want to go back to
one that doesn't have them! And for the price, this one's a great bargain.

Installation:
Installation was a snap. Remove the unit from the box and the packaging tape that protects the unit's vital parts. Install the two inkjet cartridges provided, then install the power cord. Power up the unit and install the driver provided on a cd. The whole operation took around 5-10 minutes. REMEMBER that you will need to purchase a USB cable if you don't have one already. Next, I aligned the printer heads, which was fairly easy to do with the provided illustrations. Now, you're ready to print.

Performance:
The unit is no speed demon , however it's quick enough to get the job done and looks good doing it. It's amazing how good this printer is for such a low price. My first printer was a laser unit, because I couldn't stand the print quality of inkjets. The text print quality and image print quality really demonstrates how much better inkjets are today. The print quality is just as good or even better than my 600 dpi laser printer.

Pros:
Cheap price

Looks nice sitting on the desk
Good print quality
Compact size

Cons:
No USB cable provided
Not super fast

Conclusion:
Great inkjet printer for those on a really tight budget

Canon has really made a name for itself in the last five years, with its low-cost, well-designed, high quality home computer products. This printer is no exception.

As is noted in many other reviews, you'll need to buy a USB cable to connect this printer to your computer. Make sure you get the A/B type, with the long flat connector on one end, and the square-ish connector on the other.

Once you get the printer connected, Canon's made setup easy; USB installation is made easy with the included software and drivers. All you'll need to do is click "Yes" and "OK" a few times, and you're done.

The print quality is above average, and astonishingly good for this price. If you're trying to find a printer for high-end reproductions of digital photos, you may want to look elsewhere. But the resolution, clarity, and color reproduction of the i320 is better than average, and more than adequate for most personal/home needs.

One of the best parts of this printer for me is that Canon has made the ink cartridges inexpensive to replace. A replacement black cartridge costs under $10, and the color cartridge is under $20--much cheaper than many other manufacturers. It was less expensive to purchase this printer than to replace the ink cartridges on my old printer. Additionally, the ink lasts for a long time before it needs to be replaced, making printing economical.

Overall, this printer is one of the best purchases I've made for my computer. Low price, easy setup, and good print quality make it a perfect choice for the home.

It has been a week since I bought this little printer. After already going through 100 pages, I'm ready to give a review. First I want to thank the reviewers at Amazon for telling me that there is NO USB cord included in this purchase.

Since I am a graduate student in science/engineering, my printouts are sometimes color graphs but mostly text. In that respect, this printer suits me well. I do not need photo-quality capability and the price fits my student budget. I also see that the refills are around ... for black ink, which is nice. Setup has been easy and the noise isn't much of an issue. The printer makes some noise before, during, and after the print job, but I don't hear the printer cranking all of a sudden at night (and I leave it on). So the noise is loud, but short.

Quality wise, the black could be a little sharper and darker, but overall acceptable for the price. Color is fairly consistent and accurate (purple is purple and not blue). For fun, I downloaded a high quality scan and printed it out in photo-quality mode with the free glossy papers included with the printer. The result is surprisingly good when looking from a distance, but at closer inspection one can see some roughness and pixelation. Not too bad for a [low priced ]printer. Speed-wise, I clocked 7 ppm on text. For some reason, the printer can have problems printing (Latex) dvi pages loaded with mathematical equations.

Lastly, one neat feature that I haven't seen before is the duplex mode, which means I can print pages on both sides of the paper. Of course it's not completely automated, but it only requires you to flip the pages once. It will help me save papers on printing 200-page thesis. In summary, I haven't had any problems with this printer yet. No crash, no paper jams or feeding problems. Print quality is acceptable and the price is affordable. [For the price], what more can you expect?

First of all, let me say that I'm returning my ipod. Why? First the good things.

1. Extremely compact.
2. Extremely easy to use. Really don't need to read the manual. The touch sensitive scroll wheel works like a charm although it's a bit too sensitive.
3. Sound Quality is very good. Volume is more than adequate for most users. Maybe an equalizer would be good (Take a hint from Creative)
4. Fast startup time.
5. Good LCD display although when the contrast is increased,black vertical bars seem to appear and when the song title scrolls, the text is not very clear.

Now the bad part.

1. [Pricey]... is a lot of money for a portable MP3 Player, but the price/storage is very attractive. Compare this to spending [less] for a top Sony MP3 player with 128MB Memory stick. Buy another memory stick and you've just spent about the price of a 10GB ipod which has 40 times the storage capacity.

2. Non removable battery. This may be a compromise done to acheive the incredible size of the ipod, but this has serious implications. In most electronics devices, the life of a battery is much shorter than most other components, so it's a fair assumption that your battery will be dead sooner than the other components in your ipod. Toshiba rates the life of the hard disk in the ipod as 5 years, but the battery will lose much of it's capacity in a period of 3 years.

3. The battery discharges on it's own after a few days even if the ipod hasn't been used. This might be a design flaw or a bug in the software.

4. The case of the ipod is very easily scratched and very fingerprint prone. You have to be very careful in handling the ipod if you want to preserve it's beauty. The mirrored back looks great but it's beauty is short lived.

5. The software included (Musicmatch Jukebox) is terrible. It's sad that Apple decided to include third party software instead of porting iTunes to Windows, because the hardware and software are light years apart. Too many problems with Jukebox to mention it here....Avoid it and use Ephpod...It's much better although you can't save your playlists in your PC with Ephpod.

All in all, when I really think about it, I feel that I should wait till a better version comes out before I fork my hard earned money. Apple has done a great job but there is a lot of room for improvements and a step in the right direction would be to avoid Musicmatch Jukebox (Junkbox???).

I have owner 3 MP3 players and the Apple IPOD is the best I have used. Here's why:
1. The biggest problem in the other players I have used (The Archos and a Samsung Yepp) is the file sorting system. With the Apple IPOD, file sorting is made easy - it's by artist, by album, by song, by genre or by composer.
2. It has rechargeable batteries built in which last pretty long - 10 hours by my reckoning. Other MP3 players use batteries which get over pretty quickly. This player saves you the hassle and expense.
3. It is lightweight - not bulky like one would expect of a 10 gb hard disk drive.
4. It can also be used as a hard disk drive, not just a media for storing music. You can put pretty much anything on it.
5. Lastly, it has loads of extras like a calendar, the ability for you to store contacts (all you need to do is export your contacts from Outlook as vcards and you're set), and even a game.
Trust me, this player is the best one out there. You WILL not be disappointed.

I take my iPod everywhere, I have had it since Christmas, it is the single most useful invention I have ever owned, I have my whole Hip-Hop collection on it. But a few weeks ago it said I only had .5 gb left and I only 800 songs on it, but after a quick reset and reload of songs (it took 5 minutes honest!) it was back to new. You should definately get a case for these, I have kept mine in a case for its whole life and it looks as good as new.

Pros: Holds all but the biggest music collections, great quality in sound and product, long battery life, great software

Cons: Occasionally crashes

For all those people that say by a cheaper mp3 player I used to have the iRiver, and I through it out of my window 1 day because it was so terrible, trust me the ipod is the best designed and for the price you are paying you get more songs.

After further review I would have to give the Nomad II C a low grade. My son and I each purchased one and initially they were very good products. Unfortunately, the software was not reliable, and the product support less than helpful. We upgraded our system using microsoft XP, which is not compatible with the NOMAD II C,,so in order to download new music, we have to rely on another computer system that uses windows 2000 or 98. The size, weight,and sound is good, but it does have its limitations due to the software issues.

I got this little thing nine months ago, and it just now occurs to me to write a review for it.
First, notice: Yes. I like it. I liked it nine months ago, and I still like it now. But there are some things I don't like about it.
What I like:
1.) It's small. It fits along with the rest of mess in my backpack. It's only about 2x3.5x0.75 inches, right?
2.) WMA support. On a pair of headphones, you lose some of the quality you would on a GOOD set of 2/4/5/6.1 speakers anyway, so dropping to 64Kbps with WMA really helps a lot, with only 64MB plus a card.
3.) It's not CD-based. I never much liked those big things.
4.) WMP8/9 support. I don't like those programs, but they get really useful when I want to put an MP3 on my player when I want it in as a WMA. (Which is about ALWAYS.)
What I don't:
1.) Short battery life. Ok, it's got probably a good 10 hours. But when you listen to a LOT of music, it blows out pretty fast. Also, you're already down to about 2 hours left when the meter shows 2/3 power.
2.) No playlist suppport. Admittedly, with such limited space as 192MB or less it doesn't matter as much as on a PC, but it'd still be VERY nice to be able to separate MP3/WMA files by artist or anime or DDR MIX.
3.) The battery/card cover. It falls off all too easily. (Even though the rest of the player is REALLY durable.) Plus, when it is off, the clips that hold the cover in place break off as if they were paper.
4.) No defragging. It's, honestly, to be expected, but I'd like to keep my lists properly intact such that I can add a song without getting it put right smack in the middle.

I bought this player at the end of august 03.
I had been looking for a mp3 player for a while
because I am tearing my hair out on my long train
rides to college. After reading about 100 reviews
on about 10 different websites. i decided to buy it.
the price is well worth it. another bonus is that
it fits the same smart media card as my digital camera.
ok, the ups are thats it fairly light, and small, and
you can listen for hours on 1 battery. the sound quality
is excellent and the volume doesen't distort the higher
you put it. it's got a few other cool extra, voice, time,
5 preset sound settings and a custom one. the downs are
you can't continue listening to the music when going
through the othere extras on the menu. the software
is mediocore, i get a few error messages sometimes, but
then you just try again and it's fine.
overall, i am really happy with product.
and recommend it to anyone who appreciates
value for their money...

Fast shipping. Print quality for photos is excellent, some of the lighter colors appear washed at times. Prints borderless 4x6 prints from a secondary photo paper tray (no switching the main paper tray) quality excellent. Regular printing quality is excellent, although much the same as my four year old HP 722C inkjet. Has front USB port for connecting a HP camera and printing directly from the camera (I don't have one, so haven't tried it.) Also can print from six different types of media cards directly. The 7550 came with some useful software (photo management and custom printing software) - I would recommend this printer to anyone looking for a solid photo printer, although it is probably more expensive than some other models on the market.

I have owned several HP and Epson photo quality printers.
Each has been pretty good, but had one or two annoyances
that grew more bothersome over time. Particularly as
consumer digital cameras have improved to the 3 and 4
megapixel level, it was necessary to do something about
the quality of home photo printers. I think HP had the
farthest to go and they have closed the gap and taken a
wide lead with the 7550. The move to seven inks (from
HP's usual 4)in this model and the ability to go as
high as 4800 X 1200 dpi, has answered my concerns about
larger prints from my 4 megapixel Canon camera. This
printer also has a simple loading mechanism for 4x6
snapshots and I really like the new print cartridge
access (to the right of the paper trays), which means
I no longer have to drag the printer out from under the
shelf to open its top and change a cartiridge. This,
plus the front paper loading mechanism, makes the 7550
a real low profile machine. The LCD and controls allow
you to print pictures without the computer, though that
is not a big deal to me. The printer is quiet and fast
and I haven't given it a picture yet that it hasn't
handled with beautiful results. HP claims the new inks
and papers it is releasing with these new model printers
will last 65 years. I'll get back to you about that
claim in 2067.

This printer far exceeded my expectations. We had been looking for a good quality photo printer since I take mostly digital photos. We did a lot of searching around and checking reviews and finally settled on the HP 7550. We were a little hesitant because of the price, but it is well worth every penny! We bought it on December 27th, and I've already printed quite a number of photos. The installation was seamless and very simple, and the printer was ready to go within minutes. The photos print very fast, and they come out with no layering of ink as was noticeable with our old Epson. There is no waiting for the photos to dry, either.....a very nice improvement. These photos look like they were printed in a photo lab!!! The 4x6 borderless photo printing is very easy and looks great. Other pluses include separate paper trays for your HP 4x6 photo paper (200 sheets of HP Premium 4x6 paper come with the printer) and regular 8-1/2" x 11" printer paper.....no switching, and there is even a separate slot for envelopes. This printer is a little wider than average because it will hold all three ink cartridges, photo, tri-color, and black, and you never need to switch out cartridges depending on what you want to print. The door is also on the front, not the top, so it's very easy to access the cartridges.

Another great feature is the ability to print directly from your camera's memory card.....no more cords and downloads to deal with. It takes several different types of memory cards. Just pop the card in and your pictures come up on the LCD screen in seconds. You can toggle through your photos, select the ones you want to print, and even adjust the brightness, zoom, rotate, add fancy borders and frames, etc. You can also press the "save" button and the photos are automatically saved over to your computer. Browse to select the file you want them in, and it will even sort into separate folders for the month in which they were taken!! I can't say enough about this printer. I was able to download, print, and save my photos while my daughter was busy on the computer. What a time saver! The quality of the photos is excellent, and everything prints VERY fast. I would recommend this printer to anyone!!

I bought my corded Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 for use on a PC with Windows ME. For the first 18 months it worked great then all of a sudden began having multiple problems.

PROS:
1) Excellent tracking resolution, never lets the cursor skip or jump. Can make tiny moves smoothly. The bottom of the mouse moves smoothly and I've never had to clean the surface contacts.
2) Comfortable ergonomic shape. My hand doesn't get tired after a day of mousing.
3) The extra buttons are well placed and easy to program to do whatever I need them to do (wish there were even more buttons!).

CONS:
1) The scroll wheel was never easy to roll, but after about a year it became nearly impossible to use. Hard to roll, as if it was stuck or dirty. It wasn't dirty on the outside, but I couldn't open the mouse to see if it needed cleaning on the inside. I have to press down so hard to get the wheel to turn now that the wheel button engages instead. The scroll wheel is supposed to move freely with little resistance, instead now its almost useless.
2) Recently the left-click button started registering a double-click every other time I single-click. This is some sort of mechanical problem, since it happens no matter what I set the sensitivity to, and at any rate I'm not clicking any differently than I ever have. This is a major annoyance and renders the mouse basically useless.
3) A $50 dollar mouse (at the time of purchase) should last longer than 18 months. I use it mostly for typical office work. Although I do gaming with it as well, I do not consciously abuse my equipment. Perhaps the gaming causes extra stress on a mouse, but I've never had cheap $20 mice go kaput with the same kind of use.

All in all, though this mouse has nice features, I couldn't recommend this model, although more recent versions may have been improved. I have to replace this one now, and although I have nothing against Microsoft in general and usually look at Microsoft products first, I will be trying a Logitech mouse next (for the first time).

I spent alot of time looking for a good optical mouse. I looked at prices, features, number of buttons, etc. I decided to go for the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer based on the location of the extra buttons. At first it felt kind of light in my hand and it took a little bit of time getting used to the extra buttons. But now that I have used it for a while I love it! The extra buttons are programable and are placed in the perfect spots. I use one to copy and the other one to paste. The optical eye never misses a beat, you get precise pointing everytime. The only thing I wish is that they would of made it a little heavier, the plastic is pretty light and the texture could also have more grip. Other than that it is an excellent product.

The mouse is excellent. I've owned it for about a year and a half and I don't think I'm going to replace it any time soon--although the tilt wheel is an interesting idea.

(However, the tilt wheel version seems to have it's own problems based on some reviews--thumb buttons moved back to an awkward position for no reason, and middle button click not working most of the time--goes off to either side, scrolling left/right instead of doing a given action.)

Again I will say this mouse is excellent--it has a practically flawless optical sensor that only causes trouble on very uneven surfaces--such as a ruffled bed sheet. I mainly use it for my desktop, but connecting to my laptop is cake. I have a decent knowledge about hardware and software, and installing programs is no big for me--but this is easily alleviated if you're using Windows XP Home or Pro Edition. You can simply plug the mouse in and you will be able to use it in about 10 seconds, along with the middle mouse button, and two thumb buttons.

Setting up the more advanced features of the mouse takes a few minutes though, and usually requires the use of the software CD (outdated now) or software from Microsoft's website. It normally works well in FPS and other computer games, but occasionally you won't be able to set the thumb buttons or the middle button--which I obviously have to knock off points for, my old mouse's middle button was always fully compatible.

I've barely cleaned the thing--and it's remained in perfect working condition. The sensor never gives me trouble and the buttons still work like brand-new. Especially the scroll and middle mouse button that some people have complained about. The clicks you feel in the scroll wheel are what make this mouse really great in my opinion. Some mouse wheels scroll too easily, or some scroll without any feel to them--this one is perfect and has good resistance to it. The middle mouse button works like it should, with about the same resistance as the two main mouse buttons, and the same quick response. Using it in games (it should work for practically all programmable games) is a breeze.

The ergonomics are great, and the only thing that could really improve is perhaps the height of the mouse. While I love the feel of the hump, it may be too tall. It's slightly large for me, and could be really small for someone less than 5'9" or so with "average-sized" hands. Also, the hump/bump could have been placed further back on the mouse, so it would rest right underneath your knuckles--whereas most of the time my fingers are split in half by the horizontal line where the two mouse buttons end, with a mix between the lower part of my fingers on the hump and my palm slightly touching the back of the mouse, along with the bottom of my hand resting on the given surface.

The mouse looks great, feels pretty good, and is slightly cheaper now if you can still find it--I don't have any significant problems with it--great in Windows ME (when I started using it) and XP.

Canon's new LiDE 30 is certainly a step up in overall image quality when compared to other slimline scanners, especially for under ... I was surprised at how good this scanner was for the price. Canon's adjustable Z-lid feature, a much-needed scanner improvement, is a must if you scan from bulky sources like books or magazines. All photo and text scans made were very crisp and accurate. (Poorer photos will need futher software manipulation to improve their quality beyond the originals.) No power cord--power drawn through the USB cable from the computer--and the lightweight portability of this scanner make it ideal for use with laptops. It can even be set up vertically if space is a problem. The only real drawback to the Canon LiDE 30 is that's it's a bit slow--20 seconds (approx.) for a 4" x 5" photo. Still, in this price range and for a 1200 x 2400 scanner, that's faster than most of the other models at this price. Like most included software packages, the software that comes with the LiDE 30 is adequate for most home uses--though no doubt some can benefit from other scanner software packages available in the aftermarket. If your scanning needs are modest-to-moderate, and your budget demands tight, this is definitely the scanner for you. The best, bar none, in terms of over all quality in this price range that's been offered to consumers up to now.

...The product itself worked as the manufacturer described it. Not a single problem occured during my installation (WinXP), and the included pieces of software more than covered all my scanning needs. The product lived up to its promise to EASILY scan and e-mail, edit, and convert the scanned image to word processing text.

It is extremely light and very easy to carry from location to location, and that was another great plus. It's ability to stand upright for those tight desk spaces is another feature I enjoy.

My only complaint (and I use that word lightly) is the noise the scanner makes when it scans. I've not been around many scanners, but the ones I've heard are quieter than this product. I'd say the sound level is comparable to an inkjet printer pulling paper from its paper tray.

Also, even after reinstalling the related software, the three buttons on the scanner don't work. I'm currently looking at the Canon website to see if I can get a more updated driver that would fix this problem. For now, I'm using the included software to do the scanning.

All-in-all, I highly recommend that you purchase this scanner if you're for a 'more bang for the buck' scanner and low on the budget. However, for those of you who are professional artist and/or photographers, you might want to consider looking at more flashy scanners for your requirements; this product wasn't exactly blazing when scanning full-blown colored graphics....Mine was also a brand new product too, not refurbished, used, or "like-new" either. Regardless, it's still worth the price for new scanner owners and/or practical/common use.

Highly recommended.

Get Lide 80 if you need a really top-of-the-line scanner without buying a mountain of machinery, but even with the throw-away deal on Lide 30, you'll do just fine for home scanning needs.

Don't let the compact design fool you, Canon's Lide series blows the competition out of the water with its crisp, swift scans. It connects through a USB 2.0 connector, so you don't need an AC adapter etc, in English, this means no additional guzzling of electricity. The bundled software (ScanGear toolbox) installs easily and you can be scanning in no more than 10 minutes.

If you're looking for something equally excellent in quality but with a slightly lower price point, and don't mind somewhat healthier body, try Epson Perfection 1670, but otherwise Canon Lide series is among the best your money can buy.

The Epson 2200 uses archival inks that supposedly will last for 80 years...but the inks sacrifice the overall quality of the glossy prints...creating a 'bronzing issue'...which is to say that the prints have annoying reflections depending upon how they are viewed. There is also a dull sheen over the premium glossy photos that are distinctly inferior to the prints of the Epson 1280 or 820.

There are other annoyances...like having to switch black ink cartridges when switching paper types from matte to glossy. Also, this printer cannot print borderless matte photos! Once the matte black cartridge is inserted, the software won't allow borderless. Using the glossy black will really sacrifice image quality.

The matte photo results are very impressive, the colors are accurate and vibrant,this is where the printer outshines the competition. However, amongst Epson's own printers, the matte prints are no better than what you will achieve using the Epson 1280 or 820. The extra resolution is absolutely meaningless. I have scanned Medium Format film...so there was plenty of detail to be distinguished when I ran a side by side comparison test of the 820 versus the 2200. Upon close inspection the lowly stylus 820 was as good and possibly even better in the resolution department. Absurd...but true! And those printers (1280 and 820) are far less expensive, more versatile and give incomparably better glossy photos. So what's the deal? If large matte is all you print, then the printer is excellent. If you want premiums glossy as well then don't make the same mistake I did. Get the 1280 instead.
I would also add that the 2200 is of course considerably faster than the others(1280,820) when set at 720dpi(all things being equal). And it does an excellent job with text as well. So it is a bit more professional in that sense.

I've had my Epson 2200 for about six weeks. With free shipping Amazon's price was best on the net. Looked at Canon's and Epson's lower end models. I thought the Epson outperformed the Canon tonally. Have done about 45 8x10 glossies with medium grade Epson paper. Not disappointed in the output. Two pics were banded and short colored. Did a basic head cleaning and that corrected the problem. The light toned inks are used at slightly more than twice the rate of the dark tones. Am just now looking for a replacement for light magenta cartridge. I figure amortized cost per pic is about 1.25 per print with ink paper and printer costs combined. If you demand quality output for your pics with a fairly low volumne output, this is a hard printer to beat right now. If you're not too concerned about darker toning and flatter colors you can probably get by with something half as pricey. I'm delighted with mine.

received this printer only to have two faulty ink cartilages (still being cleared by epson). bought a pair and started printing sample papers from all over (red river polar gloss has equal output quality verus epson's premium luster paper).
At around 1200 dpi the test images are excellent with great satutation and contrast (at default settings) baby skin came out near perfect to the monitor. metalics are not grainy and the the multi color thread spool are rich and detailed. gradients dare i say are comparable to traditional photo-prints.
Printing is on the slow side when compared to other ink-jet printers. other then the oddly relaxing whishing sound its makes very little noise. heavy foot print on the desk. heavy with nice rugged construction (metal bracings).
was reviewed by lou (industrial designer) and joy (photograper)

I saw a review of a Lexmark X83 which rated it extremely highly so toddled off to get one pronto for my budding business startup. Of course could not get the X83 only the X73 which was slower. They couldn't get hold of it , they only stock certain models etc etc (if u live in the UK you'll know what I mean, its like old Soviet central planning THEY ytell you what you can buy!)Saw the HP750 psc (not se or x just 750, are these better models?)
I was quite prejudiced against getting a HP because Ive used them at work -networked- and there's always been some sort of hassle (endless 'load letter' messages etc) I advised a friend to get a HP 970 inkjet based on a review and it printed OK (well, excellent scanned photos on glossy paper)but not good instructions and hassly setup.
I took the plunge and bought the 750 psc as it was in the store at the same price as the X83 was listed at and the spec seemed pretty OK and more than adequate (speed , res etc.)
I got it home after scrounging a USB lead (not you don't get one supplied in the box, what's wrong with these people? You can't print without it, I got one thrown in when I bought a cheaper Concord Eye Q digicam so put one in the box and don't be a scrooge HP!)
After the inevitable hassly setup (installed software, didnt work, uninstalled it, reinstalled it twice; BTW you really have to do exactly as it says on the (...) sheet in EXACTLY the same order otherwise it won't setup correctly)I got to work. Well, the copier function is standalone (doesnt have to be connected to pc) is VERY fast (it prints AS it scans) and very good quality. This standalone facility is good because I know how hassly and SLOW copying thru scanning then printing can be from past experience.
The scanning is similarly impressive though is let down by less than uintuitive software, particularly the OCR. The controls on the unit itself are good and I liked that the pc software shows you what the status of the LCD on the printer is so you don't have to get up to look etc, neat feature.
The printing in black and white is very impressive and almost embarrassingly fast - almost as if its spitting out your document with contempt as its got better things to do ! (fast mode is adequate for most needs)I printed out some business cards and the small black print of the address section belied the fact it came from an inkjet and not a professional printers.
HOWEVER...the colour Im not exactly sure of, hence the 'mmmnn...' in the title . Reviewers in magazines almost invariable pick some picture that is either easy to print so it won't show up flaws anyway or pick something you'd never print out in a month of sundays. I printed some shots taken on my digicam of the outside of my house and they printed out fine. However, the colours on the page do not always match the colours on my screen so, for instance, my business card blue had to be lightened on the pc several shades lighter before it came out as I wanted it , even then not brilliant. Pictures often come out a lot darker, I have to lighten the image in the HP printer control settings AND reduce the inkflow to minimum to get a closer replication of what I see on my screen. Is this the software, is it the printer? Is it the fact that my backlit LCD (TFT) laptop screen lightens the image anyway like a stainedglass window. Is it the paper? Well, maybe only time will tell as I get to 'know' my printer but I would have expected the blue to be the same on the business card , it actually comes out a bit 'dirty' looking. Skin tones are particularly variable. If you buy a colour printer you expect the colour to look very much like the colour on your screen or camera LCD monitor; you don't want to spend half your time second-guessing what the unit is going to come up with.
There are a lot of features and settings to wade thru so maybe in time i will have a better idea of where the fault lies. Certainly for outside type photos it prints out fine.
The fact that it is all bundled together in a sexy little package that uses up less desktop space and truly functions as a mini-office, copying scanning etc very quickly, noiselessly makes it a winner, so I would have to recommend with perhaps the proviso that you do several instore comparison colour tests with other printers before you make a decision.

I love my new HP750. After having a separate scanner and printer and never being able to easily use the scanner, this one is a snap. It's for the people who don't want to spend all afternoon trying to figure out how to get the stupid thing to work. We plugged it in and off we went. I copied a picture of my husband and my dogs and me for our Christmas card and the copies looked as good as the originals. I can't say enough good things about this. For the price there is none better. Yay!!

I originally purchased the Lexmark X83 becuase it was $50 less than the HP and all the specs seemed the same. The Lexmark is somewhat easy to setup, except for the print alignment. It prints out a page and you have eyeball a bunch of lines and pick the straightest one. At first, it printed fine and scanned in pictures with little effort. As long as I only printed out 1 copy at a time, it was fine. But then the troubles started. I couldn't get it to print anything beyond ten copies at a time. It would freeze up and give me an error or I would get an error stating that connection to the printer had been lost. Also, it doesn't print out pictures very well. It doesn't seem able to print out flesh tones. I upgraded the software and bios to no avail. After two days of building frustration, I took it back and bought the HP PSC750. This is a far superior machine! Basically plug it in, load the software and you're ready to go. Remember that print alignment I talked about earlier, well the HP does it itself! The print quality is awesome and I've had no problems with it so far. It's definitely worth the extra $50 bucks!!

I haven't had any problems with the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo since I purchased it earlier this year. It is running on a Windows XP PC utilizing the USB 2.0 port, and it's speedy. Scan quality is very nice, and the drivers haven't caused any crashes. However, I make a habit of downloading the latest drivers from manufacturer websites when buying a new accessory instead of relying on the CD, which is usually outdated by the time of purchase.

The only caveats I have are the following: 1) it is quite large and will need a lot of desk space (although this adds to the sturdy feel), and 2) the included software is somewhat clunky and non-intuitive. Instead I use a document management program (Paperport 9.0), which is much easier to work with.

I purchased the 1660 scanner at Costco ... because of the slide and film scanner function. The initial installation left me with no option for scanning slides, so I was ready to return it.

After accessing support.epson.com and choosing "scanners" and then "Perfection 1660", I downloaded and installed the driver update for MS Windows 98 and XP, which presented a new slide option, called TPU (Transparancy Unit). After installation, three choices appear in addition to the "Flatbed" Document Source: "Color Neg Film," "Monochrome Neg Film," and "Pos Film." Choosing one of these activates the flourescent lamp on the lid, which illuminates the slides and filmstrips. Of course, you must remove the white cover from inside of the lid to reveal the 2" by 11" centered illumination screen, and place the four-slide plastic insert on the scanning glass.

The software "SmartPanel" allows a preview scan and individual slide image rotation (I had to learn which way is "up", and allows choice of tiff, jpg, etc, and destination file--or you can fax, email, or publish each picture to the web.

All of this information is in the "Scanner Reference
Guide" (the electronic Manual), which is why so many reviewers complain that there is no physical manual. I have sympathy for you who could not install from the cd-rom (since you cannot read what is not installed!), but if you want to make copies of slides and 35 mm filmstrips, the Epson Perfection 1660 is definitely the best value available. MHG and Viren P reviewers (10-13-02 and 10-26-02) rated this Epson above other Epsons and the Microtek, and I agree.

I have both Win 98 and XP operating systems and installation was flawless with both.

I bought this scanner in a hurry to complete a project. In turned into being a better scanner than my expensive one.

It installs quickly and the software that is provided with it is adequate or you can use your own software easily. If you are planning on scanning mostly text you may want to get a better OCR software product. The scanner does a great job and then it is up to the character recognition software to finish the job.

If you scan a photograph and print on quality paper it it does the job of a photo scanner. Everything I have scanned with this scanner from text to photographs is high quality.

I am considering buying a second one at the price that is offered. It's a DEAL.