Apple Reviews

I purchased two of these when they first came out. The retractable cord was great, but I have found two problems with these mice. On one of the mice the retractor mechanism broke. Now, my other one is fine, and I will probably chalk it up to my fater being a bit too rough on it. The other problem is much more annoying, and is present on BOTH of my mice. The problem is with the scroll wheel. The wheel has a tendency to "stick" between knotches causing the screen to jump up and down erratically. It is very difficult to use the wheel without this problem popping up. I have never had this problem with "quality" scroll mice, only cheap ones. I think Kensington cut corners on it's design. On the other hand, their WIRELESS Pocketmouse resolved both of my issues and is a FANTASTIC mouse.

This is my 3rd Kensington mouse. Not that any have died, but they are all still in use. This one I carry around in my bag, and I have a MouseWorks four-button scroller on my desk at home. I also have a 2 button scroller optical at work. So, why is this software so great? In any given day, I use at least two of these products, without restarting and without resetting anything. The OS X native driver was nice, but the four-button mouse made for strange choices and nowhere to alter button functions. A quick download, and now I have custom settings on each of three mice! And, contrary to what others have written, the software is easy to configure, and ready for primetime. They don't waste time putting it on CD's, because the online version is always being upgraded, so why use an old version?

The single issue I have with the mouse is that the cord is thin. But it wouldn't be as small or retract so well if it were as bulky as the other cords. I've used PowerBooks since the first batch was introduced ten years or so back, and have rarely carried mice around because the cords always tangled, and they were just too irritating to use. With this scroll wheel and the MouseWorks software, I'm sold! I'll never leave it out of my case again.

I bought this mouse about a year ago and LOVE it. The idea of the retractable cord is genius. I can slip this mouse into my laptop case very easily and just use it on the go. I can even slip it in my pocket with no worries that it might break. The scroll wheel in between the buttons also functions great. Scrolling up and down is really easy with this and it's not too sensitive to make it annoying.

There is a button on the left side of the mouse to open the door where you retract the cord into. You then pull the cord out one click and it slides in most easily. The last thing I like about this mouse is how well the optical sensor is to everything. You can even use this mouse on flawless white paper and you get perfect traction. This is a good investment and will last you a long time. Even when the Synopsis Touchpad on my laptop was down, just plug it in and it works great.

NOTE: I recommend this to anyone, but mostly to laptop owners. The reason being is that the cord is only approx. 3' in length, so it might be hard to reach the back of the desktop, but you can always plug it into "plug and play" or buy an extension.

One drawback, if you pull on the cord of this mouse, the computer (or maybe it's just mine!) thinks you unplugged it and plugged it back in, so it takes a few seconds to initialize again. All in all, great, and for sure recommended!

I've read all the prior reviews with interest. I bought my 1280 over a year ago based on reviews on several well known and trusted Digital Photography sites. I have been very pleased with the output of this printer. Yes, the printer takes more work to get a really GOOD print then the HPs. But then I have the HP printers also and they do not measure to pure quality of print. Yes, the ink cartridges are small and do not last long if you print alot of 8x10, 13x19 like I do. But, for 250 bucks you can buy a CIS (continual inking system) that pays for itself in 3 months. Yes, the Epson ink will jam the heads IF you do not use the printer at least once every few days. Again, the printer is for PHOTOGRAPHS, not text, not the occasional print job and certainly not the occasional picture. This printer is for the professional or serious amateur photographer. I have seen alot of prints from other printers and even with the flaws, this printer is the best. I wish a few things. Epson would update the drivers more often. The supplied software is marginally usable and they ding you 30 bucks for the real package. At 400 dollars for a printer, Epson could have given us the software given the price tag of the ink cartridges. I have run Epson, Illford and Inkjetart paper through this printer will very good success.

I just set up my new Epson Stylus 1280 printer. It works great with my iMac computer. The only drawback I can see is that I was looking for a printer that used separate cartridges, and this one doesn't. Otherwise, it prints beautiful pictures, although I like the ones I printed on the Matte paper better than the ones I printed on the Glossy paper. It prints great documents, too. I think I'll keep it, for awhile.

I have an Epson 1280 and it consistently produces prints that are as good or better than any laser fiery printer I've ever used.

As an advertising copywriter, I depend on this printer to make new copies of my work and it comes through every time.

Now, this is not the perfect printer, because it does drink ink something fierce, but the print outs are worth it, just ask any professional.

In fact, it was a photographer who first turned me on to this machine. At the time I was looking at a Lexmark or HP.

As any graphic designer will tell you HP's are word processing printers and with only rare exceptions any good at graphics and Lexmark is just to be avoided. You get what you pay for, and with Lexmark that isn't much.

Epson wrote the book on graphics and photo reproduction printing and with the 1280 they have added another proud chapter.

I purchased my X85 6 months ago, since then, I got a lot of troubles with this priner. The first time I used it to print a color photo, it came out all pink. called customer service, they send me a new catriage, now the color is still not right, the images are either too blur or two dark. Also the copy does not seem right. sometimes the first couple of black copy came out all black ink, after a few times, it will do copy. the quick mode does not work properly either. And it constantly lose connect with my computer ( I use window XP). Finanlly I got fed up with this printer, and I call customer service again, now they have 1800 or 1888 number for technical support, upon my request, they agree to send me a new model x5150 with a reasonable extra charge. The new X5150 works great with photo printing, now I can send picture to my family and friend printed from my printer. Compared with X5150, X85 is a trouble maker. Would not recommend this, but Lexmark customer service is not bad.

This is my 3rd Lexmark printer in the last 3 years - i've upgraded all my previous printers because of my growing experiences with computers, digital cameras, etc. Every one of my Lexmark printers I've been pleased with the speed, quality and performance - never had a single problem.
I started looking at replacing my Z53 when I realized I needed a scanner (and a copier would be nice also). This Lexmark Z85 All-In-One printer had the most and best options (ie - computer doesn't need to be turned on to make copies). this printer is fast, has excellent quality, and has all i'll ever need and more. Also, it's not eating the ink cartridges - I do alot of "photo" pictures and the ink levels are hardly being touched - very pleased with how long the cartridges are lasting. The on-screen ink level guides is also nice.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT - WORTH EVERY PENNY!!

Never had a printer quite like it!!!! This thing does EVERYTHING!!!

I am sitting in my recliner, watching Buffy and tapping this message out. The handwriting recognition is only fair, but the keyboard works fine. The wireless works great and was easy to setup - applying sp1 took longer than the setup did. We have been able to get it to work with both of the computers at home, AND it even was able to access my work machine via terminal services! I am using it at home with my existing wireless network - no problems. I hooked it up to my PC, but did not leave it that way - my old CRT was better. I was not happy with the quality when using it as my primary monitor, but it is great for portable uses. Very cool device.

After I came across a 3-lb notebook, I was reborn into a world of heavenly accessibility. In addition to keeping the most updated files with me all the time, I can also remote terminal to my work computer to access archived files.

But after a few hours of usage, the hard-drive's high-pitch hum would start to stick to my head, and doesn't go away. So now I'm considering getting a 4-lb monitor to remotely terminal to my 3-lb notebook.

And gosh, how am I supposed to use this thing without a keyboard and a touchpad?

many comments compare the SmartDisplay with a laptop. in this comparison almost any laptop naturally wins, but in my opinion the AirPanel is a stand-alone product that serves a completely different purpose. the V150 is supposed to turn your main workstation into a portable device, and it does that job very well. no need to sync or update files, one can print while laying in bed or access info on how to plant flowers, while surfing the net in the backyard. the possibilities when, where and how to use the AirPanel are nearly endless. accessing a home network or other LAN workstations? no problem with this easy to setup and use device. SmartPanels like this won't revolutionize the wireless world, but -again- i don't think they are meant to do so. it is not a device that one absolutely needs for home-computing but it makes it a whole lot easier and most important of all it adds the "fun-dimension" to it!

HP has made a quality scanner at a bargain price.

They've tried to make slide and negative scanning easy, and failed, but perhaps because it CAN'T be as easy as pressing one button on a scanner. You have to pay attention to details to get good results from slides and negatives, with either a $100 scanner or a $5,000 scanner, and I've used plenty of both.

The software leaves a lot to be desired in terms of responsiveness, but if you READ THE MANUAL... (strange concept, eh?) you'll discover that there is a control application called the "Director" which makes scanning faster and easier to control, than fumbling with the default user interface and its auto-preview delay.

I too had problems with the auto-cropping of whitespace and negative scanning, until I took 5 minutes to go to HP's website, read the TMA scanning document in the FAQ for this product, and do what it says to do (in essence: use the Director application instead of the scanner buttons). Which results in: perfect scans.

My only complaint re: negative scanning: the mount is difficult to handle, and shoving a long strip of negs through it results in light leakage of the TMA lamp, and dark scans. So, you HAVE to cut your negs if you have strips of more than 4 per.

Two stars for making a good scanner at a cheap price.

One star for putting up with ignorant consumers who don't read manuals, and for actually putting useful information up on their website. HP may no longer provide good human support, but the online support is decent.

Oh, and the software takes up NOWHERE NEAR 4GB, as one reviewer claimed. It is, however, atrociously slow (to be fair, I have yet to encounter ANY truly "fast" scanning software, on any platform).

An awesome scanner for the money. Paid $39 at Circuit City (Sorry Amazon). Works like a dream. Of course you could get a higher end scanner but it would be a higher end price to boot. Does everything that the model replacing it does for about $50 less.

I paid $40.00 for this scanner at Circuit City. I got it home and about 5min after I took it out of the box I was scanning and printing some very old photos (yes I did install all the software). I have used other scanners (school, work, kinkos) and this has got to be the simplest to use. Fool proof. Just press a little button, if you want to email your scan just press the button with the envelope picture, just a simple scan just press the scanner button. Like I said Fool Proof. I have no idea what others are saying about white space being cropped out and the guy that says you need 4gb to install the software is a total lie. I guess he must have something against the HP brand. I will admit that the lamp takes some time to warm up (30 sec.) but that is really no problem. I will admit that the scans that it makes are not as good quality as some high end scanners but it is really great. I have scanned some old photos that are like 3x4 and have printed them up to 8x10 with great quality. I give it 5 stars because of the price I paid, the ease of use and the quality I get from it with my experience.

The HP 1220C is a very good printer, good speed, excellent graphics with rich, vibrant colors. It's not as fast as my HP 2000C printer but I think the print quality is better, less banding. I just wish the 1220C had seperated color cartridges, but you can't have everthing. Overall, it's a very good performer with lots of nice features, i.e., the pull out area in the back of the printer for clearing paper jams. I have printed posters, digital photos, brochures, programs and have not been disappointed in its performance.

I'm an unabashedly big fan of HP inkjet printers. I have found their color management drivers, not to mention their ease of connectivity, to be completely conducive to excellent output. The quality is obviously superior to HP's chief injet rival, Epson.

This printer is no exception. Aside from the somewhat obscure color cartridges (my local suppliers don't stock a lot of them because they're only used in three other printers), I've found nothing to complain about in the two months I've been using it.

The printer is truly whisper silent, and it's massively faster than my old HP 890. I print on odd sizes of paper, so I love the fact that I can now do special jobs without having to go to a service bureau to make tabloid and larger sizes. The onboard memory is sufficiently large to allow me to dump really complicated graphical files without tying up my CPU. As an example, a full-color, legal-sized flyer with multiple graphical layers used to take something on the order of 12 minutes to send to the printer and print. Now it's a matter of 3-5 minutes. True, some the speed increase is that this printer connects through a USB port, but I suspect that even if I hooked it up with the parallel connection, there'd be a massive improvement in speed. At any rate, I used to sometimes crash my computer if I tried to do smething else while a complicated project was printing. Now, nothing I do outside of starting a 3-D game will shake my system.

I cannot recommend this machine enough. However, you should take a look at the 1220Cxi version, just in case you need the added PostScript flexibility.

I have used this printer for four years and it still works perfectly. I prints photos on photo paper beautifully. I love being able to print 11x17, and friends and family ask me to print for them. I use this printer heavily but have only bought new cartridges once in four years. I often print using the print quality of 'Fast'. The 'Fast' option looks like 'Normal' for most printing except photos. This printer was worth the expense. I also have an HP LaserJet 4L that is still working after more years than I can remember, and it's still fast compared to many newer printers on the market.

What a waste of money. Purely a disaster. Lucky to get 2 scans without errors. Total frustration. messages:Scanner busy, scanner warming up; scanner not ready; scanner not available.
This makes the old Microtek look like a dream machine.
I have another Epson at home and the Smart Panel software is not so smart- there too- errors, lockups. I hope nobody else buys this garbage. Poor support terrible software.

I almost did not buy the 1260 Photo Scanner based upon a couple of other reviews. After using it for a few days, I sure am happy I did.
1. Since I run Windows XP with the Service Pack, I was very concerned after reading the problems a couple of other buyers experienced. I can now say this is not an issue with the Epson. When you open the box, there are instructions on how to download a 'patch' from Microsoft to ensure that the scanner runs perfectly.

2. I was also concerned with another reviewers comments about having to set up a 'phantom' printer. I use a HP Laserjet printer and I printed to that device without any problems.

3. Finally, one of the other concerns was 'ease of use.' Again, not a problem from my perspective. The scanner was set up and running perfectly within ten minutes (from box to perfect picture).

The quality of the photos and documents is very good from my perspective. I tested the scanner using the printer, sending a picture to an email, saving a scanned picture to a file, and including a scanned picture in a Word document. All functions worked flawlessly. What more could I ask? Well, maybe one thing. The scanner could be a little faster. It is not actually slow - just not real fast. Conclusion: All things considered, I do not think you can go wrong with this scanner.

This is my first scanner but it has been a pleasure. It has never caused any trouble and has always done what I asked. Sometimes I struggle to get the 35mm adapter to work (the optional attachment) but other than that, this scanner has proved to be a very good purchase.

What has been glorified as a premium graphics printer -- isn't. This printer is old technology in a new box. And, I wound up having to BUY their latest RIP software ($158) to get it to run w/ Windows 2000. But worst of all was Epson's customer service. I had over 22 contacts w/ them in three months and, in the end, they were unwilling to take the machine back.

During those three months, the printer's lack of performance was blamed on a variety of things. Me - "it's a complicated machine, you are probably are doing something wrong." The paper - "Epson only guarentees print quality on Epson paper." My software - "Your software may not be able to produce files that are good enough."

I will NEVER buy another Epson printer, mostly because of what I have been through with their customer service.

I haven't had any problems with this printer in the 2+ years I've been using it, but there are some things you need to know before you buy this printer. First, this is not a printer for personal use, it is intended for a workgroup of graphic designers. It's capable of printing pages that are over 17" wide, and it has high-end capabilities that only a professional would need (or even care about). And since most professional graphic designers use Macs, that might explain why the PC users are having all the problems.

Because this is a pro-level printer, it's very important to read the instructions carefully. I had a hard time getting it to recognize paper sizes until I sat down and studied the manual, and since then it's worked perfectly.

Lastly, this printer is huge. Turning it on takes 10 minutes, so we never turn it off. I gave it four stars instead of five, because we the printer is technically overkill for us, and trying to get the RIP software and color matching to work was too much trouble for us. Plus, it's pretty much outdated nowadays, especally with the Epson 2200 that's now available.

I have used this printer for the last three years. As a visual designer and a fine artist I have used this to print all sorts of design projects, illustrations, and web pages.

The colors this produces are a better match to what I see onscreen than any other color printer I have used (HP deskjets, HP color laser, Apple color laser). Even at "normal" quality on cheap paper, the prints are good enough to frame. I used this printer with photo quality paper to print the portfolio I show at job interviews. The dithering is subtle, with none of the dark-dot-amongst-light-dots problems that cause a speckled look on cheap printers.

The colors are vibrant, but ACCURATE (unlike the HP printers that always print colors oversaturated). As other reviewers have noted, the ink cartridges (separate for each color!) last a long time, typically several months with heavy usage.

The printing is fast, even at high quality, much faster than color laser printers, and comparable to most desktop printers.

The flat paper tray (as opposed to inclined) rarely jams. The tray can hold about 50 sheets of paper, so it is good for use in an office environment being shared by many people.

This can handle even light card stock, although I have had some varieties of 80# card stock JAM and refuse to go through. Unfortunately, the stock is forced to go through the rollers, and there is no way to open the back to allow it to go straight through and avoid jamming on heavy stock. This is the only bad thing about this printer.

I had an earlier IOGear 1-port card for a Dell Inspiron 2650 (XP), and I never got it to work. I just got the GPU202 2-port card for a new Dell Inspiron 300m (XP), with the same results. This time I downloaded the newest driver - still no luck. The laptop recognizes some peripherals plugged into the GPU202, but they won't function.

In any case, this is the last time I will waste any money on IOGear.

I have a fujitsu E series laptop with Windows XP. The cardbus will only work with USB 1.1 peripherals.

I bought an IOGEAR 2.5in USB 2.0 external hard drive enclosure and this hangs when connected via the card, sometimes spontaniously rebooting my pc.

Writing to my new TDK USB 2.0 40x CDRW (via Roxio OR Easy CD Creator) also fails. Yes I've tried powering the cardbus (and the enclosure) to no avail. Iogear support was non responsive.

Even after a clean install of XP (for other reasons) the problem with the ION persisted.

Then tried the card with the same CDRW and Drive enclosure on my friends Dell Inspiron with XP - no problems!

So you may be delighted or you may not.

I didn't have any problem installing it in my Windows XP laptop, it was truly plug and play and didn't need any software. I can hot-swap the card or USB devices while the laptop is on without any problem. It's a great way to add USB 2.0 ports, and it costs less than other available adapters. All the negative reviews almost made me not to buy the product, but I bought it and very happy with its performance (480 mbps).

I bought this thinking it'd be the panacea to the brevity of the iPod's battery life. It is. When it works.

Pros:
•More time to listen to music.

Cons:
•Bulky. Power connector should be integrated, and the device should somehow fit around the iPod. While I have not had any bad experiences with suction cups holding expensive equipment, they are simply illogical considering that you are entrusting them with a $3-500 piece of equipment full of your life's work and all of your music.

Here's the kicker, and I realize that I'm not the only one who has had this problem:

I thought it was just a fluke when my battery pack's springs melted and I smelled burning plastic. Fortunately I haven't seriously burned myself, but cbBut it happened three times. Belkin phone support was no help, e-mail support didn't even address the issue, they just said "call us for help", and Belkin refused to replace the product.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been helpful(I recently filed a complaint/report), but Belkin is still quiet. Oh well. The Voice Recorder for the iPod is also pretty bad. Stay away unless you enjoy getting burns and wasting batteries.

Lets face it: The IPOD battery just doesn't measure up. It is supposed to last for up to 8 hours of music, but hasn't survived past two hours before it dies. Thats why this Belkin external battery pack is so attractive. It's been on my wishlist for months, and when I finally got it, I was disappointed. Although it has increased my battery life over 6 hours more, it still is not as streamlined as the IPOD itself. It just adds some "dead weight" to it. This being said, it is NOT very portable. This Backup battery pack is great if you are stuck with long delays at an airport somewhere. However, if you are planning to use this on your morning jogs around the block, skip it.

Overall, this Battery Backup is a helpful addition to the IPOD, but it's size and weight really are limiting factors.

I really like this device for my travels. I often run out of juice on the ipod (only 8 hours won't work for a 12+ hour travel day) itself and since I'm just sitting in the cramped plane seat anyway, the extra weight isn't an issue. I don't recommend it if you want to run with it or use it for walking around since it doesn't really attach all that well to the ipod...espcially if you use a case with the ipod. Even if you use your ipod naked (how could you!?!), it doesn't really attach all that well either. But remember, Belkin designed it so really, it's not apple's fault they have idiots in the belkin design dept.
Overall, the utility is great for long travel times and design sucks
Adds considerable weight to ipod - if you run with it, your shorts may be dragging on the ground as a result of the battery pack
The batteries seem to last longer if stored in the off position when not in use

Why are most of these reviews not even about the damn battery pack?!? If you want to attack the ipod itself, go post it on the ipod product review page