Apple Reviews

This monitor never worked, all i saw was a black screen...piece of junk!

I have been using the monitor for the last 2 months, and it works great. The controls on the front panel are slightly more difficult to use than other monitors I've used in the past, but there are many useful features that can be accessed just from the front panel, such as displaying the actual refresh rate.

The only negative comment I have is that when the monitor is in sleep mode, occasionally it turns itself on for a few seconds and then goes back to sleep. When it does this, one hears the clicking sound associated with a monitor turning itself on or changing resolution modes--it sounds like a relay switching on and off. I did not have this issue with my previous monitor on the same computer when the old monitor went into sleep mode.

The options for resolution and refresh rate are exceptional for a monitor at the price I paid, and the picture quality is excellent. Overall I am happy with my purchase.

Spend more money and get a real printer. Ink is expensive, picture quality so-so and it consistently fails to properly execute print jobs... partially printed documents happen far too often. This is easily the most frustrating to use inexpensive printer I have ever purchased. Never again! The only redeeming quality is the price, but only because I won't feel quite so bad when I stomp the miserable @#! into tiny pieces.

It is an average printer and the above mentioned prices are just enough. There is nothing really special about it at all. Only advantage is that it works both with MAC and PC. One BIG problem is: the ink cartridges are very expensive, more expensive the printer itself. So it is not a good buy. I used to have one do not recommend it.

This printer is ok i'am using it with a mac OS 9.2.2 sometimes it has computer problems but I fix them like
sometimes it says printer is busy. I bought it at Rite Aid
for $30 in the summer I had to get my computer upgraded
on MB's because I did not have enough.

This seemed to be a very attractive model, especially when compared with HP products. The unit itself is impressive for personal (non-business) needs.

After installing the software on a laptop running XP per Microtek's instructions, scanned files did not open. Using the Microtek.com tech support site, I e-mailed the company for a solution. Within 24 hours I had received a reply with detailed instructions to rectify the Scan Wizard 5 bugs. These instructions did not remedy the problem. A second e-mail was forwarded to Microtek asking for further assistance.

The reply: I needed to call (not toll-free) and to speak with a "consultant" regarding this "complicated issue". For the priviledge of correcting the bugs in Microtek's software, I would be charged [money] for up to 30 minutes plus [money]/minute thereafter. This ... response to milk me for a product I had less than a week caused me to come up with a solution to the tech issues: return the scanner for a full refund.

Recommendaton: Avoid Microtek at all costs. The company is interested in your money only. Canon, Epson and Visioneer are three nice alternatives.

Purchased Microtek ScanMaker 4850 in spite of reading all of the not so favorable reviews. I should have taken the reviews "very" seriously. I wasted alot of time installing and uninstalling the software because it just would not responding to my OPS, XP...Dell Computer, 512MB. Take the reviews seriously and don't waste your time!!!!

I received this as a gift from my husband for Xmas '02 to replace my Visioneer flatbed that had started to scan in funny colors. Let me say that I really loved my Visioneer. First of all, the scanner installed pretty easily, no problems there. But... when I reboot XP, it takes 60 seconds just to boot the scanner before most of my other programs can load. Also, you have to manually open the ScanMaker 5 program and click the scanner control button and then close out of the program to get the light to go off. I wouldn't ever buy another one of these. I've also had a big problem with lint inside the machine under the glass, causing big problems with clean scans. I've tried about everything I can think of and still have the problem. I've even cleaned the glass on both sides with alcohol and newspaper! What a rip off. My advice is to stay far away from Microtek products.

I have had this monitor for over 2 years. It's reliable, but the display quality leaves a lot to be desired. There's terrible moire that's hard to get rid of and the edges and corners never look right. I have played with all the buttons until my finger tips started to hurt. I went with NEC's reputation and bought the monitor sight unseen, a decision I have regretted ever since.

When shopping for my new monitor I had trouble finding reviews for this model. Even so, I went out on a limb and bought it because NEC typically makes good products. I'm quite pleased with my purchase. The text and graphics on this monitor are crisp and bright, much more so than I was expecting for a shadow masked monitor. The edges are a little dimmer than the center, and when you view the monitor from a sharp angle the edges seem to disappear. This is not abnormal though, even on much more expensive monitors that I've used.

I would say this unit is equally as good as the Samsung 955DF, but it's cheaper. That's the main reason I bought the monitor. Good price ... because of the price and the quality of the picture, I've rated the monitor 4 out of 5 stars. It could be better, but not for this money!

apparently, manufacturing quality is spotty on this product, because my 95F is great. My 95F has sharp graphics & text, and no edge distortions; I did need to use the on-screen controls to adjust things, but that seems to be a normal thing these days. I normally run it at 1280x1024 @85hz, and 9pt text is clear and easy to read. It worked fine with my Powerbook G3 and NT/98 boxes

As much as I've tried to get my temper under control, the piece of crap from Lexmark has almost sent me over the edge. I've finally given up toady as I ripped the entire unit off my desk, threw it out the door, and commenced to stomp it into oblivion in the driveway, much to the horror of my neighbors.. The paper jams, printing poblems and quality is THE WORST I've ever seen.

This will be my LAST purchase from Lexmark.

My real rating is minus ten stars. >:-<

I'm really surprised to read that anyone is a fan of this printer. I bought this printer after my daughter was born so I could print all her pictures and make photo albums. The paper never feeds properly. I tried everything I could to correct the problem but each time it yanks the paper to one side and reads "error". This is so frustrating. I've never had such a problem with any printer. Recently purchased a HP for a fraction of the price and it works perfectly. I've spent the past few months making those photo albums that Lexmark prevented me from making. This printer is very flawed and I'm not surprised that they no longer sell it. Did Lexmark even check it before manufacturing it and selling them? Can't imagine many of them faired well. Beware of the Lexmark X83!

I am a computer technician and one of my clients had purchased this printer in order to save the space of having multiple pieces of hardware lying around.

When it arrived, I set it up, tested it, and everything seemingly worked fine. The next day I receieved a call that his daughters had [messed] up the printer and he requested I return to repair it.

Once again, after a clean driver install it worked fine. I logged off and back on and it still worked fine. After shutting the computer down and restarting it, the software and driver loaded, but I recieved a "cannot communicate with printer error".

After working on it for an hour or so, attempting every possible solution I knew, and every solution lexmark had to offer (including replacing thier cable with one of my own), the printer still would not work after a restart.

After searching on the web, I found that this was common on about 75-80% of computers running on Windows NT kernal (NT, 2000, and XP).

I must admit, print speed and quality were good (not great), but images seemed oversaturated and the printer used roughly 1/4 tank of ink printing 10 test pages. There was such an excessive amount of ink that you could make copies just by laying the paper on another sheet.

If you dont mind reinstalling the printer each time the computer starts and you dont mind paying [money] in ink for every 50 pages printed then this printer is fine. Otherwise, I'd stay away from this one.

Besides the aesthetically pleasing design, this product is completely useless. It only uses 1 AAA which give the transmitter no boost so the signal will only work if there is NO OTHER radio station near the set station. And even if it does work, its simply horrible with choppy sound and static.<br /> If your in the market for an FM transmitter, go with the SONICimpact FM transmitter. Its cheaper and readily available at Target stores. It uses two AAA batteries and, seriously, that makes all the difference. Used it with my ipod on a four hour trip (8hours to and back) and it worked like a charm with excellent sound quality. Once in awhile something might make it have some static, but you can simply switch the station setting and keep on listening. But back to Belkin....DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT

If I had truly hated it, I'd have given it 1 star. Anyway, you plug this into the headset jack of the iPod and then, after inserting 2 AAA batteries, set a slide switch on it to one of 4 available frequencies (all on the low end of the FM band), set your FM radio to the matching frequency, and push the big button on the TuneCast to get it to transmit. By the way, of you forget to press the big button again before you exit the car, count on the 2 AAAs being dead when you return.
There is more static, popping and crackling than there is music. I'm sure you get the picture. No matter how I positioned it, it wasn't very clear. I even tried to use it in a car with its radio antenna mounted on the front fender, but it wasn't much better (the TuneCast transmits to your radio's antenna, not to your radio's faceplate).
I got the Griffin iTunes, and this was somewhat better to be sure, but still not good enough to make me give up the headphones or the cassette tape converter.

PRO's
Pop in the batteries, set the channel on car radio and it works!
Extremely simple to use - I have an hour comute 1 way and listen to books on tapes.
I used through my home Bose system and it works perfectly. Great to use with iPod or regular hand held cassette player. But for best results with iPod's use the iTrip, you can choose any frequency available from right on the iPod.
At least now when I get my free Otis player from Audible.com - I don't have to wear ear buds (not very safe at all!) while driving.

Cons
Bleeding FM stations cause havoc -
I drive through mostly rural areas - If you live in the city I can see where "bleeding" from FM stations could make the device useless.

The price is good, but what they don't tell you when you buy this printer is that you will need 1 of the 2 ink cartridges in about a month with just casual use. Oh yea, uh, the 2 cartridges are 50 bucks.
Don't waste your time or money unless you're using it as a disposable printer.

This is my second Lexmark. I would never buy another. I only bought this second one because it was being sold at a fundraiser for my sister-in-law's chorus. It was brand new. First thing is that Consumer Reports wrote that the Lexmark ink is the most expensive of all the printer mfgrs.

I'm printing a Christmas newsletter on it. Gripe 1: The side with 6 pictures takes six minutes to print. Gripe 2: The black ink was half used after 40 pages! (This poor speed and ink performance is nowhere close to the specs Lexmark provides.) Gripe 3: The worse thing is that just like with my old Lexmark, the feed mechanism grabs unevenly, and the paper gets jammed. Or it doesn't grab at all. Gripe 4: After a major jam, it smeared ink on the backs of the next 10 pages, wasting lots of expensive paper and ink before I noticed it.

I have to babysit this thing. I hate it!

simple enough
I used a refill kit which comes with a small hand drill, rubber stopper hyperdermic and two bottles of ink.
Drill into the top (I did it between the raised part of the cartridge) once you break through inject into the foam with the hyperdermic needle put in the rubber stopper. then insert cartridge in printer lie to the software say it is a new cartridge and off you go. Colour is a little harder i believe because there are 3 ink wells to find. it is a great little printer and fairly economical once you know how to refill :-)

This is not an HP printer as you remember them. This is poorly built and will fail as soon as it's out of warrantee. As a matter of fact, mine warrantee was only 6 months.

BUYER BEWARE !!!

I work at a school and have had two 3320's break in the past week. HP's aren't what they used to be when you consider that there are still a lot of DeskWriter C's and DeskWriter/DeskJet 500 series printers still working on campus. Shame on HP for not fixing the design and continuing to sell printers with the same fatal flaw!

I can't believe this printer is so quiet and works so good for fifty bucks. As the other reviewer mentioned about the USB cable and black cartridge not being in the box, that is an annoyance that HP should address, but other than that, if you need a low cost printer for student and/or home use, you will not be disappointed. Pretty decent printing even for color pictures. I have previously owned other hp's and epson's that I paid hundreds more for, and this was a pleasant surprise.

Let's go through the few pros before discussing the cons:
•It's small.
•It's an ergonomically sound shape, all things considered.
•It has a microphone.
•You can record to your iPod directly.
•I got it for really cheap.
•Useful when it works.
•Does not mess up on long recordings(22 minutes I have done without breaking a sweat, i.e. having to reset the 'pod).

Cons:
•Picks up a significant amount of sound when the iPod's hard disk spins. (Inevitable, but a bother.)
•Very low definition/low quality recordings.
•Freezes the iPod constantly, requiring a reset.
•Occasionally the iPod must be reset for it to turn on after using the recorder.
•High MSRP/SRP for what you get.
•Records to WAV.
•Distorted recording if it is sitting on my desk and I talk loudly into it(about two feet away).
•Does not do well with background noise(it picks up all of it and sounds terrible).
•Belkin cannot justify it being a bad quality device(phone support tells me that the only stipulation of the device is that it requires iPod firmware 2.1 or higher).
•Sometimes does not record.
•Sometimes says it's recording but actually isn't.
•Sometimes illuminates recording light when it isn't actually recording.

Okay, so WAV format I can deal with, but crappy recording quality I cannot deal with. Belkin, you have failed. Maybe it's just that it's difficult to make a functional, integrated voice recorder that's good quality... for the iPod. I don't hear great raves about the iTalk by Griffin, so maybe this is the case.

I bought this to use for recordings of my chorus rehearsal.
It froze the iPod.
It lacks the most basic automatic gain control, and clip-distorts anything above a quiet speaking voice.
Alas, I had it longer than 30 days to before I could fully test it.

Some useful lore, if you're one of the unfortunate souls stuck with this device:
Put a piece of cellophane tape over the condenser mike hole (not the speaker holes, the microphone hole.) That attenuates the sound so it's actually useful.

While you're using the device, keep poking at the menus so the iPod NEVER goes to sleep. That seems to prevent the hangups.

Belkin, if you're listening, this device is crap.

Although I experienced problems, I made several recordings that I am happy with before the Belkin iPod Voice Recorder finally broke. Along the way, however, it caused my iPod to freeze, necessitating frequent restarts. One particularly frustrating problem was it occasionally seemed to record fine while actually failing to record anything. Again, only a restart would solve this problem. Of course those problems might be software issues that Apple is responsible for. Nevertheless, Belkin are to blame for the worst problem of all. Finally, I had it attached to my iPod in my pocket, and when I took it out the voice recorder had broken off at the microphone plug. It is so fragile it can break just by simply inserting or removing it from an iPod. It seems Belkin are aware of how fragile it is since they include a protective plastic cover. But that's really a poor solution. The plastic cover only protects it when it's unplugged. And there's no reason it has to be so fragile to begin with. Ironically, since I was in China when it broke, I can't help but think the Belkin iPod Voice Recorder is like one of those cheap Chairman Mao watches that stops working soon after you buy it.

I too purchased a 3600. It was inexpensive when I bought it so I should have known better... The inside of the lid is black. That translates into photo copies using a LOT of laser toner. Also, the power switch is a small toggle on the back. Turning it on and off is a hassle. Leaving it on will burn out the bulb in short order. (Which is exactley what happened with mine.)
Turns out the bulb is some sort of special Microtek only bulb. Even if you are a technician, you can't get the bulb. If the printer is out of warranty, getting the thing repaired will cost more than the original price. My suggestion?
Spend a little more on a different brand with a common bulb and buy the extended warranty.

I basically bought the Microtek scanmaker 3600 b/c it was slim, looked good and was fairly inexpensive campared to others. I enjoyed it while it was scanning (of course I don't know a lot about computers,etc.) However, It only worked for just a few months before the bulb burnt out. Imagine that! I also got the red low glow (???). Like others, I found it hard to get to the on/off switch. And of course as said before, the only way to get it fixed was to mail the scanner back to them at my cost. Well forget that. I bought a new scanner and it definitely was not a Microtek. Microtek is not worth the time, trouble and added stress. Thanks for reading. ironjaw

The scanner worked fine for the first month. Then I accidentally left the power on for a week, and the bulb burned out. Not completely, but the light is no longer bright white, but rather a dim neon red and all scans are so dim and noisy as to be unusable. I guess the bulb can't be replaced. What do you expect for [the price], I guess.