Computer Reviews

I previously left a warning that this scanner was incompatible with Mac OS X Panther (10.3.x). However, HP has just released a driver for this scanner, and all compatibilty issues seem to be resolved. If you purchase this scanner within the next couple months (before the newer models with the driver included reach the outlets), you may find that you need to download the driver from www.hp.com. When I downloaded the driver, my computer mistook it as an Adobe Go Live file. If this happens, single click on the downloaded file and open it with Stuffit Expander (or similar program). This should work and give you a folder with several options. Rather than just the Mac OS 10.3 plug-in, select the icon for the general scanjet installer. If you have any other trouble, HP service should be able to help. Now that I finally got this contraption to work, I'm amazed at the quality and speed. You'll be very happy with this scanner.

I have thousands and thousands of family pictures and letters to
sort through and scan in, and my old scanner just wasn't up to
the task. I've been looking around for a faster scanner and this
one is defeinitely it. My old scanner took 80 seconds to scan a
color image at 300 dpi. This scanner takes maybe 8 seconds to do
the same, and the quality is better. I scan directly from Paint
Shop Pro using WIA, because I don't care much for the HP software
that comes with the scanner. I am in love with my new scanner
and have no doubt it was worth the extra money.

As a college student specializing in digtal photography, I know what I'm talking about. This paper is absolutely wonderful for printing REAL photo quality pictures. As long as you have a good printer, a color cartridge, and are sure to make the necessary adjustments in your print settings, you will never back to those cheaper poor-quality photo papers!!!!

If you buy printer-branded photo paper, you should move to this. It's amazing. Much superior.More expensive, but worth it.

I have to say that moving files to school and back home has been made much easier by the purchase of my zip drive, and 100mb zip disk. Basically I have no complaints, and if you need to move large files, the iomega zip drive is the way to go!

I have USB zip 100 drive and find the convinence of it. No doubt that this Iomega Zip 100 Disk best suits my zip drive.

Another reviewer stated this 20GB Peerless will store about 250 CDs. Assuming the average CD is 650 Megabytes, a 20 Gigabyte drive will only hold the equivelance of 31.5 CDs. However, this is an amazing device because it is solid state: The Peerless actually takes less time for extraction of data than a typical hard drive.

As I became more involved in digital photography, I soon realized that I wanted a faster and easier method for storing and retrieving my images -- than saving them on CD's. I've found the Iomega Peerless accessory disk drive to be perfect for my needs.

With the Iomega Peerless connected to my Sony Vaio computer via Firewire, I can save and retrieve my photos almost instantly. And since one 20 GB accessory disk holds the equivalent of about 250 CD's, I now use the Iomega Peerless to save all (yes, all) of my digital photos.

This instant access makes the creation of digital photo albums -- or the assembly of digital slide shows -- a breeze. And when I'm (electronically) retouching my photos, I can now save as many of the (in-process) versions as I'd like -- without fear of maxing out my computer's memory.

Installing the Iomega Peerless (and the software) was a snap -- and infinitely easier than replacing my computer's hard drive. And the Peerless appears in my computer's menu as just another memory device -- always ready for use.

Before I discovered digital photos (and digital music), I never imagined (in a million years) that I would ever fill up my computer's hard drive. But that's exactly what I did.

The Iomega Peerless is the perfect storage solution if you're seriously into digital photography, digital music -- or worse, digital video! I highly recommend it!

The advantage of the Zip drive over a CDROM is the shorter time it takes to make a backup. CD burn programs require several minutes to make a backup. A Zip drive a few seconds - drag and drop. Yes, for an archive of files you a CDROM might be better. But if you simply want to a temporary backup (and I always backup the novel I am writing after even the smallest modification), you can't beat the speed of a Zip. Also the Zip 750's response time is much faster than the Zip 250. Hit the button and it pops out in a half second.

now they have 250MB 100MB and they jumped to the 750MB wich hold 50MB more than a cd it was easy to install and setup and use and afordibale for those who don't have 400$ for a DVD-RW.

This item replaced my SanDisk 256 MB USB drive, which failed after three days. The Iomega unit is great. It works without any problems on my Windows 2000 and XP machines, with both powered (Linksys) and unpowered (Targus) hubs. The top fastens securely. Don't bother with any others - buy Iomega.

These are generic comments of Windows XP's support of USB 2.0 mini-drives that are attached to USB 2.0 hardware ports. If this is not your environment, then please pass on this review. Otherwise, you would serve yourself well to share my experiences and testing. (There was no problem with any of my 2.0 mini-drives when I tested them on WIN98 with USB 1.1 ports.) I'm not picking on any specific brand.

I'll go right to the bottom line and tell you that I've found that these drives may perform VERY poorly in Windows XP SP1. They will appear to perform well, compared with similar USB 1.1 drives, but only if you are copying a very small number of very large files. They may perform incredibly slowly compared to their USB 1.1 brethren if you reverse the scenario and copy a directory of say 500 or more very small files.

I'll provide the solution now and then tell you about some tests I've run. THE SOLUTION: Format your mini-drives as "NTFS". (THEY DO NOT COME FORMATTED THAT WAY!) If you do, they will perform very well on USB 2.0 ports under WinXP SP1. It does mean, however, that you won't have portability to a WIN95, WIN98, WINME system (if you want high performance in WinXP).

If I've still got your attention, read on please.

I own an Iomega 1.1 Mini Drive and have purchased and returned two Lexar JumpDrive Pro 2.0 devices, a SanDisk Cruzer Mini, and almost returned my newest, a PNY Attache 2.0. I've also had a dialogue with someone in a forum who issued a similar complaint about his Sony MicroVault 2.0 device. I kept the PNY to have something to test with as I probed this issue, and have now just purchased another Lexar JumpDrive Pro because it prices well, and it also performs well if formatted as "NTFS".

After considerable experimentation and a frustrating 20 or so hours on the internet, I made my discovery!

After reading an Amazon reviewer boast that he copied a single 135MB file in under a minute, I decided to try that myself ... and it copied quickly, considerably beating the performance of my Iomega 1.1 device. Astounded at this, I became curious about whether WinXP had an issue with FAT and FAT32 on these devices.

I created a benchmark of a directory containing 508 icons totalling only 1MB of data, occupying 2MB of disk. Formatted at the default FAT or FAT32, the copy took an incredible 2 min. 56 secs., and I could read each file name as Windows revealed them during the copy. I decided that, before returning the PNY, I would format it as "NTFS" just "to see what would happen". It copied in 2 or 3 seconds!!!!!

To prove to myself this wasn't a freak event, I went back to my earlier benchmark which was a client's web site having a root folder weighing 44MB and containing 1800+ files. It had previously copied to my Iomega 1.1 Mini Drive in 1 min. 34 secs., but on my Lexar JumpDrive Pro 2.0 and the SanDisk Cruzer Mini 2.0 the times ranged between 5+ mins. to just under 10 mins. On the PNY 2.0 device formatted "NTFS", it took around 52 secs. My newly purchased Lexar ran in about the same 52 secs. (compared to 8+ mins. when formatted FAT32)

My final benchmark was a folder containing 3 files, weighing 44.5MB. They copied in 46 secs. to the Iomega 1.1, in 23 secs. to the PNY 2.0, and in 19 secs. to the new Lexar.

To lend a bit of credibility to these tests, I should tell you that I had taken the Lexar 2.0, the SanDisk Cruzer 2.0 and my Iomega 1.1 to a demo computer at Best Buy and the results were consistent. That machine was a Compaq Presario with "Certified" 2.0 ports with WinXP SP1. So it's unlikely that my personal environment was unique.

These comments should dramatically benefit many of you buying these devices. I should mention that I've been extremely happy with my Iomega USB 1.1 Mini Drive and its performance and will likely add this faster model to my "collection". The 1.1 model is the most durable and attractive of the 3 I now own, and is flat enough to not encroach on its neighboring USB port and narrow enough to not encroach on other ports above or below it.

After getting this reader and getting use to putting the cards in the correct way I love it. I love the fact that it is powered via the USB port. The quality is great and the text recognition is wonderful. I have scanned multiple business cards from conferences that I attend. I love the fact that I can export the contacts and separate them from the different events. The price is also reasonable.

The portability is a plus and I would recommend its purchase.

I do not have that many cards but I just hate retyping them... retyping 10 cards is a waste of time and I have dozens...
I purchased this product with a "try and see" attitude (I am sincerely a tough customer to please when it comes to theses types of technologies) but I really am very satisfied with this product, not only because it does what it says it does but also because of the special advantages. I discovered this little scanner also scan pictures! I scanned ALL my 4X6 pictures in Photoshop in half the time of a regular flatbed!
Very nice product! At this price, it is a no brainer!

The sound quality is the best I've ever heard from any piece of audio equipment. That's saying alot since the unit weighs less than the AA battery that powers it. With half a gig of space, this thing stores about 16 hours of CD quality music or 32 hours of radio quality music, in something roughly the size of a lighter. Being flash memory based, it won't skip like a CD player or Ipod. It needs better earphones though and the armstrap, although of high quality, only fits women (I can't even get it over my forearm, let alone my bicep *flex* One thing not mentioned anywhere is the microphone is extremely good. The unit will record about 33 hours of high quality sound, making it perfect for students who like to record lectures (the unit has a mode specifically designed for this). Again, this is amazing, considering the size and cost of the unit.

I was willing to pay extra for extra features w/ this player and those extras are worthwhile. What the descriptions and iriver site doesn't tell you that this player has a clock and timer.

Joystick does not look like the picture on Amazon or iRiver's US site. It looks like the iRiver North European site: irivernordic.com You can also get a USB Mass Storage (UMS) firmware from that site but I haven't tried it yet.

Alarm function just plays the last played MP3. The timed radio recordings work great but I don't know how to stop it, yet. Look at the manual from iriver's website and see the features for your self as I'm limited to 1,000 words on this review. Sound quality is great and volume even greater. Can go up to 40 but plays loud enough at 20 setting. EQ settings and 3D settings sound really nice, even on the included headphones. The headphones don't have too much bass so I used different ones. Can also adjust battery display setting for alkaline or rechargeable. I hated how previous players displayed inaccurate battery life because they base it on alkaline batteries.

Line-in and radio recordings sound great because I am able to record up to 320bps compared to others like the Samsung that can only go up to 128bps. Recordings are in *.rec format that the included windows utility can convert. The windows utility shouldn't be taken lightly. You can enter,label,& save all your radio station presets from it to save time. The radio reception is alright but what do you expect from such a small device? PLL? I use my home stereo which gets great reception from a Cable TV adapter and use the line-in recording.

The supplied armband is very well made and looks nice. People w/ humangus muscles or just fat arms can't get it around their arms though.

The only cons I see are:
If hold is not in place it is easy to accidently delete radio station presets and other settings. Once you set it don't forget to lock it as there are many options to change.

Can't copy songs from player to computer w/ the included software since there is no official US UMS support. Their version of DRM?

I've had my Roomba for over a year, and I don't use it weekly as they suggest (or even bi-weekly) and my filters are falling apart. Backwashing with an air canister hasn't worked, though perhaps this is because my place is INCREDIBLY dusty.

Back-wash the filter after each use with canned air and they will last almost forever.

Finally there is a way for your family to buy you music without having to explain to them why the guys from Slipknot dress like clowns.<br /> <br /> Nice also that you can get an iTunes gift certificate without having to setup an account (try guiding Grandma through that once...)

This is the ultimate tool for downloading music quickly and cheaply. After downloading iTunes on Apple.com, you canset up an account with the Apple music store. Downloading is just a click away, a song can be yours in just under 15 seconds. This is great for someone with a diverse taste in music (like myself) as you do not have to buy the whole album if you only like the one song. I am a DJ in my spare time and get almost all my music from these cards. There is no threat of identity theft because you do not need to give your creidit card number ( I am paranoid about security).