Hi-tech Frontier

Canon PIXMA MP560 and MP490 All-in-One and SELPHY CP790 Photo Printers Canon brings two new PIXMA All-in-One (AIO) photos printers, the MP560 and the MP490; and the SELPHY CP790 compact photo printer to the US market. The PIXMA MP560 is the most compact Canon inkjet printer to have both wireless capabilities and built-in Auto Duplex Printing. This all-in-one photo printer features five individual ink tanks with the ChromaLife100+ ink system. It prints a photo-lab quality borderless 4-inch x 6-inch in approximately 39 seconds. Canon’s MP560 has a 2-inch LCD display and supports direct printing from USB flash drive. The PIXMA MP490 doesn’t include wireless capability. It uses the ChromaLife100+ four-color ink system and can print out a photo-lab quality borderless 4-inch x 6-inch photo in approximately 43 seconds. It comesw ith a 1.8-inch LCD display. Lastly, the SELPHY CP790 compact photo printer comes with a 3-inch LCD display and features the Creative Options that allow users to add t...

Dell 2130CN color laser printer – $152.10 shipped Here’s an ultra-affordable Gearsponsor deal on a Dell 2130CN color laser printer. Normally priced at $499 – you can get the price down to a bargain $152.10 by adding the printer to your shopping cart, removing the duplexer and applying coupon code 22X6DLMFK6K92G. The printer has a 1 year basic warranty from Dell and you’ll get fast output of 16 pages per minute (ppm) color and 20 ppm black with a monthly duty cycle of up to 40,000 pages. Actual print speed will vary with use. Especially interesting is the simplified networking that allows for setting changes via the web and the ability to continue printing in black with an empty color toner cartridge.

Z Corp 3D printer We're eagerly awaiting the day when 3D printers achieve the same sort of ubiquity as their two dimensional brethren -- we can only imagine the sweet office pranks that will become available once we can conjure tiny objects from our imaginations (via AutoCAD). It looks like the fine folks over at Hawaii's State Department of Education have more civic-minded uses for the machine, however. As high school students from throughout the islands complete their 3D design projects they send the files to the education office in Honolulu, which manufactures physical models with a Z Corporation 3D printer and ships them back to the students, who can then review the model and refine their design. A machine like Z Corp's ZPrinter 310 Plus (seen above) will run you a cool $19,900 before shipping, sales tax, and so forth, so it looks like all of you amateur CADsters out there might want to find a pen-pal in the Pineapple State if you want to make your ID dreams a reality. ...

SonyDPP-FP97 and DPP-FP67 photo printers Not content with just showing off new TVs, home theater systems, Blu-ray players, and cameras, Sony also unveiled at PMA two new photo printers for giving your digital memories a more tangible existence. The $120 DPP-FP67 and $200 DPP-FP97 create 4 x 6 prints in 45 and 67 seconds, respectively. Additionally, the FP97 (above and to the right) also sports HDMI out and a 3.5-inch LCD. No fancy Bluetooth connectivity like Dell's Wasabi, unfortunately, but the pair does support a variety of cards including SD, SDHC, MMC, xD and of course, Memory Stick. Look for these to help you finish that picture album when they hit retail channels sometime in May.

Canon Selphy CP780 portable photo printer Looking for some red hot photo printing action "on the go," as it were? Canon has just announced the newest addition to its line of SELPHY compact photo printers . The CP780 boasts faster print speeds, improved image quality, and (count 'em!) three colors . That's right, three. Apparently the Face Detection brightness and color correction have been improved on this guy as well -- so all those embarrassing candid photos you're famous for will be rendered in "natural and realistic colors," if the PR is to be believed. The printer carries an estimated MSRP of $99.99, but once you start throwing in goodies like the optional battery pack ($80) and Bluetooth adapter ($50) things start getting rather pricey.

Polaroid Pogo Camera Polaroid Pogo Camera is both a digital camera and a color printer . You can print a 2 (inches) × 3 (inches) photo whenever and wherever you want. Pogo will come into the market in this spring. Price: $200