Modern printers are much smarter than the original printing devices they were like, say, 10 years ago. Aside from just printing, they can scan, copy, send faxes, automatically connect to the Web for software updates, and so on. The only thing printer couldn’t do was translation. Not until now.

Fuji Xerox Corporation developed a technology that enables laser printers and copiers to translate the text to be printed. The idea behind the technology is simple — the printer scans a sheet of text, and then connects to a dedicated server on the internet where the text is translated and sent back to printer for output. The translating algorithms on the server can distinguish between text, drawings and lines, so page layouts remain.

So far, only four languages are available for translation: Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English.

The laser printer is still a prototype and the technology will take time be refined to be ready for market. No information is yet available as for the quality of the translation, hopefully it will be better than that of Babel Fish or Google Translate.

It stroke me as curious that Mitsubishi, apart from cars and conditioners, also makes printers. There is a whole separate company – Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Imaging Products – that is responsible for producing printers. The other day the company announced Mitsubishi CP-9800DW digital photo printer that ”offers high-grade picture quality at even faster output speeds, making the unit an even more powerful revenue-generator for professional photographers.”

Mitsubishi CP-9800DW prints 4 x 6-inch photo in 8.7 second, which makes up 100 prints in 15 minutes, or 400 prints per hour. All in all, the printer supports four print sizes – 3.5 x 5 inches, 4 x 6 inches, 5 x 7 inches, and 6 x 9 inches – with edge-to-edge printing.

The  printer employs a proprietary high-density, highefficiency thermal head that provides a 300 dpi resolution.

The CP-9800DW is USB 2.0-enabled and features 32 MB of RAM.

Poor news. The sexy Samsung printers – the ML-1630 and the SCX-4500 – reported in previous post will only be available for Apple computers, according to Wired.com Blog. This is really sad, I wish I could buy one for my PC. On the other hand, the news seems like an arguement for buying a Mac, doesn’t it? Here is the press-release by Samsung:

EW SLEEK, ULTRA-COMPACT SAMSUNG PRINTERS TO BE SOLD EXCLUSIVELY AT APPLE RETAIL STORES

World’s most compact printers are both stylish and easy to use

IRVINE, Calif., September 18, 2007

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., the world’s second largest manufacturer of laser printers, today announced that its ultra-compact monochrome laser printer, the ML-1630, and multifunction printer, the SCX-4500, will be available exclusively at Apple Retail Stores nationwide and online at www.Apple.com. These two new printers are perfect products for consumers who value both style and functionality. The devices – which are two-thirds the size of traditional laser printers – feature high-glossy and seamless exteriors that create a truly ultra-minimalist design. Samsung’s new, innovative laser printers meet consumer demand for reliable electronics that aesthetically harmonize with any office or home environment. The ML-1630 and
the SCX-4500 will be sold exclusively at Apple Retail Stores until they are widely released in January 2008.

“Samsung is consistently looking for opportunities to enrich and diversify the global printer market,” said Jang-jae Lee, Senior Vice President of the Digital Printing Division, Samsung Electronics. “In turn, we are thrilled to team up with Apple, a true leader in its field, for the U.S. release of our newest printers. The ML-1630 and the SCX-4500 include button-less touch-sensor panels that reduce the user interface. Plus audible alerts and blue LED scan-process indicators ensure that the devices are extremely user-friendly.

“Among electronic products, printers are very complex and sophisticated,” said Jun Won Bae, Senior Designer, at Digital Printing Division of Samsung Electronics. “In turn, we wanted to create a printer with a simple exterior design that would serve as a counterbalance to its interior complexity.”

“Samsung has taken the printer – which is often considered as an add-on device – to an entirely new level of artistic refinement,” Lee added. “These days, consumers are looking for products that are not only functional, but that also reflect their own personal styles.” Samsung’s new printers will available at Apple Retail Stores and apple.com.

MSRP is $299 for the SCX-4500 and $199 for the ML-1630.

Every time we go online, we expect the web to give us something new. Some news we receive “automatically”, like the e-mail messages from your friends or newsletters from your favorite website. Other information doesn’t come easy. To find it we often have to make a search.

The search is what modern Internet relies on. Searching engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN has become an integral part on everyday life online. Can you imaging yourself digging through billions and billions of web pages looking for, once we’re into printers, the specification of a new printer or printer cartridge compatibility? Neither can I, and that’s why we all love searching engines – they are here for us trying to provide most relevant results.

However, it’s not only the search engines that are expected to provide effective search.

Now let’s fancy another situation: you’re up to buying something online, let it be toner cartridges (remember, we’re still into printers). If you have a favorite printer cartridges store, you would go there and make a purchase. If you don’t have a favorite store, I suppose you would use a searching engine to find one, and let’s suppose you have. What you’ve just done is made a search — selected one shop from thousand of others. The only thing left to do is to find those very cartridges for you particular printer.

Do you know how many ink and toner cartridges exists? I’ m not sure there is an exact figure, but for what I know, average online printer supply store sell 3-5 thousand cartridges. I believe no one argues that every online store selling more than even a hundred different items should have a good search, or, at least, have the products categorized convenient and well. You would get to like a store where you can find the product you need fast and easy, wouldn’t you?

What I’m going to tell you is not just singing praises to the online store of Toner Cartridge Depot. In fact, this printing supplies outlet does feature powerful search and handy navigation. Treat it like a guide to shopping with Toner Cartridge Depot.

So, let’s assume you got to this store while searching for printer cartridges. What’s next? From now on you have several ways to find your supplies.

The Catalogue

On the main page, right before your eyes is the list of manufacturers/brands.

Generally, these are who made your printing device you are looking supplies for (though there are some who don’t make printers themselves, but only cartridges for other’s printer). Clicking the required brand (say Hewlett Packard) will take you further to next page.

Here you can see types of devices produced by given manufacturer and model families existing for each type. The printer’s family name is usually written on its case. For instance, if you have an HP Color LaserJet 4500 printer, “Color LaserJet” would be the family name. Select your model family to move on. You landed on a page with a list of models existing within given model family.

Now you are one click away from the supplies you need. All you have to do is to select your printing device model. If you are not sure what the model’s name and number are, check them on the front panel of device’s casing. So choose the model and see what supplies we got for it. Apart from genuine supplies, a range of compatible and remanufactured cartridges is often available for some most popular printer models. As a rule, they are a bargain purchase, so you may consider them as well.

The Quick Supplies Finder

This is a very handy navigation tool that allows you to find printer cartridges pretty much like in the Way 1, unless you don’t need to move from one page to another. Quick Supplies Finder is a set of three dropdown menus: the first menu selects a brand, the second one selects a device type, and while the third menu helps you chose your model. Having chosen the model, you will be transferred to a page containing supplies for that printing device model.

The Search

Finally, Way 3, the highlight of today’s performance, the Toner Cartridge Depot search algorithm. This is a small input field in the top bar in upper-right corner of a page, but it’s more than meets the eye.

The search is easier when you know what you are looking for, be it printer model or printer cartridge number. You simply enter one or the other into search filed and press enter. Should there any matches, you will see them in search results.

But what if you, somehow, don’t know either model of your printer or the cartridge number? That’s pretty unusual situation, but the search rates just all right against general queries. Let’s suppose, you have some laser printer by HP and you ran out of color toner. Natural thing to search is “color toner cartridges for HP”. Voila! The search returns only color cartridges for laser printers made by HP. Additionally, you can narrow your search by several criteria like color, brand, supplies yield, condition and type. Oh, almost forgot! Also, you may sort the search results by order, description, price or quantity to be added.

In given example below, you can specify the exact color of the toner cartridge you need and its condition:

You can try entering any other queries of your choice or need. You are welcome to let us know if you get unexpected results.