Epson’s EC-01 inkjet printer is the flagship product in their new Environmental Vision 2050 initiative: it’s shipped in an unpainted recycled cardboard box, the manual is printed on recycled paper, and the included driver CD is stored within an envelope made of recycled paper. But what really sets this printer apart is that you don’t replace the ink: when the cartridge runs out, you replace the whole printer. Sounds great! Or is it?

A representative of Epson explained: “When you purchase a Coca-Cola, it’s not the bottle that you want, it’s the Coca-Cola! Similarly, when you buy a printer, it’s not the printer that you want but the pages that printer can produce.” So just like you can return a Coca-Cola bottle to reclaim the depost included in the price, so too will you be able to return the EC-01 to Epson to get back 50 euros. The EC-01 ships with an ink tank that is estimated to yield 8,000 sheets.

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Hello! We are back with a short printer industry news show.

Last week Canon Australia re-started the PIXMA inkjet printer brand with a substantial ad campaign and in-store promotion initiative, heralding a strong shift to a brand-focused sales approach.

Canon has invested something like $12 million in the PIXMA campaign, a big move in the company’s brand-building strategy.

The ad campaign with the tagline “Why Print When You Can PIXMA?” and a new PIXMA sub-brand logo was launched on TV, print and online media last week and in-store from 1 May. The campaign focuses on the creative possibilities users can discover with a.

The campaign is also supported by the PIXMA microsite, at www.canon.com.au/PIXMA, where a band mum hosts a series of activities, including sharing ideas on items to create with a PIXMA printer and choosing the right PIXMA printer for the consumers’ needs.

The advertising initiative is supported in-store. Points-of-sale will be supplied with collateral, which includes posters, wobblers, shelf strips, printer sleeves and claims forms.

Among the items promoted in-store will be a nationwide competition from 1 May until 31 July, which includes a grand prize World Tour worth $25,000. This includes travel credit that can be used for flights, trips, tours, accommodation and concerts.

Meanwhile, HP is up to make some rearrangements within the company, namely in its printing division. Usually a bad sign (reorganizations are usually done when a division is performing poorly,) this reorganization is more like an adaptation of the business to the realities of the market.

The old structure has a drawback that parts were separate from the devices, so things like ink and paper were separate from InkJet and LaserJet. Now all that deals with inkjet printing will be in the InkJet unit and LaserJet supplies like toner will live together with the printer.

InkJet and its supplies will be combined into one group, while LaserJet and enterprise, due to their natural union, will become a separate group. “We basically said ‘hey, let’s make this tighter’, so we can be more agile, reduce cost structure, enable growth and enhance the customer experience,” said Alyson Griffin, a spokesperson for HP, in an interview to InternetNews.com

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We continue to acquaint our readers with printer reviews worth of note. What fell victim of an inquiring reviewer’s mind today? It’s Epson Stylus Photo RX595 all-in-one photo printer.

Claire Strodtbeck at TheGadgeteer.com gave the printer a hard time examining it. This examination resulted in one of the most in-depth reviews we’ve ever came across.

So, Clair starts with checking out the content of the printer box:

Among other thing, she mentions that printer package does contains a CD with drivers (a rare sight, according to Clair) and does not include a USB cable (an awfully common sight, as we all know.) Good thing is, there is an extra set of high-capacity ink cartridges included.

Next come technical specifications, that is what the printer can do. From them we gather that the device can print (on paper and discs), copy (without a computer), scan and room a cat. Yes, room a cat, if you place a dish-towel onto printer.

Drawing a conclusion Claire Strodtbeck says that the Epson RX595 All-In-One Photo Printer “is an impressive piece of equipment. It makes a great all-purpose print center for crafts, photos, documents, and all things graphical.”

But the vary interesting of the details (these are what we need the most, right?) on getting the printer ready, how it performed in printing, copying and scanning, and additional information on printers’ special functions you will learn from the vary Epson Stylus Photo RX595 review.

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You may have forgotten, but in November 2007 Epson announced a new high-speed inkjet printer that was supposed to be a compelling alternative to laser printer.

I’m talking about Epson Stylus C120.

Today, this printer is launched into production, so let’s see what they say it can.

Printing speed. Based on independent testing, the Epson C120 offers the fastest black text printing compared to ink jet printers under $160 and is up to two times faster compared to ink jet printers under $100. To be exact, the printer speeds up to 37 ppm for black and 20 ppm for color. In draft mode, naturally.

Ink and Print Head Technology. Epson Stylus C120 prints using Advanced DX3 MicroPiezo printhead with smart nozzles that produce and precisely place three sizes of ink droplets. According to Epson, variable size of droplets requires fewer nozzles to print photos at fast speeds.The printer uses individual ink cartridges with DURABrite Ultra inks that increase fade resistance up to six times in indoor display condition. Two black cartridges allow about twice as much black printing, at about twice the speed, as compared to (you will be surprised here) printing with a single black cartridge!

The printer comes in bundle with Epson’s Auto Photo Correction that allows for, well, photo correction. The software is, by the way, unavailable to Mac OS X users.

With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 support, this Windows and Mac OS compatible printer is now available at a suggested retail price of $69.99.

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Epson has announced an extreme solution to the problem of users who print sensitive documents to network queues but then forget to pick them up — a printer that requires a smartcard before it will print.

Documents to be printed using the EpsonNet Authentication Print system are first stored on a server much as they would be with any network print queue. But where a conventional print queue simply spools the documents in the correct driver format, the Epson system holds them on the server until a user causes the job to be printed by presenting one of a number of types of access cards; contactless or proximity smartcards are supported.

According to Epson, the technology should interest companies in a range of sectors such as banking, healthcare, education, hotels and, inevitably, the military, basically anyone who has cause to worry about the undisciplined use of laser printers.

The kit comprises an interface card, which slots into the printer itself, a contactless card reader and 10 swipe cards, and requires server management software. Epson models supported include the EPL-N2550, EPL-N3000, Aculaser 2600, Aculaser C2600, Aculaser C3800, Aculaser C4200, and Aculaser C9100.

Assuming that companies can face the hassle of managing yet another piece of insecure hardware — the smartcards — this system could have some advantages. The issue it addresses is certainly on the rise for all sorts of reasons, including regulatory compliance.

The system is relatively expensive on a per-printer basis — each printer kit costs £567 ($1114) — but it is likely that an organization would only need a small number of printers to be secured per site. The EpsonNet Authentication Server software costs £707.

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Couple of month ago Epson released Stylus Photo R1900 in Europe, now the company launches it in the United States. American R1900 has very same technical specifications as its European kin:

• 1.5-picoliter minimum droplet size
• resolutions up to 5760×1440
• direct printing on CDs and DVDs
• pigment-based Ultrachrome Hi-Gloss 2 ink set

Stylus Photo R1900 uses unordinary (compared to most photo printers) set of ink colors: regular CMY colors, red, green, orange (!),gloss optimizer and matte and photo blacks. The combination of these color help achieve improved color gamut and accuracy of blues, greens, and flesh tones.

The new printer replaces the R1800 in Epson’s lineup, and as an upgrade it must be better than its predecessor at least in something. This ‘something’ is printing speed at high resolutions - R1900 is 37% faster than the R1800.

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You’ve, probably, heard or seen those compact photo printers that promise photo-lab quality printing at home. You may even own one. These standalone printers are designed so you can create images without help of computer, though, personally, I don’t think this is a good idea.

Anyway, those printers have tiny (I know, manufacturers call them large) LCD-display that is supposed to let you preview the snapshots before print and perform some minor photo editing. Never took this feature seriously, because nothing compares to full-size display.

I suppose the same idea came to both Epson and Philips, too. The two companies together have developed a new product called PhotoViewer. Using PhotoViewer you can (guess what?) view photos on your TV screen and then print the ones you liked on a printer. Despite your expectations, PhotoViewer can be connected to any TV-set, however, the printer would be Epson, precisely Epson PictureMate PM240.

 The PhotoViewer is actually a black glossy box with memory cards slots on front panel. The device can be directly connected to the television with the included audio / video cables. Epson printer is plugged in through USB port. By the way, a remote control is also included, so you can zoom in and out and rotate images, and pause the slideshow from your coach.

The new contraption can view photos in full 1080i high-definition television. You can download photos from a memory card, digital camera, mobile phone or PDA, as well as from USB hard drives and memory stick. One of the coolest features of PhotoViewer is ability to play MP3’s during the slideshow.

Viewing picture on the big screen is fun, but consider this. When you’d see an image in details, thanks to the new device, the chances are you may want to change it. Say, retouch the wrinkles or remove a pimple. Admit it we all want to look better on photos.

By the way, the PhotoViewer is priced €179, which is about $265. Do you think it’s worth the money?

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