High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

Scanner technology tends to improve over time, benefiting consumers mostly through lowering the cost for a given level of capability. The Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner ($99.99 direct, which includes a one-year parts-and-labor warranty) is a case in point. Coming a year after the now discontinued V350 Photo scanner, it is $50 cheaper and can run rings around the V350 in performance, particularly for scanning transparencies—both slides and strips of film. It's also comparable with, yet cheaper than, the Canon CanoScan 5600F, which is enough to warrant having the V300 replace the 5600F as Editors' Choice. Specifications Maximum Optical Resolution 4800 pixels Mechanical Resolution 9600 pixels Maximum Scan Area Letter Scanning Options Reflective, Transparency Flatbed Yes You won't find many differences in basics between the V300 and 5600F, but the few that exist are in the V300's favor. Both offer 4,800-pixel-per-inch (ppi) optical resolution; both have tra...

Manufacturers tend to label low-end home inkjet printers such as Canon Pixma iP2702 Photo Printer ($49.99 direct) as photo printers, and these tend to print decent to very good photos (by consumer standards, at least), often to the neglect of text quality. In our testing, the iP2702 stood that model on its head. Its photos were rather disappointing, and it did surprisingly well in printing text. A bit different with my last reviews about Canon Pixma . The iP2702 is a handsome yet Spartan device. Matte-black with rounded corners, it is compact: 5.2 by 17.6 by 9.8 inches (HWD), weighing 12.1 pounds. Its interface is minimalist: just two buttons—one the on-off switch, the other labeled with a sheet of paper plus a puzzling icon; the on-screen user manual reveals it to be a resume/cancel button. There's no LCD or viewscreen of any sort. The exposed, top-feeding paper tray can fit up to 100 sheets. It lacks an auto-duplexer or any optional paper-handling features. Specifications Pr...

Toshiba has had a long, outstanding history of making desirable ultraportable laptops. Today, it continues to crank them out as thin and as light as ones that cost over $2,000. Indeed, the Toshiba Portege R705-P35 ($899.99 list) costs a fraction of what the Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, 4 stars) is selling for, yet both are easily the lightest 13-inch ultraportables (with optical drives) in the world. Since the last iteration, the Portege R705-P25 ($800 street, 4 stars), Toshiba and Best Buy have partnered up to include WiMax (4G) support, a faster Core i3 processor, and a larger battery (from 63WH to 66WH)—all while keeping the price down. The Sony Z116GXS is still the most luxurious ultraportable, but the Portege R705-P35 takes over as the new Editors' Choice (in the ultraportable category) for being as luxurious as it is practical. Specifications Type General Purpose, Media, Ultraportable, Small Business Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Processor ...

We meet again with Lenovo product reviews . The Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 ($399 direct) is a simply designed nettop, made to be placed on your desk or bolted behind an HDTV or large LCD monitor. It's one of the best Web video/photo/music media consumption devices out there, once you've hooked up to a big screen. Design and Features At 6.75 by 0.80 by 6 inches (HWD), the Q150 is even more compact than tiny PCs like the Apple Mac mini ($699 list, 4.5 stars) or eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 ($299.99 list, 4 stars). It has no distinctive features, easily blending in with any decor. The Q150 looks like a black silicone trivet you'd keep in your kitchen to prevent hot pans from damaging your table. Because of its slim form, you could bolt it to the back of a large screen monitor or HDTV with the included VESA mounting bracket. Once bolted to the back of a big screen, the display effectively becomes a large all-in-one PC. Specifications Type Multimedia, Digital Entertainment Syst...

If you're looking to spend $500 period, then the eMachines EL1352-10e ($499.99), a Costco desktop, is a complete desktop PC that includes a 20-inch widescreen monitor in a single box. It's more capable than other nettops in its price range, plus it's still more compact than most of the mini-towers out there. The EL1352 is a good example of a simple PC that can serve many functions for a decent price. Specifications Type Value Processor Family AMD Athlon II RAM 3 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 300 GB Graphics Card nVidia GeForce 6150 SE Primary Optical Drive Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Design The EL1352 is a compact, small form factor (SFF) desktop PC with enough space inside for a full-sized DVD burner and internal hard drive. Contrast this with the eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 ($299.99 list, 4 stars), which is a nettop you can hide behind an HDTV. The Mini-e and nettops like it are so compact because it uses a noteb...

It seems as if Google is concerned, once again, about developing a social network which will enable it to compete with Microsoft's conjunction with Facebook. This is going to be the comedy act of the year. Numerous articles floating around seem to promote the idea that Google may be unable to compete with the likes of Bing once the great social network of Facebook opens the kimono to Microsoft. The argument states: because there is so much personal information about me on Facebook (I actually don't have a Facebook account), that when I search for something on Bing, a cloud of personal information can be analyzed to improve search results. However, nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, it doesn't make any sense. If I am looking for a schedule of events in San Francisco, what does my Facebook data have to do with it? If I am trying to find the exact date Thomas Jefferson was born, then what does Facebook have to do with it? This entire gambit is unfort...

Windows Phone 7 is a brand-new thing. Microsoft's total mobile OS reboot is bold and fresh. It's also definitely a Version 1.0. Zune fans will be immediately impressed, but for everyone else, buying into Windows Phone 7 is taking a gamble that Microsoft will sand away the rough edges quickly. For now, Windows Phone 7 is arriving on six phones in the U.S.: the Samsung Focus ($199.99, 4 stars), HTC Surround ($199.99, 3 stars) and LG Quantum on AT&T; the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro on T-Mobile; and the HTC 7 Pro on Sprint. Verizon has said it may support the OS in 2011, but hasn't made any clear commitments. All the initial Windows Phone 7 models have a lot in common. They run on the Qualcomm QSD8250, 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 chipset. They all have 800-by-480 screens, 5-megapixel cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM radios. They vary in terms of hardware keyboards, phone performance, camera quality, preloaded software, and available storage. The Basic Interface Windows Phone ...