SANITIZING THE PHONE

For Christmas, my brother-in-law got me a phone sanitizer that looks like a flower vase. If I drop my phone into the $80 “Oblio,” I get a germ-free phone after 20 minutes. Or so the company claims. But the directions asked me to flip my phone to clean the other side when the 20 minutes were up. When I flipped it, the purple ultraviolet light, the one that cleans, did not come on. Tech support was no help. They asked me to send a video of the problem. That’s when I discovered that the UV light doesn’t come on at all now, even at the start. A good alternative is the $80 “PhoneSoap” sanitizing box. It sanitizes both sides of […]

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AWASH IN INK

We’ve been fit to be tied by printers forcing us to change ink cartridges when ink levels are low but not out. A new model Epson inkjet printer is getting rave reviews for its “two-year ink supply.” The Epson Ecotank Printer, the ET2550, has a tank of ink you refill yourself every two years or so. This means fewer empty cartridges going into landfills and big savings on ink, unless you’re already buying from third party suppliers, which are much cheaper. The downside is the $400, and up, price tag. But compared to buying separate Epson ink cartridges for years, you come out way ahead. Four bottles in colors at $13 each should last at least two years, for around […]

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HOW TO FIX AN UPGRADE THAT’S A DOWNGRADE

Our Okidata laser printer has been scolding us for the last month. Despite rich colors and strong blacks, it says we’re out of toner. We finally figured out why. The manufacturers have struck back at consumers for using cheaper inks and toners.

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PRINTER FRIENDLY

Many websites have a “printer friendly” option, to allow the printing of an article without all the ads. But say you want to capture the home page of the website, not an individual piece? Then it’s best to use the free app, PrintFriendly.

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LASER PRINTER WINS OUT AGAIN

We used to point out that laser printers were cheaper in the long run because the ink was cheaper. Now some of the printers themselves are cheaper. Inkjets are still much of what you see when you go to an office supply store, especially the all-in-one (fax, copy, scan) units. These seem like a great idea, but we’ve found that the individual features of the all-in-one aren’t great. And what’s more they never have been; if you want a scanner, buy a scanner. But the all-in-ones are cheap. So we’ve bought models from HP, Epson and Canon, the major makers. How can you resist? As usual, we’ve been dissatisfied. We should ask ourselves over and over: why do they sell […]

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PRINTERS AND ALL THAT

We haven’t dealt with this subject since the typewriter was invented. (Whatever that is.) We mean printers, my friends. Yes, printers. Those blocky, boxy things that churn out what is paradoxically called hard copy. (How hard can a sheet of paper be?)

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BOB BUYS INK, REAL CHEAP

Bob was more than mildly astonished when he went to our local office supply store and found that a set of four refill cartridges for his Canon color inkjet printer cost $60. Instead of buying, he went home, went on the Internet, and ordered a set for $15 from an unauthorized supplier.  He just picked the first supplier on the list that had good customer comments. A few days later he got two full sets of ink cartridges in the mail – eight in all. Let’s work this out: That was the equivalent of two $60 sets from Canon, which would have cost $120. So the $15 for two sets from an outside supplier cost just one-eighth as much, or12 […]

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A TALE OF TWO PRINTERS

Inkjets versus laser printers: Which is a better deal?

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KEEP YOUR INKJET PRINTER FROM DRYING OUT

We recently heard from a reader who uses his inkjet printer so rarely that the ink cartridges dry out and he has to buy new ones. What can I do, he asks. Here are a couple of good suggestions:

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PRINTERS

Our favorite inkjet printer these days is the Canon Pixma iP3500, which we bought for less than $100 last year.

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