Tools Toys and Technology

About the Tools You Use and the Toys That Make Life Interesting

Tools Toys and Technology - About the Tools You Use and the Toys That Make Life Interesting

Printer Ink Costs … How They Stack Up for Different Printers

Which Printer Delivers the Best Ink Economy?

Ever wonder what you spend per page for printer ink? You probably know it’s a big number, but how big is it?.

Do different printers provide better ink economy? The answer to that one is a definite, YES.

I ran across a very enlightening article on the subject (read it here). To summarize…

One of the more popular printers is the HP Photosmart 5510. I’ll use that one as a benchmark. Average ink costs for this printer is 11.4 cents per page.

Kodak advertises low ink consumption, and it appears to be true. The Kodak Hero 3.1 runs about 9.5 cents per page.

I have two printers in my office. The Canon Pixma is 13.8 cents per page … OUCH! But my Epson Artisan 835 delivers an impressive 9.2 cents per page ink cost, even better than the Kodak.

Should You Buy Standard or High Yield Cartridges?

High yield ink cartridges deliver better ink economy the the standard smaller sizes. But that could be false economy, depending on you much you use your printer.

If you use you printer regularly, the higher yield cartridges are the way to go. But if you use it rarely, high yield cartridges may dry up before you use them, resulting in higher cost per page than standard cartridges.

Free Online TV

Copyright © 2012 Richard Beaty

We’re just about to wrap up our series on Internet TV, but I’ve got one more topic to cover first.

Review:

  1. I started out this series by discussing the hardware and infrastructure you need to deliver Internet TV to your big screen. [Internet TV – an Introduction]
  2. Then I followed up with a discussion of subscription programming services, including Netflix and Hulu Plus. [Netflix, Hulu & Hulu Plus]
  3. In my last article, I concluded subscription programming options by introducing you to Amazon Instant Video; and I reviewed my favorite Roku channels. [Amazon Instant Video and My Favorite Roku Channels]

This time I will review totally free online TV that you can access with your computer on the Internet. I’ll also show you how to connect your computer to your TV for viewing those free videos on your big screen.

Continue reading →

Big Names and Big Bucks Vying to Buy Hulu

Oh my gosh!

What happens when companies with names like Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Dish Network all start competing to buy the same company?

The numbers get VERY BIG … VERY FAST!

It is reported that these same companies are competing to purchase the streaming TV company Hulu. Most of the bids for Hulu are coming in the range of 1.5 to 2 billion dollars. But Google has promised to do whatever it takes to snatch up Hulu and its content license agreements.

It’s not even clear that Hulu will sell. But the figures being tossed its way have to make them sit up and take notice … and SMILE … a LOT!

Amazon Adds 3,000 New Titles to Prime Instant Video

Amazon announced today that it was adding 3,000 new titles to its Prime Instant Video collection, bringing the total size of the Prime library to 17,000 titles. Members of Amazon Prime can stream an unlimited number of programs from this library at no additional charge beyond their annual Prime subscription rate.

Quoting from the Amazon Website:

We’ve struck a deal with Discovery Networks to bring some of the highest quality, non-fiction, informative and entertaining content about the world to our Amazon Prime customers. Rolling out over the next few weeks are TV shows from Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, and Science.

 

Appel iPad 3 Debuts

The much anticipated iPad3 was introduced today. Except Appel is not calling it the iPad3. In fact, it’s not clear what they are calling it. They’re just referring to it as the “new iPad.”

Regardless of what they are calling it, it does have some upgrades. The most obvious one is a higher resolution screen, a so-called “retina” display. I’m sure it will be an eye-popper.

Continue reading →

Sad Day for Netflix

Netflix lost all the Starz Play movies and TV shows today. It’s been coming for months, the result of failed contract negotiations between Netflix and Starz. But now that it’s here, I feel like I lost a friend.

On the personal side, I’m a big fan of westerns. Two classic old western series, Gunsmoke and Wagon Train, made up a large part of my Netflix watching. They were owned by Starz. So they’re gone now.

Probably more significant to most Netflix viewers, all the Starz Disney films are history. Toy Story 3, Scarface, Young Frankenstein — all in all a very large part of what used to be available on Netflix has vanished.

Last year, Netflix made a serious of policy and public relations gaffes that ended up losing them countless subscribers. Well not countless — if you can count to 800,000 in one month. Now they’ve lost a valuable source of content, which gives customers another reason to hightail it.

Netflix will hopefully fill the gap with other quality content. But as of today, they are less of a value than they were yesterday.

 

Amazon Kindle Color Screen Rumor

Rumor has it that the ubiquitous Kindle will soon have a color screen. I’m not talking about the Kindle Fire tablet, which has been color since its introduction. The rumor says that color is coming to the classical E-ink Kindle display.

The advantage of the E-ink display is that it can be read outside in the bright sun. The Fire and other color tablet displays are too reflective to be easily seen in a bright environment.

The rumor has it that the new color Kindle will be introduced in March, so we won’t have to wait too long to find out if it’s true.

Netflix Gets a New Competitor … Sort Of

A series of potential competitors for Netflix have surfaced recently. Each of these offers an add-on Internet TV option to their existing traditional cable or satellite TV businesses. The intent is obvious … to slow the bleeding of customers off to the much lower cost Internet options like Netflix. Quoting from “Today @ PCWorld”:

“My problem with all these services from pay TV providers is that, unlike Netflix, they have little incentive to change the status quo. Their goal is to retain subscribers, so their strategy is simple: Undercut Netflix as a cable supplement.”

Read the original report on the blog, “Today @ PCWorld” here:
Comcast Steampix Joins Attack on Netflix .