John Mulhern's Quick Hits for the Holidays – Epson Artisan 837 printer, JUD 500 Docking Station, Targus Dual Video Docking Station, Roku 2, Apple TV, and Onkyo AV system
It is that time again, with gadgets under the tree, phones in our pockets, and stockings to stuff. Here are a few of my favorites for the holidays!
Update Your Printer
Almost all modern printers are multifunction devices - more intelligent document centers with a lot of onboard intelligence than mere printing devices. I "hire" a home printer to do two things. First, I share the now increasingly common belief that you should absolutely be printing your truly great photos. This means getting an inkjet that can accurately reproduce the now impressive shots we can get from our digital cameras. The second thing I want from a printer is the ability to scan and save documents into modern usable formats such as PDF and TIFF.
I'm partial to Epson devices, especially their Artisans. The attractive (for a printer) Epson Artisan 837 with its 7.8 inch touch panel and 3.5 inch color LCD is the center of that product line. It can do so many things: output prints up to 8 1/2 x 11 borderless, print nicely on printable DVD/CD media, print from your iPhone, scan to PDF or TIFF, etc. Inputs and connectivity include Ethernet (10/100), USB 2.0, WiFi (b/g/n), and slots for SD, SDXD, Memory Stick, and Compact Flash.
For more information on the Epson Artisan 837 printer visit: www.epson.com
USB 3.0 Devices
USB 3.0's substantially increased speed over USB 2.0 opens up some new possibilities. The first is simple: impressive speed for hard drive backup with very little (if any) additional cost over USB 2.0 drives. I like Western Digital's My Passport portable drives – lowering any barrier to everyone having decent backups is always a plus.
For more information on the Western Digital My Passport hard drive visit: www.wdc.com
The second cool USB 3.0 use I'm seeing is USB-based port replicators/docking stations. USB 2.0-based port replicators were always limited and a little flaky - technology demonstrators but not useful devices. These new USB 3.0 port replicators can route all kinds of connections with solid reliability. A company many folks have never heard of (j5 create) offers the JUD 500 docking station, a long silver colored metal (!) tube with HDMI and VGA outputs, microphone and speaker ports, and their "Wormhole" multi-platform sharing technology. The JUD 500 supports OS X and Windows.
For more information on the JUD 500 Docking Station visit: www.j5create.com
Targus' more traditional but loaded Targus Dual Video Docking Station has an HDMI and a DVI output, along with powered USB outputs, but only has formal support for Windows as of late 2012:
For more information on the Targus Dual Video Docking Station visit: www.targus.com
Adding Intelligence To Your Aging Television
A lot of us have televisions that still look great, but lack the "smart TV" features that are available on the newest sets that Samsung, Sony, et al. so badly want us to buy. There are two really good options here. The first is to get an inexpensive streaming player like the Roku 2 (I like the XS because of the flexibility the Ethernet connection gives me) or the Apple TV.
For more information on the Roku 2 visit: www.roku.com
For more information on the Apple TV visit: www.apple.com
Update Your AV Receiver
The second option comes into play if your audio/video receiver is aging and/or if you are running out of available HDMI inputs on your television. Modern audio/video receivers come with USB and WiFi connectivity (WiFi is often optional) and have support for many on-line music services. I like Onkyo's systems: even their lower mid-range receivers support Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify and have at least 6 HDMI inputs. Of course, there's an iPhone app for remote control.
For more information on the Onkyo visit: www.onkyousa.com
Happy Holidays!
John Mulhern III, Posted 12/22/12
