The year 2012 is going to be a good one for printers. While printing technology will (most likely) not change, printer manufacturers will be adding mobile printing via Wi-Fi and cloud printing via email to all the printer models they release in 2012. This technology will allow printers to follow their users away from their desks and on to their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Gone are the days where we must be using a computer sitting next to a printer to print anything. Now we’ll be printing from just about anywhere we want, to any printer we want. Get ready to embrace mobile printing and cloud printing.

In 2011 Apple, Google, HP, and Lexmark all introduced mobile and cloud capabilities in their printers and services to enhance our printing capabilities. Google’s Cloud Print App lets users print via email on any printer connected to a computer that has Internet access. Apple introduced AirPrint, which lets you use Wi-Fi to send a variety of print jobs directly from an iOS device to any nearby AirPrint compatible computer. HP unveiled ePrint, a service allowing you to email a print job from anywhere to an ePrint compatible HP printer. Lexmark’s SmartSolutions apps allowed users to display a limited amount of web based information on their printer’s LCD screen.

In 2012 we will see these manufacturers expand their mobile and cloud print offerings while others begin to get in the game. Canon, Epson, and Kodak will all release printers, this year, that are mobile and cloud print enabled. Canon’s printers will offer Easy-PhotoPrint (for printing from Android and Apple phones and tablets) and PIXMA Cloud Link (for printing from Google Docs and Gmail from your mobile device) apps. Epson will will release the same type of printer apps under the name Epson Connect.

Kodak will following suit, but has chosen to focus on the size of the email message users can send to their printers. As of now, mobile and cloud printing apps only accept print jobs of a certain size. I imagine other printer manufacturers will follow Kodak and over the course of 2012 we will see less limited size constraints.

If you are in the market for a printer this year, definitely make sure you check out mobile and cloud printing apps before buying. They promise to be a very useful technology.

Giving a printer? Thinking about buying one for yourself? Deals are abound, but before you head out to make that purchase take a few minutes to read our Holiday Printer Buying Guide. Inkjet or laser? Multi or single function? How much to spend? We’ve got the scoop on the best printers available this holiday season.

Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. They’ve all made our list. If you are out shopping make sure you check out the following.

Epson Workforce 635 Wireless All-in-One

The Epson Workforce 635 is built for office environments, but will work great for anyone. You may not want to spend the money (starting at $140.00) unless you do a lot of printing though. For those looking to save paper, and the environment, it automatically prints on both sides of a piece of paper. Printing photos? This may not be the printer for you. It’s photo print quality is average and its photo print speed is slow. The 635 is a visually appealing printer (shiny black) with a large, and easy to use, control panel. Replacement ink cartridges are reasonably priced. If you are looking for an office type printer (lots of text printing) this may be just what you need.

HP OfficeJet Mobile

Need to print documents, presentations, and handouts while on the road? The OfficeJet Mobile Printer is for you. Business professionals will love  it’s sleek design and print quality. HP has increased the printing speed over previous models and added Bluetooth wireless printing capabilities.  The printer also features a rechargeable battery. The drawback? It’s expensive (starting at $219.00). If you spend a lot of your work time on the road and need the ability print, this is the mobile printer you need.

Canon ImageClass MF3010

Easy to set up. Easy to use. Reasonably priced (starting at $109.95). The Canon ImageClass MF3010 is great for students, office professionals, and you budget minded folks. Here’s the bummer . . . No wireless networking or auto document feeder! If you can get past those two missing features get yourself this printer. You’ll be very happy with the print speed.

HP Photosmart Premium C410a

This printer is great for the home office crowd. Print, copy, scan, and fax all from the same printer. You are going to get quick print speeds and quality print outs. Those who don’t need to put a whole ream of paper in the paper tray every time they replace paper won’t mind the capacity of the paper tray (it holds a max of 125 sheets). The C410a will features wireless printing and offers access to HP’s Web printing technologies. A fair amount of features for its price (starting at $119.90).

Epson WorkForce 840 All-in-One

Another Epson printer! This multifunction inkjet printer quickly produces great prints (text and graphics). It also offers auto duplexing, wired/wireless networking, and support for mobile printing. If photo speed and quality are what you are looking for, you may want to skip this printer. This printer costs quite a bit more than the average All-in-One inkjet printer (starting at $314.99), but may just be worth it depending on your needs.

HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw

This is HP’s most inexpensive multifunction laser printer (starting at $199.99). Small budget minded offices are going to get the most bang for their buck with this printer. You’ll be printing, copying, scanning, and faxing in just a matter of minutes (set up is very simple). The M1217nfw offers a driver-less set up and both wired and wireless connections. It’s a work horse printer for small offices that do a lot of monochrome printing. Unfortunately, no auto duplex printing here.

Brother HL-2270DW

The only Brother printer on our list! Basic printing functions at a budget price (starting at $89.99). Brother’s reliable and easy to use printer is just right for home users or students. This monochrome laser printer features wireless networking and quick print speeds. Get is for good looking black and white print outs, not for graphics (not good!).

Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901

Lexmark printers don’t typically make these types of lists, so they’ve done something good with the Pro901. The good I am referring to is Lexmark’s decision to make a lower performing printer in favor of a printer that is cost effective. They are jumping on the “printer ink is to expensive” bandwagon, and hoping to sell a lot of printers because of it. With the lowest black ink cost per page available Lexmark is hoping consumers will look past black prints that are not of the same quality as other printers, slow copy speeds, and poorly designed SmartSolutions app in favor of a low printing cost. The printer itself might be slightly overpriced (starting at $147.00) for the features you get.

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a small device it’s calling the “small-in-one.” The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same amount of desk space as your average Blu-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We recommend investing in Epson’s extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your dollar.

Design and features
The Stylus NX430′s space-saving design is the printer’s main focus, measuring a little more than 15 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 11 inches tall. Relative to other printers, its size falls somewhere between a single function inkjet and a color laser printer, but at 9 pounds it’s only half the weight of the average color laser printer and ideal for offices that frequently move workstations.

The center control panel sits within a console that rotates up to a suitable viewing angle. Though I’m not usually a fan of virtual-only button layouts, I like that the only buttons that light up on the NX430 are the four-way directional pad and the power on and off controls–the rest of the functions illuminate depending on the particular function you’re accessing.

I did notice that the screen on this machine feels distinctly less responsive than the capacitive touch dials on the higher-end WorkForce 845 All-in-One. By contrast, NX430′s plastic surrounding the screen has a tendency to flex as you press down on it, lending a mushy feeling to menu navigation. The screen itself never gave me trouble in terms of virtual button actuation, however.

I can’t fault a $99 device for not including an auto-document feeder or multiple paper input trays, so all paper handling is fed through the single tray on the back and exits through the “mouth” below the controls. You’ll also notice a memory card reader up front that lets you walk up and print from an expansion card without actually touching a computer. You can preview your photos on the ample 2.5-inch LCD touch panel, and even make simple adjustments to crop dimensions, resize, or perform one-button touch-ups.

Epson gives you the option to connect the printer to your computer using direct USB or Wi-Fi. I assume most of you will prefer the latter, since Epson doesn’t include a USB cable in the box. Smart setup on the touch panel is a two-part process: turn on the machine and click Network Setting, then designate your wireless network and enter its password, and that’s it. The entire setup from start to finish, with a connection established on our lab network, took us less than 2 minutes. The installation process also includes a step that asks if you want the system to automatically hunt and install firmware updates, and we recommend you click “yes” when prompted; the appeal of Web-connected printers like the NX430 means you don’t have to wait for Epson to ship you software updates, so take advantage of it.

Connecting through Wi-Fi also means you can take advantage of Epson’s host of free mobile printing apps that let you print directly from mobile devices. First, the Epson iPrint application for iOS and Android devices enables you to print Web pages, photos, documents, and anything else on a smartphone directly to the WorkForce NX430, though I noticed the printer cropped photos when I flipped orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa, so I wouldn’t recommend using the app to print important images like business presentations this way; it’s more appropriate for quick outputs of snapshot photos and to-do lists.

Performance
In our speed tests, the Stylus NX430 performed at an average rate printing photos, but it sprints ahead of the competition with presentation output speed, color graphics speed, and especially text speed. To widen the margin further, the NX515 printed a staggering 14.11 pages per minute of plain text on plain white paper.

Meanwhile, the next fastest printers are the Lexmark Interpret S405 and the Canon Pixma MX410 that both registered only 7.65 and 6.08 pages per minute (PPM), respectively.

In fact, the Epson churned out more pages per minute (text, graphics, and presentations) than most inkjet printers I’ve tested to date. Look no further than the Epson Stylus NX430 printer if you need hard copies of your documents in your hand as quickly as possible.

The printer also doesn’t disappoint in terms of print quality. With so many driver options to choose from, Epson makes it easy to cater to your prints in the most efficient way possible. I tried to cycle through most of the options, including using Epson’s Vivid colorspace as opposed to Adobe’s RGB, but I found that Epson’s preset setting produced the most pleasing and accurate images. By far, the most accurate samples came from black and colored text and graphics containing thick, black lines.

Considering the cost of the printer and the consumables, the Epson’s print samples are some of the most evenly saturated, fully formed shapes I’ve seen in a while. I’m satisfied with the weight of thin and thick lines, and the readability is clear even down to the smallest fonts on normal white document paper. I’m equally happy with the photo quality that continues to live up to the Epson name. All the printouts display smooth quality and are free of graininess or blotchy facial tones.

Service and support
Epson backs the Stylus NX430 with a limited one-year warranty that includes toll-free customer support weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT. Further support is available online through a model-specific troubleshooting guide, FAQs, e-mail support, driver updates, and document downloads.

Conclusion
The Epson WorkForce NX430 lives up to its “small-in-one” moniker with the size and features to match. Students and small offices cramped for space will have to sacrifice an auto-document feeder and double-sided prints to get the NX430 under $100, but its Wi-Fi connectivity, quick print speeds, and the most recent addition of iPrint apps for smartphones make this multifunction a worthwhile grab.

(Review by Justin Yu on CNET – Justin Yu covers headphones and peripherals for CNET. When he’s not scouring eBay for useless ephemera or eating hot dogs for breakfast, he spends his time making fun of Internet culture every morning on The 404 podcast.)

If you are having some trouble with your Epson printer where can go you for help? Let’s talk about the best places to find Epson printer help.

The first place that will pop in to most of your minds is the Epson website (www.epson.com). After navigating to my local Epson website (North America) I found the easiest way to find information was to use the search box in the upper right corner. I searched for the RX600 and the first result was for technical support. Nice! The technical support screen offers the following options.

Drivers & Downloads
FAQ’s (for the printer)
Troubleshooting Guide
Documents and Manual
Material Safety Data Sheets
Contact Support

A very nice list of services and information, which proved to be quite useful.

The second place that comes to mind for most is their favorite search engine. For most that is Google. If you do a search for ‘Epson Printer Troubleshooting’. Three of the more popular help sites are shown (right under the Epson website); ehow.com, fixyourownprinter.com, and fixya.com.

The information on these three sites are all driven by Epson printer users. Visitors to the sites can post questions or describe the problems they are having. Other members of the community will then share their experiences, hopefully the same as yours, and what they remedied their printer troubles. Chances are your current trouble is something someone else has already experienced. You’ll probably be able to find the help you need within a few minutes.

Last week I told you about a printer you should avoid. This week I need to balance that off and tell you about a printer you should consider buying. It’s not good practice to tell you what not to do, then fail to give you an alternative that you can do.

That said, get yourself an Epson WorkForce 840 printer. For everything that last week’s Dell printer was not, this printer is.

Let’s start with cost. Epson’s suggested price on the 840 is $299.00, higher than your average All-in-One printer but the additional features it offers makes up for that. Make sure you take some time to search the web though, this printer can be found for as low as $185.00. You’ll pay shipping on that price, but will still be well below the $299.00 mark.

This printer is fast and produces great quality prints. The additional features that make is worth the higher price include autoduplexing (2 sided printing), built in wireless networking, support for mobile printing, an autodocument feeder, and ports that make USB and wired network setup easy. Keep in mind that while the printer does come with USB and Ethernet ports, it does not come with cables. That’s an added expense you will have to assume.

For those that hate having to replace the paper in your printer, the WorkForce 840 can hold a whole ream of paper in its paper tray!

The 3.5 inch color LCD makes using the printer easy because Epson has grayed out buttons that aren’t to be used on a particular screen.

If you are in the market for a new All-in-One printer, the WorkForce 840 might just be for you. Head out to a retail store and check it out before you do any online shopping.

Epson has targeted September 2010 as the release month for three new printers in its Artisan series. The new printers will have faster print speeds (4×6 inch photos in ten seconds), faster copy speed (38 pages per minute), faster ISO speeds (9-9.5 ISO pages per minute).  Added technology will also mean that owners of these printers will be able send documents to print from their mobile devices.

I’m hoping they have addressed some of the flaws that plagued their previous Artisan printers (Artisan 700, Artisan 710, Artisan 800, Artisan 810). While these printers already featured the fastest print speeds in the industry, they had extremely buggy software. These bugs made it hard to depend on printer to make your daily printing a seamless easy process. These printers could be quite disruptive!

They also featured a trait that is very common among today’s inkjet printers . . . flimsy plastic output and input paper trays. I don’t imagine this will get fixed with these new versions. No manufacturers are working to improve the input/output trays. One can hope though!

Between the buggy software and the paper jams (caused by flimsy trays) the Epson Artisan printers were quite a hassle, but the quality and speed of the  prints made me put up with them. Hopefully these flaws get fixed because Epson is on to something really good here.

If you’ve used an Epson Artisan printer take a minute and let me know what you think about it. Thanks!

I was surfing the web looking for some new post topics. I stumbled in to some forums and pretty quickly found quite a bit of resistance to Epson printers. Intrigued by the sentiments expressed I had to forge on to find out more. Here are the details of my wanderings through cyber space.

Epson printer owners most commonly expressed their displeasure with the fact that Epson printers have a propensity for clogged print heads. Forum contributors also said that these clogs often could not be remedied, meaning a new printer needed to be purchased or a large amount of money needs to be spent on repairs. Because Epson printers are so inexpensive, it does not make sense to pay for repairs. Epson is one of the few printer manufactures that puts the print heads inside the printer, rather than on the cartridge. This is the reason clogged heads are such a problem.

Another common complaint was the speed at which Epson cartridges use ink. Way to fast! I’ve read a lot of complaints about the cost of printer cartridges, but not much about how soon they run out of ink. The reverse was true of Epson cartridges. Complaints center on the fact that Epson cartridges run out ink way to fast, even accommodating for their lower cost.

A word of caution on Epson printer cartridges. While the price tag for a single cartridge is generally lower than other printer cartridge manufacturers, remember Epson sells ink tanks. This means you need to buy an ink tank for each color your printer uses. Many of their cartridges are priced around $14, so if your printer uses black, cyan, magenta, and yellow you are going to pay $56 every time you replace the entire set. Many of their new printer models also include a photo cyan and photo magenta cartridge. Add another $28 ($84) to your replacement cost. From a pure cartridge cost, not much more economical than anyone else.

Forum contributors also expressed concern for how often the print head cleaning utility needs to run. It is often done automatically, so the printer owner has no control over how often it happens. When the print  head cleaning utility runs, ink from the printer cartridge is used.

To be fair I took a look at the ratings of Epson printers on web sites like CNET and PCWorld. Both the critics and users rated Epson printers fairly high, typically three stars out of five. The bulk of the positive comments were for print speed (fast) and the (high) quality of prints Epson printers produce.

The last Epson printer I owned was the Epson Stylus 640. Despite being loud I loved it. But once it died I switched over to HP printers and have never been back.

If you own an Epson printer I need you to step up and let me know what you think about it. We’ve got to answer this question . . . Are Epson printers any good?

The Epson Artisan 810 Printer was featured on the December 15 Ellen DeGeners show. Ellen gave the printer away as part of her “12 Days of Giveaways”.

The Artisan 810 allows you to fax, copy, or scan at the touch of a button. The printer also features a 7.8 inch touch panel screen and built in Wi-Fi/Ethernet networking. This Epson printer is Energy Star qualified.

Here is what Epson says about their printer:

Imagination meets innovation. Unleash your creativity with the Artisan 810, a sleek, high performance all-in-one that powers through Ultra Hi-Definition 4″ x 6″photos in as fast as 10 seconds. With convenient Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking, you can print, scan, and access memory card slots1 from any room in the house. Use the smart, 7.8″ touch panel to view, edit and restore faded color photos, print CDs/DVDs, and so much more. The Artisan 810 even offers automatic, two-sided printing so you can save on your paper supply. And, when you’re in a hurry, you can use the Automatic Document Feeder to quickly copy, fax and scan stacks of documents. This versatile all-in-one includes other innovative features for creating one of a kind projects like coloring book pages and notepaper using your own photos. And, it’s fast. With maximum print speeds of 38 ppm and laser quality speeds of 9.5 ppm black and 9.1 ppm color, the Artisan 810 keeps up with your busy life. It’s so convenient you can even use it to charge a cell phone, MP3 player or other portable device without tying up an additional power outlet.2 Packed full of features, this amazing all-in-one is all you need for all your everyday projects.

The 810 uses the following Epson printer cartridges:

Epson 98 T098120 Black Ink Cartridge

Epson 99 T099220 Cyan Ink Cartridge

Epson 99 T099320 Magenta Ink Cartridge

Epson 99 T099420 Yellow Ink Cartridge

Epson 99 T099520 Light Cyan Ink Cartridge

Epson 99 T099620 Light Magenta Ink Cartridge

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Epson Artisan 810 Printer
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Looking for a bargain. Check out these ten printers . . . all priced under $100. We can’t offer you the printers, but we can take care of any printer cartridge needs you have.

Brother MFC-3360C – The Brother MFC-3360C does decent quality text and graphics, but anyone printing a large volume of photos won’t be happy with the extremely slow output speed. If you’re set on buying a multifunction printer, put your $90 toward a more capable device, like the Canon Pixma MX330.

Brother DCP 165C – The counterintuitive setup, bland design, deplorable print quality, and crawling output speeds earns this printer a double thumbs down. Spend $30 more and you can get the Canon Pixma MX330, an all-in-one printer that adds a fax machine on top of the copy, scan, and print features.

Epson Stylus NX515 – The Epson Stylus NX515 is a capable machine that will improve the efficiency of any office or work-at-home setup. Not only is it a lightning-fast all-in-one, but it also has a broader range of features than most other $150 AIOs. As long as you don’t need a full creative software suite, the Epson Stylus NX515 will make a dependable sidekick to your computer.

HP Deskjet D2660 Printer – HP’s basic Deskjet D2660 inkjet has a fold-up paper tray and a unique paper corral that make it easy to store away. We noticed several flaws in the output quality, but if you don’t expect too much in terms of photo output, this $50 inkjet will make an excellent at-home printer for intermittent use.

HP Officejet 6000 – We like the simplicity of the HP Officejet 6000 single-function inkjet printer. The print quality meets HP’s high standards, and it outputs full color photos at an impressive rate, but its lack of an LCD screen takes some getting used to. Nevertheless, the HP Officjet 6000 performed well and earns our recommendation as a great single-function printer.

Canon Pixma MX330 – The HP Photosmart C6380 is a good fit for beginning photographers who want more than just a simple printer. Its six-ink cartridge bay, and scanning and copying capabilities extend its versatility, and while the output quality suffers a few missteps, the C6380 remains a worthwhile deal for the money.

HP Officejet J4680 – The HP Officejet J4680 offers more features at a cheaper price than most of its competitors, and small offices and home professionals will appreciate its print quality as well. Unfortunately, its negatives far outweigh the positives: your office productivity will take a major hit because of sluggish output speeds and faulty paper handling. For a better rounded all-in-one printer, we recommend picking up the Lexmark x7675 Pro or investing an extra $90 in the HP Officejet J6480.

Dell All-in-One Wireless Printer V305w – The Dell V305w is cosmetically appealing and inexpensive, but the output quality needs significant improvement, and the cost to maintain the printer is much higher than the industry standard. We recommend checking out the competition for a printer that will give you longer-lasting inks, cheaper replacement cartridges, and more acceptable photo-quality prints.

Canon Selphy CP770 – The Canon Selphy CP770 is a neat, little dye-sublimation printer that includes a bucket for easy travel, but the wireless accessories aren’t included. If you’re shopping for a convenient travel-friendly printer, check out the Canon Selphy CP760 that offers the exact same technology with a similar style for a better price.

Canon Selphy CP760 – The Canon Selphy CP760 takes the pain out of printing photos with its plug-and-play design and straightforward usability, and the $100 price tag makes it an excellent companion printer for quick prints in the home.

*Review summary compliments of CNET.com

This isn’t exactly breaking news, but more of a general update to the people who come here looking for news about when they can get their benefits from Epson. Recently, Epson filed an appeal challenging the settlement. This is what the official settlement site says:

Appeals have been filed challenging the Judgment and order granting final approval of the Settlement and application for attorneys’ fees. As a result, the distribution of Settlement benefits is on hold until the appeals process is completed.

Originally, they did note that the benefits would not be paid until the Court had given final approval and all appeals had been “expired”, so this isn’t a total surprise. This is somewhat interesting since Epson originally settled this back in April of 2006, and now they are appealing it, but basically this is always what happens with these types of cases. Maybe it has something to do with lawyer’s fees, maybe one person isn’t happy about it, I don’t know. All this stuff goes on behind the scenes, so unfortunately at this moment, all everyone can do is continue to wait.