Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Review - coming soon

Epson printers just keep getting better and better. I have been a long time fan of Epson's offerings, and have previously reviewed many of their scanners and printers. Well, now it is time for the big boys, with the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 that they have kindly agreed to send down to us.

The Stylus Pro 3800 is an A2+ (17”) cut sheet desktop wide format printer, the latest addition to the Epson Professional printer range to incorporate the well proven and respected UltraChrome K3 inkset. The K3 inks are very highly regarded in the industry, with many galleries only accpeting prints using these inks. We will be testing a wide range of media finishes, as well as checking just how good the prints look against conventional photos, and the original scanned files. As well as throwing some digital files at the 3800, taken with the latest Canon SLR technology. Check back soon to read the full review.

Maxtor Fusion & MyBook World Edition - a mini HD server !

I love technology ! This is a bit of an understatement really, as why else would I run Geekanoids, bringing all this tech goodness day in, day out. Well, my latest trend, in my office, is that I love storage. Just recently I was embarrassed to learn that I had accumulated six external hard drives. A bit of re-organising and I gave a few away to the needy and I now have a much more manageable system. What does interest me is network storage (NAS). Currently I have a NAS hard drive, which sits hidden away and anything I need to take off my MacBook, to free up some room, gets transferred to the NAS. This solution is OK, but I am sure that I do not use my NAS to its full potential.

What excited me this week was the possibility of taking things one step further. I stumbled upon the Maxtor Fusion, which is a 500GB affair with a difference. Not only does it allow you to store files locally via a USB2 connection, but it also has an ethernet port, so it can become part of your local network. If you want even more flexibility, you can access your files from anywhere over the internet. You can even set up folders and send out specific email attachments to friends and colleagues, giving them access to files. Western Digital offer something similar called the My Book World Edition I & II. The latter does not mention Mac compatibility, though I am sure it would work fine.

I am determined to bring you details of how these two drives work, so will hopefully be able to get hold of review units soon and give you the lowdown.

Formac Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 Pro Monitor

Formac has revealed its new Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 professional TFT monitor, which is available and in stock at various UK resellers. The stunning looking monitor is available in white, silver or black, has a 1600 x 1200 native resolution with a .255 dot pitch and connects via DVI-D.
A nice high brightness of 300cd/m2 and contrast ratio of 1000:1 really ensure this is ideal for professional use, whilst the 8ms response time make it suitable for the playback of moving images. Of note, this is a true 8-bit MVA panel supporting 16.7 million colours.

The Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5 has a retail price of £429.

Belkin N1 Wireless Router gets Modem

Now an all in one solution is available from Belkin. The latest in Wireless networking technology together with a modem means one functional shiny black box on your desk does it all.

The Belkin N1 Modem Router also lets your computers quickly and efficiently exchange documents, share resources, and distribute large video and music files throughout your network at a link rate of up to 300Mbps.* Our advanced security protects both your wireless and wired computers from hackers and intruders. You can add up to 32 computers to your wireless network with additional notebook and desktop adapters.

Based on the 802.11n draft, N1 Wireless enables multiple receivers and transmitters to send and receive data through the air, using Intelligent MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) spatial multiplexing techniques. This smart-antenna technology builds upon the widely deployed 802.11g standard by increasing speed, coverage, and reliability of wireless systems. Providing greater range and faster speeds, N1 Wireless offers a quick and efficient way for people to distribute video, music, photos, and files among the networked computers in their homes.

We are really excited about this product and hope to bring you a full review soon.