techknow

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 30, 2011

Tested by James Smith

ALL-IN-ONE PRINTERSCANON PIXMA MG8150rrp $449Even in an era when TV crime-fighters included Street Hawk and Blue Thunder, Automan stood out in its awfulness. Cancelled within a series, seven-year-old Tech Know was one of few mourning the loss of its smug, computer-generated hero. Its creators nevertheless had one eye on the future if the number of new gadgets rocking the glossy-black-with-glowing-blue-piping look that adorned Auto Car and Auto Helicopter 30 years ago is any guide. The MG8150 has it, plus several other touchscreen controls that only light up when needed, making navigation of its powers remarkably intuitive. Those powers are many - printing, copying, scanning (including film and slides) - and are all done to a good standard, particularly the former.HP ENVY 100rrp $399Envy's not the first emotion that springs to mind with printers. Satisfaction, perhaps, at one that's efficient and reliable, like an old Volvo. Yet HP has other ideas, with its Envy coming across as the sort of thing Bang & Olufsen would knock out in the early days of the CD, the sort to have guests casting covetous glances across the room at dinner parties. Half the height of the Canon, topped with a patterned mirror pilfered from a Soho night-spot and with a tray that swings out suavely when you're ready to print or copy a document, it's really quite swish. It even has apps, including one that grabs your Facebook pics, accessed through a reasonably high-res touchscreen. Said touch isn't overly responsive but the results are worth the wait.techknowmail@gmail.comVerdictAnd the winner is . . . We've played with some pretty shonky all-in-one printers over the years, so it's a pleasure to test out two that we'd happily have in the study at home. For its sheer bravado - and for having the substance to back it up - the HP is the winner by a (gleaming, glitzy) nose.CHECK THIS OUTWith 3D all the rage, it was only a matter of time before the 3D printer came along. Debuted at CES 2011, the wonderfully named MakerBot Thing-O-Matic will make things in plastic that you've designed digitally in 3D (size restrictions apply). makerbot.com