The Price: $200

The Verdict: It has been a long time since I last shopped for a printer, and if Brother's new addition to their Professional Series line is any indicator, consumers are getting a lot more for their buck these days. For less than $200 you can expect a 4-in-1 device that does all of its tasks exceedingly well.

Setting up the device on a home network was no problem at all, and exchanging / printing files between multiple computers, media cards and USB drives was a smooth process. The print quality for both documents and photos was impressive for its class (6000 x 1200 dpi printing /19200 dpi on scans) and it cranks them out at a good clip (35ppm black and 28ppm color on printing / 23cpm black, 20cpm color on scans ). It also has some useful added features like scan to JPEG, TIFF and PDF as well as the ability to print on 11x17 ledger size paper, which means you won't have to make a trip to Kinkos if you need to print something on that scale. Plus, it has a decent 150 sheet paper capacity for large printing projects.

On the negative side, it isn't the smallest or sturdiest printer out there, and you will have to factor in the cost of a pricey four cartridge ink system down the line (available in standard an high yield versions). It is also compatible with 802.11b/g networks only, so if you are running draft-N you are out of luck. The software wasn't anything to write home about either—I found myself doing most of the work directly on the flip-up 3.3-inch color LCD display. At any rate, these are not huge problems in the overall scheme of things, so the Brother MFC-5890CN is definitely something to look into if you have a small business or a need for a more feature-rich printer at a relatively low price point. Expect to see it on store shelves starting on August 27th.

Years after chucking the IBM moniker, Lenovo has worked hard to produce a line of PCs that don't scream "boring business machine." While the ThinkPad series is essentially a roll call of austere black boxes, the IdeaPad set injects a little color and style for folks that aren't looking for that office drone look.

The U110 ultralight we received looks striking with a scarlet, paisley etched aluminum lid paired with a shiny jet-black keyboard area.(You can opt for an all black model if you want stay true to your Hot Topic Goth roots.) 



As soon as you open it up and power it on, you come fate to face with one of the U110's most interesting yet unsettling features: VeriFace recognition. Here's how this semi-ominous security program works: after booting up, the webcam embedded in the bezel starts scanning the room, looking for humans (or maybe John Connor). When it finds you, it superimposes disturbing crosshairs on your eyes in an attempt to recognize you and unlock the PC. If you've already registered your peepers with the program, this process is over in a split second, but if you aren't, the system will hang in a vain attempt to find a real user, so you have to shut it down, turn the notebook away, and open it up again to get it to boot. And besides, there's something about having your eyes crossed out that gives us the creeps; kinda like finding your picture in a serial killer's scrapbook.



 Once the cold sweat evaporates, you'll be charmed by the screen and keyboard — but only up to a point. The 11.1-inch display is bright and sharp, though it can look a bit iridescent at close range. The glossy black keys are big and square with room to spare, but again, once you lay hands on them, the enchantment fades. The thin membrane beneath the keys is flimsy and deforms as you type. And as with all Lenovos, the Control key is in the wrong place, but Mac users or Lenovo diehards won't care; they're used to screwy layouts.

The trackpad's real estate is vast and there's no "pencil-eraser" pointing stick junking up the place either.

 The ultralight has a decent set of ports, including VGA, three USBs, mini FireWire, SD slot, and ExpressCard, but the designers couldn't find room for an optical drive; we're seriously disappointed. The included external DVD drive looks cool, with a matte black surface and shiny chrome side grills, but you know what would be even cooler? Not needing an external drive at all. At least the power supply is slim an low profile for easy packing.



For work purposes, the Lenovo is a capable little machine. Its 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM may be middle-of-the-road, but they must be finely tuned: the U110 excelled in our PCMark tests, far outdistancing most other ultralights (it got a 3,245, if you're interested). As with its compact brethren, don't expect 3-D gaming ability.



This is an overall good PC, it just has a few annoyances. While Lenovo's attempt to stray from the boring box look should be encouraged, the U110 is somewhat of a movie set. It all looks good until you see it up close an notice the small flaws that will irritate you over time. Oh and that VeriFace is VeriFreaky. —Roger Hibbert



WIRED Charming good looks will attract the Lenovo Faithful who are sick of looking funerary. Excellent business performance will shut up office critics of your "red PC (Harumph!)" Delightfully light and slim.


TIRED The keyboard, though pretty, is pretty flimsy. Terminator-style face recognition will give you the heebie-jeebies and make you torch all your Schwarzenegger flicks (Especially Batman and Robin). External DVD means one more gadget to tote.



$1,799 (as tested), lenovo.com

(Photo by Jon Snyder for Wired.com)

Original photo [edjar/Flickr]

In a story straight out of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, three MIT undergraduates concocted a scheme to hack Boston's transit payment system, the Charlie Card (no relation). The students managed to reprogram the cards to increase their credit balance, thus allowance them to ride the subway for free.

Of course, being MIT students, they decided to write up their prank as an academic paper. But the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), already stinging from such a thorough pwning, took it to the courts, citing computer fraud, and asking for time to fix the system before the paper was presented. It is also thought that an MBTA official was overheard saying "It's not fair. I'm telling my mom."

MBTA lost. Judge George O'Toole ruled that "presenting an academic paper would not violate computer fraud laws." Go hackers.

The students, Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa, went on to receive "top marks" for their paper, from which we can conclude the following: RFID is very insecure, and MIT is awesome.

For more coverage, check out Wired.com's Threat Level blog: Federal Judge Throws Out Gag Order Against Boston Students in Subway Case

Epson has recently come up with new addition to Workforce lineup, engineered for the small business and home office; Workforce 600, 500, 40, and 30. These all-in-ones produce laser quality output at laser fast speeds. Workforce 600 is capable of printing laser-quality black text at 27 pages per minute. It offers both wired and wireless connectivity. WorkForce 500 on the other hand does not print as fast as its brother, 600. It uses Instant-dry DURABrite® Ultra Ink, that is water resistant and enable prints to have lifespan of over several years. Finally, both 40 and 30 are meant for users who simply need to print black text and light photo printing. Workforce 40 offers wired and wireless connectivity as well as higher capacity ink cartridges. Workforce 30 uses unique dual black ink cartridge system that claim to produce twice as many output. Workforce 600 will be available for $600, while WF 500 and WF 40 both priced at $130 and finally WF 30 will be retailed for $70. All models will gradually hit store late august until september. [Epson]

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Crafter Betz White made this one for her brother Roger’s birthday, so she called it a Rog-A-Sketch. The cool carrier is made from wool felt with Velcro closures and has button knobs that really turn.

I loved my Etch-A-Sketch when I was a kid, despite the fact that I could never actually draw anything non-geometric with it. Still, I want one of these for my laptop!

Note to Betz: please make more, add a strap, and put this baby on Etsy!

[via Craft:]

My friend Stacy just emailed asking if I knew of any gifts for my brother-in-law who recently returned from a 6 month … [visit site to read more]

EA Mobile have just acquired the rights to the popular moneyed-quiz game “Deal or No Deal”. They snapped up the rights from Endemol, who we all know as the creator of Big Brother. Interestingly, Gameloft had previously owned the Mobile rights, where the game had become a top-seller. So this is a major coup for the EA execs involved!

I am not sure whether the entire reader-base will be familiar with the concept of Deal or No Deal, but it is somewhat entertaining on the Tellybox - if you’d like to know more about the show, you can go here.

By the way, “Deal or No Deal” (the mobile game) will be out in November.

[Via: Pocketgamer.co.uk]

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Fast, good, and cheap: Pick any two. This mantra of designers and engineers pragmatically points out that you can't have it all. It's like the laws of physics or something. Gateway's brand new P-7811FX not only has a name that looks like a Federation Starship name, it seems to break the laws of physics that Chief Engineer Scotty seems to hold so dear (R.I.P., Mr. Doohan, and sorry about those ashes). Through some loophole, wormhole, or deal with the devil, Gateway has produced a massive desktop replacement that's fast, good, and cheap.

How fast, you ask? Fast enough to go toe-to-toe — and school — a $4,800 Alienware Area 51 m15x: In our Quake 4 test, the Gateway posted a score of 167.8fps to the m15x's 167.2. This is partially due to the Gateway's 512MB Nvidia Geforce 9800M running the show. We know less than a frame per second is not a huge lead, but split seconds are common currency for winning the Olympic gold, so it's good enough for us. The FX also has Olympic endurance for larger class notebooks, with 2 hours, 23-minutes playing a DVD.

And that brings us to the cheap part. The Gateway is just $1,400 — over three times less than the Alienware and hundreds (and more hundreds) less than most other desktop replacement machines. Sure, it lacks the latest processor (it's got a 2.27GHz Core Duo), but it has a whopping 4GB of RAM to help it attack processing tasks and a spacious 200GB of drive space for your stuff.

But is it any good? With a desktop replacement this cheap you'd expect some crap components, but the FX is pretty chintz-free. The keyboard's solid, the 17-inch screen is bright and even, and the unit has all the ports you'd expect, including eSATA, HDMI, and a media slot. The design looks good too: black with a semitransparent lattice that suggest (but isn't) carbon fiber, trimmed with a metallic orange that would look nice on a souped-up '69 Ford Mustang Mach I, if your brother-in-law hadn't wrapped it around that oak out on Route 57.

The big bummer here is the missing Blu-ray drive — which is what is likely keeping this thing so affordable. The included DVD Multi drive has Yamaha's LabelFlash technology, so you can burn designs onto specially coated media, but that's not going to provide any solace when the Dark Knight hits Blu-ray and you can't watch it in HD.

It's great that Gateway unraveled fast-good-cheap, but it's time to move on to the next challenge, a PC this good, for this price, with Blu-ray. Do that, and the company would have a frenzied crowd of piss-pantsed, slavering geeks, clamoring to buy up its PCs.  —Roger Hibbert

WIRED Some of the best gaming performance ever recorded on a PC. Long battery life for a desktop replacement. Comfy and solid keyboard withstands heavy hands. Mutimedia controls and slide volume look cool without glowing too brightly.

TIRED No Blu-ray is a letdown for HD-heads, and you can't configure your PC to include the drive. The battery sticks out a bit in the back, and the power brick is monstrous. Power lights on the front, unlike the multimedia controls, are too bright.

$1,400 (as tested), gateway.com

(Photo by Gateway)

BenQ has released two new projectors that are excellent for any office need The MP623 and MP624 projectors are almost like brother and sister. Both models feature the similar specs including, XGA (1024 x 768) resolution, a 2500:1 contrast ratio, and they both weigh only 5.5 lbs. The real difference between the two is the amount of lumens each projector can display. The MP623 can display 2500 ANSI lumens, whereas the MP624 can display 3000 ANSI lumens. Even with a 500 lumens difference, both models are more than capable of lighting up everything from a pitch black room up to a dimly lit room. The MP623 and MP624 are now available for ordering through BenQ’s website. However, retail prices are on a customer/supplier basis.

[via Hexus Lifestyle]