Hewlett Packard release HP Officejet 6000 Wireless?

The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP is the largest technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country.

HP's Officejet 6000 Wireless is an inexpensive four-color ink-jet printer that, as its name implies, has wireless 802.11b/g connectivity. It also has an inexpensive price per print--as long as you buy HP's high capacity ink tanks. Though office ink-jets are nothing new, HP positions the Officejet 6000 as a greener and cheaper alternative to workplace color laser printers.

Setting up the printer isn't difficult but required a few more steps than with most ink-jet printers. The Officejet 6000 uses a print head that's separate from the ink cartridges, and you must open and install the print head before inserting the ink cartridges. You also have to attach the duplexing unit to the back of the printer.

The printer's design is simple and stylish, with rounded corners and a mix of light and dark gray plastic. There are four small buttons on the front, a Power button, a Print Cancel button, a Paper Feed button, and a Wi-Fi button allowing you turn off the wireless capabilities when not in use (a non-Wi-Fi version of the Officejet 6000 is available for US$30 less). The Officejet 6000 has a 250-sheet paper feed and a 50-sheet output tray. It can print automatically on both sides of a sheet of paper, which can help save both trees and money.

Your three options for connecting to the Officejet 6000 are Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and Ethernet. The Wi-Fi setup was easy; in my experience, some printers make you struggle with the on-printer menus and keys to type in passwords, but the Officejet 6000 lacks such controls. You need to setup the wireless connection from your Mac during the driver installation from the bundled software CD. Once the printer was configured for our wireless network, it showed up automatically in Bonjour when installing the drivers on other systems.

OFFICEJET 6000 WIRELESS SPECIFICATIONS

• Print speeds: up to 32 ppm in draft black, 33 ppm in draft color
• Print resolution: up to 600 dpi black, 4800 x 1200 dpi color
• First page out: as fast as 20 seconds
• Monthly duty cycle: up to 7,000 pages
• Built-in duplexing
• Four individual ink tanks; pigment-based black, dye-based color
• Wireless, Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity
• 192 MHz processor with 32 MB memory standard
• Automatic paper sensors, borderless printing

Image quality

The Officejet 6000's print quality was impressive. During our jury evaluation, the text output received a Very Good rating and could truly be compared to laser quality. Many ink-jets struggle with printing clean text on plain paper; as the ink is absorbed into the paper, it can spread and look messy and fuzzy. Our jury found it difficult to notice any ink bleed or fuzziness with text.

Photos printed on HP's Advanced Glossy Photo Paper also received a Very Good rating. Colors were bright and pleasing, though the output wouldn't compare favorably to a high-end photo printer as it lost much detail in the darker areas of the print. It looks much better than a photo printed on a laser printer with glossy laser paper, however.

Photos and graphics on plain paper weren't of the same high quality, unfortunately, with colors appearing light and muted. Prints using HP's Colorlok Multipurpose paper looked better than prints made on our office copier paper, but there were still some banding in the color ramps of our test page and a blue cast to a grayscale photo we printed. The fine and curved lines looked great.

Cost

With printer reviews, we're constantly asked about the cost to run and maintain a device. If you buy HP's high capacity inks, the four cartridges will cost about $77, which, when divided by the company's estimated ink yields, breaks down to about $.03 per page (black only) and $.09 per page (color). That is a cheaper cost per color page than the last four sub-$1,000 color laser printers we reviewed, and the cost per monochrome page is pretty close to those laser costs.

If you opt for the lower priced, lower capacity inks, the cost per black page increases to $.05 (black) and a full color page will cost $.15. For comparison's sake, another office-oriented ink-jet, Epson's WorkForce 600 ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ), costs $.04 per page (black) and $.14 per full color page when using high capacity ink cartridges. Prints using HP's standard capacity ink cartridges cost just over $.07 per page (black) and over $.19 per full color page.

Speed

In terms of speed, the Officejet 6000 was an average performer. Over USB, its 15-second first page out time was fast. The Officejet 6000 printed a 10-page Word document in 1 minute, 15 seconds, and our 4-page PDF in 1 minute, 12 seconds. It took a while longer to print our 22MB color photo in Photoshop, clocking in at 2 minutes, 36 seconds.

Print times increased a bit when printing over our office wireless network. One thing I should mention is that the printer makes some interesting noises after each job, leading you to think, perhaps, that another sheet is about to exit the printer. It's not a big deal, but could be a little annoying if the printer is sitting on your desk next to you.

Macworld buying advice

If you're in the market for a lower-priced, more environmentally friendly printer for your small business, an ink-jet like HP's Officejet 6000 Wireless may be a better fit than a laser printer. Its smaller, uses less energy, has a low price per print and great looking text. The OfficeJet 6000 can also produce better-looking photos on glossy stock than laser printers typically can.

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PRINTERS MAINTENANCE & CLEAN TIPS

In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most newer printers, a USB cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless or Ethernet), and can serve as a hardcopy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the same time.

Printers require a little more maintenance than other peripheral devices. They have several different parts working together at once, which means it's easy for one or more of the parts to jam and cause performance problems. Cleaning your printer regularly will help prevent these complications.

Every printer is different of course, so the cleaning and maintenance process may vary just a bit. But for the most part, there are a few steps you can take that will help prolong the life of your machine-regardless of the type of printer you have.

Preventative Care of Your Printer

It's a good idea to perform preventative maintenance on your printer as often as you can. One of the most important parts of your device that you must always keep clean is the print head. If a printer has not been used for quite some time, there's a greater chance of the print head becoming clogged with dried-up ink. Needless to say, this will have a significant impact on the quality of output, and it can even do permanent damage to the printer. You can easily avoid any blocking or obstruction by simply cleaning the print head on a regular basis. The best way to do this is with a dry cloth. Gently wipe down every possible surface you can reach-especially all the nooks and crannies on the inside of the printer. Tiny particles of dust and dirt have a tendency to find their way into every little crevice, so be as thorough as you can.

Nowadays, most printers come with an automatic utility program that can instruct the printer to do a self-cleaning process. If you run these cleaning cycles fairly often and wipe down the inside of your printer on a regular basis, you shouldn't encounter too many problems. On the other hand, printers that do not come with an automatic cleaning cycle require a bit more attention. In this case, you may want to consider purchasing a cleaning kit, which usually includes a tube of ammonia that you can lightly spray on the print head to get rid of crusted ink.

Manually Cleaning Your Printer

If you are experiencing printer jams or any sort of ink build up, you can clean the print head manually by performing the following steps:

1.) Remove the cartridge from the printer. Dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol or hot water, and gently wipe down the cartridge. This should soften up the dry, crusted ink.
2.) Then, soak the print head in hot water and leave it there over night.
3.) If the print head is still clogged after soaking it all night in water, let it soak in rubbing alcohol over night.
4.) After removing it from the water (or alcohol), wipe off the print head with a damp paper towel, and let it dry off carefully.
5.) When you put it back in the printer, try running the self-cleaning cycle again.

If your print head is still clogged, you can either buy a new cartridge or you can contact a service technician who can try to repair the damage.

SOLVING REPEATED PAPER JAMS

1. Check to see that paper is correctly loaded in the trays, and that all width guides are correctly set (not skewed).

2. Ensure that the paper tray is set for the size of paper installed and that the tray is not overloaded with paper.

3. Try turning over the stack of paper in the tray. If you are using letterhead paper, try printing from Tray 1.

4. Do not use previously printed paper or torn, worn, or irregular paper

5. Check the paper specifications. (If paper is outside of the recommended specifications, problems may occur.)

6. When duplexing, the printer rolls paper under Tray 3 and causes a jam. Pull Tray 3 out of the printer completely and remove any paper from under the tray. Insert Tray 3 back into the printer.

7. Printer may be dirty. Clean the inside of the printer with a dry, lint-free cloth.

8. Check that the correct paper size is installed.

9. Check that all damaged or jammed paper is removed by pulling it out of the printer.

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Printers Tips: Keep the Output Flowing From Your Laser Printer

A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.

Personal laser printers combine the economy and print quality of their more expensive enterprise counterparts with the price of an inkjet. Personal lasers lack an IT department to keep them running, however. Here's how to solve problems that may plague your laser printer.

The Windows Printing Troubleshooter wizard focuses on basic problems, but it's well worth trying. In Windows XP, choose Start, Help and Support, type list of troubleshooters in the Search box, and press Enter. Click list of troubleshooters in the left pane, select the Printing troubleshooter from the list on the right, and follow the steps. In Windows 2000, click Start, Help, and choose Troubleshooting and Maintenance on the Contents tab. Select Windows 2000 troubleshooters, click Print in the list of troubleshooter wizards in the right pane, and follow the steps. To open the wizard in Windows Me, click Start, Help, type troubleshooter in the Search box, and click Go. In Windows 98, select Start, Help, Contents, Troubleshooting, Windows 98 Troubleshooters, Print, and follow the wizard.

Check the basics: If your printer is plugged in but doesn't power up, look at the fuse or circuit breaker on the surge suppressor that your printer is plugged into. Reseat both ends of the USB or parallel cable that connects your printer to the PC. Many laser printers have an online/offline control on the front panel that may have been bumped inadvertently.

Print a test page: Most printers can run a self-test if you hold down one or more buttons on the control panel while the unit powers up. If the test page looks good, then the problem lies with your data cable, PC, or software. If the printout doesn't look right, see the chart below for a list of common problems and solutions.

Get the latest: Install the newest driver and firmware for your printer. Both should be available from the maker's Web site. To install a new driver in Windows XP, select Start, Printers and Faxes and choose Add a Printer under Printer Tasks on the Explorer bar in the 'Printers and Faxes' window. In Windows 2000, Me, and 98, remove the printer's driver and reinstall it: Select Start, Settings, Printers to open the Printers window. Right-click the printer, select Delete (choose Yes if you're asked to verify the removal), open the Printers window again if it closed, double-click Add Printer, and complete the reinstall.

Stop jam sessions: Always remove any jammed paper by pulling it in its normal direction of motion through the printer. If your printer chronically jams, unplug it, let it cool down, remove its toner cartridge, and examine the interior for any debris that may impede paper movement.

Check your connections: If your printer uses a USB connection, open Device Manager and look for a red X or an exclamation mark in a yellow circle next to any of the USB device listings: In Windows XP, 2000, and Me, click Start, right-click My Computer, and select Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. In Windows 98, right-click My Computer and choose Properties, Device Manager. These icons can signify a problem with your printer's link to your PC. If your printer stops working when your system comes out of hibernate or suspend mode, double-click each root hub listed under USB, select Power Management, and uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'. If you're using a USB hub, see whether connecting the printer directly to the USB port on the PC solves the problem.

How to Troubleshooting Laser Printers?

• Be sure all dip switches are properly set for your configuration. Laser configuration is sometimes done by a control panel of buttons with an LED display that permits you to alter configuration memory. Be sure that the application being used is properly configured for the printer as set up.

• Fuzzy laser output could mean you have a dirty corona wire or you are running out of toner. Horizontal lines or splotches indicate possible damaged or dirty print drums or rollers. Since some of these components are part of the cartridge, a useful quick fix is simply to change the cartridge.

• If laser images seem disproportionately long or short, the drive motor may not be moving the paper through at the correct speed.

• Failure of a laser printer to go on-line might be a communication interface problem. It could also indicate a faulty control panel. Try powering up the printer with the cable removed. If it now goes to "ONLINE" (or "READY"), suspect the cable or its connector.

• If you are printing totally black pages, suspect a broken or fouled corona wire. If that is not the case, replace the toner cartridge.

• If the print appears speckled, it is probably the fault of the primary corona grid which is part of the toner cartridge. Replace the toner cartridge.

• If white streaks appear in your printing, shake the toner cartridge to insure an equal distribution of powder. If that doesn't work, clean the transfer corona assembly. Contamination on the assembly will prevent it from holding the electrical charge needed to attract toner from the drum.

• A repetitive pattern of printing defects, such as an identical smudge every 2 inches may indicate a defective fusing roller. Try cleaning it according to your hardware vendor's instructions. If that does not work, you may need to replace the fusing roller assembly.

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Konica Minolta - Magicolor 1650EN

The Konica Minolta magicolor 1650EN is an inexpensive color laser printer that produces beautiful black text and vibrant color images, and offers reasonably priced (albeit low-capacity) ink cartridge replacements. One of the first network color laser printers to break the $400 mark, this is an affordable home-office printer.
With its compact, opaque plastic design, the 1650EN is one of the smallest color lasers we’ve reviewed. It’s also comparatively lighter than other leading color laser printers, but at 33 pounds it’s by no means portable.

Printing costs

On the surface, the 1650EN has economics on its side. It has the lowest price of any color laser printer we've encountered; as of press time, it bests its lowest priced competitors, the HP CP2025DN ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) and Lexmark C544DN ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), by about $150. And with that you get standard features such as USB 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet, and PostScript 3 emulation. It costs only $399 to replace the Konica 1650EN's toner cartridges (more than the price of the printer itself), while the cartridges for its closest competition, the HP CP2025DN, costs at least $486.

But lower prices can be misleading. The purchase prices of the 1650EN's black and color cartridges seem reasonable, because of their low capacities the printer carries a higher price per page than its competition. The black ink cartridge, for example, costs a mere $72, but it prints only 2,500 pages--less than half of competing printers' ink cartridge page yields. The $109 price tag for each cyan, magenta, and yellow toner cartridge is also comparatively cheap, but the 2,500-page count puts the price per page on the higher side--north of 15 cents per page. This means that the 1650EN is actually more expensive than its competitors to use if you have high-capacity printing needs. The Oki Data C6150dn ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), for example, has a higher initial price tag, but it costs only 10.5 cents to print a color page.

Print yields are analogous to paper capacity with the 1650EN. The 200-page paper tray is on the small side and its inability to perform duplexing as a standard feature makes the 1650EN a poor fit for businesses with high-capacity printing requirements. You can purchase a hardware add-on for $139 to give the 1650EN duplexing abilities, but users who need it will likely also need a higher-capacity printer.

Performance

Unfortunately, the 1650EN is exceptionally slow. The 1650EN finished our 10-page Word test 32 percent more slowly than the Oki Data C6150dn, our current top product in this category. For offices with heavy black text printing requirements, printing 10 pages in 52 seconds is painfully slow. A single page took 26 seconds to print, which is more than twice as slow as the Oki Data C6150dn.

Color printing for the 1650EN was equally sluggish. While the top laser printers on the market took 30 to 60 seconds to print our 22MB Photoshop image, the 1650EN took a nonchalant 3 minutes and 50 seconds to print this same picture. The 1650EN finished the 4-page PDF test in 2 minutes and 30 seconds--a full two minutes behind the Oki C6150dn.

Despite its slothful speed, the printer does turn out high-quality documents. In our jury tests, the black text was judged to be of Superior quality, while our Photoshop image quality and Fine Lines and Gradients tests earned Very Good scores from our judges - though only after running an, as yet unreleased, firmware update we received from the company that fixed an error where certain graphic elements failed to print. Konica Minolta representatives say that the firmware update is undergoing final testing and will be available from their support Web site soon. In the meantime, owners of the 1650EN calling Konica Minolta's tech support with this issue will be offered the pre-release update.

Macworld's buying advice

The compact Konica Minolta magicolor 1650EN can be ideal for low-capacity printing in a home or small business setting. Though replacing the consumables is cheap, you'll do it often and will have to absorb a higher price per page. Businesses with high-capacity printing needs should be wary of this product, but home users who may never burn through thousands of pages may find the 1650EN more appealing. In a home setting, the 1650EN's comparatively slow printing speeds will be outweighed by the printer's strong color and black text printing quality. The market has been slow to produce a color laser printer economical enough for a home setting, and the 1650EN may just satisfy that niche.

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HP Officejet Pro 8500 Multi-Function Printer

Hewlett Packard has been in the thick of action over the past one month. News has been flowing in from the HP camp regarding the new tools, fresh tie-ups, and a huge of array of printers that have been introduced, most of them at the PMA at Las Vegas in the US. One of the latest additions into the HP family is the office printer, Officejet Pro 8500 and its subsidiaries. It's a multi-function printer that can scan, copy and fax along with basic document and graphical colour printing.

Printing technology is based on Scalable Printing technology and it outputs monochrome prints at 1200 X 1200 dpi and colour prints at 4800 X 1200 dpi. The printer comes with a 384MHz processor and 128 MB onboard memory.

Printing speed for monochrome and colour at normal mode is claimed at 19 pages per minute, and we know that the rates claimed are never close to actuals. However, first page out takes around 15 seconds, which is unusual for a non-laser printer. Recommended monthly printing volume at the max is stated as 1250 pages which lies in the unrealistic realm.

By default, the printer comes with a USB 2.0 port to hook onto standalone systems and an Ethernet port for network printing. PictBridge port is also available on it. Enhanced versions of this printer offer Wi-Fi support.

The basic version of HP Officejet Pro 8500 is priced at £150 while the Wi-Fi enabled model, HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One carries a price tag of £200. The price is not an issue on this printer but its workability over a period of time is. A maximum of 1250 pages per month will not suffice any average office and this point will definitely lead to its unpopularity; unless they rectify it quickly.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert=Tomas_Walker

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