Mobile Computing: Portable Printing

NOTEBOOKS & ACCESSORIES

News: Canon's Portable Bubble Jet

Canon has added another portable printer to its lineup: the Canon I70 Color Bubble Jet Printer ($300). The I70, which replaces Canon's BJC-85, promises up to 4800 by 1200 dots per inch; print speeds up to 13 pages per minute in black and 9 ppm in color; and direct printing from some Canon digital cameras and digital video camcorders. The printer measures 12 inches wide by 8 inches deep by 2 inches high and weighs 4.5. An optional battery is available for $100.

For more information, go to Canon's Web site. For more on portable printers, see this week's feature.

Review: Portable Projectors

Gary Zeune, CEO of a company called The Pros & The Cons, e-mailed recently to ask if I knew of a good portable projector. Zeune teaches more than 100 classes per year, traveling with an IBM ThinkPad T22 from which to show his PowerPoint presentations. Ordinarily, he relies on his clients to supply the projector, but one out of ten times, the projector malfunctions--hence Zeune's interest in a portable projector.

In a recent PCWorld.com test of 16 portable projectors, the NEC LT240 ($3025) came out on top. The LT240 displays sharp text, good-looking color graphics, and smooth moving images from computer and video sources. The projector offers plenty of input options (at an additional cost), including a PC Card slot that can be used with an 802.11b wireless network adapter. The downside is that the NEC LT240 weighs 6.5 pounds, compared to the 3.6 pounds of our second choice, the Dell 3200MP.

News: Tablet PCs Selling Well

Some 72,000 Tablet PCs were sold from the time they began appearing in November through the end of December 2002--a "pretty significant" adoption rate, IDC says. HP and Acer sold the most units, tied at 17,000 units each, followed by Fujitsu (about 15,000 units) and Toshiba (about 10,500). Early adopters include health care workers, traveling salespeople, and warehouse managers. For more information, read "Tablet PCs Prove Popular."