Eric Grevstad

When we reviewed the HP LaserJet 1012 and Lexmark E220 a couple of months ago, we remarked that the price of an entry-level or personal laser printer — from those vendors, Samsung, Brother, or whoever — seems to have been stuck at $199 for a while. Cut to scene of Konica Minolta exec cracking a […]

It’s been years since we’ve gone ooh and ahh over an LCD monitor. Flat panels are mainstream, even routine nowadays; having an LCD instead of CRT on your desk is no longer a swank status symbol. What’s more, retail prices in the $630 to $650 range are downright steep for a 17-inch LCD monitor today. […]

Hey, here’s an idea: A computer that’s portable, with a fold-down screen and built-in battery pack. No, it wouldn’t be a desktop replacement, with a jumbo 16- or 17-inch display and sizzling desktop processor; it’d be relatively small and light, not a chore to carry in your briefcase, but not too small for a usable […]

Price-checking before posting a review is a routine chore at the Labs, Weather, & Sports Desk, but the PowerSpec 9420 gave us a pleasant surprise: The PowerSpec site lists the vendor’s top-of-the-line desktop for $2,000 without monitor, but when we clicked the “Buy Now” button, a browser window opened for parent company Micro Electronics Inc.’s […]

Let’s face it: Connecting your computer to the Internet is like sending your kids out to play in the traffic. With snoops, hackers, virus writers, script kiddies, worms, Trojan horses — and oh, yeah, spam, spam, spam, spam, junk e-mail, Viagra, and spam — swarming around every detectable modem, cable, or DSL connection, it’s reckless […]

We’ve said many times that the most home and small-office users don’t need all the frills and features of Microsoft Office, and we’re glad to point out low-priced alternatives to the ruling suite. But life’s too short to use mediocre software, and even the bargain price of $50 isn’t irresistible now that the superb, cross-platform, […]

You normally think of affordable portable vendor WinBook as competing with Gateway and Dell, but somebody at the Ohio company seems fixated on Apple’s wide-screen PowerBook G4. The new WinBook W160 has the same display size (15.2 inches diagonally) and resolution (1,280 by 854) as the middle version of the laptop Mac, with the same […]

A year ago, Microsoft and its hardware partners unveiled the first generation of pen-input portables using Windows XP Tablet PC Edition; when we reviewed the 866MHz Pentium III-M model built by Motion Computing for Gateway, we called it the best of the slate- or clipboard-style Tablet PCs but bemoaned its steep ($2,800) price. Today, though […]

Once again, it’s time for our annual review of the software titles that have made the biggest impression on us over the past 12 months. Without a doubt, the Windows platform remains the unquestionable choice for PC users seeking the largest software selection and smoothest interoperability. But to be honest, this year, appreciation of worthy […]

If you send only a few letters a day, you can print your company letterhead and logo along with the letters, using a color inkjet. But if your business is big enough to go to Kinko’s for stationery, or if you’re printing a 50-page proposal or 400-page Gothic novel, or if your budget balks at […]

Was it good for you? The year, that is: After hobbling through a pretty dismal ’01 and ’02, the tech industry happily showed signs of life in 2003 — even though “life,” as usual, often meant “vaporware.” Yes, it’s a bit early in December for an end-of-year article, but it’s not like Intel’s “Prescott” and […]