Inkjet printers have long been used to print out all sorts of unusual goods, and while we've heard of scientists utilizing said technology to print stem cells, engineers are now exploring ways "to print 3D structures of cells." According to Paul Calvert, a materials scientist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, printing out these cells in three dimensions "is like going from a black-and-white to a full-color [TV]," and he also states that moving the process forward could help "unravel the mysteries of cell-to-cell communication and, perhaps in the distant future, manufacture human organs from scratch." Notably, it was even suggested that the technique could potentially be used to "print out miniature organs for medical tests such as drug toxicity," and in an ideal world, to crank out "implantable human organs on demand."

Granted, we've never had too much luck with those knockoff ink cartridges ourselves, but that doesn't mean that printer (and therefore, ink) manufacturers aren't looking to halt sales of the profit stripping units in any way possible. Aiding them in their quest is Cryptography Research Inc., which is currently developing "chip technology aimed at helping printer manufacturers protect this primary source of profit." Essentially, the CryptoFirewall chips would make it harder for printers to utilize counterfeit or "off-brand" substitutes, which leaves consumers stuck sans a choice and left to pony up whatever they must in order to get that essay turned in the next morning. The company claims that its technology will be ready to cripple new printers sometime next year, but hey, the hackers in the crowd are just salivating for yet another challenge.

[Via Slashdot]

HP is starting to see the first fruits of its $1.4 billion investment in next-gen print technologies with the debut of its new Edgeline enterprise-class color printers. The new printers squirt special fast-drying inks out of dual stationary print heads that run the entire width of the page, a system that offers the color quality of traditional inkjets at laser-like speeds. But as with all good things, there's a catch -- the printers aren't being offered for sale. The Edgeline system is apparently so ink-efficient that HP can't sell the units at competitive prices and make up the difference on consumables sales like it does with its inkjet and laser products. Instead, HP will rent the printers to high-volume customers, with a typical contract running for four years at 20,000 pages per month. That's it for hard details, though: HP hasn't disclosed how much the printer rentals will actually cost, only that average customers will see a 30% drop in printing costs by deploying the new machines. (We've seen estimates of about $25K.) That estimate probably doesn't account for discount third-party ink, however, a cottage industry for which HP has never had much love. We'll see how this lame rental model affects HP's ink business -- it's still certainly better than having the cartridges programmed to expire.

[Via ArsTechnica]

We were pretty stoked to hear Kodak was planning on running full tilt at the current status quo of "loss leader" printer tactics, that has unwitting consumers picking up inkjet printers for a dime, and spending a fortune on printing supplies. Unfortunately, it looks like Kodak hasn't come upon any magical printing techniques to pull this off yet, since its new printers didn't do so good up against the likes of Epson, HP and Canon. Kodak is marketing its printers as capable of producing 10 cent prints, which would indeed be a great deal. Tests show that an $18 pack of paper and ink results in about 165 borderless prints, about 11.5 cents per print. Unfortunately, the prints were basically "draft" quality, maybe fine for certain budget-minded consumers, but hardly comparable to "lab quality" photos. To boost the quality you'll need pricier Kodak paper, which ends up at about 35 cents per print, and renders the whole exercise pointless. The testers recommend the $150 Epson Stylus Photo RX580, for super good prints and great speed. Might want to leave that $200 Kodak EasyShare 5300 on the shelf for the time being.

Although we've already seen that truly fade-free inkjet prints just aren't really attainable with modern technology, a thorough (albeit unscientific) review of some six photo printers and seven types of photo paper literally showcased how close we can come. The test consisted of hanging the prints on a window facing the sun for 11 solid months, whilst the control photographs stayed under wraps to use for comparison. In what was easily the worst performer of the bunch, Samsung's SSP-2040 (pictured above) was nothing short of dreadful, while Kodak's EasyShare PP-500 and Canon's Selphy DS810 delivered only marginally better results. Epson's Picture Mate 100 did a fair job of wowing the critics after looking at the previous attempts, but the real winners came when HP's PhotoSmart 385 and PhotoSmart Express kiosk stepped up to the plate. Of course, results were judged with mere eyes, but the folks at PixInfo couldn't tell a difference between the original and the sun-blasted copy on either of these machines, and while it does sound a bit too good to be true, make sure you click on through for the stunning proof. Still, it's doubtful that any of these devices can produce shots that last for decades on end without any hint of fading or discoloration, but if you're looking for the best money can buy this day in age, be sure and hit the read link for the full skinny.

No, Sony naturally wasn't content to merely deluge us with cameras, TVs and every other home entertainment device under they sun today, they had to push it one step further with some new PictureStation printers and a bunch of voice recorders. The new DPP-FP70 and DPP-FP90 might not spin a Blu-ray disc, but at least they're no slouches in the display department, with the FP90 sporting a 3.6-inch LCD, and the FP70 not far behind at 2.5-inches. You can administer all manner of digital effects on your photos using the LCD, or just go right ahead and print the photo -- it'll take about 45 seconds for a 4 x 6 print when working with a Memory Stick. Of course, SD and CF work too. Photos will about 29 cents per print with both printers, and the FP90 and FP70 will be out in March for $200 and $150, respectively. As for voice recorders, there's nothing much to get excited about. Sony has six new models, all with up to 256MB of flash memory and various unlikely claims about voice quality. The flagship ICD-SX57 goes for $200 and includes a backlit display, along with a triple microphone array for optimal recording. The ICD-SX57DR9 version comes with Dragon NaturallySpeaking bundled. The ICD-P520 and ICD-P30F tone down the excitement, and keep it cheap at $70 and $80, respectively, while the $50 ICD-B500 and $60 ICD-B510F run on AAA batteries, and are designed for "PC-free" use.

Read - PictureStations
Read - Voice recorders

We're sorry, but what's the good in corporate espionage if there aren't any high speed car chases, or innocent bystanders getting killed in the crossfire? Not much good, that's what. That's why we're a bit let down by this whole HP / Dell situation -- spying on Dell in hopes to unveil printer business secrets just doesn't quite have a blockbuster ring to it. All the same, there's plenty of drama in this situation to be getting on with. See, Karl Kamb got sacked by HP for purportedly founding a competing business while on the job -- Byd:sign, a flat-panel TV outfit -- and syphoning off HP resources and R&D to do it. He's being sued by HP for $100 million, and has now countersued HP, claiming that they hired him in 2002 to spy on Dell, a former employer of his, and of course asserting that all that "siphoning funds" stuff was off the mark. Just to make it all the more dramatic ('cause helping out HP anticipate a Dell launch into the printer business still isn't cutting it for us), Kamb is also asserting that HP obtained his private phone records via pretexting, a little practice that HP got into a heap big amount of trouble for last year. No telling at this point who's telling the truth: on the one hand, HP doesn't really have the best track record with pretexting and such, but at the same time it seems quite the convenient out for Kamb, to mark up HP's wrongdoings towards him as another case of pretexting. There's plenty more drama under the surface here, so we recommend hitting up the read link for more info -- before we start talking sequels.

[Via Slashdot]

If you're like us, the few times a year that you do have to print things out often involve stressful moments -- like when you're running late for your flight and the 30 seconds that it takes to print out your boarding pass feel like a lifetime. We're here to tell you that new printer technology is on the way that may make those harrowing 30 seconds as obsolete as that ImageWriter II that you had back in 1987, if a new technology makes it out of the lab and onto store shelves. Two Israeli researchers at The College of Judea and Samaria have come up with a new type of inkjet printer dubbed the JeTrix, which they hope will be to the inkjet printer what the ink-jet was to dot-matrix devices. Moshe Einat, one of the engineers involved, described his invention as being "like an 'ink-emitting screen,'" in the sense that ink would flow point by point -- and all at once -- instead of waiting for the cartridge to fully scan line by line -- theoretically reaching a speed of 1,000 pages in a single minute. Einat says that the printer should begin commercial production within two years, but don't expect them to come as freebies with your PC purchase anytime soon.