Amazon has the PIXMA MP530 on sale for $166 with no mail-in rebate and free shipping. We have featured deals on this printer before, and this is about as low as the price has gone so far. It’s not a huge savings, but since it’s Amazon you save on shipping and you might be able to add in some other items.

The PIXMA MP530 is an all-in-one printer that came out over the summer. It is part of Canon’s ever-increasing line of good multifunction machines, and at around $160 it is one of their cheapest. Canon rates at 29 ppm in black and 19 ppm in color. It has a 30-sheet automatic document feeder and a 150-page fax memory. The scanning resolution is 2400 x 1200 and it can print a 4 x 6 in about 51 seconds. This is basically Canon’s answer to all those cheap all-in-ones that the other printer manufacturers offer. That is not to say that it is of poor quality or the features aren’t that great, it’s just that it’s more geared towards someone who does the occasional fax or scan and not someone who would be using those features nonstop for business purposes.

You can find Canon PIXMA MP530 ink cartridges on our site.

The holiday season is fast approaching, and by the time our next newsletter comes out, it might be too late for Christmas shopping, so we’ve come up with a couple of recommendations for people looking at buying a new printer. Yes, we do realize it is a little early for all this and this is sort of like how stores put out Christmas candy the day after St. Patrick’s Day, but hopefully you’ll forgive us.

These recommendations are based on our knowledge combined with ratings from CNET and PC Mag, along with price, overall popularity and customer feedback at places like Amazon and CompUSA. Some of these printers may be a little older or only available to order online, but you can still get them. We’ve picked our recommendation for best inkjet printer, best photo printer and best multifunction printer and here they are:

Best Inkjet Printer

Picking the best inkjet printer these days is kind of hard because very few printers are classified as just inkjets. Every inkjet printer these days is called a photo printer, so we are going to limit our choice to a true inkjet printer. Based on that, we recommend the HP Deskjet 6980.

The Deskjet 6980 is not the cheapest Deskjet model you will find (it’s usually about $150), but that’s a good thing because a lot of the sub-$100 HP offers these days aren’t very good. This model, which came out about a year ago, is rated at a blistering 36 pages per minute for black prints and 27 for color. It has all the usual connectivity options and it has the ability to produce double-sided prints. It probably won’t blow you away with its photo quality, but the Deskjet 6980 is a bit of a throwback model, similar to the Deskjets HP used to produce before they flooded the market with a bunch of crappy $30 models.

The one downside to this printer would be the ink costs, since the cartridges that work with this printer are very small. You can save on ink costs by swapping out the cartridges based on the type of printing you do, but it is still something to be aware of.

Amazon Inkjet Sales Rank - 13th
Amazon Customer Reviews - 4/5 (based on 15 reviews)
PC Mag Review - 4/5 (Editors’ Choice)

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Best Photo Printer

As we just mentioned, these days the term “photo printer’ is applied to basically any inkjet that can print photos. Since technically all inkjets can print photos in one way or another, printer manufacturers use the term very frequently. Also, compact photo printers have become more common these days, so there are just tons of photo printers on the market. But, in our opinion, there are only a few true photo printers, and out of those we recommend the Canon PIXMA iP4200.

We definitely had to take price into consideration on this one because there are a lot of good photo printers out there, but a lot of them are above $300. For most people, that price is just not very practical, so that’s why we went with the $130 PIXMA iP4200. This printer, which came out in the Summer of 2005, is pretty fast at 29 ppm for black, and it has a very good print resolution at 9600 x 2400 dpi. It can do double-sided printing and it comes with a second paper tray to increase your paper options. The print quality is good, and since it’s a Canon, the ink costs will be relatively low.

The only downside to this printer is that it is not the highest quality or fastest photo printer on the market. But for what you pay, it’s one of the best, and its performance will be very suitable for most home users.

Amazon Inkjet Sales Rank - 15th
Amazon Customer Reviews - 4/5 (based on 82 reviews)
PC Mag Review - 4/5 (Editors’ Choice)
CNET Review - 7.5 (very good)

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Best Multifunction Printer

Like with photo printers, there are a ton of multifunction choices on the market today. The number has exploded over recent years as more people have started working out of their homes, but unfortunately the increase in multifunctions has flooded the market with some truly bad machines. Most of the entry level multifunctions on the market, especially those from Lexmark, just are not very good and people need to stay away from those. One model you don’t need to stay away from is our recommendation, the Canon PIXMA MP830.

Canon made this choice pretty easy because they currently dominate the multifunction market and because you can always count on the quality of their machines. So after looking through their current offerings, we chose the PIXMA MP830 based on the reviews given to it and the interest in it from our customers. This $250 printer is relatively new, having come out about six months ago, and in that time a lot of people have come to our site specifically looking for info on this printer or cartridges for it. It is rated at 30 ppm black and 24 color, which is a good speed for an all-in-one and it has a lot of features for a printer in its price range. Those features, including an automatic document feeder, are not usually found on a printer in this price range. When they tested it, PC Mag said that overall, the MP830 was the fastest multifunction they had tested by a pretty big margin.

If there is any downside to this printer, it is the price. It is a little higher than other manufacturers may charge for their multifunctions, but it is worth the price. This machine is ideal for a single user in a home office or small business.

Amazon Inkjet Sales Rank - #2
Amazon Customer Reviews - 4/5 (based on 78 reviews)
PC Mag Review - 4.5/5 (Editors’ Choice)
CNET Review - 7.2 (very good)

**As with any products, there are going to be some differing opinions. There is sure to be someone out there who had a bad experience with one of these printers and will curse us for days upon end for recommending it. All we can say is that we took a lot of things into consideration when choosing these printers and we based our information on our own experiences, those of our customers, and those of other customers out there. So, use this information, along with all the reviews and feedback we’ve linked to and you should be able to come up with the best printer for your needs.

All ink cartridges have expiration dates, but we sometimes get the question of how long can ink cartridges really last.  Well, the official expiration dates you see printed on OEM inkjet cartridges you buy in the store are both true and slightly misleading.  Cartridges definitely will expire - eventually the ink will get too dried out and the nozzles will become permanently blocked.  But they aren’t necessarily going to become usless right after they expire.

If you put a newly-expired cartridge in your printer, it will probably give you streaky or light prints because the nozzles are slightly blocked.  For cartridges like this, you might be able to just run the cleaning utilities a bunch of times and eventually get the cartridges working like normal.  For cartridges that are well past the expiration date, you will have to soak them to try to get them to work.   Soaking the bottom portion of cartridges can be very effective in unclogging the nozzles, so there is a decent chance that you can save a cartridge that is expired.  If you have a really old cartridge that you soaked, installed and cleaned and it still isn’t working correctly, then there probably isn’t much you can do.  Eventually unused cartridges will become so dry that no troubleshooting technique will work.

Last week we reported on CNET’s review of the Epson PictureMate Pal and now it’s time for the PictureMate Snap, the next level up in the series.

The PictureMate Snap has the same basic design as the Pal, with a few minor differences. The main difference is the LCD, which is bigger than the Pal’s and also adjustable. It’s definitely nice to not have the LCD isn’t stuck in the control panel like on the Pal. Other than that, it’s got the same handle design that the Pal has and it also the same connectivity options, plus the ability to connect external storage devices.

As far as the actual photo features go, it has a few more options than the Pal in terms of photo size and enhancement. You can print in new layouts like passport size and you can do all sorts of crazy photo editing like adjusting saturation and adding frames. But very few people will likely notice those new options, since for a lot of people it’s enough work just to hook up everything correctly and print the photos out (I’m not saying people don’t know technology, just that these compact printers can be pretty complex and few people are interested in taking in the extra step of editing their photos to perfection). The print speed has been increased from 1 page per minute to 1.24 ppm.

The PictureMate Snap will retail for $200, which is $50 more than the Pal. For that $50, you get a better LCD, better print speed and better photo editing capabilities, while the overall print quality remains the same. The choice is yours, America. If anyone out there owns this printer and wants to help everyone make up their minds, leave us a comment and let us know.

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HP has teamed up with the WWF (the World Wildlife Fund, not the WWF that most of us used to know) to cut its greenhouse emissions by 15% over the next four years. In addition to that, HP will work with the WWF to improve the efficiency of their products and they will also “fund a project to study the effects of climate change on the wildlife and habitats of North America’s Bering Sea.” Seems a little random, but oh well. It will hopefully do some good.

Since we never really have too many nice things to say about HP, I must add that this news should be taken with a grain of salt. This announcement comes during a time when HP is being investigated by state and environmental agencies under the Superfund Act. Of course, this is just a coincidence and the WWF announcement has nothing to do with them being investigated.

HP promises to cut back on greenhouse gases [CNET]

Heading into the holiday season, here is a look at the top 10 selling printers on Amazon:

1. HP OfficeJet 5610
2. Canon PIXMA iP6000D
3. Canon PIXMA iP4300
4. Canon PIXMA iP6700D
5. Canon PIXMA iP90
6. Canon PIXMA iP6600D
7. Epson Stylus Photo R1800
8. Canon I-9900
9. Epson PictureMate Deluxe
10. Epson Stylus R220

There are a few repeats on this list from back in July, like the OfficeJet 5610, which was the #2 bestselling printer back then. A few of the Canons were also on the list, but there weren’t as many. Six out of the top 10 selling printers on Amazon are Canon printers, which should definitely tell you something. Some of the Deskjets have fallen out of favor in the past few months, and that may be due to quality issues. All the Canon inkjets in the top 10 have a customer feedback rating of 4/5 stars or better. The PIXMA iP90 has consistently been a top seller, even though it has been on the market almost two years now. The PIXMA iP6000D has also been very popular lately.

Now granted, these rankings don’t fully reflect the popularity, since more people probably buy their printers in office stores than they do on Amazon. But it’s pretty safe to say that a lot of people do shop on Amazon, and those that do are usually pretty tech-savvy and they’ve usually done some research to see what the best printer is. If you’re in the market for a new inkjet printer for the holidays for you or for someone else, we’d recommend taking a look at some of these Canon printers on the list to see if they meet your requirements.

Interesting graph from over at Gizmodo about the cost of HP ink:

We’ve heard before about how ink costs more than Dom Perignon and all that, but the fact that it costs more than blood sounds way more sinister. Also, this graph is handy for the common question of “what’s the relative price difference between HP ink and Red Bull?”

HP Ink Costs More Than Human Blood, Booze [Gizmodo]

Office Depot has the Deskjet 5440 on sale for $30. This is a regular sale so there is no mail-in rebates. They have had it as this price for a couple of days, so they might be running out. Currently their stock indicates “low availability.” If you just order the 5440, you will have to pay shipping because you need to get up to $50 for free shipping. You can put in your zip code to see if they have this printer at your local store, but it’s likely that you’ll have to order it online to get the deal.

The Deskjet 5440 is a “photo printer”, but it is no more of a photo printer than any other standard inkjet. You should not go in thinking that this printer will give you good photos, because it won’t. If you use the right photo paper, the quality probably won’t be all that different from mid-level HP photo printers, but the speed will definitely be a lot slower.

HP rates the Deskjet 5440 at 22 ppm for black and 21 for color, so it’s a pretty fast printer. It’s got a resolution of 4800 x 1200 and it can supposedly print a 4 x 6 pictures in 27 seconds. Supposedly you can use this printer to print up to 8.5 x 24″ prints, which rather unique for a standard deskjet.

This is the second time in a month that Office Depot has had this extremely low price, so it’s safe to say that they are trying to get rid of their inventory and this printer is being phased out. So, you’d better hop on this bargain now or suffer the grave consequences. Oh ya….if you need HP Deskjet 5440 ink cartridges, you can go to our site, or if you own this printer already you can leave a comment.

Since we follow environmental news here, I thought I would share an interesting recent story about how our expanding waistlines are affecting our economy and the environment.  There have been tons of stories over the past few years about how Americans are getting fatter and how like 90% of us are considered overweight by government standards.  A bunch of numbers are always being thrown out like treatment for the explosion of diabetes will cost $5 billion a year or our total health care bill will rise by $78 billion or whatever.  But something I never saw before was how our increasing weight causes us to use more gasoline - roughly $2.8 billion a year more.

According to a study done by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University, Americans are using 938 million more gallons of gasoline per year than they did in 1960.  Their numbers are based on the fact that since 1960, our average weight has increased by 24 pounds.  The $2.8 billion amount is based on $3/gallon gas, but any way you slice it the dollar amount is going to be pretty huge.  There are other factors to take into account, like more people owning cars and extreme commuting, but then there are also other things like us being fatter makes us drive more because we have to go to the doctor more often or we’re just too fat to walk anywhere.

Weight Gain Of U.S. Drivers Has Increased Nation’s Fuel Consumption [Science Daily]

CNET has review the PictureMate Pal, Epson’s newest low-cost compact photo printer. It is the least expensive model out of Epson’s Picturemate line, which also includes the Snap and Flash models. The PictureMate Pal has a pretty unique design, so it’s probably best to start out with a photo of it to get a good idea of what we’re working with here:

It looks sort of like a mini icebox with a handle, and then the top flips up to reveal the controls and 2″ LCD. The LCD is embedded into the body of the printer, but it flips up for easier viewing. You can also feed paper through the top of the PictureMate, and then all the pictures come out on the bottom. It is a pretty unique design, but is anyone honest going to be taking this printer with them outside of their house? Like someone is going to take it to a wedding and set up shop there?

As far as features go, there isn’t a whole lot that stands out about this machine. Then again, it’s not really designed to wow anyone with its features. CNET prints a 4 x 6 picture in about 60 seconds, which is what Epson advertises. Imagine, a real life print speed that actually matches what is advertised on the box. Incredible. You can also print out index sheets with thumbnail previews of up to 20 images so you can easily pick which pictures from your memory card that you want to print. It has all the usual features where you can edit and fix up your prints on the LCD, but CNET was unimpressed with the amount of enhancing you can do. I think that most people don’t do any enhancing at all so they really aren’t going to notice something like this.

The PictureMate Pal comes with all the usual memory card connectivity options, as well as the ability to connect via Bluetooth…as long as you buy a Bluetooth adapter. Pretty soon one of the printer manufacturers is going to get burned by advertising that all their new printers have Bluetooth capability. Ya, they have Bluetooth capability as long as you buy a separate adapter.

One of the downsides to this printer might be the way that you have to buy the ink. Like with a number of these snapshot printers these days, you buy the ink and paper together in a cassette. So it doesn’t use a standard Epson inkjet cartridge that you can buy anywhere. The supposed benefit of this is that the paper and the ink are supposed to run out at the same time, so you don’t have to worry about running out of ink during a job or having to constantly reload paper a few sheets at a time. But it also means that you are limited by when they say the cartridge is empty. Maybe you printed a bunch of 4 x 6 photos that were just tiny little dots and you still have half an ink cartridge left when the paper is gone - what are you supposed to do? You are supposed to suck it up and give your money away to Epson, that’s what.

CNET gave the PictureMate Pal a rating of 6.5, which translates to “good” for them. They seemed to like it, but at $150 they said they preferred the Canon Selphy DS810 a little more (which only got a 6.7, but is apparently way better than the PictureMate). Right now there is no user feedback on CNET and only one review on Amazon, so if anyone owns this printer, let us know what you think of it.

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