The printer is an all-in-one system which allows you to copy, scan, and print – including ultra hi-def photo printing which is what you want if you’ve taken photos of special places on your trips. The Artisan 700 can print photos as quickly as ten seconds each, which is impressive to say the least – certainly better than the old days when you had to drop your film off and come back two days later for the prints!

There are plenty of bonus features on the Artisan 700 which make it a great printer. If you print directly from your camera card, you can use the large LCD to preview the photos and even do auto-correction basics directly at the printer, giving you the best possible images. And if you’d like to back up your photos to a CD, it allows for professional quality CD and DVD printing, so you can personalize the label.

I think my biggest pet peeve with electronics is all the wires tangling everywhere, so one of my favorite things about the Artisan 700 is the fact that it comes with built-in Wi-Fi. There’s one lone wire to plug it in for power, but that’s it – no annoying cables running from your computer to the printer.

While testing the printer out, I scanned some photos and was able to retouch them, fixing tiny tears and faded areas, and I printed out several new photos, all of which were very professional looking. I also printed some documents (handy if you need to print out an itinerary for everyone in your travel group!) and used the very eco-friendly two-sided printing to cut down on paper use.

It also came with software that allows you to play around with your photos before printing, allowing you to try out special effects to make them stand out. If you’re not familiar with Photoshop or don’t own it, you’ll be thrilled to know that you can still edit and personalize your photos this way.

Overall, I can only give this printer positive reviews. It’s extremely easy to set up and to get it connected to your network via Wi-Fi. It’s also simple to use and very fast. My husband printed several things from his office down the hall and by the time he made the short walk out to the living room where I work and keep the printer, his documents and photos were already waiting for him. As a nice bonus, this is not your ugly, awkward, and clunky printer of years ago – this printer is sleek and attractive and I don’t mind having it set up in my living room where visitors will see it. When we had a group of friends over for a party this past weekend I made sure to show them the Artisan 700 and when one mentioned needing to buy a new printer I immediately recommended this one.

For a suggested retail price of $199, you really can’t go wrong by choosing the Epson Artisan 700. If you’re in the market for a printer so that you can enjoy beautiful prints of your vacation photos as well as the general handiness of a good printer, I definitely recommend that you go check this one out at your local computer/electronics store. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Image: Epson

Post from: Geeky Traveller

The problem is that a lot of airports charge a fairly crazy amount for internet access. That’s when this website comes in really handy because it will give you a listing of all the known airports that have free WiFi hotspots for you to use. They regularly update the site to include new listings (or, alas, remove those that are no longer valid), and you can submit new spots that you come across.

The listing is international, which will help you if you’re flying overseas. I’m disappointed that my own airport doesn’t seem to have free WiFi, but if I get to the airport early next year when I fly out to Halifax for a wedding, I know that I can hop online between gates 20-15 and poke around my favorite blogs.

Have you used free WiFi at an airport? Check if it’s listed, and if not, let them know!

(photo: sxc.hu)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

I saw an interesting post over at The Gadget Blog that brings about a question. They mentioned a different concept for getting Wi-Fi while you’re out and about. It’s the Handlink Wi-Fi Kiosk and like those rides that your kids beg you to pay for in the mall, it’s coin-operated, running off your spare change.

There are more and more free hotspots popping up but there are also a lot of times when all the networks around you are secure. If you’re out of town and just want to send a quick e-mail back to the office to let your boss know how the client meeting went, you’re not going to want to pay a fortune to go into a coffee shop (have you seen the price of coffee and pastries? It’s almost as high as gas) just for the luxury of using their “free” Wi-Fi.

These kiosks work by allowing you to deposit some change, and in return you receive an access code ticket. Depending on how much you’ve paid, you’ll have X amount of time to get on the network and do what you need to do. Just like a parking meter on the street, the time will run down and if you wish to stay longer, you’ll be required to add more coins.

What do you think? It sounds like an interesting idea and as The Gadget Blog pointed out, it’s nice that it’s accessible to people who don’t have (or don’t wish to use) a credit card. But do you think it will attract enough attention to bother or will these kiosks fizzle before they get started? I think it could be very hander for travelers who don’t need to purchase large blocks of Internet time, but I’m not sure if they’ll catch on.

Would you use a coin operated Wi-Fi kiosk?

Image: Morguefile

Post from: Geeky Traveller

If you’re busy enjoying your vacation you’re not going to want to lug a laptop with you to dump out your camera photos so you can post them online. After all, who has time to get online when there is laying on the beach to do?

If sharing vacation photos quickly and easily is a priority for you though, you can check out the new Eye-Fi Explore. It’s not the first camera card to utilize Wi-Fi, but previous versions have restricted you to using a single selected wireless network. With the Eye-Fi Explore you can make use of any of the more than 10,000 hotspots across the U.S. It makes dumping photos and uploading them to your site of choice ridiculously simple.

What particularly fascinates me is that the card also has geo-tagging capabilities. It will automatically add geographic location labels to each photo – you’ll always know where a photo was taken. If it’s the Eiffel tower, one would hope you could remember where you were when you pressed the shutter, but if it’s a sunset over a beach, it will be nice to check and see that yes, this was the secluded beach you found in Cuba and not the main public one in front of your hotel.

The 2GB card is only $123 which is really reasonable considering how many photos you can fit on there as well as all the extra capabilities.

Just think how jealous your mom will be back home in a snow storm if you send her pictures of yourself drinking cocktails on the beach in the Dominican Republic!

(source // photo)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Image details: Work From Anywhere served by picapp.com

What about another kind of networking though? Conducting business has changed over the years and no one wants to lug a briefcase full of memos and papers to dinner. With everyone owning Blackberry devices or other similar PDAs or even laptops, what people want to know now is: Where can I get Wi-Fi access?

If you want to discuss the latest business trends or check out a report over Chardonnay and pasta, you need wireless. This website offers a listing of over 2600 Wi-Fi hotspots in various restaurants all over the U.S. If you’re traveling in the near future, check your destination city to find out which restaurants you should suggest to your boss for lunch and get in some business while you wait for your salad.

Technorati Tags: business travel, wireless, wi-fi, wireless restaurant

Post from: Geeky Traveller

The StarTech Wi-Fi Detective is a handy little gadget that will quickly locate all wireless hotspots in your immediate area, and it will tell you all the information you need to know, such as whether it’s locked (and thus off limits to you) or if it’s open and free for use by anyone, as well as the strength of the signal.

I recently got to try out a complimentary Wi-Fi Detective and it’s so easy and convenient to use that it’s perfect for any traveler. You simply plug it into your USB port to charge it. When it’s charged up, you can then just carry it with your in your laptop bag or even your pocket. Whenever you need to know what the wireless situation is, turn it on and give it a few seconds to locate all the hotspots within an acceptable range. It quickly lists the name of each hotspot, and tells you its status so you can connect to the ones that are open.

I used it in my own area (I was pleased to see how far away I could go outside and still access my own network, good to know!), and randomly pulled it out when we were driving around or visiting other people. I now know of at least five free and open wireless networks in the downtown Montreal area if I ever need to use them.

It’s very frustrating to sit and try to work with a weak signal, so being able to use a device to tell you the strength of the Wi-Fi signal is very useful.

It’s a great little gadget, convenient to carry around with you anywhere you go, and highly useful especially with its quick location speed. I definitely recommend it to anyone who regularly needs to access wireless networks.

You can pick one up here for $74.99

Post from: Geeky Traveller

For extra handiness, it has two alarms, a function to listen to previously broadcast programs over again, and it can actually play other content such as MP3s (from external sources though).

The down side? It takes a whopping six D sized batteries.

(source // product photo)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

On the one hand it’s cool just because, hello? They’re nice looking shoes and they’ll tell you if there’s an available network in your current vicinity. And think how handy it is that they’re sneakers. If you discover a hotspot but the signal strength is a bit on the weak side, you can use those sneakers to run a few blocks over to see if it boosts up a bit. It’s a great little all-in-one.

Still, as nifty as that sounds, I still can’t help but question the logic of taking a bunch of little electronic bits and sticking them in your SHOES. And then walking all over the place in them. It just doesn’t necessarily sound like something that would last all that long, especially if you’re the kind of person who is hard on shoes (as someone who currently has three pairs of shoes that are worn out and need replacing, I fall into that category).

What do you think? Brilliant combination or questionable?

(Source // Product photo)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Digital cameras either use flash cards, XD cards, or SD cards. If yours happens to take the SD cards, you can pick up this Wi-Fi SD Card.

Once you’ve taken your photos, the card can then transfer them without any cables directly to your computer. If you prefer – particularly if you’re on vacation and just want people back home to feel a bit of envy over the places you’re seeing – you can upload the photos to photo websites such as Flickr, Shutterfly, and more, or to social networking websites like Facebook.

What’s especially great is that it will transfer the photos at full resolution but it will resize them if there are limitations on the website.

It’s currently available in a 2GB size and costs $99.

(Product photo from Amazon)
Technorati Tags: digital photography, wi-fi, wi-fi photography, geekytraveller

Post from: Geeky Traveller

So take matters into your own hands – CradlePoint Technology offers up the PHS300 Personal Hotspot. Your WiFi will follow you everywhere giving you great secure access from broadband-enabled phones and modems. Even nicer is that fact that they promise to be simple, using Plug-and-Play to get you started.

Grab one for $179!

(Source // Product photo from CradlePoint)

Post from: Geeky Traveller