You are here: Home / Product Reviews

Windows Vista Speech Recognition – First Impressions

February 28, 2009 By Daisy Leave a Comment

headset

As the mom of a newborn I am finding that having my hands free to take care of the baby is essential. As someone that also relies heavily on typing I thought that it might be helpful to be able to dictate text to my computer. Today I decided to give the speech recognition functions in Windows Vista a try. After running the tutorial and one of the training sessions I was able to begin typing text into Notepad and Wordpad by speaking into a microphone. Once you’ve learned the basic voice commands for various tasks in Windows it is fairly easy to maneuver around. I can switch between applications, open and close applications, access menus, and a variety of other functions.

After training the computer to recognize my voice, and training myself to use some basic voice commands, I set out to begin dictating text into the computer. After several unsuccessful attempts to dictate into Firefox and Microsoft Word 2003, I found that dictation does work in Notepad and Wordpad. While being limited to these programs for consistent dictation results is inconvenient I can dictate into one of these programs and then paste the text into the program I want it to appear in.

I don’t know that I would say that dictation is faster for me since I am a relatively fast typist, but it is nice to be able to have my hands free to do other things, without having to stop working.  I plan to see if I can get my Bluetooth headset working with this so that I can gain even more flexibility and possibly not have to be right next to my computer to dictate.

Unfortunately for me, I discovered this built in (and free) feature of Windows Vista after I had already ordered Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred. The software will be here next week and I plan to do a review to compare and contrast between the built-in Windows Vista speech recognition and  Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred, which will hopefully handle a variety of programs more effectively.

Creative Commons License photo credit: todbaker

Filed Under: Product Reviews

Epson Artisan 800 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer

November 6, 2008 By Daisy Leave a Comment

I recently had the fortune of obtaining the very sleek Epson Artisan 800 printer to add to my technology arsenal.  After a few days of use it has really shown that it can shine in a variety of ways.

Initial Setup

This was not the very easiest printer setup I have encountered. In addition to the normal hardware drivers and software utility installation it took a bit more work to connect to the Wi-Fi than some other Wireless networked printers that I have set up.  It was necessary to actually connect via hard line initially.  From there the wireless security settings are set from a networked PC.  Once the initial connection is made the printer can be moved to it’s new, wireless, location. It now works like a dream!

Black and White Text Printing

Nothing beats my laser multi-function printer for basic black and white printing and copying but I was happy with the quality of the ink jet pages that were produced. The speed of this type of print job is definitely a plus.

Color Printing

On regular multi-purpose paper the color printing is mediocre but I’d blame that more on the paper than the printer. For jobs where quality is not important but having color is, it will be very useful. Printing on higher quality paper would solve this problem for when quality is necessary.

Photo Printing

Using the sample 4×6 photo paper I printed a couple of quick photos and was extremely impressed by the quality of the prints. I can honestly say that if I were to mix the photos in with a stack of photos printed from a professional photo print shop I don’t think I’d know the difference. The colors were crisp and the quality of the Epson photo paper was excellent. I did find that my initial instinct to place the photo paper right side up was wrong. The paper needs to be placed face down to avoid a big wet ink mess.

Scanning

A couple of scans of drawings my 4 year old had made showed that the scanner is quite fast and very easy to use with the provided “Epson Scan” software. It took me a few minutes to determine that the scan didn’t need to be initiated from the printer.

Copying

I love the document feeder, this is really a must have for me when I need to copy several pages at once. The out-of-the-box settings produced copies that were a little on the light side compared to the originals. Adjusting the darkness and the copy quality settings helped to correct this.

CD Printing

Gone are the days of Labeling CDs and DVDs with a Sharpie. I love having the ability to print full color labels for my CDs directly onto the CD/DVD!

Conclusion

This printer will not be replacing my laser multi-function for most of my day to day duties but I love the fact that I can produce my own photographs and creative pieces. The quality of the prints have come along way from my last Epson photo printer, which I loved, and I’m proud to call myself an Epson Artisan Owner.

It happens that the wonderful people of One2One Network have teamed up with Epson and have a special offer for the Epson Artisan 800 printer along with extra Ink. I encourage everyone to check it out, it’s a great piece of equipment and the price is very reasonable considering all the features that are packed into this gem.

Filed Under: Product Reviews Tagged With: artisan, copier, epson, ink jet, multi-function, photo printer, printer, scanner

My Dell Inspiron Mini 9

November 3, 2008 By Daisy 5 Comments

For a variety of reasons I found that it was time to replace my, once amazing and now pathetic, Dell Inspiron 8500.  It’s amazing what a few years of technological advances can do to your perspective of a particular computer. My needs have changed and I was no longer in need of a desktop replacement. I was looking for portability, plain and simple. I had heard about the ASUS Eee PC and had passed over them. Then one day I was at the mall and I actually saw the HP 2133 variety of the Ultra Portable Laptops that seem to be popping up. I quickly decided that the Apple iPod touch that I was shopping for, was not really what I wanted after all. I also remembered seeing that Dell had recently started offering a computer similar to the HP 2133 and ASUS Eee

Within a few hours of arriving home I had placed the order for a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Laptop Computer.


Here is what I love about this new machine:

  • It is portable enough that I can toss it in a shoulder bag
  • It runs a full version of Windows XP Home
  • 3 USB ports compared to the 2 ports in my old computer
  • Integrated SD card reader.
  • VGA port to connect a monitor
  • True Dual Monitor Support!
  • Solid State Hard Drive
  • Crowds tend to gather when I pull it out of my bag

Things that could be better

  • The function keys stop at F10. Firebug uses F12.
  • The apostrophe key is displaced on the sized down keyboard which causes me to make carriage returns when I type anything with an apostrophe in it.
  • The hard drive is small and fills quickly
  • No internal optical drive

My final conclusion is that this was one of the best computer purchases I have ever made and I’ve extended it’s abilities significantly with the following peripherals:

I have to give this computer high marks. It does not feel at all flimsy or cheap, it’s attractive, and definately meets my needs when I”m out and about. Not needing to worry about whether or not my portable device will have the sofware I need is a real bonus, I use the same software I would use on my full size computer.

What this computer is: A lightweight portable laptop that can handle most day to day tasks.

What this computer is NOT: A graphics intensive computer to do graphic design of high end gaming.

It certainly exceeds my needs and my expectations in a very small package.  My only regret is that the integrated Web Cam was not available at the time I placed my order. My husband was so impressed (and jealous) that he ordered one for himself.

Filed Under: Product Reviews Tagged With: cordless optical mouse, Dell Inspiron mini 9, laptop computer, sd card reader, solid state hard drive

First Impressions of the Brother DCP-7040 All-In-One Scanner-Printer-Copier

May 21, 2008 By Daisy 1 Comment

After getting a bit weary of walking across my house to my networked printer every time I wanted to print something, and being frustrated that I couldn’t print from my Mac at all I took the leap and got myself a new Multi-Function machine.

Laser Multi-Function Copier with Auto Document Feeder

Specs:

  • Print and copy at up to 23 ppm
  • HQ1200 (Up to 2400 x 600 dpi) printing
  • Stand alone copying – no PC required
  • 35-page ADF capacity for multi-page documents
  • Reduce or enlarge from 25% to 400%

I started by setting it up on the Mac. It was seamless and within minutes I was printing and scanning. The setup on the PC took longer and required a restart but I didn’t run into any problems there either. My usage results at the end of the first day are as follows:

  • Manual Feed – I printed about 60 envelopes using the manual feed. They had to be fed one at a time and the printer needed to cool down for a minute or so a couple of times in the process and also had some false jam signals a couple of times. The envelopes fed through straight, though, and the jam/cool-down issues were pretty minor.
  • Sheet feeder: I used the photo copy function with the sheet feeder and about 10 pages. The copies were not as crisp as the originals and the sheets fed in just slightly crooked.
  • Scanner: I scanned a photograph to my PC and was not satisfied with the results. I will be testing this feature further, next time with a photo that is not wrinkled. The scan image that I got was much grainier than I expected. The high resolution scanner was a selling point for me so I hope to get better results in the future. I do love that it has a flat-bed scanner, my last multi-function was not flat-bed so it was difficult to copy/scan anything other than single sheets of paper.
  • Basic printing from both the PC and the Mac were great.

The biggest inconvenience for me will be switching the USB between the two machines. I will be attempting to set up printer sharing but I have not had luck getting the Mac and the Vista machine talking to each other. Being able to copy, scan and print from my desk will be a huge time saver. I was able to get this printer on sale at a local store but even at the prices available online(around $200) I think the printer is very reasonably priced.

Toner for this printer comes in two flavors. The TN330 cartridge yields about 1500 pages and the TN350 High Yield cartridge will get you closer to 2500 pages.  The replacement drum is not as expensive as some I’ve seen.:

Brother TN330 Black Toner Cartridge

Brother TN360 High Yield Black Toner Cartrdige

I have been buying Brother printers for years for their economical toner usage and I trust that this printer will live up to the job it’s predecessors handled so well.

Filed Under: Product Reviews Tagged With: Brother, copier, flat bed scanner, multi-function, printer, scanner

My Mac Mini: A Quick Review

May 3, 2008 By Daisy 1 Comment

About a month ago I found myself in a position where I needed to have a Mac at my disposal in order to complete a freelance project that consisted of creating some templates to be used in Word 2008. My partner and I discovered that our templates were completely broken in Microsoft Word 2008 even though they worked flawlessly in Word 2003, and tolerably well in Word 2004 and Word 2007. With a deadline looming I got myself to the Mac store and came home with an impossibly small box that was supposed to be the answer to all my problems. (It wasn’t but that’s not the computer’s fault.)

The set up of this computer could not be easier. Getting used to Mac’s insistence that all edges should be fuzzy and rounded is not so easy, at least for me. I’ve been working with it for awhile and I don’t revert to the PC quite as often as I did in the beginning. Installing Firefox with some of my favorite addons helped a lot. I’m sure that it will continue to grow on me as I work with it more.

The best thing about the Mac mini, in my opinion is that it’s so portable. I can bring it with me to work and to my partner’s house and, since those places both have monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc I just have the little box and the really long cord to carry with me. The cord takes up as much room as the computer.

The processor speed is the same as my full size pc and the less robust graphics doesn’t really become an issue for this computer’s intended use. I chose to get the most basic configuration since it was never intended to be my primary computer. I do love that it starts up fast. I don’t have time to make coffee waiting for it to get up and running. The price is pretty amazing for a hot little machine. It amazes me that they can pack so much into such a little box.

Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive)

Filed Under: Product Reviews Tagged With: computer, leopard, mac mini, Review