Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sharp DX Machines

Sharp has come out with a few new machines that should be hitting the channel soon:

Sharp DX-B350P & Sharp DX-B450P

Our friend Art with Print4Pay Hotel has the following specs for these machines. We just added the supplies for reference.


Spec for the Sharp DX-B350P
  • 35 Pages per Minute
  • 700 Sheet Paper Capacity (1) 550 Sheet tray, (1) 150 Sheet Multipurpose tray
  • 533MHz Processor and 128MB Memory expandable to 640MB
  • Paper Size Max. 8.5" X 14" / Min. 5.5" x 8.5"
  • Resolution 1,200 X 1,200 dpi
  • Standard Duplex Printing Capability
  • Standard Off-set Stacking
  • Supplies DX-B35DTH: High yield toner cartridge, 18,000 Page Yield
Specs for the Sharp Dx-B450P
  • 45 Pages per Minute
  • 700 Sheet Paper Capacity (1) 550 Sheet tray, (1) 150 Sheet Multipurpose tray
  • 533MHz Processor and 128MB Memory expandable to 640MB
  • Paper Size Max. 8.5" X 14" / Min. 5.5" x 8.5"
  • Resolution 1,200 X 1,200 dpi
  • Standard Duplex Printing Capability
  • Standard Off-set Stacking
  • Supplies DX-B45DTH: High yield toner cartridge, 21,000 Page Yield

The Electronic Book Industry

Just got a little bit bigger with the recent release of the Amazon's Kindle for the iPhone. All of the features that are available on the Amazon Kindle are now available to millions of iPhone users. Just download a 2.9MB application from the Apple iTunes store, and over 240,000 titles are available now on your iPhone. Simple, easy and free to download.

See a press release

Rate It! 3rd Party Managed Print Solutions | Miracom Network

The only Managed Print Service Solution that has a network of dealers to service accounts in territories outside your coverage area and product specialty. You can also sign-up to be a member of their Directory of Service Dealers - A simple way for dealers to generate new business.

MiraPage is a web-based tool which enables you to remotely collect and manage data from all types of print devices. MiraPage allows you to analyze printing and copying volumes, reduce and recover printing and copying costs.

* Web-based access to real-time data
* Monitor usage of Printer Supplies
* Collect and analyze meter readings
* Asset tracking of all print devices
* Ability to correct problematic formatter resets
* Automated network scans, and customize scan ranges
* Export data which can be saved and emailed in .csv format
* Plus other features

MiraPlus | Print Management & Monitoring Solution
The MiraPlus Print Management Program provides the dealer with complete account management flexibility; down to the individual print device. Whether it’s CPP (Cost per Print), CPD (Cost per Device), or Time-and-material (T&M) … This Print Management Program allows you to mix and match device management requirements based on customer expectations; all within the same account. It may be that some devices are managed under a CPP program and others under T&M; all decisions based on meeting customer needs.

Magic 1500
The Magic 1500 is a proprietary software appliance, developed by Miracom Network, that connects into an organization’s network, enabling the monitoring of that organization’s print devices. The Magic 1500 collects data on print devices connected to the network, including maintenance parameter and printer diagnostics data, such as toner usage, printer duty cycle, maintenance alerts, page counts, cartridge yields, and over two dozen other data attributes. The Magic 1500 is what automates the Miracom Solution.


MagicL
(pronounced magical) is a downloadable plug-in that can work with either the Magic 1500 Network appliance or MagicSoft software remote monitoring solution. Its function is to expand the capabilities of network attached devices, and allow service providers to remotely monitor locally attached devices in their customers’ print environments.

Once downloaded and deployed, MagicL will discover all locally attached devices in the domain and send data back to the web application. It will allow the service provider to monitor locally attached devices and generate supporting tickets and page counts. Like the Magic 1500 and MagicSoft, MagicL allows the service provider to customize settings on the appliance, including polling intervals and what areas of the customer’s network to scan for locally attached devices.


ASP Model
A company who hosts, manages, and delivers their application via the Web is often referred to as an ASP (Application Service Provider), The ASP model is in contrast to the traditional you-buy-it, you-run-it model.

Miracom has designed its application for Web-delivery. We host the data and manage the application ourselves. Our technology and equipment is housed in colo facilities that guarantee 100 percent up-time. By employing the ASP model for solution delivery, Miracom provides its clients with access to an application solution without their needing to build and maintain a technology infrastructure.

Rate It! Rate the Miracom Network Managed Printer Service Solution

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

HP Photosmart C4600 All-in-One Series

Expected to be available for purchase spring 2009 in North America for an estimated U.S. street price of $99.00. Pretty Cheap! Which channel partner will take stock first?

Tech Specs:

Print specifications
  • Print at speeds of up to 29 pages per minute (ppm) black and up to 23 ppm color
  • Photo-quality resolution up to 4,800 x 1,200 optimized dpi

Scan specifications
  • 1,200 x 2,400 dpi resolution scanning
  • 48-bit color, 256 grayscale levels

Copy specifications
  • Up to 9 copies per minute (cpm) in black and up to 6.5 cpm in color
  • Up to 4,800 x 1,200 optimized dpi

Dimensions/Weight
  • 17.4 inches (w) x 16.6 inches (d) x 6.7 inches (h)
  • 10.1 pounds
  • USB High-speed 2.0
  • Windows Vista® or Windows® XP; Mac OS X v10.4, v10.5
Takes the same old supplies:
  • HP 60 Black Ink Cartridge: $14.99
  • HP 60 Tri-Color Ink Cartridge: $19.99
  • HP 60XL Black Ink Cartridge: $34.99
  • HP 60XL Tri-Color Ink Cartridge: $40.99
  • HP 60 Photo Value Pack: $21.99

Rate It! Lexmark Print Management Solution

Lexmark Optimization Services help you to print less by printing only the pages you really need on the most appropriate devices.
  • Reducing the number of devices you have to manage and cutting back on use of paper and forms save paper and toner while increasing office efficiently.
  • Streamlining repetitive employee processes improves productivity.
Reduce inventory expenses. Never run out of printing supplies.

Long after your devices are installed, they continue to use toner and other supplies - a cost which can easily get out of control if not managed properly.


What You Need, When You Need It

With Distributed Fleet Management, your output devices are constantly monitored. Information from your fleet goes to the Lexmark Data Collection Manager at your site and is sent to Lexmark's data warehouse. The system validates your need for supplies before they're ordered.

For example, we will compare actual usage with expected usage. When supplies do run low, we will order them for you and ship them to the address you specify.

To make sure you get exactly what you need, we leverage our existing partnerships with reliable and flexible global suppliers. This unique ordering process gives you maximum control with minimum effort and it protects you against waste and errors.

  • Validation of all orders for part numbers, contract terms, and agreement compliance
  • Protection against unnecessary shipping charges
  • Defense against fraudulent or excessive orders
  • Acknowledgments for orders shipped and received
Break Fix & Monitoring

Lexmark's Print Management Solution keeps your imaging fleet running by proactively resolving device problems. Information Week noted that in many companies, printing devices account for 55% of all network traffic and 46% of all IT help-desk calls are printer related.


Beyond "Break/Fix"

Availability Services is much more than a simple repair contract. Lexmark's MPS can monitor, detect, and diagnose many problems from a remote location. With this expertise, most issues are resolved before you even notice them.

Flexibility, Lexmark will create a Service uniquely suited to your needs:

  • Guaranteed response times
  • Trouble-ticket integration
  • A dedicated, on-site technician who can field and troubleshoot service calls right away
  • Configuration management to enforce device and firmware settings throughout the print fleet, ensuring standards and enabling fast resolution of any problems

Rate the Lexmark Print Management Solution

What Zone are your Supplies?

HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309a Printer come in the following flavors :

  • CC335A
  • CC335B
  • CC335AD
  • CC336A
  • CC337C
And these additional versions:
  • HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309c Printer CC335C
  • HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309g Printer CD054A
  • HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One C309n Printer CD743A
----------------Zone 1-------Zone 2--------Zone 3
Black HP 564 HP 364 HP 178 HP 862
HP 564XL HP 364XL HP 178XL HP 862XL
Cyan HP 564 HP 364 HP 178 HP 862
HP 564XL HP 364XL HP 178XL HP 862XL
Magenta HP 564 HP 364 HP 178 HP 862
HP 564XL HP 364XL HP 178XL HP 862XL
Yellow HP 564 HP 364 HP 178 HP 862
HP 564XL HP 364XL HP 178XL HP 862XL

HP taking the steps to keep free trade from happening? Will this help stop the importing of HP supplies to the US?

Job Well Done, You Tell Me?

In December last year we got a call from a customer overseas in need of a cross-reference solution for their website that sells ink and toner cartridges. After a few emails and phone calls at odd hours of the day for both of us, we agreed to take on the project. We scrambled night and day to complete their cross reference project in the time we had promised, which was less than a week.

Project done, complete, we felt that we over achieved our goals with this customer.

To our surprise we got a package in the mail about three weeks later. What could this be, we thought?

Usually a vendor (us) would send a customer a note of thanks for doing business with them, which we did. But I was floored and humbled when a customer sent us a note of thanks for the thoroughness and delivery of solution on the their due date. This note was more than a compliment on how thorough our content is for printer supplies. This came from thoughtfulness of their heart.

They had asked us how do we do it? Maintain this much data in such an orderly fashion? Our smirkish remark was "It takes us beer and scotch". We didn't think much of that comment, but this customer must of taken it to heart.

That package was a bottle of 18 year old MacAllan Cherry Wood Scotch with a note of appreciation for hard work done.

Cheers and many thanks - Jan

We will buy you a few drinks at the ITEX show.

One note, these guys at Crossprint, got their site fully functional, dual language and taking orders in less than two months. Very impressive IT project management and programming. You should see a good looking webstore for printer supplies.

Tell us what you think?

Monday, March 2, 2009

IBM InfoPrint Pro C900 Series

Monster of a Printer? Expect to see one of these in your local copy shop.

  • Print speed up to 90 ipm color or mono
    Expansive workflow and color management
  • Air-assisted feed maintains speed with heavy stocks
  • Recommended for up to 240,000 impressions per month (letter/A4)
  • Versatile scanning capability (printer with scanner model)

    The InfoPrint Pro C900 (printer) and C900s (printer with scanner) can help you capture on the growing color printing market. With high color accuracy, advanced color management, variable data printing facility and a wide variety of finishing options, this printer can fit the needs of departments and businesses that are producing collateral, direct mail, Print On Demand and textbooks.

  • Enables high resolution output with the 1200 x 1200 DPI 2-bit color engine

  • Includes an EFI Fiery® server controller that enables advanced color management and provides easy-to-use imposition and composition tools.

  • Runs heavy stock at rated speeds (300 gsm).

  • Minimizes operator downtime with on-the-fly toner and paper additions.

  • Allows maximum paper size of 13” x 19.2”.

  • Provides a wide variety of professional inline finishing options including saddle stitch and booklet makers, punch, automatic ring binder, perfect binder, z-folder and stapler, cover inserter, and high capacity stacker.

Imaging Supplies for the IBM InfoPrint Pro C900:
IBM INFOPRINT PRO C900 Toner, Black, 45U2675, 72,000 Page Yield
IBM INFOPRINT PRO C900 Toner, Cyan, 45U2678, 72,000 Page Yield
IBM INFOPRINT PRO C900 Toner, Magenta, 45U2677, 72,000 Page Yield
IBM INFOPRINT PRO C900 Toner, Yellow, 45U2676, 72,000 Page Yield

Rate It! HP Managed Print Services Solution

Hewlett Packard Print Management Solution

Transform your printer environment for better business outcomes.

What is the true cost of managing your imaging and printing environment? Studies show that as much as 90 percent of an enterprise’s total printing expenses may be invisible or uncontrolled.

HP Print Management Solution
can help you streamline management, minimize costs and maximize results. Hewlett Packard's Managed Print Services can provide virtually everything you need to maintain a cost-effective, productivity-enhancing environment: hardware, software and printer supplies, training, maintenance and support, even workflow improvements.


HP Managed Print Services enable your organization to:

  • Cut total ownership costs: Gain visibility into the true costs of managing your imaging and printing environment; realize immediate and long-term savings.
  • Enhance productivity and user satisfaction: Help IT and end-users save time and work more effectively; free up technical resources; increase uptime and availability; reduce help desk calls.
  • Reduce risks: Leverage HP security and compliance solutions and network management capabilities and tools to better protect and control your assets.
  • Improve environmental sustainability: Reduce energy consumption and environment impact.
  • Accelerate business results: Sharpen your focus on improving key workflows and process efficiencies that bring better bottom-line outcomes.
HP Services professionals work closely with you to design, implement and manage an imaging and printing infrastructure tailored to your specific requirements and adaptable to your evolving needs. Core services include:

  • Assessment Services — help you understand your current usage, find hidden costs and develop a business case for change
  • Financial and Procurement Services — help you contain costs from technology acquisition to retirement and replacement
  • Transition and Implementation Services — help ensure that the right equipment is installed and end-users know how to make the most of it
  • Management and Support Services — help maximize ROI through printer fleet uptime and optimization, and imaging supplies management
  • Document and Workflow Services — help you automate paper-intensive workflows and continually improve infrastructure management

Rate Hewlett Packard's (HP) Print Management Solution

Okidata CX-2633

Is this the same model as the Muratec MFx-C3400? Yes, but are the supplies interchangeable, doubt it.

CX2633 MFP Highlights:

  • Print, copy, scan and fax media up to tabloid size in one space-saving device that easily fits into any business environment
  • HD Color Printing technology for sharp detail and rich, dramatic color
  • Print/Copy speeds of up to 26 ppm color and 33 ppm in black & white1
  • Print banners up to 11.6" x 47.24"
  • Three standard configurations: 1-Tray–desktop version, 400-sheet capacity; 2-Tray – floor-standing, 930-sheet capacity; 3-Tray – floor-standing, 1,460-sheet capacity
  • Up to 50-sheet RADF scanner automatically scans both sides of a document2
  • Scan to PC, fax, FTP, network folder, e-mail and USB flash memory
  • PostScript® 3, PCL® 5c emulations
  • 1,460 sheets maximum paper capacity
  • Supports media up to 203 gsm (110 lb. index)
  • 5.8" LCD touch-screen for easy walk-up access to full functionality
  • Multi-tasking standard
  • Dual Access standard
  • Duplex (2-sided) printing/copying standard
  • 40 GB hard disk drive standard
  • USB 2.0, parallel (printer only) and Ethernet 10/100 Base-T connectivity
  • Nuance® PaperPort® and OmniPage® standard
  • 1 Tray + Large Cabinet (530 sheets) and 2 Tray + Small Cabinet (1060 sheets)
  • Unsurpassed customer service and support— 24/7/365
Models
  • CX2633 MFP 1-Tray 120V SKU 62431502
  • CX2633 MFP 2-Tray 120V SKU 62431504
  • CX2633 MFP 3-Tray 120V SKU 62431506
Supplies
  • 44059236 Toner Cartridge CX2633 MFP Black Toner Cartridge (9k Yield) - $ 46.00
  • 44059235 Toner Cartridge CX2633 MFP Cyan Toner Cartridge (9k Yield) - $ 146.00
  • 44059234 Toner Cartridge CX2633 MFP Magenta Toner Cartridge (9k Yield) - $ 146.00
  • 44059233 Toner Cartridge CX2633 MFP Yellow Toner Cartridge (9k Yield) - 146.00
  • 44064032 Drum Unit CX2633 MFP Black Image Drum (20k Yield) - $ 85.00
  • 44064031 Drum Unit CX2633 MFP Cyan Image Drum (20k Yield) - $ 109.00
  • 44064030 Drum Unit CX2633 MFP Magenta Image Drum (20k Yield) - $ 109.00
  • 44064029 Drum Unit CX2633 MFP Yellow Image Drum (20k Yield) - $ 109.00
Cost Per Print
  • Black - $0.005
  • Cyan - $0.0162
  • Magenta - $0.0162
  • Yellow - $0.0162
  • Black Drum Unit - $0.00425
  • Color Drum Unit - $0.00515 times 3