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Most/All portable electronic gadgets are still and will be limited due to battery technology not being as advanced as the gadget they need to power.
As soon as the big oil company decide to put money on it, you will see big leaps in battery efficiency.
I'd rather be phishing!
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I'm curious as to why no one other than the oil companies are capable of developing better batteries. Or is it that no other companies or organizations have enough money?
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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They seem to have misspelled "Pedometer", I wonder if this is rated in Savilles, which is the SI unit for such a proclivity.
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So it's a phone and a watch? That's two products for the price of 3.
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PB 369,783 wrote: That's two products for the price of 3
So good I am going to steal it and pass it off as my own!
(qv Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison etc)
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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I remember years ago they came out with a calculator watch and I knew 1 engineer that got one just to be cool and it was big and clunky, like this one and looks nerdy as hell. He quit wearing it after a couple of weeks. Maybe if they implanted a flexible screen on your shirt sleeve and..., no it would still look nerdy as hell. Unless that's the look you're going for?
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Dalek Dave wrote: but the battery life needs to be longer
I know some activities that would drive the acceleration-meter nuts. 
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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Moving aside from my recent thread about refillable ink cartridges I'd like to ask about laser printers.
What is it that makes a good b/w laser printer? What I'm saying is that you can spend £200 and more from one manufacturer and £50 from another. Are the £200 jobs immeasurably superior to the dumpster-priced £50 printers? I want a decent printer in the sense I'd like sharp text and that can display reasonable images on the occasions I need to. I know DPI is important and you can apparently have too much DPI?
Printing speed for example: If I have to wait 20 seconds per page I'm ok with that. A minute per page I'd probably get a bit fed up. Sometimes I like to print multiple page PDFs so double sided printing would be nice.
Do modern toner kits "degrade/expire" like some ink cartridges? Are they chipped to expire?
Do you pay more for WiFi printers over cable types?
So, essentially, I don't print a lot but I'd like reasonable print quality at a price that lines up with my occasional use. There are so many printers to choose from and so many high-fives in one review but which gets a kick in the ass on another. If someone can give me some essential points to look for it would be much appreciated.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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You get what you pay for.
Taking your points in order...
A £50 printer will work fine, but it will not be fast, will not have a huge storage capacity (both RAM and Paper Reservoir) and will not be as sturdy.
For a 'Good' printer you need to start looking at about £100, (I would recommend a Brother 3040cn at about £85 for a minimum in this range)
Printing speed: Go for at least 16ppm with a cold start time of about 30 seconds max. Any slower print is annoying, and any longer wait is thumb-twiddlingly boring.
Modern toners do not degrade over measurable time (ie several years), they are NOT chipped to expire, but can be chipped to be non-refillable.
There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%.
Yes, you certainly do pay more for wifi printers but not much more, it really depends on your set up as to whether or not it is worth it.
Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON.
They are excellent printers but the toners are pricey and suppliers are not often able to reduce costs on them.
Brother or HP are the best for value/running costs.
From a technical side Xerox are the Gold Standard but are hideously expensive.
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Dalek Dave wrote: Best tip I can give is STAY AWAY FROM CANON.
What, you haven't uploaded them yet?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Yes, all fully loaded on Cartridges and Toners.
It is just that they are pricey.
No need to be cynical, I am just giving fair advice 
If I was going to be his supplier I would say "Epson inkjets all the way".
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Hmm. So I accidentally bought the right one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Epson inkjets are pretty much the best for running costs: not only are the print heads not part of the ink cartridge (making them considerably cheaper) but they also provide separate cartridges for all colours as standard - so when the cyan runs out you don't have to replace the magenta and yellow at the same time. This also means that the aftermarket cartridges are seriously cheap, and generally very, very good.
The only downside is that you need to use them regularly - if you don't, the ink dries in the head and it can be impossible to get all jets firing again. New printer time when that happens, because it's normally cheaper than buying a new head!
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre.
Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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Epson are cheap as chips, good quality and ubiquitous.
You will never have supply problems.
(That said there was a dearth of T1301's recently, but the big boat from China has arrived and so all is well)
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Excellent advice. Thanks.
Do you have any thoughts on double-side printing? I don't mind swapping the sheets around myself. I remember one printer I used where the sheet was pulled back in to print on the other side but the alignment was not very good (can't remember which make but not a Brother or HP).
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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What is the web address of your shop website Dave?
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
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sent email
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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Good points Dave, I have an old Brother HL-1440 that has lasted forever and was relatively inexpensive.
I might add the problem with the newer laser printer is that they provide toner cartridges with a lower page print count so you will need to buy a new toner cartridge sooner.
Dalek Dave wrote: There is often a 'Window' in the toner that by judicious use of a black marker pen and kinetic agitation can extrend the life by 10-20%.
I put a pieve of tape over this window and it extended prints by 1K+ or so.
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If you print more documents then go for laser, if you print more images go for inkjet (since inkjets are better at printing pictures).
Checkout this list from PCMag[^].
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I would also add that if he was image heavy then the choice of paper is just as important.
Cheap copier paper detracts from the quality, whereas a custom photo quality paper makes the colours vibrant and sharp.
The only difference is price, and it is significantly more, up from £2 per ream to £7-£10 per ream.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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I usually buy the run-of-the-mill paper, 80g/ms? The kind of stuff you get anywhere.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Which is absolutely fine for most uses.
For internal accounts I use 65gms, but only because it is thinner and therefore I can get more in a file.
Anything going out the door is 80gms, and for our special stuff, 90gms.
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Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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You _buy_ paper ? I thought everybody would "borrow" it from the office.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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The last ream I bought. I was unemployed at the time so there was no office to "borrow" from.
I must remember at any future interview when asked "Do you have any questions you'd like to ask?" I will reply "Only one. Can I take a ream of paper?" 
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Dalek Dave wrote: The only difference is price
And drying time.
There's more than one reason that you might find glossy pages stuck together.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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