Think you can spare a few minutes to give your printer a little TLC? Doing so can assist in prolonging the life of your printer. By removing dust particles or ink smudges, your printer will work better and hopefully last longer as well. Cleaning your printer eliminates paper jams, ink blotches and abnormal lines. However, if you are careless when cleaning, you can permanently damage the printer.

Before you start cleaning, make sure the printer is cooled down. Unplug the printer also, just to be safe. You might want to try cleaning out the printer when you are replacing ink or toner cartridges, to avoid damage to existing cartridges.

Use a soft cloth to wipe the exterior of the printer. Dampen the cloth, not the printer, with a light liquid. Try distilled water or a light cleaner, but stay away from ammonia or alcohol as they can crack or damage the surface. It’s best to clean the outside of the printer first, while the cartridges and trays are still inside. This way, dust and other small debris don’t make their way inside.

The way you clean the inside of the printer will vary a bit between laser and inkjet printers. Most inkjet printers have cleaning processes that can be initiated from the software that accompanies the printer. This cleaning unclogs the printheads that shoot the ink. Other inkjet printers have cartridges with printheads on them, so the printhead gets replaced with each cartridge change and does not need to be regularly cleaned.

To remove dust and debris from the rollers, paper trays and other parts inside of the inkjet printer, use a small duster or damp cloth to gently wipe all of the parts down. If you are a fancier cleaner, you can use purchase tools such as a computer vacuum or cleaning sheet for a sparkling printer. For example, many printer companies manufacture their own cleaning supplies, such as the Xerox cleaning wipes shown here.

With laser printers, you can clean the inside parts the same as you would an inkjet printer, except a soft brush is recommended instead of cloth or a duster. If you don’t have a brush, make sure to steer clear of the mirror inside to avoid damaging scratches. Also, the transfer rollers are the only part of a laser printer than cannot and should not be cleaned!

The bottom line is that you have to be very careful when removing and replacing all parts. Remember to be gentle and leave out the elbow grease. Again, taking just a few minutes to detail your printer can improve the performance and add pages onto your printer’s life!

Printing on the run now has a new meaning. New iPhone apps now allow you to print just about anything directly from your smartphone! The top apps are reviewed, in no specific order…

Print App

1. “Print” by EuroSmartz – Price: $4.99

Tired of transferring your iPhone pictures to your PC for printnig purposes? “Print” for iPhone lets you print information from your iPhone/iPod touch to a printer connected to your computer, via network or local.

When you install “Print” on your iPhone and download the free WePrint software for your desktop/laptop computer, you can then print directly from your iPhone. You could even print remotely to your home or office printer. Imagine taking a photo while on vacation and then printing it on your home printer.

“Print” for the iPhone prints web pages, contacts and images. “Print & Share” also prints emails, stored files and also shares files with your desktop computer.

This app requires both an app installed on your phone and on your pc.

2. “Print Magic” by Wellala – Price: $5.99

Print Magic is the first application for the Apple iPhone & iTouch products, which allows for wireless printing through IPP.

With Print Magic, you can now print images, text, and even web pages directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.  Print Magic can print almost anything, from any application, with no additional software to install.  If you can select it and copy it using the Cut and Paste feature of iPhone OS 3, Print Magic can print it — including from applications like Mail, Safari, and of course Photos.

This app only requires an app installed on your phone. It connects directly with your printer.

3. “PrinterShare” by Dynamix – Price: FREE

With PrinterShare you can print directly from your phone to anywhere in the world including your own printer. First, you need to install PrinterShare Mobile on your mobile phone and either login with your existing account or create new one of the fly (it’s free).

Then you need to find and select the printer you want to print to. The computer connected to the printer needs to have PrinterShare software installed, just like when you print from computer to computer using PrinterShare. In addition, from your mobile device you may look for printers shared by others, select one and print on it.

This app requires both an app installed on your phone and on your pc.

4. “ePrint” by Microtech – Price: $2.99

If you have ePrint and required printers, you don’t need your PC anymore to print. ePrint has print settings such as paper size or color. Print photos or contacts in your iPhone or iPod touch. You can also check printed image beforehand with print preview.

This app only requires an app installed on your phone. It connects directly with your printer.

5. “Printer Whisperer” by Lunaticity - Price: FREE

The “Printer Whisperer” iPhone app is great. Aside from being a completely free app, it can cause hours of problems for your office IT manager!! Don’t worry, it doesn’t cause any real harm to you printer. Here is what the app can do… If you have a networked printer (unfortunately it can only be a HP Laserjet networked printer) and it has an LCD display, this app is a must download. You simply type in the IP address for the pritner into the app and you can change the display message on the LCD screen. Favorite messages include “Printer Will Self Destruct”, “Pen is Stuck”, “Don’t Panic”, and many others. Have tons of fun while your IT guy scratches his head. The message resets when the printer is turned off.

This app only requires an app installed on your phone. It connects directly with your printer.

Epson Stylus Pro WT7900

Epson America Inc., announced on December 8th, 2009 that the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 would be the world’s first printer to utilize aqueous-based white ink printing technology, which has been developed by Epson America Inc.  This will enable packaging designers, flexographic and gravure printers to use white ink on materials such as transparent and metallic films. This aqueous-based white ink technology will drastically lower manufacturing costs while significantly increasing the quality of work.

What is Aqueous-Based White Ink

Aqueous based white ink proofing technology was developed for the sole purpose of producing higher quality white yields. This technology drastically increases ink density, provides custom white color toning, and allows white ink to be displayed on a range of substances like never before, including; inkjet coated transparent and metallic films. The secret you ask? Epson UltraChrome™ HDR White Ink, which is a water-based resin that doesn’t consist of any known carcinogens.

Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 Review

Epson America Inc., says the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 will forever transform the package proofing and prototyping industries.  This printer will utilize the Epson UltraChrome HDR White ink as well as their cutting edge printhead, the ten-channel MicroPiezo Thin Film Piezo (TFP) with ink repelling coating technology.  The MicroPiezo TFP also enables the WT7900 to be virtually maintenance free, due to it’s auto cleaning function as well as ink provides a repelling coating that reduces the chances of nozzle clogging.  Consistency won’t be an issue with Epson PreciseColor, their groundbreaking production technology, which automatically evaluates and collaborates during and after each print.

The Stylus WT7900 provides several inivative printing options, such as the reverse-white and surface-white. Reverse-white printing mode allows the WT7900 to print in color first, followed by white ink. While surface-white printing mode is just the opposite – the white is printed first, followed by the color. These are just two of the numerous printing modes and features tha the Stylus WT7900 has to offer.

The Stylus Pro WT7900 will be available in early 2010 and has a MSRP of $8,495.

For a full list of features and specifications, check it out on Epson’s website.

In the market for a new laser fax machine for you business? We are here to review two products in the Brother Intellifax line of laser fax machines. There are a number of variables you should consider when evaluating laser fax machines which include; max printing speed & resolution, standard capacity (how many sheets of paper the laser fax machine can hold at one time), if it prints in black & white, color or both, internal memory, media sizes excepted (size of paper the laser fax machine can process), type of toner the fax machine uses and of course the dimensions and manufacturer’s warranty.

Brother IntelliFax 2920 High-speed Laser Fax Machine

This B&W laser fax machine, which was first released in 2007 Q3, would fit addition to any small to mid-size business where there is an intermediate volume of incoming and outgoing faxes.  The Brother 2920  fax machine was designed with the multi-user office in mind. It is capable of storing up to 600 fax pages in it’s 16 MB memory. The 250 capacity front loading tray, with 30 page automatic feeder capacity, can recgonize what the type of paper (legal or letter) is loaded making it simple and convenient to keep this laser fax machine working efficiently. If time is an issue, the Intellifax 2920 is able to store up to 220 numbers on auto-dial, and the SuperG3 Fax Modem enables the Brother 2920 to transmit up to 2 seconds per page. The 1200 x 600 DPI resolution produces an impressive quality of the prints (or copies).  Need to send a mass fax to the entire company? No problem – the Intellifax 2920 allows you to broadcast faxes to as many as 270 numbers at once. Another nice feature is the use of passwords on incoming faxes, to ensure that confidential faxes are received by the proper parties.

Best Price: $285.00
Replacement Toner: TN350 (2,500 yield) or DR350 (12,000 yield).

Brother Intellifax 4750e High-Performance Laser Fax Machine

This laser fax machine from Brother, can no better be described as high-performance. First released Q3 of 2005, the Brother Intellifax 4750e features B&W laser technology and was designed for a high frequency, high volume business environment. The speed of the Intellifax 2920 is matched, as the Intellifax 4750e also has a SuperG3 Fax Modem capable of producing fax transmissions up to 2 seconds per page, and printing speeds up to 15 ppm. This laser fax machine comes standard with 8MB of memory, which can be upgraded (capable of storing 600 fax pages for transmission), stores up to 232 number in auto-dial, and can broadcast out to 282 locations with one transmission. The 4750e fax machine also features a 250-sheet expandable (additional trays are optional) paper capacity that can automatically distinguish between letter and legal paper sizes, and can automatically feed up to 50 pages.  Lastly, the Intellifax 4750e also serves as a laser printer (capable of printing at a 600×600 DPI at a max speed of 15 ppm) and copier (capable of copying at 15 cpm at a 600 DPI resolution).

Best Price:  $480
Repaclement Toner: TN430 (3,000 yield), TN460 (6,000 yield) or DR400 (20,000 yield).