Saturday 30 June 2018
Building a real-life Wall-E: how kids helped Lego Technic and Volvo design the autonomous Zeux wheel loader
Lego has long been regarded as among the most creative of children’s toys, encouraging the nurture of design skills, and letting young hands make their first steps towards architectural greatness. Likewise, the more advanced Lego Technic line has fostered an interest in mechanics and engineering, with its motorised components and remote controlled models requiring a little more expertise to assemble.
But thanks to an ongoing partnership between Lego Technic and Volvo, the two companies are looking to an even more exciting future – autonomous vehicles. And they’ve enlisted the next generation of engineers – Technic obsessed children – to help in the design.
The Zeux is the latest entry into the Lego Technic line, a 1,167-piece wheel loader that comes with articulated four-wheel steering, a working boom and bucket and an active counterweight that raises and lowers the chassis.
It’s the impressive result of a collaboration between the two companies, which now stretches back to 2016, and is inspiring Volvo’s autonomous vehicle ambitions, with elements of the Zeux concept now patented with the intention of introducing them into full size, industrial-working models.
“One of the coolest things about this is that it was a true collaboration, a mixture of Volvo designers and engineers and Lego Technics designers, capturing that knowledge of how real machines should work, how it could be more efficient and effective, and letting the designers go crazy,” said Andrew Woodman, Senior Design Manager for the Lego Group.
“Not having restrictions, but having the ability to put things together in a whole new way was something really interesting. The mixture of the teams, and the energy that created, was beneficial to both groups.”
From Wall-E to a child’s possible reality
The final rendered model, intended as a blueprint for future AI-driven vehicles, appears far more personable than most of the relatively-faceless autonomous vehicles we see in development at the moment. There’s a hint of Pixar’s Wall-E to the Zeux – and that’s in large part thanks to suggestions offered by children involved in the design process.
“For Lego, children are the heart of what we do,” continued Woodman.
“So whenever we’re making new products we always involve them in the process. We give them products to look at, we give them products to build with, we let them play with stuff and basically let us direct our design involvement, right down to the features and functions that you see in the final model.
“This project was no different. This time we collected the three favourite directions that we had from the different concepts at the time, we benchmarked it against the very first product we did together with Volvo, with the intention of focussing in on the wheel loader aspect of it.”
With the Zeux intended to be a conceptual showcase for construction products of the future, it proved particularly insightful into the expectations of which children have for the world around them as they grew up. And, with the design resulting in numerous patents being awarded and elements being worked on for real-world application, in this project the children also had the chance to influence an element of the future they’d perhaps eventually grow to be a part of.
“By putting it in front of the kids, letting them play with them and come with their own stories, that’s when we see things really come alive. When we’re testing stuff, it’s not just a case of ‘oh I like this, oh I don’t like this.’ It’s when they tell stories about how they’d play with it and use it, and how it’d be used in the real world, that’s when we really start discovering what the right functions are and features to use.
The small mapping drone that’s present with the models was one key feature that the children in the testing groups insisted upon, and points to the level of familiarity and easiness with which youngsters are already approaching concepts around autonomous creations.
“[The children] don’t even see or think about the driver, the machine would be controlled through the drone. That for them was instant – that’s just the way it should be, the way it is. They don’t even think there’s something missing, which is really cool.”
Likewise, the “personable” camera eye, conceptually rendered to be expressively moving around on an articulating arm – letting you be aware of the autonomous vehicles point of focus, and giving it its Wall-E like personality – was a design consideration reinforced by the influence of the children involved.
“[The camera is something] we’re really proud of, as it’s letting you connect as a person with an autonomous vehicle,” said Woodman.
“An autonomous vehicle, with all of its sensors, and all of its features, knows exactly where it is. But how do you know that it knows where it is? And how do you know that the vehicle has seen you?
“When you walk in front of a car parked at a junction you instinctively make eye contact with the driver. You then make a series of decisions in order to know it’s safe to cross, based on that eye contact. If you have a vehicle with no way of communicating with you, even if it could never run into you, or move with you around – but you don’t know that. So the kids stories helped with the camera to personalise the autonomy.”
While the Technics model measures 18cm, any realised full size Zeux would weigh more than 13,000kg, and measure just over 6 meters long, running fully autonomously off an electric battery.
“It’s kind of unique, the result,” says Roland Schling, Chief Designer at Volvo CE.
“There’s a little bit of a blank spot on the map with autonomous products. You have the cars already, planes, drones. You’ve seen those before. But what is this? It’s not a people transporting product. It’s more like something you work with – a co-worker almost.
“The closest relative would be maybe Wall-E from the Disney movie, or maybe even a Transformer or something like that. We’re very excited about this.”
The Lego Technic Zeux concept wheel loader will be in shops this August, with prices for each market to be determined. As for the real thing? That’ll be some time further into the future, one that will have been, in part, designed by the children of today.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/building-a-real-life-wall-e-how-kids-helped-lego-technic-and-volvo-design-the-autonomous-zeux-wheel-loader
Friday 29 June 2018
Thursday 28 June 2018
Segway's e-skates are a modern blast from the past
Inline skates may be relics of a bygone era, but that's not stopping Segway from bringing a modern twist to the totally radical mode of transportation.
Segway, best known for its scooters, has announced the Segway Drift W1, the first in what promises to be a line of e-skates.
The brand new category is all about easy-to-use mobile transportation. From photos and the video below, it appears as though you simply step on the skates before you're whisked away.
The e-skates use Segway's self-balancing technology, so you *should* stay upright. Think of these as hoverboards with independent pieces for each of your feet.
Segway's latest invention is clearly aimed at younger folks, those who grew up with Heely shoes. Us 1980s' babies and older will probably pass.
There's not a ton of detail on the skate's themselves, other than they are "easy to carry, lightweight and small." The Glide W1 do have slip-resistant foot mats, so your shoes should stay gripped to the top.
We'll see if e-skates ever catch on. To us, the riders look a little wobbly, so it's probably going to take lots of practice and plenty of spills to get the hang of the Glide W1. We suggest you consider wearing elbow, wrist and knee pads, too.
Segway will reveal more on the e-skates during IFA 2018, going down in Berlin this September. More product specs and where the Glide W1 will be available – as well as how much the e-skates cost – should be revealed soon.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/segways-e-skates-are-a-modern-blast-from-the-past
The best small business servers of 2018
if you have a growing small or medium sized business, then you'll want to make sure you have the best server for your business needs. These are essential tools for a modern company, and while cloud-based servers are gaining popularity, on-site servers that you operate yourself can still be the best way to go.
It also means it's easier, and more affordable, to expand your SMB server as your business grows.
In this top 10 list of the best SMB servers, we've selected the crème de la crème of servers, ranging from those aimed at small businesses to the sort that bigger enterprises depend on.
So here, in no particular order, are the top servers for small and medium businesses
A bewildering array of SKU (stock keeping units) mean that you sometimes have to sift through entire price lists in order to find the needles in the proverbial haystack. Take the T30 from Dell: You can buy it either as a barebones or as a fully configured server. Aimed at the entry-level/SoHo market, the T30 manages to squeeze a lot of expansion potential into a compact, quiet mini-tower chassis plus it comes with a wealth of server features by default making it an ideal alternative to an office workstation.
Servers do not have to be massive or expensive. Take the PowerEdge T20 for example; it has benefited from a wealth of knowledge derived from the 20 years of experience Dell has building servers. While the barebones version doesn't have a hard drive, it's certainly cheap – in the recent past, it has been priced at less than £100 (with cashback offers, that is – it’s always well worth keeping an eye out for these).
It has a Haswell-based Pentium processor that can clock up to 3GHz and supports up to 32GB DDR3 ECC RAM (note that this model comes with 4GB). Expansion capabilities include four SATA ports (32TB if you use 8TB hard drives), four I/O slots and 10 USB ports. Astoundingly for a PC of this price, you also get two DisplayPort connectors, a VGA one, two PS2 and one serial port. Other than a Gigabit Ethernet port, the other points of interest are a 290W PSU and an Intel-based RAID controller.
Read the full review: Dell PowerEdge T20 [barebones]
Lenovo took over IBM's x86 server range back in 2014 and has built on the best of the ThinkServer tradition. The TS150 is now the most affordable of the range and is a 4U enterprise-class server that competes with the Dell T20. It comes with support for RAID 0,1,10 and 5 (via an on-board controller). Like the competition, this one can accommodate up to four 3.5-inch HDDs in total, which means that it can go up to 40TB of storage when loaded with the relevant hard drives. The relatively-recent Intel Xeon E3-1200 v6 processor should be powerful enough for small and medium enterprises.
Lenovo also claims that the acoustics of the TS150 are even quieter than a typical library at 26 decibels. As is the case for the competition, you also get an impressive array of ports and connectors: eight USB ports, four PCI/PCI-e slots, three video connectors (including a pair of DisplayPorts), Serial, Gigabit Ethernet and three audio connectors.
There is sometimes a very fine line between workstations and servers and there is probably no better example than the 5039A-IL from Supermicro. It is part of its SuperWorkstation range but works just as well as a server with acres of upgrade space. Given that it is a barebones solution, the 5039A-IL is especially suitable for small businesses with niche needs like creative houses that might want a server that's a bit more than just a print or file server.
This single socket, mid-tower behemoth (it weighs in at 18.1kg without any parts) offers some impressive tech on board: You can specify Skylake processors (Xeon or Core i3/5/7), up to 64GB of DDR4 ECC memory, plus there's USB 3.1, HDMI, and twin Gigabit ports on the connectivity front, and 7.1 audio to boot. Its expansion capabilities are also breath-taking: DVI/DisplayPort/VGA, serial, eight SATA ports, six PCI/PCI-e slots and support for up to eight (yes, eight) hard disk drives, all powered by a 500W PSU. Supermicro, while not a household name, is one of the biggest server and workstation manufacturers out there with decades of experience.
When you think about servers, Fujitsu is probably not the first vendor which springs to mind. And yet, the Japanese manufacturer is one of the very few (if not the only one) that can claim to be involved in anything from SMB servers to, well, supercomputers. The TX1310 is its entry-level, SMB-focused server and comes with some pretty solid credentials plus an unmatched, industry-leading reliability guarantee. If your server breaks down within the first year of purchase, not only will Fujitsu fix or replace it, the company will also refund you the amount you paid for the server.
Like pretty much everyone at this end of the market, it is designed to run silently 24/7 and offers RAID 0/1/10 but not 5. This model incudes an Intel Xeon E3-1226 v3, two 1TB hard drives and 16GB of RAM. We like the fact that it comes with an optical drive and has two Gigabit Ethernet ports for redundancy. With four DIMM slots and four storage bays, this server supports up to 32TB of storage and 32GB of memory.
One of the fastest growing segments of the server market is dominated by a single company. HP Enterprise's Proliant Microserver Gen8 has successfully managed to fend off competition – thanks to an attractive feature mix and plenty of discounts – and ultimately own this market. These tiny servers have found a market well outside their niche with prosumers buying them en masse and touting their obvious advantages over NAS (network attached storage).
Despite being very small (less than 13l in volume) and light (less than 7kg), this machine packs some impressive capabilities. We're talking support for Intel's Xeon E3 family, up to 16GB of RAM, on system management processor, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one PCIe slot, support for RAID 0/1/10, a DVD writer, up to four hard disk drives, an internal microSD card slot, an integrated Matrox G200 graphics chip and seven USB ports. It only has a VGA port, though, and has just two memory modules.
Read the full review: HP Proliant Microserver Gen8
If you want something a bit beefier than the aforementioned servers, then consider the TS460. It is far more expensive but then again you get a server that's in another league. For a start, it is far bigger than the previously mentioned servers with a 50 litre volume and a 25kg weight. This 5U server runs on Intel's Xeon E3 models with Turbo Boost technology plus it offers a three-year onsite warranty.
It supports up to 64GB of RAM and its integrated RAID controller offers the four main RAID types. You get a DVD writer, four fans, a 300W PSU and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Up to eight hard disk drives can be installed and there are a whopping eight USB ports as well. There's a lockable door, support for ECC memory, plus a serial and a VGA connector.
Pitching in the same category as the TS440 is the ML350. This is an expensive piece of kit but just look at the feature list and it actually seems like a very decent deal. Other than the fact that it has a dedicated, integrated graphics card (Matrox G200), it offers a three-year onsite next business day warranty, four Gigabit Ethernet ports and support for 12Gbps SAS (note that it takes only 2.5-inch drives).
But there's more – this server runs an Intel Xeon E5-2603 v3 processor (not the usual E3 CPU) and supports two CPUs. The E5 has six cores which makes it particularly well-suited for more taxing tasks. We're also impressed by the amount of memory slots (24) that it has, allowing it to hit 3TB of memory once 128GB LRDIMM roll out. Oh and other than a lockable front door and a storage controller, this server earns brownie points for having dual redundant, hot-swappable 500W PSUs.
A powerful server doesn't have to be expensive – that's essentially what Scan wants to convey to prospective customers. Specifically designed for the SMB market, this 3XS offering is engineered to be compact and as quiet as possible. The UK-based vendor provides real-time tracking at every stage of the server build process (the servers are built to order, and production includes a 24 hour burn test and 88 point QC check ). Each comes with a three-year onsite warranty; what's more, you get a free recovery USB stick with diagnostic utilities.
If that wasn't enough, the components used in the system are amongst the best in our round-up. Two Broadwell-based Intel Xeon E5-2603 v4 processors provide a total of 12 cores and 30MB of cache. Then there's 64GB of DDR4 ECC RAM from Samsung, a 1TB WD Enterprise-class hard disk drive, two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports, a 1000W Gold PSU and support for eight hard disk drives. Built by Corsair, the case has a door and all the panels are lined with noise damping material.
Like Supermicro, Asus is not well known for its servers. Instead, the Taiwanese company, one of the biggest component vendors in the world, is popular for a wide range of consumer products including its motherboards. Its TS500-E8-PS4 is a mainstream pedestal 5U tower server perfectly built for both workstation and server dual use.
It features the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product families, eight DDR4 DIMMs (supporting half a terabyte of RAM), six expansion slots, three 5.25-inch media bays and a single 500W 80 Plus Bronze power supply. There are four 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS HDD bays which is also upgradable to eight HDD bays for flexible storage requirements.
In addition, with Intel's Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 2.0-compliant ASMB8-iKVM module in the TS500 you'll be able to monitor, control and manage the server remotely. Other key specs include 10 SATA ports, a DVD writer, eight USB ports, a PS2 port, a VGA one and three Gigabit Ethernet ports. Note that this is a barebones server, but obviously that gives you plenty of flexibility - something this machine offers in spades.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/best-small-business-servers
Two thirds of UK workers want more duties automated
Machines shouldn't replace people in boring meetings, but they're welcome to take the minutes according to a new survey of 1,200 UK employees.
The results come courtesy of ABBYY, a leading provider of AI-based technologies for text analytics, data extraction and language translation. Earlier this month the company surveyed 1,200 UK workers in retail, education, healthcare, IT and transport/logistics.
One of the least surprising statistics was the workforce’s shared distaste for team meetings. For 24% of those surveyed, this was their most hated activity. By contrast, only 12% cited customer interaction or manual data entry as the worst parts of their day.
Despite that, meetings – no matter how dull – were seen as valuable duties, and one of the activities employees were least likely to want automated. Respondents were much more likely to consider delegating data entry (16% of those surveyed), filing (12%), or minute-taking (14%) to a robot or AI system.
Head of ABBYY UK Paul Goodenough told TechRadar that outsourcing more mundane duties would mean that “the general level of job satisfaction will be higher, they’ll be less stressed, and they’ll like talking to their colleagues more.
“What AI is doing is taking those less attractive parts of any role and making people’s lives easier on a day-to-day basis.“
An uncertain future
While anxieties over human redundancy remain, being able to automate dull rote processes seems likely to free up workers’ time rather than replace them entirely – at least in the short term.
Another study, by software specialist Drooms, found that most firms in the legal sector were counting on AI to vastly improve workplace efficiency, with only 23% believing the impact would be minimal.
But even as corporate environments warm to the potential benefits, there seems to be a different opinion among the wider UK population.
A separate survey by global intelligence platform Streetbees, also released this month, found that two-thirds of UK respondents predicted an ‘economic crisis’ over machines filling ever more jobs in the workforce, while a quarter feared that a machine could likely perform their job now.
Concerns are likely to persist as the impact of AI becomes more pronounced in the workplace, unless workers are reassured that they’ll reap the benefits of more efficient processes, and that their interests will be protected.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/two-thirds-of-uk-workers-want-more-duties-automated
Remaining World Cup 2018 coverage will be simulcast on both SBS and Optus
Major Australian telco Optus had to briefly sacrifice its exclusivity rights to the country's World Cup 2018 coverage last week when technical issues plagued its Optus Sport broadcast and fans rebelled. The telco has now officially granted SBS permission to air all remaining games.
After obtaining rights to air 64 of the Russian World Cup matches, Optus decided to exclusively show them on its Optus Sport streaming service, which cost $14.99 a month for those that didn’t already have a membership.
However, from day one of broadcasts, fans attempting to stream games on the service experienced considerable lag alongside app crashes and freezes, and that disruption led the telco to simulcast the next 48 hours of matches on local broadcaster SBS while it attempted to address the technical issues. This was then extended to all group-stage matches, and now the remainder of the Cup.
Optus responds
"Our customers and viewers have been the priority in our decision making,” Optus CEO Allen Lew said in a statement that claimed the telco “puts football fans first”.
“That's why we have provided several ways to watch the matches, offered refunds and introduced a range of measures to address the technical issues experienced by some Optus Sport viewers.”
The statement concluded with an open offer that invites all Australians to trial Optus Sport for free until August 31.
For those that signed up to the service purely for the streaming of the 2018 World Cup, there aren’t any explicit instructions on how to approach the possibility of a refund, but since the telco explicitly mentioned it has offered refunds, we'd recommend contacting Optus' support team if you wish to pursue that line of inquiry.
"With eight million Australians tuning into SBS’s coverage to date, we know how passionate the country is about the world game,” SBS managing director Michael Ebeid said in a statement. “[We] are confident fans will continue to engage with the matches as we head towards the end of the competition in Russia.”
source http://www.techradar.com/news/remaining-world-cup-2018-coverage-will-be-simulcast-on-both-sbs-and-optus
Wednesday 27 June 2018
7 really annoying things that tech will fix forever
Whenever somebody tries to get us excited about a new technology, the same question always pops into our minds: what problem does it solve? For technology to be truly useful it needs to provide the answer to a question – sometimes before we even realize we were asking it.
Sometimes the problems can be big ones. Smartwatches can be used to vastly improve health research and help us battle killer conditions. In the Amazon, smartphones are used to battle deforestation. E-bikes are revolutionizing city transport.
And sometimes the problems are little – but that doesn’t mean solving them isn’t a big deal. Technology that neutralizes niggles and eliminates irritations makes the world a better place. Here are seven really annoying things that tech will fix forever.
Don’t you just love hearing that “your call is important to us” when you’re stuck in a queue that demonstrates the opposite? A lot of the calls we make waste enormous amounts of time for what are actually very small tasks: getting a better price on your car insurance, perhaps, or booking a hairdresser or doctor’s appointment.
It’s in its very early stages – and of course, you can’t trust a tech demo to reflect reality – but Google Duplex shows how tech can solve the problem by offloading administrivia to AI. By combining natural language processing, uncannily good speech synthesis and artificial intelligence it can make the calls you don’t want to, and it’s useful not just for the time-poor but for people who don’t speak the same language as the business they need to contact.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to drive badly, and while that may frustrate bad drivers it’s brilliant news for the rest of us. According to the US National Safety Council, in the US alone more than 40,000 people lost their lives in car accidents in 2017, but technology is making it harder for accidents to happen, and making more crashes survivable.
The latest Volvo XC60 shows the current state of the automotive safety art. It has automatic emergency braking (AEB) to prevent collisions – new cars in Europe can’t get a five-star safety rating if they don’t have it – and its particular implementation can also detect cyclists and large animals. It can stop you driving off the edge of the road, and if it detects an imminent head-on collision it will try to steer you out of danger. It’ll even pull over if you fall asleep.
Technology won’t fix dangerous driving altogether – as recent Tesla crashes show, Autopilot isn’t infallible – until or unless we have fully automated vehicles that don’t let humans interfere at all. But it can do a lot to make the roads safer in the meantime.
You’d think that by now we’d have got rid of cables. Nope! We’re still cursing the various incompatible formats for our many devices. But the signs are – poor electrical pun ahead – positive.
Wireless charging is widespread in Android and has finally made it to iPhones, and it’s just a matter of time before it’s in all our mobile devices; the thick cabling that made VR headsets so cumbersome is on the way out as wireless becomes the norm; and WiTricity reckons wireless charging for cars is about to reach a tipping point.
The big benefit of wireless isn’t getting rid of cables at home, but rather on the road – it’s enabling you to get frequent top-ups when you park so that range anxiety is no longer an issue. The more electric cars that take to our roads, the more useful wireless charging will become.
Wireless charging also helps address the big worry of our time: battery fear. Whether it’s a phone or a car, worrying about running out of puff is something we all experience all the time, partly because battery tech isn’t improving as quickly as things-that-use-batteries tech is. Widespread wireless charging won’t make battery chemistry any different, but it will enable us to top up here, there and everywhere.
Keys are so 20th century. Now that Apple has followed in Android’s footsteps and decided that NFC (Near Field Communication) is a good thing after all, iOS 12 will reportedly support electronic keys and other NFC features.
If you’ve enjoyed the benefits of paperless traveling – using your phone for boarding passes and train tickets, for paying for things and for having your phone automatically show you a document you need when you need it – the prospect of keyless keys and passes is a very tasty one.
Such keys wouldn’t just work for hotel rooms but for your own car or a hire car, for access to particular bits of buildings or for your front door. Losing your phone then becomes a problem, but the same applies to losing physical keys – and unlike physical keys, you can’t use your ID to log in to another device to get around the problem.
Passwords are rubbish: they're hard to remember, easily guessed, and in many cases reused across multiple sites and services – and the more digital our lives get, the more of a problem that becomes. So it’s good to see passwords in terminal decline.
It started with fingerprint sensors in our phones, then moved to facial recognition. Apple’s FaceID is clearly coming to iPads next, and it’s just a matter of time before it moves to the Mac. Windows PCs have had biometric recognition for some time too, but the big step forwards in this area is Intel’s Authenticate. Intel wants its security system to replace workplace passwords altogether, replacing them with a mix of face recognition, fingerprint scanning, phone proximity and good old-fashioned PINs.
We can’t believe this is still a thing: watching our supposedly smart TV requires us to use not one remote but two, and while all our AV kit is from the same brand we need to use different remotes for the audio system, the TV, the console and the various other things connected to them.
Universal remotes have been around for decades and haven’t solved the problem, but personal digital assistants will. In much the same way we marvel that people used to change channels by pressing buttons on the front of a TV set, our kids will be amazed that we waved plastic sticks at our devices.
Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Bixby – or their successors – will take on that role as we shift from asking for channels or features to requesting content, for example by saying “Hey Siri, play the next episode of Westworld”, rather than changing inputs so we can watch Netflix.
Forget flying cars and think instead of bikes. E-bikes and e-scooters have the potential to transform our cities: they’re small, they don’t pollute much, they’re great for people with mobility issues that prevent them from using normal bikes, they get you from A to B faster than an autonomous car can ever manage, and they won’t fall from the sky if something goes wrong or the battery goes flat.
Self-driving cars need stacks of space and tons of expensive charging infrastructure; bikes and scooters just need a normal plug socket from time to time. With prices plummeting – you can get a good e-bike for about £600 now – they’re going to have a much bigger impact than autonomous vehicles.
The ideal future of traffic would be clean, green public transport – such as the Hyperloop, if we can be sure it won’t turn us into pink mist – for big distances, and e-bikes and other personal electric vehicles for shorter hops.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/7-really-annoying-things-that-tech-will-fix-forever
Tuesday 26 June 2018
Why Singapore could soon be the world's smartest city
Long renowned as one of the world’s foremost trading hubs, Singapore is looking to lead the way on becoming a global leader when it comes to smart city technology.
With the likes of Japan, South Korea and China all nearby, and also hoping to strike ahead in futuristic technology, the challenge of staying out in front is greater than ever. So how does a country the size of the Isle of Man ensure its work is recognised?
"There was a determination to transform what we do with technology," Chan Cheow Hoe, the Singapore government chief information officer, told TechRadar Pro.
Singapore is of course in a rather unique position in being both a city, and a country in its own right, meaning the challenges faced by Cheow Hoe and his team are even more in the public eye.
Fortunately Cheow Hoe is also the CEO of GovTech, the agency responsible for implementing technology into everyday life meaning that his projects are often well-supported by the Singaporean government and see encouraging pick-up.
This is particularly crucial when it comes to smart cities, as the City of Lions looks to stride ahead in its bid to be an example to the rest of the world.
Cheow Hoe joined the Singapore government five years ago following a long career in banking, but in this time has helped transform the world’s 19th-smallest nation into one of the most innovative around.
He and his small team have introduced and a wide number of smart services aimed at improving the lives of Singaporean citizens, quite literally over the course of their entire lives.
The Singapore Government is soon set to launch the Moments of Life platform, which aims to simplify the main events of someone’s life with the help of technology. Cheow Hoe notes that for many citizens, the only occasions they contact the government concerns major life events, such as registering a birth, getting a marriage certificate, or notifying a death.
Moments of Life looks to streamline what was often a complex procedure with new technology that simplifies these procedure on an easy-to-use online hub, taking the hassle out of what can be extremely stressful times of a person’s life.
The country is also looking at introducing a ‘Moments of Business’ service which will look to streamline the process of starting a company, again taking the stress out of vital processes such as applying for a restaurant licence.
Cheow Hoe notes that this whole approach is part of transforming Singapore’s government services from a transactional level to one of providing help, and hopefully removing any friction between citizens and government.
"It's totally transforming the way we think about government services,” he says.
The government is also responsible for running Singapore’s national digital identity programme, known as SINGPASS. Set up 15 years ago, the platform automatically registers citizens for all government digital services, allowing them to pre-fill forms for occasions such as setting up a bank account or applying for housing.
Singapore’s work isn’t just dedicated to governing lives, however - but also saving them. One of the biggest successes for Cheow Hoe’s team was a mobile app that alerts nearby citizens trained in first aid when someone has a medical emergency nearby.
The myResponder mobile app sends a push notification to anyone within a 400m radius of a cardiac arrest case, and so far over 14,000 citizens have signed up to the service - which has been responsible for saving an incredible four lives since its launch.
So how does Singapore shape up as a smart city?
The nation was quick to recognise the potential of technology, and today Cheow Hoe notes that there are hundreds of thousands of sensors around Singapore, gathering data from traffic congestion to utility readings.
As mentioned, the city itself is essentially the country of Singapore, meaning that there are few headaches relating to geography and technology - like those seen in the UK’s rural broadband struggles.
In fact, Cheow Hoe notes that there are very few networking challenges in Singapore, as the densely populated landscape of the 265 square mile nation means that it is easy to mount new hardware to help boost capacity.
"Singapore is lucky,” he says, “we don't worry about connectivity and power because it is everywhere."
Cheow Hoe highlights Singapore’s national fibre network, enough to allow that each home has two 1GBps lines - far and away ahead of the UK. The nation is also in the process of upgrading to 5G, however given its existing capacity, this is not as pressing a concern - despite having one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world.
“We don't need everything in 5G”, Cheow Hoe notes, stating that making Singapore as smart as it can be is a more pressing concern.
So where can Singapore go next? Cheow Hoe wants the nation to become a model to the rest of the world, and Singapore has in fact hosted the Digital Government Exchange event for some time, inviting figures from world governments to see the work it is doing and share knowledge on how to overcome the big global challenges.
"Every country does something good, it's important we learn from them too," Cheow Hoe says, adding that cross-nation partnerships will become increasingly important as the world gets smarter and more connected.
He notes that his team has at least three or four “very complex” projects coming soon, but that ultimately, the work they do is vital in improving the quality of life using technology
"For us, it's about better living, more opportunities, and better communities,” he says, “if it doesn't affect these, why do we do it?”
source http://www.techradar.com/news/why-singapore-could-soon-be-the-worlds-smartest-city
Monday 25 June 2018
The best small business printers of 2018
If you have a small business, then you'll want the best business printer that will fit into your office, while offering you and your team fast and dependable printing. With a small business, you'll want an affordable printer, which doesn't skimp on print quality due to its low price.
It'll need to be robust enough have have a number of people sending documents to it throughout the day, and if it can also handle photocopying and scanning as well, then that's even better.
So, without further ado, here is our list of the 10 best small business printers on the market today. If you're not sure about what type of business printer you need, head to the bottom of our guide, where we explain the best ways to find and buy the best small business printer that suits your needs.
So where do you need to start? Even the most modest office will likely be networked, and sharing a resource as useful as a printer is an essential. So you should only be looking at printers that are capable of networked use. Wired offers speed and robust function for a fixed office. Wireless is flexible, cheap to deploy but not as fast in use.
Here are the best 10 printers for businesses - as chosen by the Techradar Pro team - large and small, from a basic monochrome lasers suitable for a small business and a home office through to a small departmental multifunction printer.
The notion of the large, expensive laser printer should have long been dispelled and if nothing else can do that then the Ricoh SP-213w will. This small-footprint mono printer costs less than many inkjets but has the capability to provide basic wireless-based print services to a home office or smaller office. With a monthly duty cycle of 20,000 pages per month, a 1200 x 600dpi print resolution and a print speed of up to 22 pages per minute, its small size shouldn't hide the fact that this could be a little workhorse. Beyond these basics, the Ricoh SP-213w offers manual duplex, a Print and Scan mobile app, support for PCL and a two-year pan-European warranty.
If you want an affordable printer for your business that excels in black and white print quality - and is a speedy performer to boot - then you really can't go wrong with the Samsung Xpress M2835DW. Its small and compact body contains a huge host of features, and its easy to use and understand buttons makes quickly firing off prints a piece of cake.
It supports both wired and Wi-Fi connectivity, runs quietly and can even be controlled via smartphone. Its Eco mode allows you to control the amount of power and ink it consumes while printing, and overall this is an absolutely fantastic business printer.
The Brother HL-L8360CDW is an excellent all-round printer for the office. Thanks to its large capacity and fast print speeds, this is a printer that won't grind to a halt in a busy environment.
It's not just fast either - the print quality is also very good as well. It prints in both black and white and colour, and it has low running costs as well, making this an economical choice in the long run.
There was a time, not so long ago, when colour laser printing was exorbitant. That has fortunately changed with the likes of the Ricoh SPC-240DN doing their best to bring prices down. This is a massive printer at nearly 24kg so you will need to have a strong back and enough desk space to take it on board. Its starter toner kit will produce around 1000 pages and probably better than inkjet ones which dry out with time. It can print up to 16 pages per minute (colour or mono) and has a duty cycle of 30,000 pages per month. It offers both Ethernet and USB ports and, with a 250-page input paper tray, has enough to make a small office pleased. However, at 600 x 600dpi, its print resolution may leave some wanting for more.
The HP PageWide Pro 477dw isn't going to win any design awards but what it lacks in aesthetics it really does make up for in functionality and speed. This entry-level office multi-function inkjet printer offers all the standard print, copy, scan and fax features you'd want to see in an office workhorse. Add to that wired Ethernet alongside wireless networking and it has all the connectivity, too (including Wi-Fi Direct and NFC). Suited to the home and smaller small office, it has a conveniently compact footprint, until you open its paper trays to print. A top speed of 55ppm is stunning for this class of printer, particularly considering its asking price. The inclusion of a 50-sheet automatic document feeder adds to an all-round excellent paper handling capability. Its ability to multitask with print and copy jobs nicely complements the large touch-capable LCD screen.
Consumables are usually expensive when it comes to printers. So it is quite surprising that one vendor, Epson, single-handedly decided to challenge that status quo by allowing users to refill their printer using ink bottles. What's even more surprising is that Epson includes two years of ink with the package; no more expensive cartridges and instead, you have enough material to deliver 11,000 pages worth of black and colour inks (that's 700ml worth of liquid). Oh and there's even a three-year warranty making this a great choice for bean counters fixing the TCO of their printers. The ET-4550 lacks the features found on cheaper competitors – it is relatively slower (although it has a higher printing resolution) and has a small paper input tray.
Ricoh makes it four in our shortlist with the SG-2100N, a bargain basement printer that brings together the best of inkjet and laser technology. It delivers the sort of performance usually associated with devices costing three times its price. A water insoluble, viscous ink combined with a higher-than-average print resolution and a print speed – 29ppm – that surpasses anything at this price range (albeit in draft) make this Ricoh printer one of the best on the market for very small offices. Other features worth noting are manual duplex capabilities, a two-year onsite warranty (parts and labour), a well thought out design, affordable consumables, an Ethernet port and a generous input paper tray.
Read the full review: Ricoh SG-2100N
The HP Officejet Pro 8720 All-in-One is a practical and affordable business printer that also comes with copy and fax capabilities, and it can connect to your network wirelessly as well. It's an excellent fit for small to medium-sized businesses, but for larger organisations it may struggle to keep up. It's got excellent printing speeds, however, and the touch screen makes it simple to use. However, it lacks a few business-orientated features that its more expensive brethren boast,and it's not quite the best when it comes to print quality, either. However, this is an excellent business printer if you're conscious of your budget.
This is a heavyweight colour laser multifunction device intended for small business or workgroup use. Its slabby black and white design is functional and includes a large touchscreen for control, though the printer is only rated up to a recommended 3,000 pages per month. The MFC-L8650CDW includes a 50-sheet automatic document feeder which handles duplex scans and the printer offers duplex copying and printing as well; a welcome surprise! It's rated at 28ppm for both black and colour prints dropping to about seven sheets when printing in duplex. It can handle input from USB, Ethernet or via wireless hook-up, with support for iOS and Android mobiles. A USB port offers scanning to and printing from USB drives.
If only the fastest printer will do, then consider the HL-S7000DN. Surprisingly enough, it is an inkjet printer rather than a laser one. It's fast enough to print out the entire contents of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) in about 20 minutes at the speed of 100 pages per minute (that's roughly 500 words per second). If your needs are less ambitious, then the 500-sheet capacity of its input and output tray should suffice. There's also a 100-sheet multipurpose tray to accommodate other media types. As expected, it prints at a resolution of 600 x 600dpi, has a Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 port. Its maximum monthly duty cycle, 275,000 pages or 16 A4 reams printed every day, should satisfy even the busiest offices.
How to buy a business printer
Multi-function features can be found across the board and at all cost scales. Basic features start with USB Key and card readers for PC-free printing, moving to scanner and copier functions. At the higher end, automatic document feeders (ADF) can manage 50 copies in a single go and produce booklets including duplex printing, stapling and folding. Often the basic ADF features will accommodate most medium-sized offices.
In the past there has been a marked difference in Cost Per Page (CPP) between lasers and inkjets but in recent years, inkjets have managed to drop their prices to compete. Either way it's important you carefully assess the CPP of each device.
Manufacturers measure the toner or cartridge yields with an industry standard ISO rating. So you can safely assess the total price of replacing all the cartridges or toners divided by the print yield across all the potential models.
The total volume of prints you're going to make also needs to be taken into account. Devices often quote a "duty cycle" monthly maximum and recommended figures. These are the total number of prints it's designed to handle per month. If possible assess the number of prints per employee for the office and ensure the device is capable of meeting your current and future demands.
Finally in the past colour especially for laser printers has demanded a premium, that's not so much the case these days. However these models are still more expensive due to the additional materials required for the toners and printer manufacture. There's still a big enough differential that if you don't need regular colour you should opt for a mono model, perhaps using a cheaper inkjet or even out-of-house printing for occasional colour requirements.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/best-business-printer-top-10-printers-for-your-office-reviewed-and-tested
The 10 best 3D printers of 2018
If you're interested in exciting world of 3D printing, then our guide to the best 3D printers in 2018 will help you get started. Just because you want to buy a new 3D printer, it doesn't mean you have to spend ages researching and then spending huge amounts of money.
Our list of the best 3D printers contains clear and concise information on a wide range of 3D printers, helping you to choose the best 3D printer for your needs.
Meanwhile, our price comparison tool searches the internet to find the very best deals on 3D printers, so when you've found the 3D printer that's right for you, you can buy confident in the knowledge that you're paying the best price. From desktop 3D printers for hobbyists, to professional-grade 3D printers for making huge sculptures, we've listed the very best.
The MakerBot Replicator+ is the successor to the popular MakerBot Replicator 3D printer, and the new version has brought improvements to nearly every part of the Replicator. This means the Replicator+ is faster and quieter than the previous version, while maintaining its excellent design and safety features. This desktop 3D printer is expensive, but it offers excellent print quality, and uses 1.75mm polylactic acid (PLA) filament. It's also user-friendly enough for home users and hobbyists to use - as long as your budget can stretch to the high asking price.
If you're looking for a budget 3D printer, then there really is no better option than the XYZprinting da Vinci Mini. It remains one of the most affordable ways to get into 3D printing, and also the easiest, thanks to an easy-to-use interface. Just because it's a budget model, doesn't mean it doesn't produce good results, and the 3D printed objects it creates are very impressive considering the price - and size - of this 3D printer. Speaking of size, the XYZprinting da Vinci Mini is an impressively compact printer that makes it easy to store in an office or on a desk.
The Ultimaker 2+ is a 3D printer that offers amazing print quality, making it one of the best 3D printers for professional use. It is incredibly reliable when it comes to producing 3D models, and the accuracy of the 3D replications is incredibly impressive. If you need a 3D printer that can reliably reproduce many 3D objects accurately, this is a fantastic choice. However, it is expensive, and the fact that it is aimed at professional environments means it's less beginner-friendly than some of the other 3D printers here. Home users are better off looking elsewhere.
The Formlabs Form 2 is an excellent 3D printer for enthusiasts who don't mind paying extra to get the very best print quality. It's a beautifully-designed 3D printer, and can be connected to PCs via USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet. It doesn't quite have the print reliability of the Ultimaker 2+, but the print quality more than makes up for a few errors.
The M3D Micro 3D Printer is an excellent 3D printer for beginners. Its low price means you're not investing lots of money if you're not entirely sure 3D printing is for you, while the compact, cube, design means it can be easily placed within the home or office. It looks good, and is impressively quiet when in use. The print quality isn't the best, however, and it is only able to make small models (not too surprising, considering the diminutive size). However, if you're looking for your first 3D printer, this is an excellent choice.
The FlashForge Creator Pro 2017 is the best 3D printer that sits between budget 3D printers and expensive professional models. It's a lot cheaper than pro models, though it maintains the build quality and reliability that you'd come to expect from a professional 3D printer. It's not quite as cheap as the budget and beginner models in this list, but it offers greater accuracy when printing 3D models. It is a tad noisy in use, however.
If you're looking for a first 3D printer to learn the ropes with, then the LulzBot Mini is another excellent choice. It's got a decent price, and is easy to use, though the print speed is quite slow. The hardware is open source, which means it has a flexibility that propitiatory hardware lacks, as a committed community of makers can work together to create add-ons for the printer.
The bulk of home 3D printers are limited to one- or two-colour printing, but the CubePro Trio has the capability to print three different materials in one session. This can be especially useful if you want to create an enclosed mechanism: nylon can be used for the gears, ABS for the surround and PLA for the support structure that can then be dissolved with caustic soda. The CubePro is an ideal solution for modellers and engineers who need to create 3D prints with moving parts.
In general terms 3D printers are designed as boxes with purpose, however BeeTheFirst has created a printer with both quality of print and actual design in mind – this is a machine that really wouldn't look out of place in a modern living room. BeeTheFirst has also thought about how and where people will be wanting to use their printers – at work, home or both – and has incorporated a thin design with a handle that enables the printer to be easily transported.
Initially you might be hard pressed to see the differences between the Taz 5 and 6; both feature a solid open frame build, large print base and ease of use.
However take a closer look at the refinements in design and improvements in usability and the upgrades quickly stand out. Features such as the auto leveling base has evolved from the one featured on the Luzbot Mini and works just as well on this larger scale, and the slight changes to frame layout and control panel are all welcome.
The Taz 6 is a big machine with an impressive print area of 280mm x 280mm x 250mm, with a 0.5mm nozzle capable of a minimum layer height of 75 microns and takes 2.85mm filament.
- Here's our pick of the best traditional 2D printers
source http://www.techradar.com/news/best-3d-printer
The best business monitors of 2018: top displays for work
Choosing the best business monitor for your needs is quite possibly the wisest, and most important, move you can make, as it's likely that you often spend hours at a time in front of a monitor for work, which means having a monitor that's easy on the eyes is essential.
Making sure you have the best business monitor doesn't just mean your work will look better (although that's a plus), it also means your eyesight and physical health will benefit from a better screen as well.
Choosing the correct monitor doesn't only mean getting one that doesn't flicker, or that looks nice. There's also the productivity aspect as well. Large screen sizes and high resolutions will give you more workspace - and ultra-wide aspect ratios are even better for productivity, though this all comes at a price.
The total cost of ownership is also something to account for - especially if you are looking to fill an entire office with them.
Below are the best business monitors that we have shortlisted, and each of them with comes with their own specific strengths which may make them more useful for some audiences than others.
- Here's our list of the best monitors of 2018
The Dell UltraSharp UP3218K is the best business monitor we've ever tried, however it won't be for everyone. The huge 32-inch screen and 8K resolution makes it perfect for photographers and video editors, and the amount of screen real estate that high resolution offers makes it an excellent productivity tool. The screen is professionally calibrated so it looks amazing out of the box, but be warned: this is a very expensive monitor. Depending on your business, this will either be a brilliant buy, or an expensive folly.
The AOC PDS241 Porsche Design is a gorgeously designed monitor that would brighten up any desk it was placed on. It has an excellent price tag, which means you could realistically fill an office with these excellent screens.
Ports are limited to just a HDMI input, but for general office work, this should be fine. Most importantly, the image quality is excellent, making this an ideal addition to a modern office.
If you're a design professional looking for a monitor that provides you accurate colors, a range of features, professional calibration and a decent price, then the BenQ PD3200U is definitely worth considering. At 32-inches this is a large screen, but it means the UHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 doesn't make things too difficult to see or use. It has a no-nonsense design, plenty of features, such as a dark room mode and a mode that makes using CAD programmes easier to view, and the price is also very tempting. If you have a desk big enough to hold it, the BenQ PD3200U could be the best business monitor for you.
You’ll normally shell out an arm and a leg for a 4K display, but that’s not the case with Acer’s S277HK. This is a brilliant business monitor that offers some great features, and impressive image quality, while keeping the price at a reasonable level. You get a huge 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a color gamut of 1.07 billion and a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, which makes it an excellent monitor for graphic designers and professional photographers as well. The bezel-less design keeps the monitor from taking up too much room on your desk, but there's no way to wall mount this monitor.
When you think about a monitor, you don't just consider the screen, but also the cables and stand. In terms of the latter, the MB169B Plus is different – it is a portable USB-powered monitor which means that you can power it using a single USB 3.0 cable. It stands out thanks to a smart case that is an adjustable stand and a protective sleeve at the same time. With a full HD resolution and a 15.6-inch screen size, it will prove to be an invaluable accessory for those looking for extra real estate to work when away from their desks, or a presentation monitor for a small team. Bear in mind that you should be able to add a few to your PC should you wish.
BenQ offers the most affordable full HD monitor with an HDMI connector and it doesn't look that bad. The company embraced the Bauhaus "less is more" philosophy to deliver "a celebration of minimalist" lifestyle. Those are their words, not ours. It has some standout features though; one that reduces flicker (PWM technology) and a low blue light mode which may help with headaches and sleeping disorders. The stand design gives it a more expensive feel and its three ports (including two HDMI ones) are worthy of a mention, as is the two-year warranty and the VESA wall mounting option.
To tackle spreadsheets without having to squint, a large screen is recommended and this Acer monitor will give you acres of space (nearly twice that of the ViewSonic monitor) for not a lot of money. It has a low response time, a VESA bracket, three ports including a DVI one and a three-year warranty. As expected it comes with a number of Acer features like the glare-reducing ComfyView and the Adaptive Contrast Management which modifies contrast in real-time. The stand and the bezel could do with some improvement but overall, it is a keenly priced monitor that will provide businesses with plenty of display area without an enormous outlay.
Widescreen monitors have become mainstream, thanks to a gradual decrease in their prices, allowing businesses to fully embrace the concept of having a monitor that is far wider than it is high. The common perception is that gamers are the only ones to benefit from this. In truth even creative professionals and spreadsheet crunchers will appreciate the form factor. With a 21:9 aspect ratio, this affordable LG monitor can display 2560 x 1080 pixels on its 25-inch display. It offers splendid colour reproduction – thanks to the AH-IPS panel – and some cool features like Picture-in-Picture. Uniquely at this price, it offers two HDMI 2.0 ports but no other legacy ports.
This 4K monitor from AOC can display more than 8 million pixels at 60Hz, and is proof that ultra-high resolution displays are coming down in price while gaining some very useful features. This one for example comes with AMD's Freesync technology which reduces tearing. It also has a 1ms response time, 60Hz refresh rate and can even do Picture-in-Picture thanks to its four ports (including a DisplayPort and an HDMI 2.0 one). Sadly, it doesn't come with any VESA mount but at least its design and factory certified calibration make up for this.
This monitor is almost as expensive as the Dell 5K model but can only display a third of the pixels. Why would anyone buy it? Gamers, or professionals looking for an immersive experience (e.g. when developing VR solutions) might well consider doing so because they'll appreciate the curvature of this Acer monitor as well as its aspect ratio. Get a pair of them and you will cover a jaw-dropping panoramic 160-degree arc. There's plenty of connection options as well (HDMI, MHL and DisplayPort) as well as Freesync, a very thin frame, a USB hub, VESA mount and a pair of speakers.
source http://www.techradar.com/news/best-business-monitor
The best printers of 2018: inkjet, color, mono and laser printers
With our guide to the best printers of 2018, it has never been easier to find the perfect printer for your needs. We're constantly updating this list of the best printers, so keep checking back to find the newest printers.
No matter if you're looking for an all-singing-all-dancing all-in-one printer that can also copy and fax, or you need the best photo printer for printing out your holiday snaps, or a fast and dependable laser printer for the office, our list of the best printers in 2018 will help you.
In 2018, printers have never been better, and there are so many brilliant printers out there, all at very competitive prices, that you're spoilt for choice when looking for a new printer. This can make finding the best printer for your needs more complex, and that's where we come in.
Our list of the best printers cuts through the jargon to make buying your new printer as simple as possible. We've also split this list into the best inkjet printers and the best laser printers, and we include standard printers as well as multi-function ones. No matter what type of printer you're after, we have one for you, and our price comparison tool makes sure you get the best deals on the printer of your choice as well.
Best inkjet printers
The Deskjet 3630 is a decent printer for the price, offering reasonable print speeds and the ability to connect to mobile devices without breaking the bank. Just be wary as its ink cartridges can be priced when picked up from shops. It doesn't quite have the build quality of HP's more expensive Envy models, but if you're looking for an initially cheap model that catches the eye when sat on a shelf, the Deskjet 3630 is a great option.
Read the full review: HP Deskjet 3630
The WorkForce Pro WF-4630 is a solid printer for small businesses and workgroups given its fast print speeds, solid print qualities and remote printing and scanning capabilities. Using the larger XL print cartridges, the WF-4630 delivers economical print costs that rival laser printers.
Read the full review: Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630
Great for the traveling professional or someone who needs a small printer for occasional use, printing photos or using the scanner function. It's a bit pricey to buy - and to run - but the flexibility and quality of the printouts is excellent.
Consumables are usually expensive when it comes to printers. So it is quite surprising that one vendor, Epson, single-handedly decided to challenge that status quo by allowing users to refill their printer using ink bottles. What's even more surprising is that Epson includes two years of ink with the package; no more expensive cartridges and instead, you have enough material to deliver 11,000 pages worth of black and colour inks (that's 700ml worth of liquid). Oh and there's even a three-year warranty making this a great choice for bean counters fixing the TCO of their printers. The ET-4550 lacks the features found on cheaper competitors – it is relatively slower (although it has a higher printing resolution) and has a small paper input tray.
If you're looking for a great all-round printer which doesn't skimp on print quality for your photographs, then we don't think you will be disappointed by what the PIXMA TS9150, Canon's flagship printer, has to offer.
While it's certainly more expensive than some of the cheap two in one printers you can pick up, it's not a bad price for something which produces high quality prints, especially if you only need to print at A4 or below.
Best of all, the print quality here is stunning, and it also has an attractive design. While the looks of your printer may not seem that important, it does mean you don't feel the need to try and hide it away out of sight if you're using it at home.
Best laser printers
This temptingly priced printer offers 28ppm printing at up to 4,800 x 600 dpi (effective, rather than optical, resolution). With wired (Ethernet/USB) and wireless (Wi-Fi/NFC) connectivity, duplex printing, decent eco settings and support for a wide range of media, the Samsung is an excellent all-rounder, although the multi-purpose tray can only handle one sheet of media at a time. The main cassette has a more useful capacity of 250 sheets.
The M2070W delivers a lot of bang for your business buck – there's NFC printing from compatible smartphones, online document sharing, and a clever Eco system that supplements the usual toner saving mode with a feature to remove images from documents by replacing bitmaps with sketches.
Factor in claimed speeds of 20ppm, a clever scan to mobile feature and an effective print resolution of up to 1200dpi and you've got a multifunction printer that's well worth considering.
The DCP-9020CDW is a baby Brother – it's an entry-level all-in-one aimed at small offices, and with claimed speeds of 18ppm and a resolution of up to 2,400 dpi (effective) it has a decent spec for the price. It can upload to cloud services such as Dropbox and OneNote, it's wireless with WPS authentication and wireless direct printing, and its running costs are competitive. It also offers automatic duplex printing and its colour screen makes it easy to install and operate. This device is a solid all-rounder for PCs and mobile devices alike.
This is a colour laser printer, plain and simple. It has a relatively small footprint on the desk thanks to a surprisingly compact design. The printer is fitted with a 150-sheet main paper tray and a 100-sheet output tray, with an integrated drum/fuser unit and manual duplexing capabilities. Controls are adequate, with a two-line LCD display and a number of buttons for basic menu navigation. The C1760NW also offers an Ethernet connector, 802.11n Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 port; although there is no USB host connectivity. The printer is aimed at office or small workgroups and has a high-rated speed of 15ppm for black and colour. This is a good workhorse for everyday printing, where colour isn't a major part of the mix.
At the time of writing, this Brother was Amazon's best-selling laser, and with good reason – for very little cash you're getting a superb wireless colour laser. However, at this price don't expect rock-bottom running costs – it's a printer for livening up documents with the occasional flash of colour, not constant photo printing.
It doesn't have automatic duplexing or an Ethernet port, but the HL-3140CW delivers superb print quality, reasonable mono running costs and good wireless features for a very low price.
- What about the best 3D printers?
source http://www.techradar.com/news/best-printers