But a new development in battery technology could bring paper right back around to its former place of prominence, using it to power the very digital devices — smartphones, Kindles, laptops, etc. — that are increasingly replacing print.

By coating regular copier paper in ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, Stanford researchers have created highly conductive storage devices that can be bent, folded, and wrapped around other surfaces (energy-storing wallpaper, anyone?). The carbon nanotube ink adheres to the surface of the paper just like normal ink would, making paper the ideal vehicle for these thin, lightweight storage devices.

Since earlier research has shown that silicon nanowire batteries can be up to 10 times more powerful than lithium-ion batteries, researchers are hopeful the paper batteries will be able to power everything from automobiles to laptops to phones with smaller, lighter, more powerful and longer-lasting batteries. The method can also create simple supercapacitors with large surface areas that allow rapid energy discharge, a requirement for automobile power sources that lithium-ion batteries have trouble satisfying.

All of that would just be more pie-in-the-sky battery research if it were not for this: the paper battery technology is basically market-ready. That's not to say that researchers won't need some time to iron out the kinks, but power sources based on this technology could be commercialized very soon compared to a lot of the nano-noise circulating in scientific circles. The fact that the process is also very cheap means devices like these could be powering your paper-replacing devices sooner than you think. Get the details straight from Stanford's Yi Cui below. [PhysOrg, Forbes]

Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

Pixel Qi's last announced manufacturing date—residue of which still graces their website—was "the second half of 2009." In big, bold type, they've updated the claim: "We are starting mass production of this screen in December 2009," is proudly emblazoned on Pixel Qi's worryingly retro website, while "We totally totally promise this time," a comforting, if slightly desperate adjunct, is not. But this is:

We have begun design of a sub-10 watt HDTV that can be used in hundreds of millions of households that don't have steady, if any, access to electrical power. The typical HDTV uses more than 100 Watts and often draws several hundred watts. We are working on a way to massively lower the power consumption, and significantly lower the price with a target price of $100. Thus this HDTV can run off of battery that can be charged up when the power is on, or charged with a small solar panel, crank, or so forth.

I'm sure there are about a million different applications for a low-power screen tech that displays full-motion color, static e-ink and works in the sunlight, but don't get ahead of yourselves: we haven't seen a single non-prototype device yet. Throw us a bone, guys! And by bone, I mean the name of any hardware partner who's willing to make a product with this screen tech once it starts shipping. [Pixel Qi via Blogeee via Slashgear]

The ESP 3250 (above) is similar to the ESP 3, but for the same $130 price point it adds a multifunction card reader and a 1.5-inch LCD (the ESP 3 has no display).

The ESP 5250 (pictured up at the top), which at $170 is $20 more than the ESP 5, adds Wi-Fi to the mix, a welcome new feature. It also keeps the ESP 5's multifunction card reader and shrinks the display to a 2.4-incher.

These printers both use Kodacolor, a tech which Kodak claims reduces ink costs by up to $110 a year. Without having tested them we can't really tell, but Kodak's ink sure is cheaper than competitors: A three-color cartridge for either printer costs $15, and black is $10. Compare that to Canon's ink, which is $13 per color and $15 for black. If Kodak's printers are efficient, that'll mean a lot of money saved. [Kodak]

KODAK Printers Offer Lowest Total Ink Replacement Cost in the Industry

Rochester, NY, September 2, 2009 - Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) invites consumers to print, copy, scan and save with its new KODAK ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 All-in-One (AiO) Printers. The ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 Printers join Kodak's innovative line of printers that are revolutionizing the inkjet business by offering the lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry². With KODAK AiO Printers, consumers can print vivid color documents and KODAK lab-quality photos³ at home for less, saving an average of $110 a year on ink¹ compared to other leading consumer inkjet printers on the market.

"The introduction of the new KODAK ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 AiO models delivers on Kodak's commitment to bring consumers affordable, first-class printing solutions," says Randy Brody, Vice-President, Worldwide Marketing, Consumer Inkjet Systems at Eastman Kodak Company. "With our line of innovative and intuitive printers, Kodak is committed to providing high-quality, in-home printing with fairly-priced ink so that consumers can print what they want, when they want, without fear of the ink replacement cost."

Innovations in Printing Solutions

KODAK ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 AiO Printers continue to combine the latest in printing technology with low-cost, high-quality pigment ink cartridges that deliver brilliant documents and KODAK lab-quality photos³. The end result is what consumers want – an easy-to-use printer that produces exceptional prints that last a lifetime and are rated highest in water and stain resistance as well as savings on their ink replacement costs.

The KODAK ESP 3250 and 5250 Printers are designed to efficiently print with a speed of up to 30 pages per minute in black and 29 pages per minute in color. In addition, both feature improved paper handling with intelligent paper tray systems that automatically adjust settings based on paper type and size to reduce printing errors and save time. With color LCD display screens and memory card slots, the ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 Printers make it easier than ever to create color and black-and-white documents and photos without a computer.

KODAK ESP 3250 AiO Printer ($129.99 MSRP7) features a 1.5" color LCD along with memory card compatibility, making it easy for consumers to view and print without a computer.

KODAK ESP 5250 AiO Printer ($169.99 MSRP7) is enabled with built-in Wi-Fi, offering increased efficiency and flexibility for the freedom to easily print from anywhere in the home and without cables. The printer also features a 2.4" color LCD and memory card compatibility to view, edit and print photos.

Quality and Performance for Less

KODAK All-in-One Printers use Kodak's premium pigmented inks that come in a simple two-cartridge set-up, saving consumers an average of $110 a year on ink¹. Black cartridges retail for $9.99 U.S. MSRP7 and a five-ink color cartridge retails at $14.99 U.S. MSRP7. The exclusive KODACOLOR Technology embedded in each printer enables consumers to cost-effectively print crisp documents and KODAK lab-quality photos³. This technology is a combination of four key elements: pigment-based inks, micro-porous photo papers, color and image science and a Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) print head.

Furthermore, Kodak's Home Center Software includes the exclusive Facial Retouch feature that enables consumers to improve their personal photographs right at home by automatically reducing blemishes and enhancing facial features in just one click. Also, KODAK All-in-One Home Center Software contains an Optical Character Reader (OCR) which allows the user to scan documents that can be edited.

Both KODAK ESP 3250 and ESP 5250 Printers are ENERGY STAR qualified and include features such as manual two-sided printing and multiple-pages-per-sheet printing. In "Standby" mode, both printers use less than one watt of power. Both printers are also compliant with the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, which limits the presence of certain substances in electrical and electronic equipment.

Basically, the ladies stand on conductive pads on the floor, and paint their (and Harris's) hands with the conductive skin-safe ink called Bare Conductive. When Harris slaps his hands against those of the ladies, a small current travels through their bodies and onto the pads on the floor, which triggers a sound, all without the girls feeling a thing. He uses eight models to play the main accompaniment, and the others perform a tightly-choreographed routine to create the rhythm. I trust all comments will be about this interesting ink. [Creative Review via Metafilter]

The product of a few Royal College of Art students, the non-toxic temporary paint, applied with a simple brush or stamp, turns your skin into a conductive surface. Mostly, the paint is meant for artistic performance. But give it some time. You'll see those body paint dudes at your favorite sporting event lighting up bulbs in no time. [Bare via MAKE]

I have a crucial fax I need to send early tomorrow morning. Crucial. I need to print 15 pages of black-and-white legal contract, sign every single page, and then fax the shit. All of this is within the capabilities of the Artisan 800. But tonight, the thing printed 9 pages, then told me it had run out of Magenta. Yes, as in, a color I don't need at all to print 15 black-and-white pages.

OK, so I have a spare Magenta cartridge—whoo hoo! I pop it in there, and all is well, until page 11, when it says it needs me to replace... Light Cyan.

I have Light Cyan, too, so I put it in, and it says I need to replace Cyan. Well, there's already a new Cyan in there, so I pop it out because maybe it's just in there wrong. Turns out, someone in my household put it in without removing the safety sticker, and the printer waited like three weeks to tell me this. So I pull off the safety sticker, place it back in the printer, but no go. Artisan says it can't recognize Cyan. Nor can it recognize Light Cyan. Or Yellow.

Yellow? I hadn't even touched Yellow. Suddenly, it can't recognize half my ink cartridges, all of which happen to be completely full. I pop them out, put them back in again. Nothing.

I restart the printer twice, yanking plug and all. Same error.

I pull out all the ink cartridges, put them back in, restart the thing, and get the same beeping error for the same three miscreants.

Have you ever seen your wit's end? Cuz mine is hanging out all over the place at this point. I go to Epson.com to troubleshoot, and I get the following frightening message:

What they're not telling you is that pretty much any expensive-ass ink cartridge you remove for any reason may be rejected by the thing at any time forever more, so don't even think about popping the shit out once you've put it in there, most especially if the machine is categorically refusing to recognize it in the first place.

So I can't print another page, even though every indicator shows I'm full up to the damn gills on black ink. At the end of the troubleshooter, after I click "No, this did not solve my problem" three or four times, I read this obnoxious statement:

I'm not sure if you can see my middle finger from where you're sitting, Epson, but rest assured, it is extended and pointing in your direction.

Tomorrow, when I go to print and fax my documents at Kinko's, I'll be thinking of you, and I will be seething. But when I go to get a new printer, I'll be thinking of HP or Canon. Probably Canon.

Well, while it's free to download and use, Treehugger's testing found that the Ecofont, though readable, really just prints the text lighter. In our guesstimation, you could probably recreate the ink savings of Ecofont by printing your materials in draft mode instead. Plus, that way you can choose the whichever font you like.

But should you be so bold as to print Ecofont in draft mode? Existence would cease as we know it. [Ecofont via Treehugger]

When you got to twelve months, you got somewhere between considerable fade and severe fade, which makes the page no longer usable. The lesson here is that if you're printing out movie tickets for tonight, cheap ink is fine. If you're printing out photos from your trip to Japan, go for quality. [Trusted Reviews via Crunchgear]

Not to spoil the video or anything, but you take glow-in-the-dark powder, mix it in with printer ink, microwave it, suck it into a syringe, then inject it into an empty cartridge. Once it's printed, you can turn off the lights and see your hard work. As delicious as that glow-in-the-dark solution is when it comes out of the microwave, you probably won't want to drink it. – Jason Chen

HOWTO make glowing inkjet ink [BoingBoing]

Remember Kodak's latest multifunction printers? The ones Kodak was all cocky about, claiming that they crushed the competition with amazing photos at 10 cents? Well, according to Popular Photography, it's all a big pile of steaming bull dung.

After testing the Kodak EasyShare 5300 against its HP, Canon and Epson counterparts, it seems that not only does the Kodak comes last in every single aspect, but it has no price advantage whatsoever, not even reaching the 10 cents per print mark. The final price per copy was 11.5 cents and the quality "was so low in color saturation that they could be deemed no better than 'draft' quality by professional or lab-print standards." If you use better-quality paper to get results comparable to the competition, the price soars to 37 cents.

Popular Photography has not tested the 100 years life of each copy, but after reading their article, I won't be waiting around to see if it's true or not. –Jesus Diaz

All-in-One Printer Shootout [Popular Photography & Imaging]

That's the 5500 above, the king of the road. It prints, scans, copies. It has PictBridge, memory card slots and a 2.4 inch LCD for editing on the spot, a fax, document feeder and duplexer. Cadillac style, man.

Then there's the 5100 and 5300.

Kodak EasyShare 5100
-$149
-prints, scans, and copies
-PictBridge-enabled
-32ppm in black and 22 ppm in color

Kodak EasyShare 5300
-$199
-same features as the 5100, but adds memory card slots and a 3-inch LCD for editing your photos

They'll be available in March. And I can't believe we have printer lust.–Brian Lam

Kodak's new printers [Kodak]

In fact, all of your 4x6-inch prints will be a lot cheaper with the new inks averaging 10 cents per print. Meanwhile, letter-size black and whites will run about 3 cents per print. The inks themselves will be priced at $9.99 for a cartridge of black ink and $14.99 for a five-color cartridge. Kodak claims this is 50% cheaper than what you'd spend on say an HP, Epson, or Canon ink refill. So we checked out their prices and in all instances, the Kodak ink saves you a pretty decent amount of cash. Whether the quality is as good—that we'll have to see for ourselves, but analysts have said good things so far.

Oh, these printers are fast as hell, too. They'll shoot out your photos at the rate of 22 pages per minute.

PC World has product comparisons, but I like Business Week's writeup of Antonio Perez losing a power play to Carly Fiorina to run printer giant HP many years ago, landing at the distraught Kodak to find the lab geeks had invented the 100-year ink, considered the holy grail of the industry.

The new printers are detailed in this next post.–Brian Lam

Kodak Launches a Printer Offensive [BusinessWeek]
Kodak Announces New Multifunction Inkjet Printers [PC World]

The numbers are only more staggering as you realize that the blood of weekend Gizmodo writers, running at a constant 1:1 blood to alcohol ratio, is worth even less. Does that mean we can sell our blood at wholesale? Dealzmodo supplemental! – Mark Wilson

My father always used to carry around a pen and crumpled pieces of paper in his coat so he could write things down—songs on the radio he liked, prices of things in stores, and other useless hunks of information. It wasn't very handy, though. Luckily for him, there's the PicoPad. PicoPad is a little credit card-sized (if not smaller) notepad complete with a minuscule pen for jotting down notes on the little blue sheets. It fits perfectly into a card slot in your wallet and doesn't get in the way at all. The paper included comes out easily and has a sticky back for using it like a Post-It Note. You can score a PicoPad for only $3.89 each in a multitude of colors. Extremely handy and a great gift for that dude you know who's always writing down numbers on his hand.

Product Page [Picopad]