Othmar Mühlebach's design won second prize at the Berner Design Awards, and certainly would have won first prize if it had a built in a butter and jam printer. It's probably for the best, though. I don't want to have to buy overpriced Smuckers refill cartridges. [Polaine via Core77 via Likecool]

As you will see in the video, the ScribbleBot is a wireless printing device that follows a pre-set drawing path downloaded from the internet. Essentially, it's like a fancy printer, but your hand can go along for the ride. Would something like this help you learn how to draw? With repetition I suppose anything is possible—although I don't see it emerging from the concept stage anytime soon. [Yanko]

HP has had its own simple but effective iPrint app (iTunes Link) for a while now, and from first glance, Canon's app looks to at least be as good, if not a touch more mature.

The polished interface lets you select paper sizes, find wireless printers, print borderless photos, and select photos from multiple albums stored on your iPhone or iPod touch.

The main drawback: support is currently limited to Canon's MP990, MP640, and MP560 MFPs. It would be nice if any Canon printer hooked up to a Wi-Fi network also worked, but we'll have to wait and see. [iTunes Store | Canon]

The 25mm x 50mm labels produced by this printer are intended to simplify the identification of similarly shaped or sized objects. Understandably, the designer appears to focus on the potential applications in identifying prescription medication bottles in particular. Being fortunate enough to only require minor vision correction, I can't even imagine how someone could identify medications without sight: the containers are nearly identical and there are plenty of pills that would feel the same. While this concept could save lives by preventing accidental overdoses, the applications seem limitless:

• Which socks go together?
• What's the color of those pants?
• Before you open the bag, are those BBQ-flavored chips or Cheetos?
• What's in that box? Ultra-ribbed or Her Pleasure?
• Which cat is that? Dizzy or Angel?

We could probably justify a label for everything in the house, inanimate or not. What would be the first thing you'd label? [Coroflot via Core77]

Apparently this Roomba has been modified with inkjet printer parts so it can create bitmap patterns on the floor with colored powders. Damn you rebel Roomba! Cut your hair, stop snorting "powder", get a job and create civilized art like your brother! [Botropolis]

GALLERY




END

When you connect a supported gadget, like in this case the Epson Artisan 800, you instantly see the icon with its shiny black case and colorful printout. There was no download, this stuff was already cached somewhere. The icon at first had a yellow alert badge, but after a quick troubleshoot wizard, the badge changed to a happy green check mark.

There are three components of Device Stage: An icon in Devices and Printers, an XML page with links to services and apps, and an icon in the taskbar with a nice tidy pop-up menu of device options.

The icon in the Devices and Printers page, which you can easily reach from the the Start Menu. If you can't find your device anywhere else, it will at least be here. If your gadget is not plugged in, its icon is slightly translucent. If it is, you see a clear shiny device. Click on the icon once, and a contextual ribbon at the top of the window changes to give you device specific options. (For the Epson all-in-one, it was "Start scan" "See what's printing" "Manage default printers" etc. For a mass storage device, it's "Browse Files" and "Safely Remove.")

Double-clicking the icon in the Devices page brings up the services page, essentially a webpage that lives in your computer, and can launch both websites and apps. The look and feel is developed by the device manufacturer, though I'm sure there's a nice Microsoft template if needed. As you can see from both its contents and the following, cool taskbar icon, this page is the sort of thing that would probably used most when the gadget is first bought, and forgotten about later.

The taskbar icon is the ooh-aah part of Device Stage. Right click it (or click and swipe upwards) and you get a series of "Tasks"—essentially a summarized version of what the big XML page offers, with some more specific commands too. Printers are pretty obvious, but it will be really fun to see what people can do with cameras and phones, not to mention totally specialized devices like a Slacker portable radio or a Chumby.

Speaking of Chumby, devices don't need to connect via USB. They can connect via the network or Bluetooth, and are given the same rich metadata treatment.

I did notice one thing in particular that probably won't be "fixed" in the final release: Even though the Epson menu offered all of the Artisan 800's functionality, some of the functions brought up error messages like the one you see below. I didn't run the install disc, and I am assuming that the .EXE apps that the launcher couldn't find were ones I needed to install from the Epson's CD. This makes sense: The richer the experience offered by the device manufacturer, the more likely it is that they will try to make you install more of their software. It's too bad that, as far as I know, you can't customize these jump lists, though, because I would love to see a pop up that only had the crap I care about.

Up top, I made a gripe about products only working if they're supported. If they're not supported, they get generic icons and you see the old AutoPlay pop-up from Windows systems past. In other words, it sucks—like this—when they're not supported:

Don't get me wrong. This isn't a complaint about how few gadgets are currently supported by Windows 7 Beta. The list is here, and it's small, but you know damn well it's going to get longer and longer and longer, every week if not every day.

What I am saying is that I have mixed feelings about what Device Stage will mean to consumer electronics companies. One one hand, companies would do well to stop messing around with their own silly proprietary crapware for say, alerting me when I need printer ink, or downloading the photos from my camera. The Device Stage interface, as you can see below, is an elegant way to facilitate those kinds of menial tasks.

On the other hand, though, I hate for this to become some kind of gear mafia. Back in the day, PlaysForSure's website listed a bunch of compatible music players, but it didn't list all of them. People going to the site would have been swayed to buy officially supported hardware, even if it wasn't the best. I am sure in this case that Microsoft will upload all of the content of all those who participate, but I would hate for people to be choosing devices just because of their ability to talk to Windows 7—an inferior printer, say, having a better Win 7 interface than a superior model.

The ideal solution is for all makers of decent gadgets pay some dude $50 to write the stupid XML code for it to appear in Device Stage—I'm told it's ridiculously simple to submit data. Then it would be a given that a hot new device will just show up. But will there be awesome gadgets that—because of inattentiveness on the part of their makers—end up looking like ass in Windows 7? The chances are good. [More Windows 7 at Gizmodo]

UPDATE: I received the Device Stage package for the Nikon D90 (what Steve Ballmer used to demo Device Stage at CES). Here's a gallery of screenshots from that, showing similar functionality. I did have some trouble getting it to load the user's manual, but that is probably something that can be fixed before the official Win 7 launch.

My attempt: "Here's what I think of your portraiture abilities!"

Please, please let there be a better one than that. [Akihabara News]

From what I can tell, a similar if not identical "blueline" machine can be used to produce whiteprints. (Feel free to chime in regarding that point, builders and architects—deciphering the various printing processes has humbled my brain for at least the next week.) But any way you look at it, this Blu-ray device is pretty much the anti-digital...which is absolutely fantastic. [Thanks Justin!]

The Tomy Xiao TIP-521 is smaller than the original Zink camera and has a five megapixel CMOS sensor. Unfortunately to whoever wants it, it's coming in Japan only for now. I will keep waiting for a real camera that gives me a real Polaroid, or just keep using the old real one. [Zink]

Just drop by the Amateur Photographer site and fill out the form, rating which features are important. Not a whole ton of flexibility here, but it's a nice gesture.

Zink's dye crystals are built into the paper itself, so there's no need for the white chemical pack/label area/shaking handle of the classics, but let's hope they keep that anyway, for old time's sake. I would encourage everyone to vote for that, as a write-in.

We've already seen a prototype camera packing Polaroid's Zink instant digital printing tech (at the 2x3 size), which is still apparently going to ship, someday. The new 4x3 cam is scheduled for "sometime in 2009." [Amateur Photography via Gadget Lab - Image: mocvdleung]

The video is pretty self explanatory, but here it is for those who can't see it: A man and his wife had been noticing lots of ants on their computer desk but couldn't figure out where they were coming from. It wasn't from outside or anywhere else in the house. Later, the wife tells the husband that the printer wasn't working correctly. He checked out the printer/scanner combo only to find that the ants had turned it into a home. The video's pretty good, but what's he going to do next? Throw out the printer/scanner? Evict the bugs? What would you do?

The Price: $150 for the unit, 30-packs of photo paper cost $10.

The Verdict: Though, like you, I wasn't totally sure about the PoGo, after using it, I was surprised at how promising and unique the little gadget is. It solves the biggest problem with taking pictures on cellphones, the fact that you can't look at them anywhere besides your phone. The credit-card size prints look decent enough for what they are (though in Wilson's expert opinion, they're still “lousy”). It prints using Zink, an inkless technology that uses photo paper with billions of colorless dye crystals in CMY layers that change color when activated by heat. This means that the pictures are dry as soon as they develop, and you NEVER replace ink or toner cartridges. The prints are also waterproof, tear and fade resistant, and have an adhesive backing so you can stick them anywhere.

Another great thing about the PoGo is its portability. Its a little larger than a deck of cards, so if you've got pockets, you can take it around. It also connects to phones via Bluetooth so you don't have to worry about cords. We easily paired it via Bluetooth connection to a year-old, mainstream LG phone from Verizon, though it isn't compatible with every phone—Polaroid says it works with about 70% of Bluetooth-enabled phones out today. I asked them about iPhone compatibility—they said not this one.

There are a few things holding me back from totally loving the PoGo. First of all, it's slow. The process from phone to picture took 60-75 seconds, which makes printing in the moment a little less exciting. Secondly, the Li-ion battery only lasts for 15 prints, and takes two hours to charge back up. It can print while it's charging which is nice, but that really takes away from the mobility factor.

Finally, I'm not sure I would use this on a long-term basis. The product guys said to use it in a bar to pick up ladies, but I don't know how many ladies would want stickers of me—at least, not right away. It seems like a fun fad, but when I showed it to Wilson, he couldn't wait to print pictures of his baby. High school kids, too, could probably find ongoing use for its sticker prints. There may be a wider appeal, even if I'm not the target demo.

The PoGo is a fun toy for now, and with a few tweaks and improvements, it could bring practicality and excitement back to printed pictures for a guy like me. [PoGo]

It seems like paper would be shooting out of there like a Gatling gun, blanketing the office in a thick layer of spreadsheets and memos. However the KJ4 claims to pull it off thanks to its proprietary piezoelectric ceramics technology. It also features a 4.25 inch printline—the largest in its class. Look for the new printhead to go global starting in April. [7 Gadgets via 2dayBlog via Crunchgear]