Printers

Snapshot printers, beware: Hewlett-Packard 's new inkjet-based Photosmart A636 Compact Photo Printer sets a high standard-and rewards impatient users in the process. Unlike its similarly portable sibling, the Photosmart A526 , this midpriced model is fast: The 4-by-6-inch photos we printed came out in less than a minute each; other snapshot printers we've tested have taken almost twice as long. Most colors looked realistic, with good detail except in dark areas. My only gripes: Fleshtones seemed a little orangey, and...

A Texas organization announced Monday that it has designed and fired a plastic gun that can be assembled using a 3D printer and publicly available blueprints. Dominic Basulto writes that the development will pose a challenge for legislators: What makes the 3D-printed gun so dangerous is that it muddies the waters of the gun control debate in a way that makes it harder for proponents of gun control and technologists to agree on exactly what they mean. We're now able to imagine, create and manufacture...

LAS VEGAS — When Ford wants to try out a new transmission part, an engineer sends a digital blueprint of the component to a computer, and what happens next once seemed like the stuff of science fiction. Inside a device about the size of a microwave oven, a plastic, three-dimensional version of the component begins to take shape before your eyes . After scanning the design blueprint, the gadget fuses together a paper-thin layer of plastic powder. It repeats, putting another layer on top, and then thousands more,...

Imagine if your coat could wrap itself around you a little bit tighter when the temperature dropped. Or what if your car drove you to work instead of the other way around? Well, don't expect anything in time for the next snowstorm or morning commute. But some experts predict the technology that could lead to these capabilities is likely to start entering the marketplace within the next five to 10 years.   Robots, multidimensional printers, sci-fi-style polymers and other new technologies are beginning to shape the future...

If you subscribe to my newsletter you can read these columns a whole day before they appear on our website. All the cool kids are doing it! Is there anything more American than a robot that can create anything you want out of a spool of plastic and some electricity? It's only a slight exaggeration to say that 3D printers offer levels of Jeffersonian self-reliance that our founding fathers only dreamed of. "We have a consumer product that's anti-consumerist," MakerBot Industries founder Bre Pettis told me at CES 2012,...

Twenty minutes into his State of the Union address last week, President Obama entered the realm of uber-geekery — three-dimensional printing. The magical devices capable of printing prosthetics, violins and even aircraft parts have the potential, the president said, "to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. " Forty miles away from the Capitol, in Glen Burnie, Md., Travis Lerol is proving Obama's point — with guns. In a spare bedroom, where an AR-15 rifle...

The machine looks like the offspring of an Erector Set and an inkjet printer. The "ink" feels like applesauce and looks like icing. As nozzles expel the pearly material, layer by layer, you imagine the elaborate designs this device could make on gingerbread cookies. But the goo is made of living cells, and the machine is "printing" a new body part. These machines — they're called three-dimensional printers — work very much like ordinary desktop printers. But instead of just...

It's never easy to peer into the crystal ball and find the trends that will shape the coming year. Part of what makes technology so fun to follow are the curveballs. But as we look ahead to 2013, there are some paths that look ripe for further exploration. Here are some tech trends for consumers to watch for in the coming year: Mobile payments: This is a constantly evolving trend, but one that's picking up quickly. The mobile payments space has seen remarkable growth in the past year alone, and it's an area that's...

In the next few years, physical replicas of objects could feasibly be pirated if The Pirate Bay has anything to say about it. The notorious site has introduced a file category called Physibles targeted at 3D printers. We first got a close look at 3D printers in action at CES 2012 with the awesome MakerBot Replicator . Essentially, this technology allows for the printing of three-dimensional objects by melting and fusing bits of plastic, layer by layer. Things like...

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has scrapped plans to distribute $75 gift cards to employees who agree to return their government-owned desktop printers in favor of network printers. The agency has also suspended its efforts to retrieve the printers. Employees learned of the suspension via e-mail Tuesday afternoon, after inquiries into the program by The Washington Post and Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Reader: Recently my department moved to a different work space, and I've been sitting in a cubicle two feet from a large-capacity printer. Almost immediately, I noticed the constant smell of toner and chemicals, which has given me daily headaches. I have never raised a fuss about anything at work and am generally a conflict-avoidant person. But breathing in chemicals 40 hours a week is not okay with me. The easy fix would be to move me (not possible at the moment) or the printer to another location.

Twenty minutes into his State of the Union address last week, President Obama entered the realm of uber-geekery — three-dimensional printing. The magical devices capable of printing prosthetics, violins and even aircraft parts have the potential, the president said, "to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. " Forty miles away from the Capitol, in Glen Burnie, Md., Travis Lerol is proving Obama's point — with guns. In a spare bedroom, where an AR-15 rifle leans against the...

LAS VEGAS — When Ford wants to try out a new transmission part, an engineer sends a digital blueprint of the component to a computer, and what happens next once seemed like the stuff of science fiction. Inside a device about the size of a microwave oven, a plastic, three-dimensional version of the component begins to take shape before your eyes . After scanning the design blueprint, the gadget fuses together a paper-thin layer of plastic powder. It repeats, putting another layer on top,...

It's never easy to peer into the crystal ball and find the trends that will shape the coming year. Part of what makes technology so fun to follow are the curveballs. But as we look ahead to 2013, there are some paths that look ripe for further exploration. Here are some tech trends for consumers to watch for in the coming year: Mobile payments: This is a constantly evolving trend, but one that's picking up quickly. The mobile payments space has seen remarkable growth in the past year alone, and it's an area that's...

An emerging breed of machines lets us "print" a real-life object, like a toy or a tiara, in the same way we can print a document at our desk. The technology could inaugurate a new era of manufacturing but is also striking fear into the hearts of brand owners. In a must-read story , the Economist explains how cheap 3-D printers could one day let knock-off artists crank out shoes, gadgets, watches and any type of prized design. While counterfeiting is already wide-spread, it could increase dramatically...

Lexmark announced Tuesday that it will stop making inkjet printers, focusing instead on laser printers, which are used predominantly in businesses. The decision will lead to a factory closure in the Philippines by the end of 2015. Combined with other job cuts, Lexmark will get rid of 1,700 jobs worldwide, the company said in a release . Shares of the company rose on the news, jumping over 15 percent for a high of $22.75 as investors welcomed the news that the company would get out of the...

Governments seeking to reverse an "exceptionally large" economic downturn should focus on increasing spending rather than on reducing taxes, the International Monetary Fund said. The global economic crisis "will last at least for several more quarters," the IMF said. "The fiscal stimulus can rely, more than usual, on spending measures," which may "have advantages over tax cuts. " The IMF at its annual meeting in October called for a coordinated global fiscal expansion equivalent to 2 percent of world gross domestic product.

John S. Prescott, 80, who was president of The Washington Post during the 1970s when management and labor fought over automation of production tasks and job security, died of cancer March 17 at his home in New York. Mr. Prescott, an experienced newspaper business executive, was hired for what is now known as the position of general manager in 1972. Katharine Graham, the late publisher who hired Mr. Prescott, said in her 1997 book, "Personal History," that he deserved "great credit" for the contract settlement with the...

When the villain in Arthur Conan Doyle's story " The Adventure of the Dancing Men " demands to know how Sherlock Holmes could have broken his cipher, the great detective coolly replies, "What one man can invent another can discover. " It's a pithy line, and it unwittingly comments on the risk lurking behind all thrill-based writing: perishability. In a genre so fundamentally driven by plot twists, the danger is that once the reader knows those twists, the allure will disappear.

In a wireless world, it seems, all signs lead to a paperless future. Scratch that, says a London design studio. Last fall, BERG released a video online that made a big splash. It introduced the Little Printer, which churns out a slim printout of material from a smartphone or computer via a wireless connection. Its creators are betting that people will integrate the gadget into their daily routine, printing out to-do lists or puzzles to pencil through or scribbled love notes that might be tucked in a wallet.