More good SparQ press..read to bottom
Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn., New Products Column
By Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 4--Looking for computer-hardware products with fantastic features and accessible prices? It always pays to wait.
If you've hungered for an affordable 36-bit flatbed scanner for your Mac or PC, your patience has finally been rewarded. Removable storage is getting a lot cheaper, too. How does a $200 drive with $33 1-gigabyte cartridges grab you? Even the humble PC keyboard is evolving. The latest models are curvy and, for many users, more comfortable than regular keyboards.
Want details? Read on.
PHOTO-cALIBER SCANS FOR LESS: If you're shopping for a flatbed scanner, you've probably become entranced by recent computer-superstore ads for 30-bit scanners with enticing price tags -- $90 to $150. A good deal? You bet. But did you know that a cutting-edge 36-bit scanner can be had for only a bit more money? Umax recently unveiled a line of Astra 1220 scanners that, at only about $200, are awfully difficult to ignore. I've been playing with the Astra 1220S, a SCSI model, and I'm delighted with its performance.
Scanned photos of my 3-month-old son look gorgeous on my computer
screen. When printed on glossy photo paper using a photo-quality inkjet printer (I'm using the Epson Stylus Photo), the baby pics are almost indistinguishable from course-grain 35-millimeter snapshots.
Umax did a smart thing by releasing a complete line of Astra 1220
scanners -- SCSI (for Macs or PCs with available controller-card slots), parallel port (for older PCs) and universal serial bus (for newer PCs that include USB ports). The 1220 software bundle includes Adobe PhotoDeluxe, an entry-level but powerful image editor for touching up photos and integrating them into calendars or greeting cards. The scanner can be controlled from within
PhotoDeluxe for quick image importing. I do have a couple of quibbles, though. The 1220S only has a letter-size scanning area (an earlier model, the 30-bit Astra 1200, has a legal-size bed). And getting the scanner to work with PhotoDeluxe was a bit of a headache -- the program wouldn't detect the device until I manually dragged a
couple of plug-in files into the PhotoDeluxe folder. But I'd buy an Astra 1220S for my Mac in a heartbeat. www.umax.com
A GIG ON A SINGLE DISK: With Iomega bombarding you from all directions with flashy ads for its Zip and Jaz drives, you may be overlooking removable-storage devices from other manufacturers. Concentrate, now, because I want to tell you about SyQuest's dandy SparQ drive. This removable-disk drive is no larger than a Zip drive or one of SyQuest's EZFlyers, but it's faster and roomier with 1-gigabyte cartridges compared to the Zip's 100-megabyte cartridges and the EZ's 230-meg disks. And, at a mere $200, the SparQ blows Iomega's $200 ZipPlus drive out of the water.
(Zip drives, however, are the closest thing to a removable-storage standard. If you rarely move files larger than 100 megs and need guaranteed compatibility with other users, a Zip is probably the way to go.) I lent a SparQ parallel-port test unit to a longtime user of EZFlyer and Zip drives, and he loved it. The drive transfers data several times faster than a parallel-port Zip drive, and roughly twice as fast as an EZFlyer drive, he discovered. The SparQ is a cinch to install, he found. And he likes the convenience
of using one SyQuest software driver for the SparQ, his EZFlyer and an older SyQuest drive. "Price is the killer" he emphasizes. "Three disks cost $100, which is very affordable." My tester has one minor complaint. When he unpacked the SparQ, he found that the disk-slot lid was sealed with a sticker that left a gummy residue. Because the sticky stuff has proven difficult to remove, he is concerned that
accumulated dust and dirt could ultimately damage the drive or a cartridge.
'NATURAL' KEYBOARD (FOR SOME): I've never been a fan of sloped keyboards
-- the kind that are split down the middle, with the halves tilted upward to
accommodate the wrists and hands in more "natural" positions.
That's why I stopped using Microsoft's Natural Keyboard about five
minutes after I started -- talk about feeling awkward.
But these keyboards do have fans, which is why I didn't dismiss
Microsoft's new $65 Natural Keyboard Elite out of hand. Instead, I passed my
test unit to a longtime Natural Keyboard user and let her integrate the
device into her daily routine.
After using it for several weeks, she gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
"Changes from the first keyboard seem subtle at first," she tells me in
an e-mail. "The keys are a bit smaller and the keyboard itself looks a bit
more compact.
"Reaching on the main area of the keyboard is much easier -- even
reaching the numbers and symbols across the top is easier," she notes with
pleasure. "The keys seem to be angled to be more reachable and seem to make
better contact with your fingertips. I mistype much less often on this
keyboard then the original, which I still use at home."
She adds that "The wrist rest angle is comfortable, especially for
someone who spends all day on the computer."
The Natural Keyboard Elite ships with a USB adapter for those who wantto plug the device into a USB port.
For the record, I gave the Elite a whirl. Writing this article on the sloped keyboard wasn't so bad -- but I'm still going back to my regular keyboard and my padded wrist rest.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at jojedapioneerpress.com or at:
www.pioneerplanet.infi.net/ojeda
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