Best price comparison site: 4 compared
Insurance brokering, and brokering in general, isn't a new idea but the internet has certainly seen it come into its own, with a host of comparison websites making enough money to keep their adverts on your TV every hour of the day.
In basic terms, comparison websites automatically sift through a database full of deals based on your details, meaning you can see a custom grid of prices for insurance, credit cards, energy prices and more, without having to do any of the hard work yourself. If you'll excuse the reference, it should be 'simples' to get the best price.
You might think there's little money to be saved here. Why go through a third party, which skims a little off the top, when you could be paying the best company directly? Well, it's the brokerage principle in action.
These companies have their own leverage; your custom means they can campaign for better prices from the companies they promote. It is in your insurer's interest to give the best possible deal to comparison websites if it means they are listed in top spot.
Bear in mind that the prices you're quoted are personal to you, just as the ones we were quoted are personal to us. For this test we checked out a quote for insurance on a rather old, well-loved car; with this and 10 years of no claims bonus, we'd expect a good deal.
We've picked the four market leaders - the four you've probably seen in between your favourite TV programmes - to see the range of prices quoted, and we'll be judging them on the quality of their results as well as the quality of their site interfaces. Don't compare anything before you've checked out our test results - we'll get you the best deal.
Go Compare
First impressions are that Go Compare's site design leaves a lot to be desired. While it's the same width and the same basic layout as the other sites on test here, it does some rather odd things with its targets.
Ten minutes spent clicking around, for example, left us with about 10 separate open windows, which isn't just annoying - it's confusing, too.
There's an odd mix of information requirements. Look for energy prices, and Go Compare doesn't ask for an email address or a house number, just your post code. That's great. Look for car insurance and, ostensibly to pass the information direct to the insurer, Go Compare wants a full name, address and telephone number, before asking for any information about your car. That's not so great.
Yes, it's also not too strange, given the amount of information you need to give to get a quote in the first place, but once you're through the pages of required information, the option to stop Go Compare's marketing partners contacting you is hidden behind a link - very sneaky.
At the actual comparison screen, the results are shown in a very clear form, bucking the generally odd site design by being the best on show here (as long as you've got your glasses to hand - a few of the elements are very small in order to fit them in the form). Go Compare also equalled Compare the Market for the best car insurance quote we were offered, which is to its credit.
This is a site that does a decent job, and covers a very wide range of markets, although we get the feeling it's concentrating more on shoe-horning its odious opera singer into adverts than keeping things up to date - the last 'expert tip' listed is almost a year old.
What's included?
Insurance: Car, home, motorbike, van, pet, life, travel, accident, business, caravan, gadget, health, holiday home, landlord, short term, student, tenant.
Protection: Income, loan, mortgage, payment, unemployment.
Money: Credit cards, loans, current accounts, savings, credit reports.
Travel: Airport parking, car hire, cruises, flights, holidays, hotels); motoring (breakdown cover, car hire, warranty, new cars.
Utilities: Broadband, gas and electricity, home phone, mobile phones, digital TV.
Verdict: 5/5
It might not be the most up-to-date site in the world, but we found Go Compare's results to be by far the best and most well presented - and the car insurance was the cheapest. That's what really counts in this game.
Compare the Market
There's no surprise to see that Compare the Market lives up to the billing given to it by its meerkat mascot - it's simple. It's the most simple, uncluttered site on offer, in fact.
There's no nonsense, and very little window dressing. Where some sites go for a bunch of features that really have no place on a comparison website, you're just straight in to the comparisons here.
This focus on simplicity doesn't always manifest itself in a particularly brilliant way, though. Sometimes it could do a bit more to help you through; unlike its competitors, Compare the market didn't offer any estimates as to our yearly consumption when running an energy test, and its multiple pages of information collection suggest that the site could be tightened up just slightly.
There are also a few very strange oddities that serve to throw you slightly; omit the 'www' from the address and you're sent to a holding page, for example, or click on the 'Compare the Meerkat' banner and nothing happens, because it's not hyperlinked. Yes, these are small things but they might be indicative of bigger problems under the hood.
We can't fault the comparison engine itself, which works through its results quickly and brought us our equal best car insurance estimate - same price, deal and insurer as with Go Compare. Your results may vary, of course.
The deals are, again, presented in a plain and simple style, although you do need to make a few clicks to find out everything you might want to know, so it's not perfect.
All in all, though, despite a few strange design choices, Compare the Market does a decent job.
What's included?
Insurance: Car, home, bike, scooter, van, caravan, accident, travel, pet, public liability, contents, buildings, tenants, landlord, student, flat, business, short term, shop, health, over 50s, gap, mobile phone, medical.
Protection: Payment, income, mortgage.
Money: Credit cards, mortgages, current accounts, savings, ISAs, personal loans.
Travel: Holidays, hotels, flights, car hire, airport parking.
Utilities: Broadband, gas and electricity, home phone, mobile phones, digital TV.
Verdict: 4/5
Equal best in terms of price results but the site is full of odd design niggles. What's more, Compare the Market has bombarded us with daily emails since starting this test. How rude!
Confused
We quite like Confused, if we're honest, for the fact that the site clearly hasn't been over-designed. The logo, for instance, looks as though it was drawn on a napkin, coloured in with crayons, then scanned directly on to the web without any editing. It's as though that lack of slickness is meant to draw us in, see Confused as the honest independent in a world of shirt-and-tie corporations.
That isn't really the case, of course. We did notice a bit of cheek in its layout. Take the car quote process, for example. While other sites ask for your current insurance renewal price but make it clear they're doing so for marketing purposes and not to get you a better quote, Confused asks for the value with no qualifications, and doesn't make it clear that it's not a required part of the form. You can get through without entering it, but you wouldn't know that unless you tried. Naughty.
It also hides the 'I'd prefer not to be contacted' check box behind a link. We'd advise keeping your wits about you while using Confused just so you don't end up giving away more than you intended; we realise that you basically have to give your life story to get an insurance quote anywhere, but you should at least get to choose how your information is used.
That said, many aspects of the site design are actually pretty good; the car insurance results are clear, and the process of getting an energy supplier quote was neatly structured and made every step very obvious. With such convoluted applications that's always an achievement.
The website's name wasn't reflected in our experience with its design, which is a real shame - we wanted to make a clever joke.
What's included?
Insurance: Car, home, van, motorbike, life, travel, medical, small business, pet, car depreciation, caravan, travel, hire car.
Money: Credit cards, mortgages, savings accounts, car leasing, PPI, ISAs.
Travel: Holidays, hotels, luggage tracking.
Utilities: Broadband, gas and electricity, home phone, mobile phones, digital TV, commercial energy, mobile broadband.
Verdict: 4/5
Confused didn't manage to come up with the best quote, but its presentation of the results was decent, and as long as you know where to look to keep your personal information (semi) private, it's not a bad choice.
Money Supermarket
Of all the sites on test, Money Supermarket has the widest range of immediately accessible comparison offers. Everything is there in one click, thanks to some rather excellent design at the top of the main site, and it offers a good range of businesses to compare.
We often wonder whether having too many facets is really good for a site like this, though; too many irons in the fire, perhaps? That's not a criticism of Money Supermarket directly - the rest of the sites here have expanded to a similar range - but its tendency to publicise things such as money-off vouchers and the general shopping aspect of its service hint at a slightly altered priority.
We found Money Supermarket's interface to be among the best we've ever tried; very well designed and clear, with appropriate hints and advice along the way to applying for a car insurance quote. It hasn't tried to do anything clever or flashy outside the colour-coded sections, and that's definitely a real positive.
Then again, it's also the most cavalier with your personal information. While other sites on test might hide their 'do not pass on my details' box, Money Supermarket doesn't even have one - it just has severe terms and conditions.
If you want to use the site, you need to be prepared for it to pass on your details to whoever offered you the top quote, and for emails to reach your inbox for ever more. It's probably a bit much to beg for privacy when using these sites, but the details required for car insurance are some of the most valuable personal information it's possible to give.
That said, we didn't receive nearly as many subsequent emails from Money Supermarket as we did from Compare the Market…
What's included?
Insurance: Car, home, travel, life, pet, van, caravan, dental, business, landlord, medical, motorbike, wedding, heating, boilers.
Protection: Payment, mortgage.
Money: Credit cards, savings, ISAs, investments, pensions, current accounts, mortgages, financial advice, loans, travel money, business finance.
Travel via sister site travelsupermarket.com: Flights, hotels, car hire, holidays, cruises, airport parking, ferries.
Utilities: Broadband, gas and electricity, mobile phones.
Shopping comparison engine: Compare prices from different retailers
Verdict: 3/5
Excellent design, a very wide range of services offered, but Money Supermarket didn't show us the best deal, and it kept a lot of the power out of our hands. Well worth a look, but not our first choice.
Final Verdict
One thing became very obvious when we started comparing these sites - they're all very similar. Looking for an energy supplier quote gave the same results on each site, and the car insurance quotes varied only very slightly between them; they generally showed the same insurers and in some cases the exact same prices. And none of them was cheaper than the price we're currently paying for our car insurance, with a company that doesn't list itself on comparison sites.
These brokers can't do everything, so you may still need to look elsewhere for a decent price. The big differences are apparent in the design of the sites and the layout of their results, and it's here that Go Compare does the best job.
We felt we knew everything important about the deals it was offering without needing to click through, and this outweighed the occasional needless fluff.
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Review: Altec Lansing InMotion AIR
Altec Lansing has a 70-year history in audio tech, and the expertise it's accrued over that time is evident in the InMotion Air wireless speakers.
The sound quality is great. Altec Lansing hasn't cut any corners with the build quality and components, and sound is as crisp and clear as if the speakers were physically connected to a PC.
It's not just the design that helps the unit reproduce audio so well, but the Bluetooth technology used to connect to the music source. This has enough bandwidth to transmit audio with no noticeable loss of quality.
The Bluetooth allows for a distance of 100 metres between the speakers and the USB dongle, but in our tests the audio started to break up when the speakers were moved into another room.
When the dongle is plugged into a PC, you can easily control the computer's media playback from the buttons on the InMotion AIR or via the included remote control. There's also a 'Launch' button on the remote that launches the default media player on the PC.
Another fantastic feature is the ability to pair a Bluetooth-enabled device with the InMotion AIR. The process is incredibly simple, and it only took a few seconds for our test phone to connect to the InMotion AIR. Once the two were paired, we were able to control playback on the phone from the remote control.
The remote also has an 'ESS' button to activate Altec Lansing's 'Expanded Sound Stage' technology. This is supposed to improve sound quality in large spaces, but when we tried it we didn't notice any major change.
Everything about this speaker works well. It's a bit pricy though, which might make you think twice before taking it outside. However, with the range of the Bluetooth transmitter and seven-hour battery life, the InMotion AIR is wasted next to a PC. It might be expensive, but it's well worth the money.
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Review: Veho Mimi Qube Wi-Fi Speaker System
The Veho Mimi Qube Wi-Fi looks deceptively simple. It's a single small speaker that can fit in the palm of your hand, but it's capable of more than first seems possible.
The size of this wireless speaker means you can place it almost anywhere within around 30 metres of the wireless USB dongle without trouble. The battery life is six hours, and the built-in rechargeable battery can be replenished by plugging it into a USB port.
Because of its size, this speaker's sound quality isn't great, with some music sounding tinny. Although it looks like a single mono speaker, the Veho Mimi contains two 1.5 watt stereo speakers. These point in opposite directions, and the stereo effect is surprisingly good when the Mimi Qube Wi-Fi is directly behind or in front of you.
Another handy feature, which points at this speaker's hidden depths, is the presence of Wi-Fi channel selector buttons on the USB dongle. The Mimi Qube Wi-Fi uses the same 2.4GHz technology as wireless networks, so other devices like wireless routers can cause interference and a drop in audio quality. To avoid this, you can use the buttons on the dongle to choose a free wireless channel.
Another feature that might come as a pleasant surprise is the ability to connect an apparently unlimited number of Veho Mimi Qube Wi-Fi speakers to one USB dongle. You can buy the speakers separately, although this isn't much cheaper than buying them with the dongle.
Each speaker plays the same audio channel, so you couldn't buy five speakers and a subwoofer, and create a wireless 5.1 surround sound setup. What you can do is set up speakers throughout your house and garden and stream your music to each one – ideal for parties.
The Veho Mimi Qube Wi-Fi is small and stylish, but this comes at the expense of sound quality. However, if you want an attractive and expandable wireless speaker system, this could be for you.
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In Depth: What Apple's patents reveal about its plans
For anybody who wants to know what a company is thinking, just look at its patent portfolio. Patents are about protection: without them there's nothing to stop your rivals from copying your best ideas and making money from your hard work.
If you patent your revolutionary unicorn-powered laptop and a rival copies you, you'll be able to sue them until they squeak - and possibly get their product pulled from the shelves too.
Smart companies patent everything, and Apple is a smart company - so a trawl through Apple's worldwide patent applications can uncover future products.
Back in 2006, patent application 20,060,268,528 showed what was described as a "portable computing device capable of wireless communications... [that] is a media player". A few months later, Steve Jobs unveiled it: the iPhone.
If you'd seen the patents Apple was filing in 2004 and 2005, the iPad wouldn't have been a big surprise either.
There was the patent application for a touchscreen that can "detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations"; one for "virtual input device placement on a touchscreen user interface"; one for "activating virtual keys of a touchscreen virtual keyboard" and "Electronic Device - Design Patent", a 2005 application that looks awfully like everybody's favourite tablet.
So can you use the patent offices as crystal balls for Apple kit? Yes and no. Applying for a patent doesn't mean you'll do anything with it; a firm's patent portfolio can include tangents, abandoned ideas and inventions that nobody knows what to do with.
It can also include patent applications designed to frustrate competitors - the first firm to patent an obvious idea can charge everybody else who wants to use it - or as a form of insurance, with companies patenting far-fetched ideas on the off-chance that something might come of it a few years down the line.
And patenting inventions is a slow process: in some cases they aren't granted and published until long after the invention goes on sale, meaning they're not much use for predicting the future. For example, the patent for last year's iPad Dock didn't surface until December.
Browsing Apple's patents is a lucky dip, but it's given us lots of ideas about the sort of products we might see from Cupertino in the future, so we thought we'd share a few of the best here.
The iMac touch
Description
Imagine owning an iMac with a glasses-free 3D display, which turns into a multi-touch iOS device with a single push.
What is it?
It's an iMac with three key improvements: an iPad-style multi-touch screen, a hinged base that enables you to lay the screen flat on your desk or have it vertical like a traditional display, and a rippled, 3D-capable display that uses head tracking to adjust the on-screen 3D effect so it remains pin-sharp.
When it's upright the iMac is a desktop Mac; fold it down and you can use it like an iPad.
Patents used
Transitioning Between Modes of Input, WIPO WO/2010/006210, July 2009
Three-dimensional Display System, USPTO 7,843,449, November 2010
Multi-dimensional Desktop, USPTO application 20080307360, December 2008.
Why we're excited
There's a fundamental problem with having touchscreen on a desktop computer - that is it gives you very sore arms. Prodding away at a vertical screen might be fine for cash machines, information kiosks and other devices you'll only use for short periods, but for serious applications it simply isn't comfortable or accurate enough. And that's why touchscreen PCs have never taken off.
By bringing the screen to a comfortable working height, however, the iMac touch would solve that problem. We already know that OS X Lion is bringing the best of iOS to OS X; so why not bring the best bits of the iPad to the iMac too?
As for 3D, we're not convinced that 3D can become mass-market when it needs ridiculous specs, but glasses-free 3D in a family-friendly machine is a different proposition altogether.
The 3D display patent describes using a projector rather than a normal computer screen, but it's one of several 3D patents that include 3D OS interfaces, so Apple's clearly thinking about 3D Macs. If anyone can make desktop 3D attractive, it's definitely Apple.
A mightier Mac mini
Description
This would be a completely wireless computer where even the power might be delivered by wireless induction rather than via a traditional cable.
What is it?
Apple's Computer Systems patent "may provide an entirely new and revolutionary category of computer systems", that is a "desk-free computer". This would use a projector rather than a traditional display.
And then you can factor in a wireless keyboard, which also works as a multi-touch input device, with tiny cameras monitoring your fingers to see whether you're typing, pinching or zooming. Put all of that together and you've got something really quite interesting…
Patents used
Computer Systems and Methods with Projected Display, USPTO application 20100079468, September 2008.
Image Processing for Camera Based Motion Tracking, USPTO application 20110006991, January 2011.
Why we're excited
Imagine a hybrid between the Apple TV and the Mac mini - a cloud-based hybrid that takes the Apple TV's minimalism a step further by banishing every single cable, including the one to your monitor or TV.
Apple imagines an ingenious device whose primary display comes via a projector, enabling you to stick it wherever suits: on a shelf, behind the sofa, on the ceiling… everything would be wireless, with the possible exception of the power cable - although power might even ultimately be delivered wirelessly using induction charging.
The Apple TV already receives its content wirelessly, so it isn't much of a stretch to imagine a future Mac accessing cloud-based software too. Remember the enormous data centre Apple's been building?
Of course, you wouldn't want to control an entire computer with your Apple Remote. However, you might be able to use your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in the same way you can use them with an Apple TV.
Alternatively, we've come up with a very different kind of keyboard: Tiny cameras track your finger movements and can tell if you're typing or making iPad-style gestures.
The MacBook touch
Description
Imagine a MacBook Air that becomes an iPad when you slide the display flat. Sounds great, doesn't it?
What is it?
A convertible MacBook with an integrated multi-band 3G/4G radio, carbon-fibre reinforced housing and a cooling system where the laptop's lid cools the processor. And it folds to become an iPad.
Patents used
Application Programming Interfaces for Scrolling Operations, USPTO application 20100325575, January 2007.
Reinforced Device Housing, USPTO application 20100289390, May 2009.
Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Thermoelectric Cooling Components, USPTO application 20100050658, March 2010.
Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Thermally Conductive Hinge Assemblies, USPTO application 20100053885, March 2010.
Antennas for Wireless Electronic Devices, USPTO 7,804,453, September 2010.
Dielectric Window Antennas for Electronic Devices, USPTO application 20100321526, June 2009.
Why we're excited
Apple's scrolling patent application includes diagrams of "a laptop device with a keyboard… the laptop device can be converted into a tablet" by sliding the display frame - the touchscreen bit - over the keyboard. Forget the arm-breaking Tablet PCs of the last decade and think MacBook Air.
In fact, think of a carbon-fibre MacBook Air: carbon fibre is as tough as metal and as light as plastic, but prone to cracking. Apple's patent application appears to have the solution: using multiple layers or a carbon-fibre frame so that the fibres don't all run in the same direction.
Other patents detail integrated 3G/4G radios in MacBook-style devices, possibly using the Apple logo as the antenna. Cooling systems might not be as glamorous, but they're important - which is why Apple's filed plenty of patents for cooling systems such as liquid-cooled laptops.
One of the most interesting ones uses the Peltier Effect, which can cool metal by passing an electric current through two different metals. Apple has also patented fan-free laptop cooling that dissipates heat through the laptop's hinge.
The iPad Air
Description
A lightweight, carbon fibre-encased iPad with a shape-shifting screen that can handle not just touch but waves and pen input too.
What is it?
An iPad whose display can "grow" real keys and whose touch sensors can interpret 3D gestures as well as 2D ones. The combination of haptic feedback and hover sensing could make Apple's tablet even more magical, and artists might like a pressure-sensitive pen that can overcome the limitations of low-res touch screens. It might even have an integrated stand.
Patents used
Detecting and Interpreting Real-World and Security Gestures on Touch and Hover Sensitive Devices, USPTO 7,877,707, January 2011.
Stylus Adapted For Low Resolution Touch Sensor Panels, USPTO application 20100006350, January 2010.
User Interface Having Changeable Topography, USPTO application 20100162109, June 2010.
Reinforced Device Housing, USPTO application 20100289390, May 2009.
Why we're excited
We like the iPad a lot, but, as we've all since discovered, its glossy glass screen isn't the best surface for touch-typing or gaming. However, the "changeable topography" patent application has a possible solution.
It presents a screen or trackpad that can "grow" buttons or other interface elements as required. It couldn't be made of glass though - as it's too solid - but would consist of "changeable nodes" that can form recognisable, tactile shapes. Such nodes might be controlled by tiny motors, or they might be made of a substance that expands or contracts when stimulated by an electrical, magnetic or chemical actuator.
That's not Apple's only interface idea. Building on the concept of multi-touch, its plans for "Touch and Hover Sensitive Devices" could interpret gestures such as a tap-and-hover, a "hitchhiking gesture" or even a thumbs-up.
And the pen? Steve Jobs may have mocked stylus-based tablets in the past, but that doesn't mean Apple won't introduce an artist-friendly pen input to the iPad. A pressure-sensitive stylus would be a boon in imaging apps.
The iPhone nano
Description
An incredibly small, cheap iPhone - think iPod nano with phone features - that jumps between networks and doubles as an electronic wallet.
What is it?
A super-small iPhone that supplements the familiar touchscreen with a second touch-sensitive panel on the back, enabling you to control the device with fingers and thumbs simultaneously. When you're using the rear screen, you'll "see" your fingers on the front screen: it's not transparent, though, it's just a clever idea for a cursor.
The phone includes a Universal SIM that uses the best available network provider, which could change throughout the day according to where you are.
Patents used
Back-Side Interface for Hand-Held Devices, USPTO application 20070103454, May 2007.
Handheld Computing Device, USPTO 7,724,532, May 2010.
Dynamic Carrier Selection, USPTO 7,885,654, February 2011.
Motion Based Input Selection, USPTO application 20100042954, November 2009.
Why we're excited
Imagine an iPhone that's the size of the current iPod nano. It probably wouldn't provide the full iOS apps experience - the iPod nano doesn't either - but it'd be capable of sending texts, checking email, playing media and all the usual smartphone stuff.
If you combine the iPhone's touchscreen with the touch-sensitive rear described in Apple's 2007 patent, you've found the solution to making the iPhone smaller yet easy to use. Similar technology is in the forthcoming PlayStation Portable replacement, Sony's NGP.
The Universal SIM could be bad news for mobile operators, as it suggests Apple is thinking of becoming an MVNO, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. According to the patent, the phone would send a request for data to "a mobile virtual network operator server", which might ask networks to bid for your business.
Apple also fancies turning your iPhone into an electronic wallet - but it has bigger ambitions too. Its Motion Based Input Selection patent application describes NFC-enabled phones acting as electronic tickets and even security passes.
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Review: Canon Pixma MG5250
As you might expect from a Canon printer, the Pixma MG5250 has clearly been designed with amateur photographers in mind. Thankfully, it does photos justice with excellent colour reproduction, especially when printing on photo paper.
Photocopying is also fast, quiet and accurate. A photocopy of hand-written notes was practically indistinguishable from the original; as with the Brother MFC-J6510DW, subtle details were picked up perfectly.
Even with more complicated documents, the Pixma MG5250's copying function produced very good results, proving equally adept with documents and photos.
Scanning is impressive, with resolutions up to 600dpi. While the more expensive all-in-ones can scan at much higher resolutions, the resultant file sizes are very large. If you don't need incredibly detailed scanned images, the Pixma MG5250 will suit your needs perfectly.
Although it's one of the cheaper all-in-one printers, it doesn't feel like Canon has skimped on many features. Along with print, scan and photocopying, the Pixma MG5150 has wireless connectivity and the ability to print directly to blank discs.
The device is controlled via easily identifiable buttons and a menu wheel similar to the one found on old iPods.
Unlike most budget all-in-ones, it has separate cartridges for each colour, which means better quality colour prints and cheaper running costs, because you only need to replace colours as they run out rather than replace them all at once.
The device also supports duplex printing, which uses both sides of a sheet of paper.
The Canon Pixma MG5250 exceeds expectations in many areas, and offers quality and features that you wouldn't expect for under £100.
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Review: Epson Stylus Office BX625FWD
Rather than a sleek touchscreen like the Lexmark Genesis S815 or HP Photosmart Plus, the Epson Stylus Office BX625FWD is controlled via a slightly intimidating array of buttons. It also has a colour LCD screen on the front, but none of the step-by-step guides provided by HP Photosmart Plus B210a or Kodak ESP 7250.
As the name implies, this is an all-in-one that focuses on the job at hand. There's no button for printing Sudoku puzzles here.
This aversion to bells and whistles is admirable only if the resulting device is of a high quality. Thankfully, when it comes to prints, the results are just that. The colour and detail outperform many more expensive printers.
Full A4 photo printouts not only look very good, but are printed quietly and quickly. Increasing the print quality reduces the output speed dramatically, but the increase in detail can make it worthwhile.
However, though the results are good, it's worth bearing in mind that the BX625FWD is designed for documents, not photos. You won't get an exact match of colour and quality, although the results can be close, especially on photo paper.
Photocopying is also accomplished with speed and aplomb. You place the item to be scanned in the document feeder on top of the device. Moments later, it's scanned and printed.
High-resolution photo scanning is also supported, and the results are great, but be prepared to wait if you choose a very high dpi setting.
The Epson Stylus comes with connections for use as a fax machine. This might not be a deal-breaker for most, but at this price you don't feel like you're paying for something you'll never use.
Although the Epson Stylus Office BX625FWD can seem unfriendly and complicated at first, it doesn't take long to get the hang of using it, and the wealth of features makes it a compelling purchase.
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TechRadar Phone Awards: Vote for your favourite mobile phone app
The TechRadar Phone Awards are in full swing, but they still need your vote on what you think are the best phone innovations of the past year. One of the most burgeoning phone sectors of recent years has to be the advent of apps.
These mini software programs can turn your handset into a games console, a running aide and even an ebook reader. With this in mind, TechRadar has narrowed down the best apps around today to a longlist of 10 - all of which need your vote now.
See below for the 10 apps we think are the greatest on any app store at the moment and don't forget that if you don't like any of our choice, then you can still have your say in the TechRadar Phone Awards by adding in your own personal favourite.
If enough people like the same app as you then it will go into the shortlist in the coming months...
Adidas miCoach
Available for: iPhone and BlackBerryThere was us thinking that Nike with its Nike+ service would dominate forever when it came to sport apps for your phone, but Adidas miCoach is our new favourite running mate. Packed with training programmes that have been designed by some of the world's best coaches miCoach helps you get fit by acting like your own personal trainer. The four coloured zones which match your heart rate or pace and push you to your limits when out on a run may be both your best friend and your enemy, but there's no denying they are a great way to push your fitness and offer up great stats at the end.
BBC iPlayer
Available for: AndroidBefore the real BBC iPlayer app came along, the Android Market was filled with copycat apps which just went to prove that many wanted to view iPlayer content on their mobile phone. It was great then that the BBC released a free app for Android users earlier this year, which allowed access to the iPlayer and the mountain of TV content available.
With a simple to use interface and streaming functionality that just works, the BBC iPlayer app is decent. And the fact it works on Wi-Fi is more of a help than a hindrance, considering we don't want expensive bills as we accidentally streamed content over 3G. Now all we need is for the app to come out for the iPhone, as it is strangely missing at present.
CoPilot Live 8
Available for: iPhone, Android, Windows MobilePaid-for sat nav applications may be under heavy pressure from the likes of Google who are offering similar services for free, but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't part with your cash – as CoPilot Live 8 shows. The mix of real-time information, a great unfussy user interface and a spoken voice that doesn't sound like it has been auto-tuned combine to create a fantastic app that can be used both on foot and in a vehicle. TechRadar has also had a sneaky glimpse at Co Pilot 9 and it is fair to say that things are only going to get better for the app, too.
- Vote for your favourite app here.
Google Maps Navigation
Available for: iPhone, Android, Nokia, BlackBerry and othersWhen Google launched Google Maps Navigation, the collective sigh of TomTom et al could be heard from miles around. That's because the free app offers what most paid-for sat nav apps offer but for nothing, nada, free. Yes, the voice could be improved and the app hasn't quite got all the features you get from a fully-featured sat nav application but it is a brilliant app for those that don't want to spend the cash. What we especially liked was the car dock, rerouting even when offline and that you can search for places by voice.
Hipstamatic
Available for: iPhoneThe iPhone 4 may well pack some of the most cutting-edge phone tech around but it seems that even the most tech-savvy hark back to the good ol' days of analogue. Such is the charm of the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone – an application which apes the old-school look of photographs and grafts it on to your latest images.
While paying around a £1 will get you a few effects and lenses, it's great that the app can be instantly updatable via some in-app purchases. And it even adds in the some processing time for images – which may irk after a while but is a great gimmick. Hipstamatic offers a refreshing slant on picture taking and for that it needs to be applauded.
iBooks
Available for: iPhoneJust when you thought Amazon with its Kindle app was going to run away with the ebook market, Apple came along with iBooks - a more polished e-reading experience.
Everything from the look of iBooks' (virtual shelves!) interface to the smooth page turning makes it a joyful reading experience. Couple this with the iPhone 4's crisp retina display, the support of multi-tasking and what you have is something that gives paper a serious run for its money.
- Vote for your favourite app here.
Pulse
Available for: AndroidThere's nothing better to bring you to the brink of tedium than reading plain RSS feeds on a mobile phone. It's lucky then that there are a number of apps out there which make RSS feed reading into a joyful experience. The best of the current crop is Pulse, a news reader that has a superb-looking UI which effortlessly uses images and text to entice you to read. The best thing about the app is that each story is kept within Pulse's confines so you are not constantly pushed out of the app to read stories from the web.
Slick and sleek, Pulse is one essential app.
Spotify
Available for: iPhone, Symbian, Android, Windows Phone, PalmSpotify has definitely found the Secret Sauce for getting users to migrate to its premium service, and that is bundling in the addition of mobile features for users who are paying full whack. Packed with innovation, like offline music listening, streaming over Wi-Fi and 3G and constant syncing with your computer, the app is a must for anyone who listens to music on the go. Yes, you are paying a premium for the functionality, but access to 13 million tracks all through a mobile device is definitely something that shouldn't be sniffed at.
Swype
Available for: AndroidSwype may be the worst kept secret among Android users, so it is lucky it is one of the best apps for the platform. Unavailable on the Android Market, the app may be in a seemingly endless beta stage but this doesn't make it any less innovative. For those who have never tried it: finger swiping a keypad, instead of prodding with your finger is the future, mainly because it makes typing on a touchscreen a whole lot easier, quicker and much more fun.
TweetDeck
Available for: iPhone and AndroidDespite its name, TweetDeck is the go-to app not just for Twitter, but for all your social-networking needs – bringing together Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare and Google Buzz all into one app. With set-up simple and complete control over how often the app syncs to your various networks, TweetDeck is the cleanest and best third-party app for checking your social feeds. A new re-fresh of the iPhone version of the app also adds to TweetDeck's awesomeness.
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HipstaCase appeals to retro iPhone 4 snappers
If you are a regular user of the retro-camera Hipstamatic app on your iPhone 4, then this new retro camera case is sure to appeal.
The new HipstaCase is currently only available in the US ($40 plus international shipping costs), so it doesn't come cheap.
Tripod-mount
Hipstamatic commissioned designers at Agent 18 to create the new HipstaCase, which also comes with a tripod mount, to finish off the retro look.
HipstaCase also has a handy wrist lanyard, to truly top off the toy camera feel to this unique snap-on iPhone 4 case.
You can grab the Hipstamatic iPhone app from the iTunes App Store, if you have somehow missed out on what the nostalgia-cam fuss was all about in the first place.
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10 weird mobile phone ads
There are plenty of ads that could fit into the category of being slightly off-the-wall.
But there's something about mobile phones that seems to bring out the best (and worst) in the guys that make adverts for TV and online.
Some of these promos are classics, while others belong in the "just plain bad" pile.
So here, gathered together for your amusement, are our 10 favourite weird mobile ads.
1. T-Mobile Royal Wedding
Surprise - it's a viral ad that doesn't suck! This jape from T-Mobile took on the subject matter of today's Royal Wedding and set it to the music of East 17. Filmed at St Bartholomew's Church in London and put together by Louie Spence, it's actually made by the lookalikes and the way the individual characters are reflected in the dancing!
2. Android eructation
Android isn't advertised that much in the UK, so it's a bit odd to take in this Korean ad for the OS. What's the burping all about? We'd love to hear Google PR's take on that one...
3. Microsoft's social phones
Yeah, this is simulated fun. But although this ad isn't funny, what happened because of it is. Mind you, the fact Microsoft spunked $500 million on Danger, were way late developing the Kin and then decided to discontinue it after only weeks on sale is pretty ridiculous too.
4. Piss-poor Dutch phone ad
This is the kind of slightly-sick clip that's two-a-penny in Europe, but would probably get Ofcom hot under the collar in the UK. Still, what high jinks eh?
5. For Mom
We're not sure what possessed Palm to start this Pre Plus ad in 1983, but we can see what it's trying to say. Kind of.
6. Windows Phone. Really?
This ad is largely straightforward - providing you get the right end of the stick. If you know what it's about before it starts you think it's about Windows Phone being so compelling that other stuff in your life suffers. But no, it's actually about other phones being so poor that they don't let you live your life! How could we have been so wrong? It's actually a pretty good ad for what it is - and the best moment is at 25 seconds in...
7. Your wife called
Man watching woman stripping on mobile, who then snaps the phone shut as he's disturbed. But not all is as it seems. We'll refer to it as an amusing little skit.
8. Photo girl
Although we've seen this a bunch of times before, we can't remember if this Vodafone ad was on in the UK or not. Still, it works well, using the staple comedy elements of "sleeping woman" and "young guy with cameraphone."
9. Dog + iPhone
Given Apple's dogged attitude to the appearance of its products in advertising, we're rather surprised to see this Softbank ad. It's absolutely brilliant, though we've got no idea what's going on.
10. And this one's just rubbish...
What can we possibly say about this ad? Apart from that it's definitely a new low...
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RIM slashes profit forecasts
BlackBerry maker RIM has cut its current profit forecasts, following disappointing smartphone shipments for its latest financial first quarter.
RIM forecast that it would ship 13.5 to 14.5 million smartphones over fiscal Q1 2012, with the latest estimates suggesting the numbers will be much closer to the lower of those two predictions.
PlayBook plays nice
Despite this, RIM reports that initial shipments of its BlackBerry PlayBook are in line with its expectations and this, combined with a number of new smartphones set to be released early May, should result in considerably healthier financial results later in the current financial year.
Expect lots more news on RIM's latest touchscreen phones direct from the BlackBerry World conference in Florida next week next week.
The new phones are set to feature an OS upgrade and all-round improvements to the hardware.
"The interest is global, the products are truly fantastic," said RIM's co-chief executive, Jim Balsillie, while also admitting, "I would have liked to have them sooner."
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Marvel Entertainment's new MMO set to be free
Marvel's new MMO superhero game is set to be free to play, in news that is sure to please penny-pinching comic book guys everywhere.
Marvel Entertainment announced that its Gazillion-developed new Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) super-hero game will be free to play at a San Francisco event this week.
Micro-payment strategy
Marvel plans on going down the FarmVille route, offering the main bulk of the game free to players, with options for micro-payments for those players that want to buy virtual goods in the game.
Gazillion Entertainment President and COO Dave Brevick said his studio's new Marvel MMO game will be a legitimately free experience that will also be a "triple A, high-quality, high-production value experience that is very accessible."
Gamers will have the chance to play as one of their favourite Marvel superheroes – including Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man and many others – and the game will initially launch on PC.
Expect more news on the new Marvel MMO from E3 2011 this coming June.
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Rumour: Spotify inks deals with movie studios
Spotify is reported to be finalising a number of high profile deals with US movie studios, in the run up to launching a movie streaming service later this year.
The Swedish music streaming company is looking to start offering movies, too, according to latest reports on Techcrunch.
Worldwide exclusives
TechCrunch's anonymous source claims that the service will be launching worldwide in the autumn of this year.
Spotify is allegedly looking to offer users exclusive early access to movies before they are available on disc or on other download services.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has so far denied the reports. However, we'll be sure to keep a close eye on developments here.
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Hackers offering to sell PSN credit card details
In the ongoing Sony PR nightmare that is the PlayStation Network hack, the latest rumours suggest that hackers are trying to sell the credit card details of 2.2 million PSN users.
Not only that, the hackers are also alleged to have offered to sell back the data to Sony, with the group claiming that Sony refused to buy back the list.
Sony offered PSN data?
The New York Times reports that Sony was offered the chance to buy back the information for around $100k but that the company has ignored the requests.
Sony has refuted the paper's claims.
"To my knowledge there is no truth to the report that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list," said SCEA PR boss Patrick Seybold.
"The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken."
Kevin Stevens, senior threat researcher at the security firm Trend Micro, told the New York Times that he had seen talk of the database on numerous hacker forums online.
"Sony is saying the credit cards were encrypted, but we are hearing that the hackers made it into the main database, which would have given them access to everything, including credit card numbers," added security consultant Mathew Solnik, from iSEC Partners
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Review: HP Photosmart Plus B210a
Most all-in-one printers concern themselves with four main areas: printing, scanning, faxing and photocopying. The HP Photosmart Plus B210a adds web apps to this list.
While almost every all-in-one can connect to your home network, this one supports third-party apps, giving you even more options for what to do with your photos.
For example, the Snapfish icon lets you upload photos you've scanned to the Snapfish website, where you can edit and share them. You can also use Snapfish to transform photos into canvases, photo books, calendars and more.
Other apps let you find and print articles from the internet without turning on your PC, and print out calendars, notepaper and even games. A press of the touchscreen gives you a sheet of Sudoku puzzles, for example.
All the apps and other functions can be accessed via the touchscreen on the front of the printer. The screen lacks responsiveness, and we often had to jab at it a number of times before the printer recognised what we wanted.
Print quality is fantastic, with vibrant colours doing justice to photos on normal and glossy photo paper. It's also quiet, which is a relief after the noisy work of the Kodak ESP 7250.
Scanning and copying are also quick, and the results are excellent. These tasks can be initiated from either the PC or the touchscreen.
When scanning, you can choose to scan to a PC or to a memory card. If you choose to scan to your PC, you can also choose what to do with the scanned image afterwards. For example, choosing 'Photo to email' will scan the photo, open your email client and create a new message with the image attached.
Little features like this might not revolutionise the way we work, but make all-in-one printers quicker and easier to use.
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Review: Soundstyle Z2
The Soundstyle Z2 really is a lot of stand for the money and it's not by any means obvious where corners have been cut.
The very efficient packaging opens to reveal four 25mm pillars and two 50mm ones, plus two large base plates (300 x 230mm) and two small top plates (170 x 130mm), plus enough screws to fit it all together and spikes for top and bottom.
The smaller pillars, which are intended to be at the rear, are undamped, but Soundstyle has taken a novel approach to damping the large one: it is filled with expanded polystyrene.
This weighs next to nothing and also doesn't fall out all over the floor, which is all to the good and it does actually damp the pillar reasonably effectively. Not as thoroughly as, for example, Custom Design's inert filler or good old-fashioned sand, but pretty well.
Overall, once the stand is assembled and loaded with a typical speaker, it is moderately well damped. We liked the locknuts provided for the bottom spikes, which serve a decorative, as well as practical function (a special spanner is provided to tighten them).
While this stand doesn't quite have the solidity we achieved with the Custom Design FS104 Signature, it does offer quite a close approach to that standard.
It is more than passably solid in the bass – just a touch vague at times, most notably when deep-toned percussion gets excitable – and its midrange and treble are generally neutral and once again, quite lively. Imaging is stable, but lacks a little depth and precision.
Given its price, it is likely to partner less-exalted speakers and it will certainly help most of these achieve clear, detailed and tonally uncoloured sound.
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Project Café to stick with buttons and d-pad
The latest news about the successor to Nintendo's Wii – currently codenamed 'Project Café' – is that the Japanese gaming company plans to stick with traditional buttons and directional pads (d-pads).
According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the company is unlikely to abandon these traditional and well-loved forms of game controls.
Even so, the rumours about Project Café do seem to indicate that Nintendo is planning on integrating some form of touchscreen tech into the console, with the controller allegedly set to feature a 6.2-inch touchscreen.
Nintendo will make the big unveil at E3 in Los Angeles this coming June, when gamers will finally see what the company has in store for Project Café.
Buttons and d-pad paramount
"Whenever we make a new game console, we've done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told an analyst this month.
"The reason for that it's better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response."
Iwata added that Nintendo plans to stick with what it knows its customers like, and "isn't planning on completely ditching buttons, nor …thinking of taking tablets as they are today and implementing them in a game console."
Thank god for that! That sounds like it would be an awful idea (and is clearly a sideswipe at Sony, with Nintendo's number-one competitor announcing its own tablet computer plans earlier this week).
Stay tuned for lots more on Project Café in the run up to E3 2011 over the coming weeks.
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Review: Quadraspire QV60
The last time we reviewed a speaker stand from Quadraspire it was the unique-looking, all-acrylic QX600. Now the company has done it again with the QV60: a wonderfully simple and elegant design in veneered MDF, which looks like no other speaker stand.
At the same time the QV60 contrives to seem somehow familiar because of its similarity with some contemporary sculpture and architecture – not to mention Quadraspire's established range of equipment racks.
It is a simple stand to assemble, requiring simply that the two slab pieces be fitted together with pre-inserted dowels, then fastened with a couple of screws, making a reasonably tough assembly.
Spikes can be screwed in both top and bottom, making a trapezoidal shape; frankly the front spikes are so close together, one can quite safely omit one and opt for triangular support.
The sound of this stand was always bound to be different, both because of its intrinsic resonant signature and because its large surfaces will have some effect on sound diffraction. We found that, compared with metal stands, it can seem a bit dull.
With longer listening it has much less characteristic signature in the high midrange than most metal stands, but it does nothing to hide the tonal qualities of the speaker on top of it. Indeed, it gave what we felt was the most precise sound of any of the speaker stands in this group.
Its one downside is imaging, which we found rather inconsistent, yet despite that, it is a highly attractive stand sonically, as well as visually.
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Week in Tech: Where now for the next-gen consoles?
If your games console was a person, its relatives would be subtly leaving brochures for retirement homes near its favourite chair.
The Wii and PS3 have been on sale since 2006, and the Xbox 360 is even older: it shipped in late 2005. So what's next?
Officially, what's next is nothing: Microsoft has just revamped the Xbox and added Kinect, and both it and Sony say there's plenty of life in these old dogs. Nintendo, though, begs to differ.
Its all-conquering Wii is about to be replaced with a new Wii, although sadly the next Wii probably won't be called the Wii Wii.
For now, the Wii 2 is called the "Wii successor system" and it's scheduled for a 2012 launch. In a notice to investors, Nintendo says that "we will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 expo, which will be held from June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles."
The console, codenamed "Project Cafe", might be more than just a Wii with better graphics. Rumours suggest a triple-core IBM PowerPC, ATI R700 GPU for HD and/or 3D, and a unique gamepad with built-in touchscreen, twin analogue sticks and even a camera.
The camera, we assume, would be for Kinect-style tomfoolery. The components aren't cutting edge, but they're still pretty hefty - and Edge reports that development kits are already in the hands of key game developers including Ubisoft, Activision and Electronic Arts.
Next Xbox and PlayStation
Meanwhile Microsoft is saying one thing in public and doing another thing in private.
Officially the newly redesigned, Kinect-happy Xbox will be around forever and ever and ever, but behind the scenes development of the next Xbox is beginning. Microsoft is posting job adverts for new console blood.
And Sony? It probably wishes there was as little PS3 news as there is PS4 news, because this week it fell victim to what appears to be the world's biggest online hack: the PlayStation Network (PSN) has been shut down while the firm works out how badly its 77 million users' data have been compromised.
Security firm Sophos says PSN users shouldn't wait: they should cancel their credit cards immediately.
It'll be interesting to see what, if any, effect the PSN hack has on Sony's image among gamers.
Our columnist Gary Marshall reckons PS3 owners have every right to feel aggrieved. "No matter who's at fault here, it's clear who loses: Sony's customers," he writes.
"At best, they're unable to use a service that's a big part of the PlayStation experience; at worst, they're going to have to keep a close eye on their credit cards for the foreseeable future." Will privacy concerns be more of a factor than the PS4's processor?
Do we need a new console?
To be honest, there's no pressing need for new, next generation consoles: as we found when we rounded up Xbox 720 rumours, Microsoft has repeatedly said that its plan for the current Xbox is for a ten-year lifespan, which would mean at least 2015 before a successor turns up.
According to EA's Frank Gibeau, "More computing horsepower is nice, but to be honest, the Xbox 360 and PS3 still have a lot of horsepower that hasn't been tapped." Take Kinect: it's a great bit of kit, but where are the games?
With HD graphics and hefty processing power under all our TVs (unless you're using a current-gen Wii) already, many developers' interests are moving to other things, such as LA Noire's attempts to overcome the Uncanny Valley problem with new facial scanning techniques and Brink's combination of single player, co-op and multiplayer in the same universe.
Prettier graphics would be nice, but when GamesRadar gives something a spanking it's more likely to be because of "tired mechanics", "generic drudgery" and "aimless and forgettable" stories and characters. More processing power won't fix that.
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Sony faces lawsuits over costly PSN data breach
Following the PR disaster that is the massive Sony PSN hack Sony is already facing a number of legal cases from groups of irate PlayStation fans across the globe.
Sony shares were down by nearly 5 per cent following the widespread publicity in both tech and mainstream media about the high-profile PlayStation Network hack.
Angry gamers demand answers
Sony CEO Howard Stringer or his deputy Kazuo Hirai have both refused to comment publicly on the PSN hack to date, angering gamers even further.
Michael Wang, manager of overseas funds at Sony shareholder Prudential Financials, told Reuters: "Gamers are angry that Sony's CEO hasn't come out to explain the situation and investors are disappointed over the company's corporate governance."
The cost to Sony of the PlayStation Network hack is already being estimated by some analysts to be in the region of $1.5 billion (£0.89 billion).
UK ICO investigates
Clearly, it is way too early to estimate the longer term costs incurred by the damage to the PlayStation brand and the loss of trust from gamers in the PSN service.
Sony is yet to comment on the latest class action cases being brought against the company.
Here in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office has contacted Sony and is investigating whether the company is guilty of violating British laws pertaining to a company's responsibility to safeguard customers' private and personal data.
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Review: Custom Design FS104 Signature
The basic idea behind the Custom Design FS104 Signature is pretty much the same as for all metal stands, but Custom Design has managed, with typical ingenuity, to find a new take on this by choosing both the pillar sizes and the exact design of the top and base plates.
These are both skeletal, comprising just enough metal (4mm-thick steel plate, painted in textured black) to link everything together.
Of the five pillars, the central one does most of the supporting work and its 75mm diameter is judged sufficient by many manufacturers to function unaided in many speaker stands.
In this case, however, it is assisted by the four 25mm 'satellite' pillars, very smart in the brushed chrome of our review sample, which add both bending and torsional rigidity to the assembly.
Custom Design recommends filling the central pillar with 'inert' filler (£20-worth will do two stands), which we certainly endorse as the undamped pillar rings like anything. It would be difficult to get inert into the satellite pillars, but some kind of damping is no bad thing; we tried improvised methods in our tests with useful results.
Without any such damping the sound is certainly solid, but it can be a little lively too, with some smearing of detail. However, even the simplest attempts to damp the stainless pillars can work wonders and at best this stand is a great choice for its combination of solid bass and neutral, uncoloured midrange.
It really gets good results out of speakers, small and large, and excels in encouraging fine detail and precise imaging.
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Xbox 360 and Kinect boost Microsoft profits
Microsoft reports record revenues of $16.43bn (£9.86bn) this week for its third financial quarter (ending March 31 2011), with sales of the Xbox 360 and Kinect helping to boost Redmond's coffers.
Revenues were up 13 per cent year-on-year, with overall profits climbing 10 per cent to $5.7bn (£3.42).
Record Xbox sales
The past year has seen record sales of Xbox 360 consoles, increased by the launch of the new Kinect motion controller in late 2010.
Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division (EDD) posted revenues of $1.94bn (£1.16bn), up 60 per cent compared to the first quarter in 2010, with EDD profits up 50 per cent to $225m (£135m).
2.7m Xbox 360s were sold over the quarter, which means total Xbox 360 sales are now near to 53m units worldwide.
Microsoft sold 2.4m Kinect units in the same quarter, which takes total sales since launch to around 10.5m
Further growth predicted
"We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses," CFO Peter Klein said.
"Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications."
Microsoft predicts EDD revenue should increase by around 25 per cent in the next quarter.
The company also added that it has sold 350m Windows Phone 7 licenses.
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