Transcripts

Tech Talk: The Cyber Grab Bag

SUSIE GHARIB: Some good news for consumers leads off this month`s edition of our "tech talk" segment. Also in our line-up tonight, a review of a new kind of printer that might remind you of the drawings you made as a kid. Here`s Scott Gurvey.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: In my experience personal computers rarely die, they just get old. Every two or three years I`m ready to buy something new with new features and faster speeds. The big question for me, besides, where do I get the money?, is what do I do with the old computer? Now Dell (DELL) computer is offering, for a limited time, free home pickup and recycling of your old computer when you buy a new Dell. The old one doesn`t have to be a Dell. Dell will also recycle computers without a new purchase for a fee of around $15. Microsoft (MSFT), America Online and Yahoo! (YHOO) made a surprise announcement today. Business users of Microsoft`s live communications server will be able to "instant message" clients of all three companies. The bitter rivals will still not allow their consumer clients to talk with each other. But this at least is a first step. Interoperability for consumer messaging clients is long overdue. Creative Technologies (CRTV) and Samsung are about to ship the first portable media centers running Microsoft`s Windows mobile media system. The hand-held devices will sell for about $500 and cannot only hold as many as 5,000 songs but also up to 80 hours of video. Content is downloaded to the media centers from a PC. If you`re concerned about your identity being stolen online, there`s some good news tonight. Today, the president signed the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act which may not help catch identity thieves, but will certainly make life more difficult for those who are caught. The new law mandates extra jail time for someone who uses another`s identify to commit a crime and makes the possession of another`s identification with intent to commit a crime illegal by itself. If you want to introduce color printing to your office but find the ink jet printer you have at home too slow for work and the big color laser printers too expensive, you might want to look at an unusual machine from Xerox (XRX). The Phaser 8400 prints color at 24 pages per minute and costs $1,000. Adding a network card and duplex unit for printing both sides of the page brings the price to $2,000. This printer uses solid ink, which comes in a cube that looks, feels and smells just like the Crayolas I remember drawing with in grade school. They load easily right on top here and the printer literally melts the ink, sprays it on the paper, producing very good quality images. For real photo quality, you still want a specially designed ink jet or dye sublimation printer, but for general business color this printer is a serious contender. One warning: as good as this printer is I`ve not been able to find the ink and other consumables in stock at our regular office supply vendors. They can be ordered directly from Xerox but that process has been painfully frustrating. One morning, I spent 20 minutes touch toning my way though the Xerox voice menu before I got a human I could talk to. I hope Xerox can get its customer service quality up to match that of its printers. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.