Pentax
PocketJet 3 with Bluetooth: $429
www.pentaxtech.com

WHAT’S 10” LONG AND WEIGHS ONE POUND? PENTAX’S PocketJet 3, a direct thermal jet printer that easily fits in a notebook bag or briefcase. Because it employs thermal technology, there’s no need for toner or ink. Instead, you sell your customer Pentax’s thermal paper to use with the device.

The printer’s size is only one of the reasons it’s so mobile. Built-in Bluetooth support also helps. Capable of receiving transmissions from up to 300 feet away, the printer communicates using infrared or, if you’re short on wireless connectivity, over a bundled USB cord. Of course, printing on the road presents another logistical complication: providing ample power. The PocketJet 3 can take a standard AC input from the wall. But it comes with a NiMH battery pack as well, able to deliver enough charge for 100 pages worth of output.

Performance and quality are quite impressive for such a small printer. The PocketJet can crank out up to three pages per minute at a resolution of 200 DPI. Since there aren’t any ink tanks or toner cartridges involved, the cost of printing remains constant with the price of paper, working out to about nine cents per page.

Seiko
SLP 450 Label Printer: $149
www.siibusinessproducts.com

THE WORLD WOULD BE A much more organized place if everyone used labels liberally. From inventory racks to equipment shelves and even pantries at home, knowing where to put things is the key to finding them again. Seiko’s SLP 450 puts the power of organization in your hands with quick, 300 dpi quality printing on 2” labels.

Seiko’s main claim to fame here is interoperability. USB and serial connections are made easily, and the Smart Label software provided with the hardware works under both Windows and Mac OS X. Further, Seiko supplies a full suite of drivers, including a software package for Windows Vista. The company says 64-bit OS support is currently in the works.

Gigabyte
P35-DS3R LGA-775 Motherboard: $139br> www.gigabyte.us

AFTER HEARING STORIES ABOUT MOTHERBOARDS WITH fried capacitors and burnt-out power circuitry, it’s good to see Gigabyte advocating long-term durability as one of its selling points. The vendor’s P35-DS3R motherboard centers on Intel’s new P35 desktop chipset, successor to the mainstream P965 Express. Augmenting the board’s durability means that Gigabyte uses RDS(on) MOSFETs with lower switching resistance. Less resistance means less heat, and less heat means fewer reliability issues. The board also features ferrite core chokes, little components designed to store energy. Gigabyte’s chokes operate more efficiently than the iron chokes used by many other vendors. Finally, the P35-DS3R sports solid capacitors, which are less prone to failure than the electrolytic capacitors notorious for leaking fluid.

Superior hardware isn’t the P35-DS3R’s only advantage. Because it centers on the Intel P35 chipset, Gigabyte’s latest offers a tremendous amount of functionality. Core 2 Duo processor support is naturally expected, but the P35 adds forward compatibility for the next generation of 45nm Core-based processors too. In turn, that also means official support for a 1333 MHz MHz front-side bus setting and sanctioned use of DDR2-1066 memory.

The P35 memory controller connects to Intel’s ICH9R. Like it’s ICH8 predecessor, the ICH9R comes with 12 available USB 2.0 ports, six SATA 3 Gbps connectors with RAID, an integrated Gigabit MAC, and six PCI Express x1 links. Gigabyte’s P35-DS3R adds another storage controller to enable eight SATA ports. Also bundled is a high definition audio controller along with plenty of PCI Express/PCI and silent passive heatsink coolers.

You’ll notice that the P35-DS3R is very colorful. Gigabyte does a great job color coding components to make integration go more smoothly. For its VAR-friendliness and quality build, Gigabyte’s P35-DS3R is a solid motherboard play.

D-Link
DNS-323 Network Storage Enclosure: $229
www.dlink.com

YOUR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS use network-attached storage to centralize data and back up important information. In the office, they might be saving to a dedicated storage server with terabytes of space. At home, give them the same functionality in a less sophisticated package. D-Link’s DNS-323 is a two-bay network storage enclosure that ships without any hard drives. You can add one SATA drive, delivering up to 1TB of space, or two drives, which either doubles capacity or facilitates mirrored protection.

The DNS-323’s principal function is network storage, but it also features a built-in FTP server that makes data on the enclosure’s drives available over the Internet. Security being the concern that it is, D-Link provides a management console for creating approved users and groups with custom read and write permissions. Transfer speeds to and from the DNS-323 are incredibly fast thanks to an integrated Gigabit connection.

With the value of network storage already established, D-Link offers a couple of notable value-adds that set its DNS-323 apart from some of the more enterprise-oriented NAS devices out there. For one, an onboard USB port takes any printer with the same interface, letting your customer not only add storage to the LAN but add printing as well. A shared printer is naturally available to anyone with permission on the network, regardless of which systems are on or off. UPnP support is also part of the deal, streaming saved digital content to compatible media players around the house.