I first saw touch screens computers in the food processing industry back in the late 90′s. Since then the technology and the price has been slowly been dropping. As a result we now see more cell phones with touch screens than without.

The overall adoption of a touch screen desktop computer has been slow mostly because of the cost. We are seeing the price going under the $1,000 mark. This makes the all-in-one computer with touch screen in the same price range as the more traditional desktops.

HP and DELL are the two major desktop computer manufactures who are pushing the desktop computers with a touch screens. HP with its HP TouchSmart 320-1030 is being sold for $699, and the DELL has its Inspiron One 2320 with Optional Touch Screen are just samples of what is in the market.

The HP has a 20″ screen as compared to the DELL has 23″ screen. The DELL touch screen was selling from $800 to $1,300. The HP can be found in the $700 range.  The reviews from PCMag.com and Cnet.com left me turned off  for a touch screen desktop computer. Then I asked myself why would I ever buy a touch screen desktop computer?

Since before Thanksgiving I have been slowing giving into the idea of getting a tablet. I have looked at all the major brands of tablets and eReaders. I have been trying to imagine how often I would use it. I watch how other people would use their tablets.

While attending a local trade show I noticed a large majority of the vendors were using iPads. There were only a few who had other tablets. Several business friends and associates now have tablets. They all seem to be using them successfully.

I really started to give this tablet thing more serious thought when I was at a luncheon. I was asked, unexpectedly, to read something that I had wrote. All I had on me was my cell phone. I pulled up Evernote on my cell phone. The text was so small I had to almost put my nose up to the screen to read it.

I still don’t like the $400 to $600 price tag. When I looked at the Barnes and Noble Nook along with the Kindle Fire my interest got  sparked. I began to look at these two quite seriously. I do like their price point along with their functionality.

Last week was the big Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas Nevada. Interesting enough this show was not meant for the end users like you and me. It is meant for the dealers and the news media. CES has always been where manufactures take their proposed concepts and see what stores will buy, and what the reviewers in the tech industry thinks about their ideas.

I wasn’t there. I did not have to go there. There was so much coverage for TWIT.tv, CNET.com, Revision3, and many others. So much coverage I did not have to waste my money. The flight down there along with room and meals would have cost me close to $1,000. Instead I stayed home saved my money and watched the streaming feeds.

It is estimated that at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) there were over 150,000 attendees. That is the population of cities like Tallahassee, FL, Huntsville, AL, Savannah, GA, Winston-Salem, NC, Brownsville, TX and Hampton, VA. However you look at it that is a lot of people. A leading commentator stated he observed there was at least a four reporters, reviewers or bloggers in attendance to every exhibitor.

It seems that every time I look at a sales ad or watch a television commercial, I don’t see very many desktop computer. I see plenty of cell phones. There are plenty of tablets and eReaders, but no desktop computers. The only place I see any sales ads for desktop computers is through emails from places like Newegg or Tiger Direct.

If I go to a website like PCMag.com, I come across a healthy set of reviews for the Top 10 Desktop computers. PCWorld.com has its own list as to what they think the Top 10 Desktop computer are. TopTenReviews.com has another list for desktop computers. Even Cnet.com what they consider as the best desktop computers.

Just the other day, I walked into Best Buy. It was there I was faced with making a choice of walking down one of three aisle. Each one going toward the back of the store like spokes on a wheel. I chose the far right one.

I did not get fifteen feet before coming upon a stack of boxes dividing the center aisle. Facing me was a display box of a sound system. 5.1 stereo with sub woofer and Blu-ray player looked inviting. The price tag of $265 looked reasonable. A little further down the aisle was 42″ LCD televisions. Both seemed reasonable Christmas gift for a family to upgrade their home entertainment.

This got me thinking about similar box sound systems I have seen at Wal Mart in the $100 to $200 range. Then I thought about ours. I got ours sound system from a yard sale for $10. The people from whom I bought it moving and just wanted to get rid of it. It sold new for $250.

When walking through Sears, at the end of three of the aisles where three different 3D televisions. At first glance the pictures were blurry enough for my eyes start hurting. Then I realize they were 3D TV’s. Off to one side were 3D glasses for me to put on. Then I say this amazing 3D picture of an arrow shooting through an apple.

It was not to long ago people who wore corrective glasses would have trouble seeing through the 3D glasses. They would see a blurry image with little 3D rendering. Fortunately, the technology for 3D glasses has gotten much better.

There are four ways 3D glass give us the 3D affect. Each is a little different with varying results.

One thing I have notice over the years is sports fans especially football fans want the best possible picture and sound while watching the game. When it comes to the playoffs and finally the Super Bowl, the color, sound as well as frame rate has to give at the game experience.

A television that produces the image and sound quality of a live championship football game will cost you in the $1,000 range or more. It is recommended that the screen be at least in the 50″ range. The sound should becoming from a surround sound system of 5.1.

Back before LCD and Plasma screen TV’s got below $1,500, I knew this guy who would go to a big box electronics store a couple of days before the Super Bowl and get the biggest and best television they had in stock. Then a couple days after the game he would return it, to get his money back. Each year he would rotate between Costco, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and whatever store he thought he could get away with his little scam.

I don’t make it any secret that I have an HTC Android cell phone. I love my cell phone. I show it off every chance I get. I really love what Google has done with the Android operating system. They have changed simple cell phone into the realm of handled personal computing.

A couple weeks back I was attending some special training for my night job. Have way through one of the session for some strange reason we started talking about cell phone apps. Naturally, I had to speak up. I started sharing my favorite applications.

Let me say right her, I don’t consider myself as having some exotic geeky obsession with the apps on my phone. Well, maybe a little bit of an addict with it comes to seeing what new application that are out there. What makes the apps I have so special is that they preform a specific set of functions and they are free.

As a result of that training session’s app sharing time, I thought it would be good to share those same applications with you. For the sake of listing everyone, I have only listed the top eight application I use everyday. 

 It was 1975 when Epson America, Inc. entered the United States supplying components and peripherals for computer and other electronics. It wasn’t long before Epson captured a 60% market share of the dot matrix printer market. Today, Epson America, Inc. is responsible for the sales, distribution, service and support for a wide range of digital imaging products.

The Epson WorkForce 840 printer was presented to me as a better home office printer than the HP printer we looked at last week. So I headed over to the Epson web page for more in depth look at the WorkForce 840.

The first thing I started to looking to find was features like wireless printing and ePrint. These are two features that are signatures to the 21st century.  Yes, I did find WiFi, Ethernet and printing from mobile device being available on the Epson WorkForce840. Epson does not give these features the fancy marketing names that HP does, but the same functionality is there.

After last weeks general look at printers. I figured it was time to start looking a some specific printers. So for today, I set on a quest to find a good all around printer. I wanted a printer that would print decent pictures along with have the wireless and ePrint features. It didn’t take long before I found HP Photosmart Premium model C410a.

I chose an HP printer because it has been around for some time. All my resources tell me HP has a good reputation with printer users. For expert opinion, I chose the two top tech reviewing website; PCMag.com and Cnet.com.

Now let us take a close look at the C410a from the PCMag.com reviewers perspective.  This reviewer like so many tech reviewers get in the habit of using tech jargon. Some of it over our heads. Here it is best to break down what the reviewers is actually telling us in the review. The reviews liked: