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.

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.

 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:

Is your printer old and worn out? Have you been thinking about upgrading your printer? Good printers with a scanner for home or small office are starting around $100. For a few dollars more you can get some amazing features.

Just the other day, I was listening one of my favorite tech podcast when I heard them mention 3D printing. This got me thinking about the possibilities for printing things in 3D. Auto shops could print replacement parts for our cars. We would not have to go to the toy store. We could just print out new toys for out kids. What about printing out a last minute Christmas present?

Science fiction? 3D printing could turn a lot of what we saw in the Star Trek movies and television shows  a reality. After all look at the our cell phones and tablets. They are far lighter and more streamline than the ones shown in the first Star Trek TV shows of the 1960′s.

What I love about the age in which we live. The large volume of available tools for learning is astounding. It does not matter what our learning style is as to what we can find to help us.

Most of us do learn in one of three ways. We either read, see, or do to make taught material part of us. There are some of us who need a combination of the three.

Another great thing about the 21st Century many of these learning tools are Free to little extremely reasonably priced. That is what I want to explore today.

First off I is our transition from the heavy paper books  to their digital grand children. A large portion of  paper books have been replace in the 21st Century by digital books. These can be read from a desktop or laptop computer, eReader or tablet, and a smart phone.

The student in the 21st century cannot be expected to survive on paper and pencils alone. Paper books have not gone away. However, from kindergarten to the graduate student in college at least one computer with internet access is needed as part of their learning process.

Paper bound books are not enough. The days of old hard bound Encyclopedia Britannica has been replaced by Google.com. Webster’s Dictionary, and other great school reference tools can now either be found online of in some digital format. Great reference tools of the 21st century need some electronic device to access them.

Smartphones with apps like Webster’s Dictionary, and news feeds are helpful, but not required. Tablets like Xoom and iPad2 allow doing homework a most anywhere option. Then there is the classic desktop or laptop computer with internet access as a minimum requirement for any student.

Sneaker Net is where you save information on a flash drive. Then you pull the flash drive out of your computer. Walk in your sneakers over to a second computer, then put the flash drive in the second computer. That my friends is Sneaker Net.

In comparisons to other methods Sneaker Net is a fast and simple way to transfer any data from one computer to the next. Then only real limitation is that you have to have physical access to both computers.

Compared to what we have had in the past to transport information manually from on computer to a second, the flash drives is better than sliced bread. Like sliced bread they do go bad after a while. I have two flash drives setting on my desk that my none of my computer will not read the information on them.

A flash drive is great for our taking a Power Point Presentation with me when I go to speak. I taken any printing I want done to the printer on a flash drive. I have one flash drive with troubleshooting programs for when I am working on a computer.

Since we are surrounded by technology, I want to ask you, “How much technology do you need?” “What kind of technology do you need?”

It wasn’t to long ago when all this technology was not available to us. When we do not have our favorite technology we start to act like a drug addict who is deprived of her drugs.

Fifty years ago computers were the size of building. Microwave ovens were not in our homes. If we wanted some information we had to go to the library. There was no Google.

Forty years ago businesses just start explore the use of computers in their business. The idea of watching movies the television on demand through a VHS and Beta cartages were becoming popular.