Stories by: Richard Jantz

Epson's low-cost V200 scans photos and film into winning images on the quick.

The new IRIS Readiris Pro 11 optical character recognition software makes fast work of turning paper documents into electronic text files that keep the original formatting and design elements intact. IRIS has improved the app's OCR engine, and in our tests it often delivered notably increased speed and accuracy.

The new US$180 Canon CanoScan 8600F and US$149 Epson Perfection V350 Photo provide excellent tools for creating high-quality scanned images, even from bad originals. Both of these flatbed scanners are worthwhile, but the Canon's faster performance and greater versatility (including more software and larger-capacity film holders) give it an edge over the Epson model.

Road warriors, take heed: Casio's US$1699 Cassiopeia Pro Super Slim XJ-S35 is the thinnest business projector I've reviewed. A scant 1.7 inches tall by 10.6 inches wide by 7.8 inches long, this 3.9-pound, 1024-by-768-resolution (XGA) model is the size of a laptop.

The slim Canon CanoScan LiDE 60 weighs barely two kilos and measures less than two inches high, making it a good choice for those with limited desktop space. With the small plastic stand that's included, you can use or store the scanner in an upright position. The LiDE 60 also eliminates a power cord and cuts down on cable clutter by drawing power through its Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection.

With the debut of its new Perfection 4490 Photo, Epson has another winner on its hands. Although the 4490's price makes it expensive for a value model, it also provides powerful features ideal for photo enthusiasts and other advanced users to justify its premium cost.

HP's dx5150 business desktop is geared to those preparing for tomorrow's 64-bit world. It's the company's first desktop to feature an AMD Athlon 64 processor and indeed, its first use of AMD CPUs in desktops for about two years.

Transforming printed documents into editable text requires an optical character recognition (OCR) program. The basic OCR programs that come with most scanners are fine for simple tasks, but more-complex documents require a full-featured package like Iris's Readiris Pro 10.

Panasonic's TC-32LX20 was one of the first sets with an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) input, which receives video and audio signals through a single cable from another HDMI-enabled device, such as one of the newer set-top boxes or DVD players.

At 17kg, ViewSonic's N3000w is a very light 30" LCD TV, and at $3999, it is relatively inexpensive. But it's no lightweight at delivering good picture quality, delivering top-shelf results during colour and DVD quality tests.

Producing big photo prints from small pictures used to mean a trip to the photo lab, but now Epson claims you can do it at home with its new Perfection 4990 Photo scanner.