We have done quite a number of posts about the ongoing court – and ad – battle between AT&T and Verizon, and we now bring you the latest installment to the “drama”.

Judge Timothy Batten has denied the request for a temporary restraining order filed by AT&T to temporarily stop Verizon ads form getting air time. The denial was given through an oral statement during the hearing in the Federal District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta that lasted for nearly two hours.

Since AT&T first filed suit against Verizon on November 3, more people seem to have become interested in the ads and what they meant to consumers. In addition, Verizon got busy and managed to churn out three more TV ads with a Christmas-y feel. This is on top of the first ad that earned the ire of AT&T as well as the one where an iPhone was “banished” to an “Island of Misfit Toys,” which we also featured in a previous post. There are now a total of five TV ads that revolve around the issue of 3G coverage, along with associated radio and print advertising.

One of the points that AT&T tried to make was that the ads brought about “confusion” about AT&T’s coverage in general, at least based on a study that they had reportedly commissioned. The results of that survey reportedly showed that the viewers who saw the original Verizon ads thought that the maps were referring to network coverage in general and not just 3G coverage in particular.

The full lawsuit is still in court and a preliminary hearing has been set for December 16.

Last week, Printer Geek shared that HP did a bit of updating to its Photosmart printer line, and mentioned the HP Photosmart A646.  This compact printer comes with Wi-Fi and a touch screen, as well as the added convenience of direct to camera connection via Bluetooth technology.

This time, we are sharing with you more information that we got about the HP Photosmart A646. With the holiday shopping season literally just around the corner, this may just be something that is worth adding to your list, either as something to wish for or something to light up someone’s Christmas with.

When considering printer features, the HP Photosmart A646 may have a lot to offer for the price that you have to fork over for it. The versatility, however, seems to come with a price, as most reviews have found that the model falls a little short as far as speed, print quality and ink costs are concerned.

Among the features that the review found impressive was the printer’s ability to accommodate more than just the usual 4×6 media; in addition, the printer can print on 4×12 (panoramic view) and on 5×7 photo paper. Being a photo printer, the ability to print directly from memory cards is important, and the A646 is equipped with media slots that can read from a Memory Stick, an SD Card and an XD-Picture Card. That being said, the machine also comes equipped with a PictBridge port – certainly a must-have for any printer being marketed as a photo printer; then, of course, there is the already-mentioned Bluetooth capability.

Also present is a 3.45-inch color touchscreen LCD.

Running out of ink on your printer is probably one of the computer user’s most dreaded things, especially if in the process of printing something important. While it seems easy enough to go out and buy an ink cartridge, it’s not as appealing when you find yourself strapped for cash. Those with a limited budget may find themselves buying a compatible ink cartridge, which is far cheaper than their OEM counterparts, but what do you do if your printer doesn’t recognize the compatible cartridge? Was your money ill-spent?

You can try checking your cartridge’s ink first. Is it really incompatible with your printer? Printers today are programmed to accept only certain kinds of ink, which are often specifically made only for one printer type. Factors such as ink viscosity and thickness can affect the way it flows down the printer’s nozzles, and using the wrong ink type can damage your printer.

Also anticipate the possibility that your cartridge might not have the exact ink type for your printer. Clean the printer heads before you install the cartridge, as this can improve the chances of your printer accepting the compatible ink cartridge. Clogged printer heads can be a problem, especially if the printer has been sitting idle for quite a long time. Dried ink can lead to problems later on, and even if you have full ink in your cartridge, it will not flow down to the paper because of the clog.

There are also instructions on how to best install your ink cartridge. Make sure that you follow them exactly as prescribed, since doing so greatly increases the probability that your printer may accept the compatible cartridge.

One generally does not have the time – probably, nor the energy – to go store-hopping on Black Friday. Everyone will have stores on their priority list, depending on the kind of deals and stuff that they would like to enjoy and purchase. In our case, we usually go to two stores on Black Friday — Best Buy and Wal-Mart, in that order.

And as far as doing one’s Black Friday homework goes, we find one site helpful — Black-Friday.net. And for those who intend to troop to the nearest Best Buy or Wal-Mart, here are some of the deals that we will most probably be going for:

Wal-Mart has a huge array of goodies, and you may laugh at us but one of the bins we usually make a beeline for are the DVDs. Prices range from $2 for titles such as Blood Diamond, Casino Royale and I am Legend; $5 for Kung Fu Panda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Dark Knight; and $9 for Marley and Me, GI Joe and 17 Again. Some Titles, such as Braveheart, Gladiator and Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince are available in Blu-ray for $10.

Wal-Mart will also have sales on home items and apparel, as well as electronics. There is an HP 15.6” Notebook with Intel Processor, 3GB Memory and 250GB hard drive for $298, a Sony Cyber-Shot 10 MP camera digital camera for $79, an Apple 8GB iPod Touch with a $50 iTunes GC for $195, and a 46” Sony Bravia HDTV for $798.

Best Buy’s deals will reportedly include a 13.3” Macbook with 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive and a $150 GC for $999, a Canon EOS Rebel T1iD-SLR Camera for $699, the 8GB iPod 5th generation Nano for $159.97 and the Epson Stylus NX110 MFP for $24.99. Smallville fans can also purchase DVD sets of the show from seasons 1 through 8 for $9.99 per set.

Since early this week, we have been reading about an excited frenzy over big, big discounts from the one company that rarely gives them out – Apple. Something inside just clicked and said — well, this thing looks too good to be true; and experience tells us that when something is that good, then it most probably is just a figment of someone’s imagination, or wishful thinking gone wild.

So, what kind of discounts were we supposed to look forward to from Apple? The discounts will reportedly be available on “Select Apple Stores” – no mention of the online store – starting at 6 in the morning on November 27th only. Consumers can look forward to “up to” 30% off on ALL iPods, 25% off on ALL Macs and 15% of on ALL accessories, Apple software and Apple hardware.

We would have been okay with the “up to,” which means there will probably be a great deal or two on models that people do not really go for all that often, and then 4 to 5 percent off – or even less – on the more popular stuff. But to say that discounts will be given across the board? It will always be on selected models – it always has been; we just don’t think that any company can afford to offer discounts across the board.

And we cannot help but wonder whether Apple stores are prepared to handle an even bigger-than-expected influx of consumers come November 27 if these rumors are, indeed, true; this is considering they run out of regularly-priced items.

We have not seen a feature that absolutely discredits the rumors, nor has any official statement from Apple stores been released as of this writing. If anyone has information about that, we would certainly appreciate a shout-out or a link. For the moment, though, we will personally dismiss these rumors as something not worth watching out for; what about you?

The amount of paperwork a college student requires can be astounding, especially if you’re in a program that dwells mainly on research. Requirements such as your thesis, research papers, reaction papers, and manuals are the things that plague your daily life as a student, and your time can suffer for it. And sometimes, the professors don’t like having these computerized and prefer handwritten output because of the presupposition that it builds character.

Well, many of us students will probably not agree with our professors’ line of thinking, thus our increasing dependence on computer and printer usage. Let’s face it: A printer is not something that a student can live without, and it is often one of the many factors that can determine a ‘pass’ or a ‘fail’.

The first thing that students look for in their printers is their affordability. After all, it would be quite wasteful to spend money on a page that you will probably never see again. The important thing here is for the prints to be readable. If you think you don’t need all those new-fangled functions and doohickeys for your printing needs, stick to a cheap, reliable printer.

In this case, the emphasis is on quantity rather than quality. Printers used in the academic setting are primarily chosen for the number of pages that it can print, and not how high-resolution the prints come out. Chances are that you will print mostly text, and not pictures. Here, you’re probably better off buying a laser printer, which can print fast and can print a lot of pages for your money’s worth.

What about if you already have an inkjet printer and still want to save money while printing? Well, that’s easy. There are several generic brands in the market that are sold at relatively lower prices. Before buying though, make sure that the printer ink cartridge is compatible with your printer. Ask the sales staff or do a bit of research on it to confirm this before completing a purchase.

We have all heard the various ways to save money on printer ink and we’ve implemented them into our home and business printing practices. But what if that just isn’t enough? There is another interesting idea for users who want to save every little bit they can from their high-tech budget: Saving money by choosing an economical printer font; a font that uses less ink than others.

Saving money by changing your font isn’t just a theory. Research has shown that all users — individual printer users and small business environments — stand to save up to $80 a year per printer based on nothing more than changing the default font they use when they print documents. Which font is the most economical of them all? The aptly named Ecofont is designed to minimize ink and toner use, but there is actually one font that is even more toner friendly – Century Gothic. It covers the average sheet of paper with ink to a level of only 3.45% total ink coverage. By comparison, Arial, the most commonly used default font, averages 4.97% coverage. A burlier font like Franklin Gothic Medium hits over 5.5% coverage.

Even though these numbers may look miniscule they do still matter. The costs add up when you realize you may be using 60% more toner on every page you print than is really necessary. This isn’t even considering the reduction in the amount of paper used each month, thus saving more on that printing cost as well. And as always, one of the best ways to save on printing costs is to not print as much, of course. Deciding what is absolutely vital and eliminating superfluous printing can save on out of hand printing costs too.

Google has just released the code for the Chrome Operating System. The Chrome OS is currently available open-source via the Chrome OS project, and the development community has free and open access to it. Included are the current code base, user interface experiments as well as initial designs for ongoing development.

Google intends to have netbooks that are running the operating system available in the market just in time for the 2010 holiday season. When the Chrome OS does break into the market, “all activity will be stored in the cloud”. This was explained by Google product management vice president Sundar Pichai during a technical preview at the company’s headquarters.

What this means is that if for any reason you no longer are able to access your Chrome OS-based netbook (such as if you lose it), recovery of all information is possible as soon as the user will log in to a new machine.

There was no talk of dollars in Pichai’s part, but he did hint that the price range for the Chrome-based netbook will be within what one would expect from such a gadget. He did say, however, that they fully intend to come up with a netbook design that is slightly larger than usual in order to allow for a more convenient viewing and typing experience.

We will have to wait a year, though, for what this Google netbook would look like. But even this early, Google is already saying that they will not be stopping at just netbooks and eventually intends to expand to laptops and desktops.

Life is becoming more and more fast-paced, and traveling everywhere has become a common activity for the everyday businessman. The internet has allowed us instant access to our files, emails, and documents anywhere in the world, so long as the content is online. But printing is another matter. What if you need to print something quick and you only have your laptop with you at some remote place that time seems to have forgotten?

Fortunately for us, compact and portable printers have now been developed, and it becomes an easy task for us to print our files from anywhere in the world. These mini printers are often battery-operated, and can be carried in our laptop bags or even in our briefcases. It’s that convenient to have, especially during situations when you have to print a file that you need that very minute, and don’t have the time to run around and find a printer somewhere else.

One common disadvantage of mini printers is limited features. Some mini printers are built only for monochrome printing, while others are only for photo printing. It probably is still difficult to jam a lot of functions into something so small and compact. Looking at it from one perspective, that’s the trade-off for convenience and portability.

So if you don’t mind missing out on the other frills that big printers have to offer, mini printers can provide you with a basic solution to your printing needs. It’s small, light, and easy to carry, making it ideal for emergency printing situations. While mini printers are built mostly for a single type of printing, it is worth your money especially if you are a traveling businessman.

When we come to think of it, we may consider this period as the age of the laptops. This machine has, indeed, gone from being a convenient add-on gadget for the select few to being part of the mainstream. It is not uncommon for households to have more than just one laptop, and to see old desktops gathering dust in a corner.

Anyone who owns a machine or a gadget, however, has one thing to think about — reliability. Surely, no one will want to part with hard-earned cash to purchase something that will conk out in a day or two.

A feature on CNET.com discusses reliability, and how the various laptop brands fare against each other. Some of the data, indeed, came as a surprise; there are some brands out there that we thought could perform better. This information is nice to have before we head out for the shopping extravaganza of a lifetime on Black Friday.

The feature referred to a research paper released by the warranty firm Square Trade. They analyzed the failure rate for 30,000 laptops and compared the failure rates of various brands and hardware categories. According to the paper, over a period of three years, one out of three laptops is expected to fail; that is certainly a frequency that is surprising, and a bit concerning.

Leading the pack as far as reliability is concerned are Asus and Toshiba, which also surprised us somehow since we were not exactly too happy about our Asus. But then again, it was rather unfair for us to pit a Dell laptop against an Asus netbook, and the figures do speak for themselves.

Among the least reliable as far as the analyzed data was concerned were Acer, Gateway and HP; these three brands reportedly had higher than average failure rates.