Printstik (PLANon, www.planon.com, $299, 3-pak replacement paper cartridge, $24.99) is a small, portable wireless printer that makes it easy to print documents and images from your laptop, PDA or mobile phone. The device is about the size of a fat ruler (1 x 10.75 x 1.9 inches) and weighs less than 1.5 pounds, so it’s also easy to bring it along and be ready to print whatever you need no matter where you are. The printer is housed in a black and silver metal case and comes with a sturdy zippered travel case, so there’s no concern about damage wherever you carry it.

We frequently find ourselves wanting to print something while away from the office, and Printstik fills that bill well. We can use it for printing boarding passes, changes in travel schedules, reminders to give to clients and more. Predictions of a paperless society aside, there are many times when you need a hard copy of a document or image (not everyone can or wants to read your screen or wait for you to send a copy of that proposal, to name a few).

Installing Printstik was easy and took only a few minutes. We used the included Bluetooth connection to pair it with our laptop, and the program also includes Blackberry Desktop Manager software and standard USB connections. The device prints up to three full pages per minute (in black only) and includes a self-contained 20-page paper cartridge and battery. If whatever you print does not cover a full page, a button on the printer lets you advance the paper to whatever size you want.

The printer is powered by a Lithium Ion battery that prints 40 pages per charge, and since it uses thermal print technology, there are no ink cartridges to leak or clog. The print is a very legible 200 dots per inch on thermal paper that does not smudge or bleed. We printed text in several different fonts and found all reproduced very well, and the graphic images and photos were solid or dotty, depending on their source. Replacement supplies are available from PlanOn.

We like the size, ease of use and mostly the convenience of this printer and think that anyone who travels or spends time away from office for business or conferences, educational and other activities will find many uses for Printstik. Recommended.

The Orbitsound T3 (Orbitsound, www.orbitsound.co.uk, $149.99) is a mobile, personal, powered speaker system boasting single point stereo technology that gives the aura of full stereo sound playing from a single unit.

The patented airSOUND system preserves the full stereo sound field, keeping the frequency and stereo phase response uniform throughout the sound field. Though standard stereo speakers tend to have a "sweet spot" for best stereo effect, this is not true for airSOUND. The airSOUND system is also unlike headphones or ear buds, which restrict left channel sound to left ear and right channel sound to right ear and limit the spacial clues needed to appreciate full stereo sound. This is why most people hear headphone sound in the middle or even back of the head. The Orbitsound T3 system works by encoding standard left and right stereo sound into both direct sound information that fires from a single front mounted speaker and spacial sound information that fires from two side-facing transducers.

The compact stylish Orbitsound T3 unit is designed to be worn around your neck; it’s about the size of a deck of cards (4 x 2.25 x 0.75 inch), weighs in at a scant 4 ounces and is black with silver trim. There are only two switches: power and airSound. The latter switch determines the amount of spacial sound used--max, normal or off. The unit will play up to 10 hours on a full four hour charge and has a 3.5mm stereo audio input jack that accepts input from an iPod or other personal media player or a music capable cell phone. You can also play the unit by placing it on a flat surface, such as a desktop, and still enjoy the stereo sound field effect.

Our own experience with the Orbitsound T3 verified the remarkable around-the-head stereo sound aura, whether worn around the neck or placed on a desktop. The device could be a substitute for headphones or earbuds, except in an environment where you might be disturbing others. We thought the Orbitsound T3 suffered from two shortcomings: a thin bass response that gives the sound a somewhat tinny, small-speaker quality, and the tendency for the sound field to shift from side to side as the unit swings when you walk, run or exercise.

Orbitsound also makes other non-mobile airSOUND single point stereo units. The model T6 is a slick powered iPod dock that uses electronic tubes (or valves, as the English company calls them) rather than solid state devices, such as integrated circuits and transistors. The model T12 is designed as a sound system for use with TVs and consists of a long, narrow sound bar and a woofer. We hope to review these at a later date.

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