Don’t Blink, It’s Stationery

You can consider this a review if you like, but there is nothing paid about it. I am a fanatic when it comes to fancy note cards and stationery.

As most people have gathered by now, I write some of the interviews for the Business Opportunities Weblog. Every so often someone offers me a freebie of their product in return for interviewing them. As much as it is my work to do interviews, I love trying out different products. I am very stingy, so this is generally how I find a new product that I am willing to purchase in the future, much like when I received free coffee a while back.

If someone offers me something before I post their interview, I usually ask if they’d be interested in giving it away to one of our readers instead. That usually leads to, “Yes, I’d be interested.” From there I get to set up a giveaway with that particular interview and it is all fun. When Heather offered me free stationery of my choice, I had to rewrite my email response to her at least 5 times. I tried to tell her that it was okay, I appreciate her offer, but maybe she’d be interested in giving it to one of our readers instead.

I ended up taking her up on the offer.

I write some people regularly as a penpal, so I am always looking for new things of stationery I can use to help spice up my letters. There was no way I could turn down a great offer like that.

When I received the stationery today, I was shocked at the quality. Not shocked because I thought it’d be less than good, I was shocked because the quality of the note cards was beyond impressive. Some card sets I’ve seen have lines going through the image, almost like the ink in the printer was starting to fade. I’ve seen it as a common problem among printers (going as far as to note VistaPrint has their issues too). This is not a problem with any of the cards she sent.

The second point I enjoyed about these cards is the paper. It seems to be a quality stock, and I like the fact they do not have ‘gloss’ on them. As pretty as gloss may make a card, it’s impossible to write a quick note with my fountain pens without needing a week to dry. Everyone has their own preference, but I am very fond of the paper she printed these on.

Although I did not pay for these, as they were a gift, don’t be surprised to find me purchasing from her again in the future. The large note cards (the ones with the flowers) go for $24 and you get 20 large flat cards. The smaller fold-over cards go for $26 and they also come in a pack of 20.

Mine were customized with the color of my choice. If you order from her, she will do the same for you at no extra charge. She also offers a variety, there is so much to look at and choose from.

If you enjoy writing letters, or even mailing off quick notes, I recommend Swanky Paper as the place to one-stop-shop for your stationery needs.

Posted in Personal Posts, Product Review, Work

Product Review: Kyocera Wild Card

This is my phone, ala Virgin Mobile’s website. Considering I use my phone to take pretty much all of my photos, it’d be a little hard to take a photo of my phone with my phone.

After I got my phone I did a long entry in one of my posts about it, but now I want to do an official review of it.

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Appearance: / 5

Value For Price Paid: / 5

Meets Expectations: / 5

Quality: / 5

Overall Rating: / 5

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Likes

• The main reason why I bought it is because it flips open and has a Querty keyboard when open.
• Easy to use. There’s no guessing on how to access things. If you’ve used a cellphone before, then you’ll be able to guess your way through it.
• The flash. My old camera phone didn’t have a flash on it, this one does.
• It does not have an antenna like some of the older styled phones, and the antenna area on the phone is at the top. My old phone had it where your hand would be placed if you were talking.
• It was a little expensive, but worth it compared to the cost of so many other phones on the market.
• I like phone games, and they’re easier to play on the keyboard.
• Messanger (AOL/Yahoo) and Email can be used on this phone. That’s a big bonus for prepay service.

Dislikes

• The programming within the phone seems to be older than it was on the phone I replaced. I think their line of Wild Card phones would benefit from an upgrade.
• It’s not the best styled phone on the market. They have Querty keyboard phones that are much better looking than this one on the market. Unfortunately they can’t be used with Virgin. I would like to see Virgin upgrade their Wild Card into something much more efficient and better looking.

Overall Thoughts

I have no intention of trading in this phone until they come up with a new version of this phone. I am in love with my phone. If you are going to go prepaid with your phone service, I recommend Virgin Mobile. If you’re a heavy texter, I recommend this phone.

Posted in Product Review

Product Review: Lexmark X3430 All-in-One Printer

A while back when I was printer hunting, I came across this one on Walmart.com. I didn’t purchase this one myself, a friend of mine bought it for me for my birthday. I’ve been using it for some time now, and I think I could provide a pretty good review of this product.

Some of the features include:

• Scanner
• Printer
• Copier
• SD Card, CompactFlash Card and PictBridge slots to retrieve pictures for printing
• Prints 17 pages per minute in color
• Copies pages at 12 pages per minute
• Comes with a color ink cartridge

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Appearance: / 5

Value for the price paid: / 5

Meets Expectations: / 5

Quality: / 5

Overall Rating: / 5

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Likes

This printer does everything that it is supposed to. I have scanned items and it did a great job doing so. It has different adjustments I can make. When I copy something and it comes out lighter than I like; it can be adjusted to copy darker. It also has special photo settings to use when printing off photos.

I think one of the neatest parts of this printer would be the picture card slots. Not all computers come with those slots so they can get pictures off of camera cards, so having that option directly on the printer is a great bonus. When it comes to price, just under $30 is hard to beat. That’s pretty reasonable considering everything it can do.

This is no laser printer, it is an ink jet. For that reason, it has a great print quality compared to what is expected of it. After all an ink jet printer is not a laser printer. I can’t hold it to the same standards.

Dislikes

I do not have the option of using a black ink cartridge. That drives me nuts. I can only use a size 24 color cartridge. When I try to print a page and only want it to come out in black, I don’t have it as an option in the preferences (from what I can see), either. That drives me nuts! I don’t want everything to come out in color, but I don’t have much choice. That is not a deal breaker with this printer, but it is a little irritating to me.

Another problem that I didn’t realize until after I got home, it does not come with the USB cord to plug it into the computer. You have to buy that seperately. It cost me $12 at our local walmart which wasn’t too bad, but I was definitely disappointed. That made the total price for the printer go up to over $40.

The last dislike would be the fact that it’s white and a bit bulky. Once again, not the end of the world. It’s just not the best looking it could be and that’s why it got 4 1/2 stars in appearance.

Overall Thoughts

This is a situation where the benefits far outweigh the negatives. I like my printer and it’s a great option for someone on a small budget. That’s why I think it is definitely worth that overall 4 1/2 stars I gave it. It’s not the best out there, but it’s darn good for the price.

Posted in Product Review

Product Review: Acer Aspire 5315-2077

Today’s review is of my very own computer, which I purchased from walmart.com. Here are some of the noted features that came with my laptop:

• CrystalBrite 15.4″ widescreen LCD
• 1.86 GHz Intel Celeron M processor 540
• 1 GB of DDR2 system memory
• 160 GB hard drive, 5400 rpm
• CD-RW/DVD-ROM combination drive
• 802.11b/g wireless LAN
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Acer’s Empowering Technology programs

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Ratings

Appearance: / 5

Value For The Price Paid: / 5

Meets Expectations: / 5

Quality: / 5

Overall Rating:

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Likes

The first thing I liked about Acer is the fact it’s much more affordable than a Dell, or HP. Yet this laptop gives me all the things I was looking for. It is about time a brand of computers came with a more realistic price, yet offer many of the same great things people are looking for.

It was when I turned it on that I was truly impressed. The Empowering Technology software that comes with this computer is really handy. First would be the program which allows me to encode files. I never had something of that sort on a computer before, so I’ve had fun being able to use it on here.

Of course, I have not gotten a chance to try out burning a CD or DVD on here. I hope to do that in the future. I have, however, watched a DVD on here and the video program, also through their Empowering Technology software on here, impressed me.

In the end I realize this computer cost me approximately $530 after the $.97 shipping and taxes, but it was worth every penny. Because I am self-employed I am on here for long periods of time. I am highly impressed with the performance it gives me and it excels at exactly what I needed it for.

Dislikes

Okay, it’s really not the prettiest thing. The lid is black and the keyboard area is gray. It would look much better if it could have been all black, for instance. Looks, however, do not hinder the performance so it’s definitely the last thing I’m worried about.

It doesn’t do everything that better computers do. I mean, I am sure there are some great features a $1000+ computer would have that this one doesn’t have available. This was half the price, so who am I to complain?

Overall Thoughts

If I went back in time, I would still choose the Acer brand as well as this laptop in particular. The price was exactly what I was looking for, and the quality in a computer that I wanted. For the price conscious, this is a good brand to consider.

Posted in Product Review