Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer will include a new set of privacy settings designed to give users more control over their information.

Users will now be able to choose whether to share their browsing and searching information and to know how it is used.

InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Blocking settings will allow users to prevent the browser from saving any search or browsing history at all and also to automatically delete such data at the end of each session.

Users will also be able to disable saving of all off-line data including cookies, passwords, and form data.

More information on these and other new features is available when you visit Microsoft.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is currently in Beta 2 release and is due out in the next few weeks.

Yes, it is online, but often we also want that information printed, to review it off-line, to store it, to save it. Here are some tips for efficiently printing your online information from your internet browser.

- Decide whether you need the images on the page to print. If you don’t, uncheck the ‘Print Background Colors and Images’ option in Tools>Internet Options>Advanced.
- Confirm your Page Setup options. Edit or remove header and footer information based on your needs and preferences.
- Select File>Print.
- To prevent uncessary pages from printing, select a range of pages. When applicable, highlight the section of the internet page that you would like to print, and check the Print Selection box.
- Use the Print Preview feature to see what your printout will look like.
- Click Preferences/Properties and select Paper Quality, Paper Size, and Print Quality.

Finally, when you run out of printer supplies, visit SuppliesUSA.com.

Have some free time? The Holiday weekend is around the corner and you have already purchased all your printer supplies? Help a bear fly through a Sunny Day Sky over cars and buses by opening and closing his umbrella at the right time.

Mozilla released Firefox 3 yesterday, June 17th, 2008. The new version uses less resources, offers improved performance and security, and many new features. Download Firefox 3 here.

HP announced that it will increase prices on toner cartridges and drum kits for 2 of its older color laserjet printers. The price increase will be effective 9/1/2007 and cover increased costs on these lower-volume items. The list of items is available below. Order now and avoid the price increase.

Color LaserJet 8500/8550 Supplies:
HP Drum Kit, C4153A, Was: $207.00, New: $228.00
HP Toner, C4149A, Was: $150.00, New: $165.00
HP Toner, C4150A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00
HP Toner, C4151A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00
HP Toner, C4152A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00

Color LaserJet 4500 Supplies:
HP Drum Kit, C4195A, Was: $114.48, New: $126.00
HP Toner, C4191A, Was: $119.78, New: $132.00
HP Toner, C4192A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00
HP Toner, C4193A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00
HP Toner, C4194A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00

Remanufactured cartridges made by third-party companies are not all equal to original cartridges and can actually cost more.

According to Buyers Laboratory (BLI), a leading independent test lab and business consumer advocate, the lower average price claimed for remanufactured cartridges translated in a true cost up to 34% higher than the cost of original cartridges. BLI further concluded that a majority of non original toner cartridges tested failed to deliver acceptable performance.

On average, 22% of remanufactured cartridges experienced out of the box failures, 19% experienced quality failures over the life of the cartridge, 20% caused premature fuser replacement or even failure, and only 56% of expected pages actually printed.

When buying your toner and inkjet cartridges, think “true cost”.

After your first purchase at SuppliesUSA, the ‘Your Account‘ section is automatically activated and updated for you.

From there, you can view your account history, quickly repeat orders, purchase frequently ordered items, and even change your information.

We know you are busy. This section will allow you to complete your transactions at SuppliesUSA in a jif. If you spend more than a few minutes here, it will not be because you have to, but rather because you want to.

Either way, we appreciate your visits.

We just added 2 new brands to the site.

Xante offers great solutions for prepress, graphic, and printing professionals. You will now find the quality original Xante toner cartridges required to optimize output from these professional-grade printers at SuppliesUSA.

We also added compatible cartridges for Dell printers. Todate, the original cartridges can only be bought directly from Dell so we decided to look for the best quality compatible cartridges. When offering compatible supplies, SuppliesUSA only features best-of-class items, manufactured with quality to original specifications. And, we are offering them at a discount. You can now find quality compatible Dell toner and inkjet cartridges at SuppliesUSA.com.

Many of the brands offered at SuppliesUSA were affected by mergers and acquisitions. This sometimes results in cross-referencing of supplies brands between joined companies, so we listed these changes below.

Except when specified, the consumables are still listed at SuppliesUSA.com under their original brands.

Compaq:
Acquired by HP; Original printer consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Copystar:
A Kyocera-Mita company

DEC:
Aquired by Compaq before Compaq was acquired by HP; Original printer consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Genicom:
Now part of TallyGenicom

Gestetner:
A Ricoh company

HP:
Parent company of Compaq

Imation:
Parent company of Memorex and TDK

Infocus:
Parent company of Proxima

Konica:
Now part of Konica-Minolta

Konica-Minolta:
Parent company of QMS

Kyocera:
Now part of Kyocera-Mita

Kyocera-Mita:
Parent company of Copystar

Memorex:
An Imation company

Minolta:
Now part of Konica-Minolta

Mita:
Now part of Kyocera-Mita

Proxima:
Acquired by Infocus

QMS:
Acquired by Minolta, before Minolta became part of Konica-Minolta

Ricoh:
Parent company of Gestetner and Savin

Savin:
A Ricoh company

Tally:
Now part of TallyGenicom

TallyGenicom:
Also, manufactures original supplies for legacy Tally, Genicom, Compaq, DEC, and TI printers

TDK:
Data Supplies division acquired by Imation

Tektronix:
Printer division (Phaser line) acquired by Xerox; supplies now listed under Xerox brand.

TI:
Original consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Page yields express the total number of pages that one can expect to print with a specific toner cartridge or ink cartridge.

These yields are important to accurately calculate costs per page and to compare brands when evaluating printers, copiers, or even fax machines.

However, manufacturers can each decide the method and the environment to run those tests, so the results are not as reliable as they should be.

In December 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved new standards for ink and color toner cartridge yield measurements. A standard for black toner cartridges was already published in June 2004 and endorsed by companies like HP, Lexmark, Canon, and Epson.

The new standard defines a uniform methodology to measure these yields:
- 9 cartridges will be used for the test. They must have different manufacturing dates, come from different locations, and be used until empty.
- A minimum of 3 different cartridges are tested on a minimum of 3 different printers to reduce printer-based variability.
- Printer default settings are set.
- A standard PDF document suite is used.
- The paper size must be 8.5”x11” (letter size) or A4.
- The environment is kept at a controlled temperature.
- The reported yield must be at, or below, 90% of the mean.

We hope this standard is promptly applied by all toner manufacturers. Consumers will benefit from this long overdue transparence.