You may recall that a few months back I received a pitch in the form of a comic strip, asking if I’d like to test-drive and review a Brother printer.
I agreed to do so, and the timing was great as I was able to set it up at our new headquarters at Strutta, and let everyone have a chance to try it. What follows is my review of the unit that we chose to have as a guest in our offices. We haven’t really put the MFC-9440cn through its paces per se, but we did run several tests and try most of its features.

Here’s a quick list of pros and cons, followed by a video review as well:

We Liked:

• Scan to network, wirelessly. Options to scan to file, image, directly to email etc. Very handy.
• It does it all: print, scan, fax, copy and the aforementioned scan to email.
• Does all of the work of a much larger unit with a reasonably small footprint.

We Also Noticed:

• Still needs to be hardwired to access network, although it can transmit wirelessly
• Noticeably poorer print quality for color prints when compared to other (more expensive) color laser printers

Thank you again to Darren of Capulet Communications for a great blogger outreach campaign, and to Brother as well for trusting a gaggle of geeks like us with their equipment.

Wow.

Long time without a post, eh? I apologize for my lack of publishing here of late, both of photos and blog posts. Ideas aren’t hard to come by, but time is a rare luxury these days. Not that I’m complaining; the things that have me busy all come with exciting challenges and fun that I wouldn’t want to miss out on.

Here’s a very short list of what’s been occupying me, as a means of buying myself even more time until after the dust settles (in some cases, literally).

We are closer and closer each day to the launch of Strutta, the startup that I serve as Director of Community Relations for. When I started this exciting new gig, I promised to share my experiences with community-building in posts here; a promise I intend to keep. So far though, I have yet to build a community of users beyond the list of folks waiting for a beta invites- you can sign up on home page…plug, plug I’ve certainly done my share of blogging, but it’s been on the Strutta blog of late, sprinkled with the occasional Jaiku micro-blog update. We’re at the stage where we are putting the finishing touches on the “user experience” of our site, and solidifying all our plans for launch. I’ve got a few “newfangled” as well as some old fashioned plans of how to reach out to the community when it’s time, and I’ll be sure to share all of those soon. We’re also knee-deep in plans for tomorrow night’s Launch Party Vancouver 3 (Facebook Event page), an extremely popular local tech event organized by Maura Rodgers, our VP of Marketing and my leader/compatriot in our two-person marketing department.

“But what about when you get home, Jord! Surely you have time to type out a few blog posts here and there in the evenings after work?” In truth, sometimes I do, but I’m a often just a little too knackered. My wife and I have just recently moved into our new condo, and I still have a few unfinished renovation projects on the go, some of which I’m too exhausted to complete until the weekends roll around. Again, I’m not complaining; having our own home to re-paint, re-floor and move into is our blessing and not our curse.

More to come soon. I’ll bang out posts when I can, but you’ll likely get more action by following the Strutta blog while it’s still “crunch time” for me. One of these days I should publish a newsletter too- It must be close to a calendar year since the last one, and I still get a steady trickle of new subscribers each week. Ta for now!