The reports of the printer's death have been greatly exaggerated. True, both business and home users are printing less nowadays, but there are still many situations where a paper copy is needed. Businesses in particular often have requirements where a hard copy must be kept. Not to mention, All-in-One variants are even more useful, as scanning and copying are great values too.

While it isn't easy to get me excited about an All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, Epson has managed to do just that. How? With a name. The company is calling the Expression Home XP-420 a Small-in-One. Get it? "Small" instead of "all"? I found the name to be quite clever, as it takes up very little room. Upon further investigation, I was impressed with the low cost and features of this wireless printer.

Firefox is important to me and I hope it is important to you. Even if you do not use the browser, there is value in having an open source browser available that isn't based on WebKit or a fork of it (Blink), as so many are nowadays. Variety is the spice of life, and having only one browser engine is not only sad, but dangerous; competition drives innovation.

If you are an Android user, you probably use Chrome or the stock Android browser and that is OK; both of those browsers are great. With that said, some people, such as myself, prefer Mozilla's Firefox. It is fast, buttery smooth and offers plugins. Today, Mozilla announces that Firefox for Android has been downloaded 100 million times. Whoa.

Mini computers are wonderful for many reasons, but one of the most notable is a small footprint. While some people have large homes and rooms, others are very limited in space. If you live in a small apartment, for example, you may only have room for a small desk; a mini-PC will save space and may even be VESA mountable to your monitor. The small size also makes them ideal in a living room -- both large and small -- as they can easily be hidden away.

Today, ZOTAC announces upgrades to its ZBOX M-series line of mini-PCs. Featuring new Broadwell Core i3 and i5 processors, they will make awesome workstations or HTPCs.

Video connections are constantly changing, which can be frustrating for consumers. While some will interpret it as a money grab, the evolution is necessary to push boundaries. One of the most significant changes was the move to digital, with HDMI ultimately becoming a huge success.

With DisplayPort starting to grow in popularity, the HDMI Forum is still looking forward and constantly improving the standard. Today, the HDMI Forum releases the finalized 2.0a specification.

Typing on a glass screen is OK for Twitter and short text messages, but if you want to write longer pieces, a physical keyboard is ideal. Not only does it offer a more comfortable experience, but potentially more accurate too.

Unfortunately, many keyboards for tablets and phones are clunky affairs, leading to a poor overall experience. Logitech is known for its great mobile keyboards, so when its svelte Keys-To-Go was released, I was excited, but also dismayed as it was an iOS focused product. While I do use an iPad, I use Android and Windows far more often. Today, the company brings the awesome typing solution to Android and Windows too.

April Fool's Day is well behind us, so all the pranks should be over, right? I ask because today, Google announces that it is making its Santa Tracker project open source on GitHub. The fact that it is open source is great, but the timing is odd. The last thing I expected to read about in April is friggin' Santa Claus, but here we are.

While many will be quick to dismiss the Santa Tracker as a novelty, developers may actually find value in the code. Not only is the web version hitting GitHub, but the Android version too. There is no reason why the code can't be used in non-Christmas related projects.

When the first Star Wars film was released to theaters, I was not yet even born -- my birth was still a few years off. Still, the film franchise greatly impacted my life. How? I saw the films on VHS later on, but more importantly, I had the action figures and other collectibles. My mom even bought me an R2-D2 garbage can for my bedroom that brought me great joy. My story is not unique; people of all ages have been impacted by the films.

Sadly, the six-film movie collection has never been available for digital download -- well... legally at least. Many fans turned to the dark side and downloaded the movies using torrents and other methods. Today, Disney announces that the films will be coming to digital download services, such as iTunes, Google Play and Xbox Video. If you choose to buy it through Xbox Video, you will even get some cool exclusives.

Low cost Android handsets are both a blessing and a curse. While it allows the operating system to infiltrate low-income markets, it also creates a low-quality perception to some. For example, anyone who buys an iPhone gets a quality device with a good experience; there is no low-quality version. Conversely, an Android buyer can buy a low-spec dud that can sour the experience.

Not all low-cost Android smartphones are duds, however; quite the contrary. Google's previous generation Nexus 5 was an incredible value, as is the OnePlus One. Today, a new low-cost phone enters the market by way of eBay -- the ZTE Blade S6 Plus. The value is quite remarkable, as not only is the price low, but the specs are very impressive.

Today, a Wired article proposes that Microsoft could open-source Windows, quoting Azure chief technology officer Mark Russinovich who says "it's definitely possible". Well sure, anything is possible, I suppose. But it's certainly not probable.

A Microsoft spokesperson tells me the company has "not made any open-source policy or business model changes for Windows". Still, if nothing else, it does provoke thought. The ultimate question, for me, and hopefully you, is does it make sense? Is an open-source Windows a good idea?

While many computer manufacturers are in a race to the bottom -- both in price and quality -- some makers continue to produce reliable high-quality machines. One of these manufacturers is System76. If you aren't familiar, it manufactures and sells desktops and laptops running the Ubuntu operating system. In other words, Linux fans can buy one of these machines and have it running the Linux distro out of the box -- no need to format the drive to remove Windows.

Today, the company announces the all-new Lemur -- a laptop with a Broadwell processor. The 14.1 inch laptop not only has solid specs, but an affordable price tag too. If you are a Linux fan in the market for a new laptop, you need to take a look.

Windows Phone is Microsoft's mobile offering to the world, and some people love it. Unfortunately, the operating system's market share is extremely low, meaning many of the cool features and exclusives do not receive wide exposure. Slowly but surely, benefits that Windows Phone users pointed to as exclusives to the OS are being brought to competing platforms.

Today, Microsoft brings another Windows Phone exclusive to Android and iPhone -- Office Lens. Yes, the super-cool scanning feature is finally available to the large majority of mobile devices. Will you try it?

Skype is a fantastic communication service. What makes Skype so much better than its competitors, is the cross-platform availability. Microsoft supports pretty much all major platforms with this service. Whether you are on Windows, OS X, Android, Ubuntu, iOS or Windows Phone, you can utilize Skype.

Today, Microsoft announces a partnership with Western Union, giving Skype users a new way to buy Skype Credit. Plus, if a user buys Credit from the money-transfer company, they will receive bonus Credit too -- very cool!

Chrome OS is a wonderful operating system for some users. If you live in the web browser, Google's Linux-based OS can be a brilliant way to  both work and play. Some people may have trepidation in investing in such a limited ecosystem, where only one web browser is permitted, and that does make sense. However, others are comfortable with one company controlling their window to the web, and that is OK too. In other words, people have different needs and ideology, and that is a beautiful thing.

While many associate Chrome OS with Chromebooks, there are many other form factors too, such as Chromebox, Chromebase and the recently announced Chromebit. Today, Acer announces the world's first Chromebase with a touchscreen. Yes, you can finally have a Chrome OS All-In-One with touch-friendly design.

It's April Fool's Day! This is a day where people play jokes on each other. Practical jokes can be funny if they aren't happening to you, but quite the opposite when you are the target. Oh, you put a whoopee cushion on my chair and everyone thinks I passed gas? Thanks for that. You replaced the grape jelly on my PBJ with petroleum jelly? Hilarious. I think that is poison actually, and probably a crime, but you have fun. Enjoy your wacky day.

I'm a bit of a scrooge on April Fool's Day, because I am usually the target of such jokes. I'm a busy guy, and I forget the date constantly, so all day today I will forget it is April Fool's Day. While in-person pranks with friends and family are annoying, online pranks from companies can be fun (sometimes). They have become a tradition and are admittedly hilarious. Google often leads this, and 2015 is no different. Here are some of the fake products that companies are pranking us with in 2015.

While I love Spotify, I recently invested in an Xbox Music Pass subscription. The reason why is quite simple -- cost. On March 14, which is Pi Day, Microsoft offered a steep discount on a year of the service. While the experience is sub-par on Android, it works brilliantly on Windows.

Today, Microsoft releases previews of both the Music and Videos apps for the Windows 10 Technical Preview. While there are many changes -- both visually and under the hood -- the most surprising is the apparent dropping of the Xbox branding. Is this the sign of a bigger change?