My 1660 has survived now a year and a half of almost constant daily abuse from me, smile. and is indeed still going strong. So I say why worry if it gets discontinued. heck we were looking for a new printer for me. My HP 840C its paper sensor is going, is very picky and won't print unless there are ten or more pages in the tray, which is odd, but hey it is over 4 years old. Anyway, I got specks on a printer from our Tech guys here in Erie, and went to purchase said printer, and found out very quickly that it was discontinued. We are now looking at cheaper and less robust models, as the newer ones have things that I am not going to be using not in the foreseeable future anyway, smile. Wirless technology is great but not when your PC isn't. Besides the newer models have more bells and whistles, but what about quality. smile. It seems that the main motivation is scanning photos, and printing photos smile. By they by, does anyone have a good printer recommendation. We were looking at the HP 3845 I believe it is called, at Office Max. We are going to go up next week, it is a late Christmas [present for me, which is really nice, smile. But looking in Epson and HP lines. I want one that can print, labels, envelops, overheads without fighting me, and will print different paper sizes and thicknesses. That is it. I like color but it definitely doesn't have to be photo quality. Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Advisory Council www.guidedogs.com The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. -- Vance Havner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Guido Corona" <guidoc@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 8:05 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Epsons, again. Alison, the EPSON 3170 is still a current model on the EPSON web site. I expect it to be discontinued either in the fall of 2005 or the fall of 2006. It seems to be a 'workhorse' model like the older 1640, which remianed current for 3 years. Normally Epson scanners are kept in the catalogue only 12 months before replacement by a new model. 3170 supports Fast USB 2.0, has a document feeder, is the fastest scanner in the EPSON lineup, has the highest reliability in the line with 36,000 cycles between mean failures. Even if you used it rather heavily it should last you 2 to 3 years. If you are concerned about the creature breaking down, ask Best Buy to get it for you, then purchase the extra 1-year full replacement warranty for $30. That will bring the price of the product to $200 with a total of 2 years under warranty. otherwise you can purchase it for $179 new from the EPSON online store with a full 1 year warranty, or refurbished with a 90 days warranty for $124 from the same site. Of course you can buy the newer 4180 model for an extra $30. Yes it has even higher resolution, which is not used for OCR, and it is slower. I can't see any advantage. Please note that I have been using an older 1660 rather heavily for over 2 years and it is still going strong. It is out of production. When it starts giving me grief I will replace it, otherwise who cares if it is in production or not. What's to worry? Guido Guido Dante Corona IBM Accessibility Center, Austin Tx. Research Division, Phone: 512. 838. 9735. Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx Web: http://www.ibm.com/able