[paul-mn]

I'm going to buy a new Mac and Apple has their $100 printer rebate going so I thought I'd upgrade my printer too. The rebate is only for HP and Canon inkjets. Currently I'm leaning towards a Canon MP530 or MP600. Any general feedback on these models is appreciated but I have some specific questions too.

1) Many printers, like the MP600, have media card readers for printing w/o a computer. Is this feature really that useful? Is it quite easy to use or somewhat cumbersome?

2) I'd like to share this printer between two Macs and a PC. Reading other posts, USB printer sharing is quite hit-n-miss. Any positive experiences with the Canon models I'm considering?

3) Anyone know if you can still return an item after the UPC code on the box has been cut out. Both the Mac and printer's original UPC need to be sent in to collect the rebate.

Thanks . . . Paul

[human]

I have an MP530 here and the only thing I'm bummed out about is the bit in the manual where they snipe at OS X a bit for Canon's not implementing certain features (available on Windows) on the Mac as well. That and I found out the hard way that my Airport Express ONLY supports printing. So using that USB port on the A.E. doesn't allow me to use any part of this multi-function but the printer. I've had good luck with USB printer sharing but I haven't had to use it very often. I am pretty sure that once you take off the UPC you will be unable to return the printer. I'm not sure what the expiration date is on the rebate but I suggest you wait to send in your rebate until you're sure you want to keep the printer. I was down to the wire on my own rebate and two Apple reps I talked to said that they 'usually' made exceptions for people who are only a few days late on their rebates. I made it under the wire but when I wasn't sure that I would, I was calling them panicked. I now have the printer rebate and am still waiting on the larger iPod one.