It's the big brother (no pun intended; well, maybe a little) of the PT-1230, but the P-touch PT-2430 adds a few small but important conveniences to the lower-end versions of the P-touch line such as an included AC cord and automatic trimming of the labels. These may not sound so important, but if you plan on making a lot of labels, they'll save a ton of time.

Photo copyright Brother

The HP Officejet H470 could be convenient if you need a nearly full-size printer that comes with a vinyl carrying case with no handle or place for cables, and that can run off a battery and connect wirelessly or via Bluetooth. And if you're extremely patient. But since I'm having trouble identifying when precisely you'd need that combination, and since my patience is finite, this one didn't excite me too much.

Photo copyright HP

Cory Doctorow has an interesting post on BoingBoing about Bre Pettis discussing "decentralized making" at the Chaos Computer Congress in Berlin. If you think 3D printing is interesting, then you'll find "rapid prototyping" is way more exciting than you imagined!

Brother's new P-touch PT-1230 PC is a handy and compact label printer that works with a PC. It has a limited range of functions, but for a label printer, it did everything I needed it to do--print labels in a variety of sizes and fonts. Best of all, it's really cheap (under $50). Another P-touch label maker from Brother (a bigger version) will be reviewed soon.

Photo © Brother