It's not often that I'm truly impressed by printed photos, but the Canon Selphy ES40 prints some amazing photos. It's also small and compact, fun and easy to use, and it comes pretty cheap. In fact, it usually retails for about $150, but I saw it online at J&R for only $99 (good through November 30)!  That's a pretty great deal. The Selphy ES40 doesn't offer a whole lot of options, and you can only print 4x6 photos--but if that's what you're looking for, you can't beat this Selphy. Especially for $99.

The Kodak ESP 3250 is a good value--at just over $100, it won't break the bank, and neither will Kodak's low-cost ink refills. The ESP 3250 puts out great looking photos and decent-enough prints from documents, and while it's not super fast, it's not pokey, either. If you need a lot of extras--an automatic document feeder, a big LCD, or multiple paper feeds--look somewhere else. But for a three-in-one that performs well, I think this Kodak printer is a very good choice.

The Plustek SmartOffice PS282 is a handy and compact scanner that zips quickly through jobs and folds up so it doesn't take up a lot of space. Since it costs over $300 it competes with Fujitsu's ScanSnap line--an excellent set of scanners, which also come with the full version of Adobe Acrobat (Plustek does offer a suite of OCR and image-editing software). And the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 is cheaper as well. Bottom line? For now, Fujitsu has the edge, but Plustek does a decent job as well.

Update (11-4): As promised, the Barbie B Nails printer (the full names is Barbie Doll'd Up Nails B-Nails Digital Nail Printer) is available for purchase. Check PriceGrabber for the lowest prices (a recent check shows it about $275). Want to know what you're getting yourself into? Check out the updated video.

The CES show, where exhibits of the latest and greatest electronic gadgets are found, is also where some "do I really need this?" items are on display. Exhibit 1, the Barbie B Nails, an inkjet printer that puts custom designs on your fingernails. Or rather, I hope, on your kids' fingernails. It's quick (three seconds) and looks painless, although that depends on whether you'd consider it painful to have the Barbie logo on your fingernail. No word yet on price though this post (and video) from Gadget Review estimates it about $200, available later this year, in time for Christmas. Lucky you!