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Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

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Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#81

Post by JKCalhoun »

klodolph wrote: post #20
alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

The exception is if you print photos. There’s not really a good alternative to inkjet, except RA-4, which is out of reach for consumers.

Also an exception: printing transparencies for screen-printing masks. Laser-toner does not get the opaque blacks you get with ink.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#82

Post by misnome »

londons_explore wrote: post #4

I'd be interested to know if this was intentional. I can very much see that the all-in-one device has some "initializeHardware()" function that tests and sets up all the internal components, which probably requires ink to run (firing an ink jet as part of the initialization with no ink present usually burns some ink and it'll permanently clog with carbon deposits). Likewise, I suspect if the light bulb in the scanner…

Yes, clearly this is just a bug that will be fixed as soon as they are made aware of it in 2016

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#83

Post by megous »

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

Dunno, I have the same cheap HP DeskJet 6940 for 14 years, just buy non-brand b/w ink[head] every 2 years or so and it works fine for occasional home use.

I had a laser printer before at home before, and it's slow to warm up, tonner is 10x as expensive as refilled ink head and I kinda fear the tonner particles getting into the air and I breathing them. Page output is similar for much higher price.

Quality is better, but for home use I'd only consider laser printer if I was still making PCBs at home.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#84

Post by pid-1 »

osrec wrote: post #22

Damn the need for recurring revenue. It makes us make bad things that eat away at our own resources. I wished there was an alternative payment model, where everything is perhaps paid off over time. If the product fails during the specified time period, the payments stop. It would hopefully give the companies some sort of recurring revenue, while incentivising them to build something that lasts and not play dirty tric…

I guess they could rent printers.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#85

Post by vlovich123 »

chaoskanzlerin wrote: post #74
jsilence wrote: post #44

Not to be meant snarky, but I think the office world should strive to print much less at all. Working at a University it is mind boggling to me how much paper is waster because someone internally decided they need a real signature. Not all my colleagues are savyy enough to paste a scanned signature into a pdf.

There's plenty of jurisdictions where "pasting a scanned signature into a pdf" doesn't produce a legally valid signature. Germany requires some signing software for pdfs - though printed-signed-scanned documents are also legally valid signatures

Show me someone who can tell the difference between pasting a signature in a pdf vs printed-signed-scanned?

There was a legislature in America that tried to define pi as 3 so irrational laws are not surprising.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#86

Post by spywaregorilla »

rdtwo wrote: post #37
orev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There really is no reason to be printing photos on your own printer (for consumers, though I suspect it’s similar for pros). Every corner drug store (in the US) can print them with better quality and at a lower cost. Maybe it’s a slight hassle, but how many people are printing a significant quantity of photos anymore?

It’s kind of a pain to go to the drug store at 9pm to Print your kids solar system project. Just saying

Kid can deal with regular paper

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#87

Post by tyfon »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #60
egberts1 wrote: post #47

Brothers LaserJet. No malware, no adware, no funky drivers; just colored, WiFi, LP-protocol, multi-tray PCL and PS support. Best thing since sliced bread.

> no funky drivers Even on Linux?

Can't speak for OPs printer but my brother just uses IPP and a PPD definition file, all supported out of the box with cups.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#88

Post by xfalcox »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #60
egberts1 wrote: post #47

Brothers LaserJet. No malware, no adware, no funky drivers; just colored, WiFi, LP-protocol, multi-tray PCL and PS support. Best thing since sliced bread.

> no funky drivers Even on Linux?

Yes and it works out if the box in any modern distro.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#89

Post by throwanem »

vlovich123 wrote: post #51
js2 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a contrary experience and I stopped buying laser printers. I had to toss two Brother lasers in the trash because Brother's customer service on warranty repairs required more hoops than I was willing to deal with. Meanwhile, I ended up with an HP OfficeJet Pro 8620 that was recommended years ago by The Wirecutter and I use HP's ink subscription service. It's never failed on me. It never jams. No fuser or toner t…

You probably print a lot if an ink cartridge service is cost effective for you. I’ve had 2 b&w laser printers my entire life, both Brother (after getting annoyed with Epson inkjet printers that were “affordable” in high school). The first got me through engineering school printing maybe 300+ pages a year, so like 2000 pages. Did not replace the toner once and don’t recall any meaningful problems. That printer stayed…

> You probably print a lot if an ink cartridge service is cost effective for you.

HP's service bills by page count, not by ink usage. So as you increase print volume, the unit economics get worse. I use it for photo print applications that don't require high quality or a print size greater than US letter. For that, which maximizes the ink-to-paper ratio, it works out splendidly.

(I suspect it works out as well for HP as for me, because the program also requires spent cartridges be returned in prepaid packaging. This allows them, and their expensively precision-manufactured print heads, to be refilled and reused.)

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#90

Post by ineedtosleep »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #60
egberts1 wrote: post #47

Brothers LaserJet. No malware, no adware, no funky drivers; just colored, WiFi, LP-protocol, multi-tray PCL and PS support. Best thing since sliced bread.

> no funky drivers Even on Linux?

Brother printers, from my experience, will just work automatically -- depending on your distro. If you need drivers, they do have a Linux installer as well. I've used the installer before and definitely not even a fraction as scummy as Canon/HP driver installs.
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