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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

#311

Post by TeMPOraL »

blackearl wrote: post #287
neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

The thing about laser is it's not a great answer for your typical boomer mom-level consumer. They're large and color laser MFPs are usually ~$500

The "boomer mom-level consumer" will pay more than $500 over year in replacing dried out ink cartridges and possibly printers (broken due to ink dry-out). And they're better off with a black&white laser printer, with the occasional color job done in a print shop.

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

#312

Post by dv_dt »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #58
dv_dt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After similar shenanigans from HP, I went to Brother laser printers and haven’t looked back since.

Same here. The other problem I found with HP was software: Their drivers were ridiculous multi-gigabyte downloads and they would often be buggy and either bring my Mac to a crawl or just outright crash. This was several years ago; it might be better now, but I swore off HP because of it.

Hp has had bad printer driver software for decades

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

#313

Post by TeMPOraL »

netcan wrote: post #134
mensetmanusman wrote: post #11

For some reason I enabled the ‘auto refill’ on my new canon printer because that is what our office did (somehow). Don’t do that: it kept making purchases because it didn’t receive the ink as fast as it expected due to supply chain issues. It took a long time for Canon to cancel the orders that had never left the factory and give our hundreds of dollars back. It’s a fun story at least!

There's an onion article in there somewhere. Honestly, giving a money grubbing printer a credit card and ordering powers might make a decent analogy to parts of the supply chain issues at large.

Yup. I mean, I've heard HP has some silly "ink as a service" program, but honestly, giving credit card details to a printer? That sounds extremely unwise (and the fact it's even possible says something about the world we live in, and not nice things).

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

#314

Post by CharlesW »

blackearl wrote: post #287
neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

The thing about laser is it's not a great answer for your typical boomer mom-level consumer. They're large and color laser MFPs are usually ~$500

> The thing about laser is it's not a great answer for your typical boomer mom-level consumer.

I'm not sure how someone's age matters, but the elderly appreciate "it just works" peripherals just as much as you little whipper-snappers. One of the best things we did for my mom-in-law was replace her ink-jet printer with a laser printer. B&W MFCs start around $200.

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

#315

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #303
gerbilly wrote: post #268

I was fortunate enough to buy a 1990s laser printer. Back then companies were still short sighted enough¹ to build them to last. It's an Apple Laserwiter 12/640PS. It's still chugging along today, with 64Mb of memory no less! [1]: Recurring revenue wise that is.

I’m tempted to track down an old LaserWriter myself, those things don’t quit. Are you able to find toner for yours reliably?

They're the same guts as HP printers and it'd be easier to interface to one of those with a Jetdirect Ethernet card. Anything built before Fiorina tanked the company will be reliable. The later models will also have faster warm up times for the fuser.

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

#316

Post by stephbu »

jacquesm wrote: post #198
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.

Ebay: used 4 series. It'll be a heirloom.

TBH this… Not one of these consumer printer businesses is going to survive commoditization of their now-primary source of consumer revenue - ink (the printer is just a loss-leading on-ramp to that business). These suicide-pills are the last gasps of a dying business model. Businesses don’t tolerate such shenanigans, but you and I will pay the price for doing so.

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

#317

Post by sildur »

neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

Don't forget that almost all printers region-lock their cartridges/toners: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout#Printers

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

#318

Post by lazide »

jeromegv wrote: post #207
true_religion wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the advanced planning of buying your own printer so you don’t have to drive 20 minutes into town to print?

American society in a nutshell. Need to drive 20 min to reach civilization so instead you end up buying inkjet printers that are likely end up in the trash every year due to their low quality production and because the corporation is scamming you with overpriced cartridges.

Yup. Socio-economic and geographic forces are powerful, and there is a reason why many things are different in the US from denser locales with historically stable and established urban centers like Europe or Asia.

Give us another couple thousand years or so.

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

#319

Post by mrexroad »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #202
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't one of the big issues with old laser printers that they consume obscene amounts of electricity (>100W) when in stand-by?

I've never measured but probably. I think that is more a problem for businesses though. For home use though, I just shut it off when not using it. If you really want I suppose you could put it on a ZWave or Wifi switch so you could turn it on remotely.

That’s exactly what we’ve done. Threw a HomeKit controlled plug behind it, added automations for it to be on when high probability of being used and off otherwise. Beyond that, it’s only a, “Hey Siri, turn on the printer” to start printing.

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

#320

Post by clusterfish »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #300
centizen wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canon was actually on my short list of printer vendors I would have recommended people to use. Now it's just down to Brother and Kyocera I guess.

Even Brother is dodgy, depending on the model. I have a low-midrange Brother B&W laser printer that worked great until one day it decided to stop accepting print jobs, both via network and USB… it just stalls at “processing” and never proceeds. Googling around it seems like people with various Brother models have seen this behavior.

Accidental failures are one thing, deliberately user hostile design is another.
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