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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

#351

Post by davchana »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #311
blackearl wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly, I (but not a boomer mom level consumer) bought a HP Black & White Laser on sale from Walmart with Toner for 1000 pages, all for $49. Whenever that toner finishes (I bought about in 2019), new toner is again $49. Way cheaper.

Any occasional color print goes to walmart or cvs or staples (exactly 2 times I have done that since I bought this printer).

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

#352

Post by okl »

greggman3 wrote: post #343
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…

Laser printers, at least in my experience, suck for photos. Not that people print photos any more but if you're using your printer for any kind of small framed photos or crafts than a laser printer really isn't a solution

But honestly, even consumer inkjet printouts suck, compared to photos printed on a professional machine.

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

#353

Post by klodolph »

ksec wrote: post #270
greggman3 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt lucky in Japan in that you can print at every convenience store so I'd just walk 1-2 mins to the local store when I needed to print. 10 cents for B/W, 50 for color. In SF you can print at the library which I've done once.

I still dont understand why printing as a services has not caught on anywhere else.

Has it not caught on in the US? You can print as a service nearly everywhere in the country, at places like Fedex Office, Staples, Office Depot, etc. Photo prints can be done at drug stores like CVS and Wallgreen’s (not all locations, though).

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

#354

Post by okl »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #236
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.

Brother sells overpriced refills but there are off brand replacements about half the price. They also report ink run out on starter cartridges when it hasn’t. I think the only ethical printers are 3D ones.

See my tip here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28889001

Vigorously shaking the cartridge might also help sometimes.

And regarding starter cartridges, you might need a reset gear: https://cartridgeamerica.com/ctg/brother-toner-chips.php

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

#355

Post by acjohnson55 »

sangnoir wrote: post #309
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…

> As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer It's Canon/HP/$MANUFATURER shenanigans - nothing inherent to inkjets. I think the better solution is to buy from more ethical printer companies, like Brother.

The inherent problem with inkjets is the ink drying out over time, requiring replacement even if you only use it occasionally.

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

#356

Post by [deleted] »

lazide wrote: post #295
kube-system wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile the most economical printers aren’t even on the shelf because their high purchase price causes them to have low sales volumes.

Yup, though those tend to be purchased by large corps in bulk via industrial channels, so the companies still make good money. Most large corps have done the math and know their TCO all in is much lower (since they have the scale that they need to hire staff and explicitly account for dealing with issues like printer problems). The printer companies have also done their market research and math, and know how much the…

[deleted]

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

#357

Post by klodolph »

tdeck wrote: post #54
klodolph wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How about dye sublimation?

Dye sub at home is more expensive, per photo, than going to the lab.

You might get refill for 100 photos for like $40, maybe a bit less. Then you pay for the paper. Limited size options. Looks great, though. Drugstore prices are around $0.25 and local labs are around $0.40, which are more economical options.

I’ve only ever used dye sub for photos that needed immediate turnaround.

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

#358

Post by okl »

kqr2 wrote: post #168
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.

Don't the recent Brother printers require a chip id for toner cartridges? I believe you can transfer the chips but it still seems user unfriendly.

Not aware of that. There seems to be a very old cartridge model that has a chip. Do you any link/source?

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

#360

Post by tonyedgecombe »

dn3500 wrote: post #350
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…

Re: Printer drivers, you mostly don't need them any more, because almost all printers will now ingest pdf directly. You can bypass cups and your driver and talk directly to the printer using nc: cat myfile.pdf |nc printername 9100

Most of the budget printers won't support that, they don't have enough processing power to render PDF directly. Even with the typical enterprise printer it's not as reliable as you might expect.
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