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HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

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Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#11

Post by SillyUsername »

How has this company managed to survived wall gardening their printers?

Apple got away with it because they started from that position creating a niche for themselves and a "reality distortion field' that sets their products apart (for some people) based on perceived quality.

HP has no such brand recognition, if anything it's products' quality is worse than its competitors' products.

I suspect it's trying to do a Samsung who did the same, but without any advertising or headlining products (which started with Samsung's S3/S4 phones years ago), so their marketing is completely balls-ing up the company's position.

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#13

Post by Simon_ORourke »

evaneykelen wrote: post #5

At this point Brother seems to be one of the few printer manufacturers who still produce printers that just work out of the box with a cable or WiFi connection using an OS-supplied driver (at least that's my experience on macOS)

Agreed, my HL-110 has worked like a charm since I bought it a few years back. No messing around, dark patterns or apps... it just works.

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#14

Post by willvarfar »

evaneykelen wrote: post #5

At this point Brother seems to be one of the few printer manufacturers who still produce printers that just work out of the box with a cable or WiFi connection using an OS-supplied driver (at least that's my experience on macOS)

from osmosifying printer recommendations on HN the last few years, aren't brother printers becoming enshittened too? Nowadays they might try to lock out third party ink and toner cartridges, for example? See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#15

Post by nyanpasu64 »

gruez wrote: post #8

>visit hp.com/plus-support for additional setup help My guess is that the person in question bought a model/sku that operates not as a typical printer (ie. you pay for the machine and its consumables), but as a printer as a service model[1] (ie. you pay per pages printed). In that case it does make sense that you need to install the app (presumably to connect the printer to the internet and to connect to your account…

I looked up the model M110w and found:

> This printer is intended to work only with cartridges that have a new or reused HP chip, and it uses dynamic security measures to block cartridges using a non-HP chip. Periodic firmware updates will maintain the effectiveness of these measures and block cartridges that previously worked. A reused HP chip enables the use of reused, remanufactured, and refilled cartridges.

This is the future of printers...

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#16

Post by npunt »

"There's an app for that!" has become "there's an app for that??"

It's the same thing with things like thermometers, scales, and other bluetooth accessories that really absolutely deserve no app. Similarly, the requirement to sign into cloud services to use 'smart' devices, as is the case with Philips Hue bulbs. Wish the EU would focus their efforts on this kind of nonsense.

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#18

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

SillyUsername wrote: post #11

How has this company managed to survived wall gardening their printers? Apple got away with it because they started from that position creating a niche for themselves and a "reality distortion field' that sets their products apart (for some people) based on perceived quality. HP has no such brand recognition, if anything it's products' quality is worse than its competitors' products. I suspect it's trying to do a Sam…

More to the point, why isn’t there an open source printer operating system that fucks off all this malware?

I’ve long wondered if printers ship ‘samples’ of printed documents back to the vendors to ‘allow for an improved customer experience’.

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#19

Post by BoomerMoment »

willvarfar wrote: post #14
evaneykelen wrote: post #5

At this point Brother seems to be one of the few printer manufacturers who still produce printers that just work out of the box with a cable or WiFi connection using an OS-supplied driver (at least that's my experience on macOS)

from osmosifying printer recommendations on HN the last few years, aren't brother printers becoming enshittened too? Nowadays they might try to lock out third party ink and toner cartridges, for example? See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

All printers are inherently shit, some are simply manufactured more evil than others.

Re: HP Disables Printer Functionality Until You Install the HP Smart App

#20

Post by Gigachad »

evaneykelen wrote: post #5

At this point Brother seems to be one of the few printer manufacturers who still produce printers that just work out of the box with a cable or WiFi connection using an OS-supplied driver (at least that's my experience on macOS)

I was astounded at how well the brother printer I got worked. As soon as I connected it to wifi, it just popped up on my macbook and worked perfectly.
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