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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

#41

Post by npteljes »

thot_experiment wrote: post #29

I recently picked up an old dot matrix printer for $1 at the Electronics Flea Market, and the manual for it has fucking control flowcharts and timing diagrams for the signalling. It's so fucking depressing to read it in comparison to anything modern. It's so nice and it feels like it was made for me by people who actually cared about me as a human experiencing their product. It's like a warm fucking hug. I've written…

There are good products and bad products in every era. Sure, there are trends as well, which change over the years, but the matrix printer times also had a lot of shitty matrix printers, as well as other products that had things we have outright banned since then.

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

#42

Post by bzzzt »

cooljoseph wrote: post #32

Is this not literally a federal crime? It sounds like HP installed a backdoor on its printers to download malware that disables the printer. If it's not a crime, I think it should become one, and I don't think a terms & conditions document should be able to protect against it (in the same way you can't, e.g., enforce a contract with illegal clauses).

They already f*cked this up big time: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/hp-rushes-t...

I've still got an old HP and disabling the internet connection on my router was the first thing I did when it worked.

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

#43

Post by ano-ther »

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)

Oki is like that too. So not all is lost.

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

#44

Post by 1letterunixname »

This is why I buy old enterprise LaserJet printers. Also, the toner cartridges are more generous and recycled* ones are relatively cheap. I currently have 4 spares which is probably enough for its entire lifecycle of me printing a return to page to flEaBay or as required by some antique government bureaucratic bullshit that demands the killing of trees.

LJ4 (the plain base model) (2005-2012) -> 4000 (2012-2020) -> M402dw (2020-present).

* Modern HP LJ printer cartridges include goddamn DRM hostile to repeated refilling, but thankfully it's not a show-stopper as overseas hackers found low-cost workarounds with (fake?) chips. Fuck the DMCA and goddamn corporate lobbyists.

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

#45

Post by jonathantf2 »

Usually you can tell if an HP has this crap preloaded if it has an e on the end of the model number, however this one doesn't seem to?

I just avoid anything made by HP, everything from their laptops to printers to servers seem to suck nowadays.

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

#46

Post by soderfoo »

al_borland wrote: post #3

I got an HP printer a few years ago. I tried setting it up using my laptop, even installing their app. I spent an hour or two and made 0 progress. I was about ready to give up and return it when I begrudgingly installed their iOS app… the thing was setup in 2 minutes and once on the network my laptop could see and print to it. This mobile-first nonsense has really gone too far. There is no reason a printer needs an a…

> There is no reason a printer needs an app like that

Stealing your data and other nefarious business practices.

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

#48

Post by kencausey »

ano-ther wrote: post #43
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)

Oki is like that too. So not all is lost.

Unfortunately they do not market to the US anymore.

"OKI Data Americas has discontinued the sales of all OKI-branded printer hardware in the United States, Canada, and Latin America." (https://www.oki.com/us/printing/index.html)

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

#50

Post by LaundroMat »

technion wrote: post #26
schappim wrote: post #9

A member of our warehouse team contacted me. Here's how the conversation unfolded at work: Warehouse Team Member: "Could you log into the App Store and download an app for the printer to work?" Me: "That doesn't sound right." I remotely accessed the warehouse computer, opened a random PDF document, and hit 'Print'. The printer queue looked normal to me. Me: "It seems to be printing just fine." Warehouse Team Member:…

A while back I was in a partner channel meeting for hp and it was all enthusiastic cheers for this specific decision.

Metrics will go up, hooray!
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