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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

#221

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

kube-system wrote: post #73
tsimionescu wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about they make their money by selling a good printer? I don't have to buy has from my car company if I want a good car.

It’s has historically proven difficult to sustain that model because the consumer printer market for the past 20 years has been race to the bottom. It’s hard to compete when competitors are selling their printers at or below cost. Consumers mostly tend to make their purchase decisions on the margin, and so the razors-and-blades model works well. I guess there may be a few recent exceptions to this like the Epson Ecot…

Well, the EcoTanks are pretty expensive to begin with. They also have some colour quality issues that requires you to waste ink to like… recalibrate every so often, or something thing like that?

But most of the time, it's fine, and the ink is cheap.

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

#222

Post by mixmastamyk »

orev wrote: post #26
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.

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?

Don’t they keep copies of your photos and/or metadata? Can’t trust anyone any longer.

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

#223

Post by nowherebeen »

jader201 wrote: post #146
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…

I got my first printer in high school, around 90-91. It was an HP laserjet printer, when they were first going mainstream. I loved it, it always printed well, and the toner seemed to last forever. Of course, it was B/W, but that was all I needed. Fast forward to today, I have never owned an inkjet printer. Over the past 30 years I’ve owned a total of 3 laser printers. The second was in 2005, because I wanted a scanne…

Funny enough, I never owned an inkjet. My parents bought a HP LaserJet 5 when I was 13. That thing was a tank. It lasted a good 15 years before it finally broke. I think in that time, we only changed the cartridge less than 10 times.

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

#224

Post by pombrand »

Jerry2 wrote: post #194

Last month, my friend's HP Laserjet Pro printer started flashing "SUPPLY PROBLEM" error message and wouldn't print anything. Apparently, all he did was update the firmware after a message popped up on the printer urging him to do so. Well, that firmware update included new DRM checks for non-HP toners. The printer would just refuse to work with 3rd party toner cartridges. I had to help him and had to find an old firm…

Better yet, HP will re-enable auto firmware updates if you disabled them at lest with certain printers (they did for mine). HP never again.

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

#225

Post by officehero »

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…

> and with a toner that costs 10$ on Amazon

If you haven't tried replacing toner without replacing cartridge (the only way to achieve this level of cost efficiency), there may be some intermediate steps that are good to know about:

https://youtu.be/HaGQlP23Fqc

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

#226

Post by kube-system »

ecpottinger wrote: post #209
kube-system wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you highly overestimate the amount of research the average person does on a printer purchase. Yes, some people will buy a CR magazine or ask their friends/relatives opinion for a $30k car, but will they do that before buying a $60 printer?

You are right. I remember in particular when the company I was with sold the Panasonic home printer. For a student is was great, but ALL the parts were made of the type of plastic that could not take heat in the long run. The user manual clearly said no more than 100 pages at a time and less than a 1000 a day, no problem for a student. Yet time after time someone would come in and want one for office work. We would p…

Yep. Duty cycle, as an engineering concept, is notoriously misunderstood by the general public.

It seems every day that there's some sort of outrage in a blog or article: "Did you know that [large organization] spends $[x] for their [equipment]? Wow, you can buy [consumer version] at Walmart for 1/100th of that price!"

No, outraged taxpayer, your school district isn't wasting money by purchasing a $10,000 copier. Your HP all-in-one can't replace their use-case, despite how you imagine it could.

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

#227

Post by madengr »

jacquesm wrote: post #195
EvanAnderson wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fed a diet of the necessary consumables-- toners/drums, fusers, rollers, separation pads, etc-- a 1990s LaserJet will outlive us all. For me, "peak LaserJet" was probably the LaserJet 4 w/ an integral JetDirect. The 4000 that followed was pretty solid and faster but more plastic-ey than the 4.

Agreed on the 4, those things were indestructible. I had two in the office in IJmuiden, ended up donating one when our main HQ moved to Canada. Both the donated one and the one that I still have are still running today. Toner cartridges are still available, both the originals (a bit pricey) and lots of aftermarket options for about half the price of the branded one. I fully expect the one I have to outlast me, the ot…

Yep. HP, Agilent, then Keysight, which is the only good part left of the original HP.

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

#228

Post by JasonFruit »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #130
amelius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I buy hardware that starts with "i" in its name. That way, I know that "I" am the owner and "I" am in complete control.

So this morning I noticed that the LEDs were on on the computer I built even after I shut it down. That's how it works by default, but I didn't like it, so changed the setting in the BIOS. I have to think that something reset back to the defaults, and I'm guessing Windows 10? I built it so I know it, but I guess I still don't own it. And don't get me started on how Windows 10 never goes to sleep like it should. Maybe…

Well, if you built it, it was you who put Windows 10 on it. I'm not convinced this is an example of you not owning the hardware so much as not realizing that the software was going to turn on you.

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

#229

Post by willis936 »

jacquesm wrote: post #196
willis936 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fun thought, but my HP LaserJet 4050N from ~1998 crapped out after ~16 years.

Ah, just out of warranty... too bad, really! But do not despair, you could probably fix it if you set your mind to it, or make one working one out of two broken ones, assuming you can find another broken one.

This was years ago. I went without for a while but recently decided my demand for color printing and scanning in my home exceeded my supply of cash needed to get a crappy injket. Even used color laserjets are hard to come by for mortal prices.

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

#230

Post by rytill »

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…

Alternative solutions like what? Your example was not very specific.
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