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Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#51

Post by kalleboo »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #20
carpenecopinum wrote: post #13

I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. Decades of innovation that have been invested, not to make a better product, but mostly on how to extract more and more money from their victims, I mean "customers". I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spendin…

> I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spending several hundred bucks on a device For printing something like once a month, it is even harder to justify wasting space by putting a printer. Printers should be put around in form of vending machines which would let you you insert a USB stick, drop some pennies and print the PDFs.

Where I live convenience stores (7-11) and most larger supermarkets have this. Basically a combo photo printer + office copier with a touchscreen and USB/memory card readers. Some of the are also loaded with postcards (for xmas cards) or even sticker paper to make your own stickers.

I also like to print out A3 posters for my kids and these printers can do that, whereas I'd never buy a huge A3 printer to have at home.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#53

Post by gpvos »

yreg wrote: post #40
carpenecopinum wrote: post #13

I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. Decades of innovation that have been invested, not to make a better product, but mostly on how to extract more and more money from their victims, I mean "customers". I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spendin…

If you want to print something once a month you can buy a cheap printer for like €40 – which is probably subsidized because the manufacturer thinks they will earn it back on selling you overpriced ink. But they won't since you will buy a single toner and cover all of your printing needs. Anyway, I don't have a printer. I always just take my pdf and take a walk to a local printing service.

As long as it's not an inkjet printer, since the ink will dry out or the printer will just think the ink is too old after half a year or so.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#55

Post by anticristi »

My Canon MFC742cdw has been complaining about me using the original toner far beyond its "useful lifetime". I lost count, but it must have been at least 200 pages ago and it's still printing just fine. Kind of sad that we need to learn to put up with this kind of dark patterns.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#56

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #45
Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll have to buy a pen and use it to trace out the stuff on your screen by holding a piece of paper up to it. Until they see this hack and the system blurs the screen whenever it senses third party pens being used. If only there was some body that could pass laws that would prevent companies from doing such things. You know, like how phones have to use common charger cables.

This is not similar at all to phone charger cables. My iPhone cables, which are now being made illegal by the EU, work perfectly (including the third-party ones).

If Apple made third party cables not work or work poorly it would be the same. But now they can't do that even if they wanted to.

I would be happy to have to throw out ink cartridges I currently use due to a law change if it meant that forever onwards I knew I could buy third party ink and use it without issues. This would also have the effect of lowering OEM ink prices because they would have to compete. Free markets only work when there is competition.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#57

Post by rustyf »

GiorgioG wrote: post #33

I have an epson eco-tank printer. I buy 3rd party bottles of ink once every 2-3 years. The upfront cost of the printer (multifunction model ET-4550) was high in 2015 ($500) but I've spent maybe $60-70 in ink to print (as of this morning) 19,536 pages (13,954 in color, 5,582 in B/W). I can't see a good reason to keep buying printers that are locked into proprietary cartridges or toners.

Me too. Credit to Epson for taking this track. I wouldn't consider a cartridge printer again.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#58

Post by auxym »

radiojasper wrote: post #7

Buy an EPSON. Apart from the fact they have separate ink cartridges for each colour, they also don't act like satan.

I had an Epson printer in college, it screwed me over one night where I had to print a paper to turn in the next day by refusing to print some black text because the cyan cartridge was running low.

I understand this is standard practice from all printer makers now, but it really turned me off the brand.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#59

Post by sricks3 »

hotpotamus wrote: post #25
carpenecopinum wrote: post #13

I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. Decades of innovation that have been invested, not to make a better product, but mostly on how to extract more and more money from their victims, I mean "customers". I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spendin…

If you print something once a month, then shouldn't the starter cartridge last for about the life of the printer (maybe a decade or so)? That's been my experience with the B&W Brother laser printer I bought about 2010. I've never changed anything on it. And really I don't find much need to print anything these days anyway.

This is actually the biggest problem with my current home printer. My wife or I will print something after installing brand new ink cartridges. Then a month or two later, we try to print something again. The printer acts like it's printing (and seems to think that it's printed the document correctly), but the page comes out with little or no ink inconsistently spread around the page, as if the cartridges were empty.

We finally realized the problem was that excess ink was drying up on the (outlet/spout/I'm not sure of the right term) where it's fed out of the cartridge and onto the paper. In short, *we weren't printing _enough_.* Sure enough, as long as we print a page or two a week, it keeps working properly. Also, for some reason, the "Clean print heads" function or whatever it's called doesn't resolve the issue.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#60

Post by kmfrk »

I've got a Brother laser printer that's probably old enough to vote now. It's impressive that it's lasted this long, but the whole business model of printing is so rotten I still wonder how much I want it around when the toners have run completely dry. On top of the installation being a mess.

I've seen that companies like Brother make dedicated shipping label printers, and I guess that's what I realistically would use my printer for the most.

Brother's clearly doing horrible stuff, but printers also seem like a terrible business model when you ship products that live forever without maintenance beyond refilling the paper tray and toner.

If only the e-ink display technology weren't encumbered by so many patents, maybe that's what we'd be reading most things on now instead.

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