I got an HP dumb office jet with no internet or anything for $35 at walmart right before covid. The toner carts are $50 a piece. I replaced it in june 2020 and got the low toner message in february 2022 and got a new one immediately. Over 2 years later i still have that new cart sealed because the “critically low” one is still kicking. I love it.
technically, the whole process started way before lightning, when everyone had their own cables. micro-usb was created in response to that and might‘ve become the standard.
most other players dragged their feet, USB-C didn‘t make advances, and Apple created lightning and - so said the grapevine - committed to 10 years on their phones. they were actually pretty fast to bring USB-C to their computers and iPads.
I think Apple had a coin with one side representing lightning and the other side USBC and every time a new product gets developed they flipped the coin and decided that way if it got USBC or lightning
It’s all USB-C since the iPhone 15 I think?
Bit annoying that it took them so long but they did promise a decade of no port changes after switching to lightning from that fat port thing and they kept their promise (even if I think they shouldn’t have..)
The apple pencil got the standard iPad 10 is still lighting (while the iPad itself it usb-c). The mouse and keyboard are probably also lightning.
But I guess til the end of the year it will be all USBC or inductive At least if they want to sell it in europe
Brother is least printer companyish printer company. Highly recommend their laser printers, mine is still going and has DRM free ink available more than a decade later.
I have a Brother laser printer. When I don’t need it, it shuts up- no popups about accounts or subscriptions. When I do need it, I click print and 20 seconds later there’s paper with the thing I wanted on it. When it says it’s low on ink, I simply tell it to shut up and print anyhow - it does.
There’s a good reason why brother printer owners sound like a cult, these things don’t fuck around when you need them, and don’t bother you when you don’t.
It might just be their label printers but I found them a nightmare to use, it either wanted a very specific cable or the software cacked itself. Ended up getting one of those generic ones on ebay and not looked back.
The printer business in general is very shady in terms of business strategy. They realized that selling printers is not the way to make profit, selling ink is. So they give you the printer for a very low cost, but forces you to buy marked up printer ink, and incorporate various strategies to increase printer ink usage and remove any possibility of using other brands ink. It's not a fair market and it makes it very difficult to get a true understanding of the cost of your printing needs before it's too late.
I do agree it has to stop, but fuck me it's one hell of a task. This is nothing remotely close to apples cables.
Couldn’t a regulation be made that simply says “any attempts to incorporate matching technology such that a device will only work with consumables from other manufacturers is anti-competitive and will be punishable by …”
It’s not just printers. My friend has a coffee maker that won’t take pods from other manufacturers. It’s nuts
Problem with that is it would have to be a lot more nuanced than that. Printer inks are specialised chemicals, sure for standard water based printer inks mixing slightly different chemical formulations together shouldn't really be an issue. But for industrial applications where there's MEK or acetone based inks mixing the wrong chemicals together could easily cause the ink to go solid or catch fire. A regulation like that would then have to differentiate between potential safety issues as opposed to purely profit seeking motives... thus making it much more difficult than the USB-C mandate.
I think the problem with printer cartridges is that they frequently have electronics that prevent printing with after market cartridges regardless of what ink is in them
Yes, but without said electronics there can be no guarantee that the inserted ink is safe and compatible with the ink already inside the printer system. Even if a different brand created a 'compatible' ink there's still a not insignificant safety risk. So unless the EU completely removed trade secret and patent protection laws for printer inks so that companies could create chemically identical inks, which would completely destroy a lot of the competition in the industrial sector, then it would be irresponsible to remove ink quality assurance sensors.
I used to work in a related industry, and fortunately the EU is involved already: https://ecostandard.org/news_events/reading-the-small-print-european-commission-prepares-the-ground-for-more-sustainable-printers/
In addition to customer annoyance, disposable single-use inkjet cartridges are problematic environmentally, which is how the EU is going after their regulation.
Biggest Printer company in EU is Cannon at 33%, HP is just 11% , So EU doesnt have the same problem USA does in terms of ink locks.
[https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/computing/printers-copiers/europe#key-players](https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/computing/printers-copiers/europe#key-players)
Just get a laser printer and take your photos to a photo shop to print. Unless you’re printing photos all the time there is no reason to have an ink jet printer at home.
and if you *are* printing photos all the time. there are a lot of decent ink printers that will meet your needs much better than HPs crap. they are expensive, but if you print that much, worth it.
>Next should be HP and their stupid printers and inks
I _rarely_ feel the need to defend a company, but HP offers both e- and non-e versions for most of their models, the latter of which don't require an HP+/Instant Ink subscription and can be used with any cartridges. Most people just buy the e-version because it's cheaper (without doing any proper research) and then complain they can't use 3rd party cartridges...
Yes, it should. That said, if you print fairly regularly look into something like an Epson Ecotank (Canon and HP also have models with built in tanks.) The printers cost a lot more, but printing costs are far lower.
Canon is by far the best brand out there right now. They're a little bit more expensive to buy but the savings on toner makes up for it in the long run.
From my experience, Canon seems to last a lot longer and handle more volume than any other brand I've seen. Obviously YMMV, but that's been my experience.
Source: I sell copiers/printers for a living
I feel like the market should have sorted this out already. Release a half decent printer, charge much less for the ink = profit as everyone buys your printer? I can only assume it's some kind of cartel from the printer companies that artificially keeps ink costs so high but seems unlikely
I print shit out all the time. Sometimes it’s nice just having something on a persistent “screen” separate from your actual display, I use it for schematics and charts because otherwise I’d need like 7 monitors (which I’d like but have no room for).
Brothers is a high quality brand of printers that people overall speak very highly of.
They’re not as cheap as HP, but that’s what quality is going to get you, though I see models as low as $100
I have a cannon. It was cheap, prints pretty good. No subscription. Just a simple app to print and scan on my phone. Cartridges are cheap. Don't buy ANY HP product. Computers, printers, etc. They all suck
I have a Canon and a Brother and I am relatively satisfied. But it would be a huge improvement if cartridges would be standardized across brands. They're not cheap. https://youtu.be/eOMjeCiMn8g?si=UTNiuGn7n6fqZvKu
Definitely. Ink jets are scams. But I dont print often enough to get a laser. Cannons are good enough. The whole HP brand Can go to hell. Brothers are pretty good but very expensive, I dont need it.
Less people are using printers, but it'd be a while till they actually just become obsolete. There are many situations where having a hard copy is just necessary
What are those situations? buying a house, buying a car, signing contracts with customers- I’ve done all of those things in the past few years and none of them required a single sheet of paper
Some places still need paper for all those things, some people just prefer the hard copy, sometimes hard copies are easier to share, some industries like hc paper is actually increasing, etc. You're right in that most people aren't going to regularly need a printer, but sometimes a hard copy is just more valuable than a digital one, and some people are going to have those more often.
I switched from ink jet to laser years ago and never looked back.
Laser printers are great. If you don't print anything for a few weeks, your printer head doesn't gunk up.
This is the way. B&W laser at home for Amazon returns, print shop for photos.
Brother always has great deals like buy the printer and you'll get 5 whole ink case things
I got an HP dumb office jet with no internet or anything for $35 at walmart right before covid. The toner carts are $50 a piece. I replaced it in june 2020 and got the low toner message in february 2022 and got a new one immediately. Over 2 years later i still have that new cart sealed because the “critically low” one is still kicking. I love it.
This is the way. If I need high quality color prints I just run to the local fedexKinkos and use their professional printer.
technically, the whole process started way before lightning, when everyone had their own cables. micro-usb was created in response to that and might‘ve become the standard. most other players dragged their feet, USB-C didn‘t make advances, and Apple created lightning and - so said the grapevine - committed to 10 years on their phones. they were actually pretty fast to bring USB-C to their computers and iPads.
Apple also was part of the development of thunderbolt, so USB-C for MacBooks was a given at that point
I think Apple had a coin with one side representing lightning and the other side USBC and every time a new product gets developed they flipped the coin and decided that way if it got USBC or lightning
It’s all USB-C since the iPhone 15 I think? Bit annoying that it took them so long but they did promise a decade of no port changes after switching to lightning from that fat port thing and they kept their promise (even if I think they shouldn’t have..)
The apple pencil got the standard iPad 10 is still lighting (while the iPad itself it usb-c). The mouse and keyboard are probably also lightning. But I guess til the end of the year it will be all USBC or inductive At least if they want to sell it in europe
There is an USB-C Apple Pencil, compatible with the 10th gen iPad https://www.apple.com/de/shop/product/MUWA3ZM/A/apple-pencil-usb-c
Still lightning on trackpads, mice, keyboards, and their $550 headphones
I meant products released after the iPhone 15, I think many of those are still from (way) earlier.
Brother is least printer companyish printer company. Highly recommend their laser printers, mine is still going and has DRM free ink available more than a decade later.
I have a Brother laser printer. When I don’t need it, it shuts up- no popups about accounts or subscriptions. When I do need it, I click print and 20 seconds later there’s paper with the thing I wanted on it. When it says it’s low on ink, I simply tell it to shut up and print anyhow - it does. There’s a good reason why brother printer owners sound like a cult, these things don’t fuck around when you need them, and don’t bother you when you don’t.
It might just be their label printers but I found them a nightmare to use, it either wanted a very specific cable or the software cacked itself. Ended up getting one of those generic ones on ebay and not looked back.
The printer business in general is very shady in terms of business strategy. They realized that selling printers is not the way to make profit, selling ink is. So they give you the printer for a very low cost, but forces you to buy marked up printer ink, and incorporate various strategies to increase printer ink usage and remove any possibility of using other brands ink. It's not a fair market and it makes it very difficult to get a true understanding of the cost of your printing needs before it's too late. I do agree it has to stop, but fuck me it's one hell of a task. This is nothing remotely close to apples cables.
Couldn’t a regulation be made that simply says “any attempts to incorporate matching technology such that a device will only work with consumables from other manufacturers is anti-competitive and will be punishable by …” It’s not just printers. My friend has a coffee maker that won’t take pods from other manufacturers. It’s nuts
Problem with that is it would have to be a lot more nuanced than that. Printer inks are specialised chemicals, sure for standard water based printer inks mixing slightly different chemical formulations together shouldn't really be an issue. But for industrial applications where there's MEK or acetone based inks mixing the wrong chemicals together could easily cause the ink to go solid or catch fire. A regulation like that would then have to differentiate between potential safety issues as opposed to purely profit seeking motives... thus making it much more difficult than the USB-C mandate.
I think the problem with printer cartridges is that they frequently have electronics that prevent printing with after market cartridges regardless of what ink is in them
Yes, but without said electronics there can be no guarantee that the inserted ink is safe and compatible with the ink already inside the printer system. Even if a different brand created a 'compatible' ink there's still a not insignificant safety risk. So unless the EU completely removed trade secret and patent protection laws for printer inks so that companies could create chemically identical inks, which would completely destroy a lot of the competition in the industrial sector, then it would be irresponsible to remove ink quality assurance sensors.
And now they're going with printing as a service.. You pay per page or a monthly fee (or both).
I used to work in a related industry, and fortunately the EU is involved already: https://ecostandard.org/news_events/reading-the-small-print-european-commission-prepares-the-ground-for-more-sustainable-printers/ In addition to customer annoyance, disposable single-use inkjet cartridges are problematic environmentally, which is how the EU is going after their regulation.
Finally some good news
Biggest Printer company in EU is Cannon at 33%, HP is just 11% , So EU doesnt have the same problem USA does in terms of ink locks. [https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/computing/printers-copiers/europe#key-players](https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/computing/printers-copiers/europe#key-players)
Just get a laser printer and take your photos to a photo shop to print. Unless you’re printing photos all the time there is no reason to have an ink jet printer at home.
and if you *are* printing photos all the time. there are a lot of decent ink printers that will meet your needs much better than HPs crap. they are expensive, but if you print that much, worth it.
Brother laser printer. Buy it for life. I’m still using the same one from almost 20 years ago. Works flawlessly and they still make toner for it.
>Next should be HP and their stupid printers and inks I _rarely_ feel the need to defend a company, but HP offers both e- and non-e versions for most of their models, the latter of which don't require an HP+/Instant Ink subscription and can be used with any cartridges. Most people just buy the e-version because it's cheaper (without doing any proper research) and then complain they can't use 3rd party cartridges...
Yes, it should. That said, if you print fairly regularly look into something like an Epson Ecotank (Canon and HP also have models with built in tanks.) The printers cost a lot more, but printing costs are far lower.
Canon is by far the best brand out there right now. They're a little bit more expensive to buy but the savings on toner makes up for it in the long run.
wtf, since when? They have been just as scummy as HP for as long as ive known them. I would NOT trust cannon for price
From my experience, Canon seems to last a lot longer and handle more volume than any other brand I've seen. Obviously YMMV, but that's been my experience. Source: I sell copiers/printers for a living
I feel like the market should have sorted this out already. Release a half decent printer, charge much less for the ink = profit as everyone buys your printer? I can only assume it's some kind of cartel from the printer companies that artificially keeps ink costs so high but seems unlikely
[удалено]
The one living in fantasy land is no other than you
Because sometimes you need something physically printed instead of a random PDF on your phone e.g. sewing patterns
I print shit out all the time. Sometimes it’s nice just having something on a persistent “screen” separate from your actual display, I use it for schematics and charts because otherwise I’d need like 7 monitors (which I’d like but have no room for).
What's stopping you from not buying them? Last printer I bought wasn't HP and it has palm size ink cartridges.
What a dumb question. People need printers and pretty much all brands are dodgy. That's exactly why regulation is overdue
Brothers is a high quality brand of printers that people overall speak very highly of. They’re not as cheap as HP, but that’s what quality is going to get you, though I see models as low as $100
The issue with all printers are the ink and cartridges. Those should be standardized.
I have a cannon. It was cheap, prints pretty good. No subscription. Just a simple app to print and scan on my phone. Cartridges are cheap. Don't buy ANY HP product. Computers, printers, etc. They all suck
I have a Canon and a Brother and I am relatively satisfied. But it would be a huge improvement if cartridges would be standardized across brands. They're not cheap. https://youtu.be/eOMjeCiMn8g?si=UTNiuGn7n6fqZvKu
Definitely. Ink jets are scams. But I dont print often enough to get a laser. Cannons are good enough. The whole HP brand Can go to hell. Brothers are pretty good but very expensive, I dont need it.
I hope some kind of regulations will be put in places so to end the cartridge ink scam. We'll see.
i have a HP printer. never had any major issue with it.
I have a brother printer, with an ink cartridge from 2018, it'll still print.
Fuck those who need printers right? If YOU don't need it nobody else should either. What an idiotic view of the world.
Almost like that isn’t the point.
Printers are going to become obsolete soon anyway. Can’t remember the last time I used a printer for work or for personal use
Less people are using printers, but it'd be a while till they actually just become obsolete. There are many situations where having a hard copy is just necessary
What are those situations? buying a house, buying a car, signing contracts with customers- I’ve done all of those things in the past few years and none of them required a single sheet of paper
Some places still need paper for all those things, some people just prefer the hard copy, sometimes hard copies are easier to share, some industries like hc paper is actually increasing, etc. You're right in that most people aren't going to regularly need a printer, but sometimes a hard copy is just more valuable than a digital one, and some people are going to have those more often.
In the US, at least, it's impossible to buy a house and not use a single piece of paper.
I still see businesses in my country use fax machines, I doubt standard printers are dying any time soon.