Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy that the only grounds they have are that HP didn't disclose that their All-In-Ones won't let you scan or fax without ink and not, you know, the fact that they do that in the first place? It should be illegal to disable critical functions of a device simply because an unrelated function is temporarily unavailable. There's no technical reason HP is doing this other than, "fuck you, buy more ink."
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
637 points (98.5% liked)
Technology
70711 readers
3335 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Unfortunately this is the difference between illegal and unethical, and I don't gather that HP cares much about ethics. Hopefully right-to-repair laws will cover these cases in the future too.
It's anti-consumer, but I guess that just falls under unethical for now
I recently had a printer to configure (IT) that was HP, and it needed an internet connection and registration to print over USB (well, at all); guess what? Dead ethernet port. Now (even with a working USB) the printer is just landfill food waiting to reach our bloodstream in a few years time. I ~~fucking hate~~ love HP!
Guess who the laws are actually designed to protect
The last and only printer that I bought from HP worked well and didn’t pull any shenanigans, it was a Laserjet 5L.
Since then, feedback from colleagues and what I’ve seen from reviews and tech communities put me off buying HP again. Between their cloud printing, their inkjet cartridge verification and the USB ports covered in stickers and now this…
I mean, you can sell a shitty product, that's not a crime, the crime is the false advertising or if it is a danger to people
Imagine in the future, your car just stopped working entirely and lock you out because your heated-seats subscription expired.
HP are a real scumbag company.
I still don't get why anyone is buying inkjet printers for the past 20 years. It makes zero sense to me.
Color laser printers are very expensive and still don't achieve the same picture quality as an inkjet printer. And I have read once that dust from laser printers might cause cancer but not sure how much there really is to that.
Color lasers are about $300 dollars, do better quality, and have 10x the output per cartridge on a bad day. And they don't dry rot when left without printing for extended periods. Replace the ink on an inkjet more than twice, and a laser is already a better deal.
If you want to print pictures to hang on your wall, ink printers print much better color quality.
If you want flat graphics to print on a document, laser is better.
Just depends on what your use case is.
Not just that, but it’s impossible to find a colour laser that’ll do 11x17 and duplex. I think my only option is a small office printer lease.
My in-laws gave my son an HP Envy. I placed a big Apple logo next to the HP logo. I have Apple logos on my trash bins too. Basically, any trash around the house gets an Apple logo stuck to it
So brave
Why is anyone buying a printer at all?
Hey, printer people out there! What do you you use your printer for? My printer is just sitting idle collecting dust. Can’t think of anything I would need to print. Everything is digital these days.
In less developed countries, you'd need printed copies for a lot of stuff, especially legal documents.
Speaking from experience.
Exactly this. I live in a first-ish world country around Asia, and the moment you need paperwork dealt in any other nearby country, a printer is going to save you lots of trips to the convenience store.
Ugh... Asian beureaucracy at its best...
South East Asia?
...indeed.
Oh, I remember those. The government here has been working to go digital for the past 30 years, and now it’s beginning to pay off.
Good for you! My country is going toward that direction, but corruption kinda keeps the progress slow. Still some progress here and there.
I have a printer for the occasional need to print documents. Mind blowing I know, but that's why I keep one around. It gathers dust most of the time, but it's super useful when the odd need arises.
I for one can't read correctly anything longer than a lemmy post on a screen. I print more or less anything that I'm want to read with my brain fully present - I usually outline and comment on paper too, makes it easier to remember. Latest use case : printing out dnd character sheets to do my charac design for BG3
Ok, that seems like a sensible use case.
I’ve heard many people say that reading stuff on a screen is more distracting and they have trouble focusing. I don’t feel that way, so screens are just fine for me.
My guess. Marketing.
“IT giant illegally left out that info”. Bruh. THEY LIED!
They did, but that's not a legal term, so a judge won't use it.
The printer scene: https://youtu.be/N9wsjroVlu8
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/N9wsjroVlu8
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I have no printers in my house. I refuse that entire industry. Its a scam.