Tag Archives: printer

Technology

Is HP’s Printer Rental Program A Total Waste Of Money?

Renting a printer month-by-month might sound foolish to older generations who grew up with one in the home, however that was earlier than the digital renaissance — which noticed every little thing from books to boarding passes go digital. Printing is not as a lot of a necessity because it was once, so it is potential (generally preferable) for a lot of to reside with no printer of their houses.

A service just like the HP All-In Plan is just going to be price it to those that repeatedly print every month. Students, dwelling companies, and even mother and father with little children who desire a new coloring web page each different day, for instance. Those who go for the fundamental tier with a restrict of 20 pages a month are going to save cash when contemplating the value of printers in comparison with the price of ink. Oftentimes, refilling ink prices greater than the printer itself. If there is not a requirement to print one thing each month, this is not the service for you.

Those with an Etsy or eBay retailer who continuously print delivery labels from dwelling will discover HP’s service interesting. Sure, HP has had some notoriously poor ideas in the past that made many hate it, however this plan is not unhealthy. Considering every little thing subscribers get with this new service, together with technical help after they have problem connecting their printer to Wi-Fi, it is a worthwhile deal for individuals who want it.

Opinion

Why EU law makers should be careful what they wish for

I wonder if anyone outside of the world of printer sales is sad that we’re buying fewer of them. 

In October, the department store John Lewis stated in its annual ‘How We Shop, Live and Look’ report that its sales of home printers had decreased by 26% during the past year.

The store even admitted that the printer is “resented… a destroyer of homework, voracious devourer of ink” – and it usually tries to be nice enough about things it sells that you will buy one.

Is there a more hated domestic device? The printer industry has a terrible reputation for embracing the worst aspects of the tech world, attempting to control our behavior by forcing the purchase of specific expensive ink cartridges, even if the color you need hasn’t run out, automatically updating software to reduce capability, locking out microchipped cartridges, and trapping us into subscriptions. My toaster doesn’t do that. 

“The band Rage Against The Machine never specified which machine they were furious with, but I bet it was a printer,” said one online wit. There are even ‘smash rooms’ where you can pay to beat the living daylights out of one. No other domestic appliance is so despised.

But then I don’t suppose a car is a domestic appliance as it tries to tug the steering wheel from your hands or bongs at you for looking at a scooterist who you’re trying not to run over.

Yes, the latest batch of the European Union’s General Safety Regulations legislation (GSR2), which the UK has adopted too, will come into force in 2024, and it’s now starting to affect the latest cars (plus has necessitated some going off sale). And I fear that it’s going to give the car industry a printer moment.

Our correspondent John Evans recently reported that drivers are finding some of the latest safety features annoying, to the apparent surprise of those who helped to mandate them.

They’ve come from good intentions – printer accidents don’t kill more than 1500 people in the UK each year – but they don’t work well enough, mostly by pinging too many false positives.