HP and Yahoo To Spam Your Printer 397
An anonymous reader writes "As many suspected when HP announced its web-connected printer, it didn't take long for the company to announce it will send 'targeted' advertisements to your new printer. So you'll get spammed, and you'll pay for the ink to print it. On the bright side, the FCC forbids unsolicited fax ads, so this will probably get HP on a collision course with the Feds."
You asked for it (Score:5, Informative)
From the article it seems that the ads are part of on demand publications that you choose to have sent to you. So this is definitely an opt-in sort of thing. It is conceivable that printers with preview displays could be perverted to show ads as well but that doesn't seem to be in the works yet.
Ads aren't supplied with regular jobs. (Score:5, Informative)
While the article is a little confusing, if you read it a couple of times, it becomes clear that the advertisements are only supplied with their "scheduled delivery" service. Basically, HP is signing up with content providers and Yahoo to provide content in your printer every morning.
The subscriber selects the content (newspaper sections), HP is responsible for fetching + formatting + advertisement insertion. Yahoo provides the localised (through IP address lookup) advertisements.
Basically, this is the Sci-Fi print-on-demand newspaper where the paper includes content from multiple sources.
So, no, advertisements aren't inserted into the middle of your print job.
I would say that the demand for the service is probably dwindling, but who knows. It will probably be a good little money maker for HP and Yahoo.
Nod to Brother (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sitting next to a Brother ink jet printer right now. I really prefer lasers, but in this case I wanted a large format multi-function machine. My Brother will both print and scan up to 11x17" (equivalent to A3) and it cost me less than $200, shipped to my front door. It shipped with full, high-capacity ink cartridges, not HP's half cartridges. And while it does include some software it's pretty lightweight, and is basically used to handle features like networked scanning and a monitor program to let you know when the ink is low. Both are optional. And yes, Brother explicitly offers drivers for Linux.The print quality is what it is -- could be better, could be a lot worse -- and the build quality seems fairly plasticky, but that seems par for the course with today's printers. Overall my only complaint was that the price was so low it wasn't even a significant tax write-off.
Port 631, anyone? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The first planned spam... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeh, I wouldn't touch an HP printer if you paid me (apart from an old LaserJet 4).
I went with a Samsung Laser and haven't looked back. 2 years on and I've still got dickloads of toner and it doesn't continually print test pages like the new HPs.
Re:The first planned spam... (Score:2, Informative)
The InkJets rip you off in ink price, though. (Score:2, Informative)
I got rid of a Lexmark because their inkjet printers had ink that was too expensive, though, so pay attention to the model as well as the brand.
I was also unhappy with Lexmark for trying to abuse the DMCA to lock people out from making compatible ink cartridges.
Re:Lexmark Lasers Rule (Score:2, Informative)
Hmm, maybe not all then, but Lexmark printers are also guilty of installing must-have services. My 3 year old Z1420 installs 2. It also goes fails if you disable those, or at least bidirectional printing (to allow the otherwise low-ink dialog from requiring a local click that kills the functionality of remote print-jobs.) My printer croaks up license agreements on the printer-connected PC whenever I add a remote PC, and like every USB printer in existance, randomly fails to be recognized as 'Connected'" [youtube.com]
Anyway, the drivers aren't huge like HP's at least.
Re:Lexmark Lasers Rule (Score:1, Informative)
i had a lexmark printer, bought it about 6 months before windows xp came out. never worked with xp, lexmark never released new drivers. if lexmark are happy to force me to buy a new printer to replace one that's only 6 months old, I'm happy to live my life without ever buying another lexmark printer. brother or canon are where it's at
Re:The first planned spam... (Score:5, Informative)
The last three contracts that I've signed have been emailed to me as PDFs. I've copied them to my iLiad, signed them on its wacom tablet screen, and emailed them back. They've been sufficiently legally binding for me to get paid...
In common law countries the rules about what constitutes a legally binding contract are complex. There's nothing saying that a hand-written signature is legally binding and a digital one is not. Anything from a spoken word to a cryptographic signature can be legally binding. In court, one side has to demonstrate more evidence that the person agreeing to the contract intended to do so. If they can, in the face of any counter evidence from the other side, then the contract is legally binding.
The only advantage that a hand-written signature has is that there is a large body of case law indicating that they are valid. This is relatively recent, however. A signature without an official wax seal was not regarded as legally binding for a very long time (and the seal itself without the signature was).
Re:Wow, just another excuse ... (Score:1, Informative)
The test page can be easily turned off. I do this on all of our printers. Please do. The trees will thank you. -Lorax
Re:Nod to Brother (Score:4, Informative)
I had a brother multifunction inkjet for a while. It worked well right up until the time when it ran out of one of the ink colors. At that point it started demanding a new ink cartridge and refused to do anything else. Fax? Nope. Scan? Nope. It was locked up until you replaced the ink cartridge. It was after midnight and I just wanted to fax out a contract. I did go to the office supply store the next day, but I replaced the printer instead.
Wait... (Score:3, Informative)
Wait, people still print?
Honestly, I only print stuff when someone insists these days. I haven't owned a printer at home in years; everything I need to reference is sent to a PDF which is then sync'ed to my iPhone. Signatures... digital. I think the last thing I printed was a gift affidavit that I had to get notarized in order to give a car to my ex wife in my divorce :)
On topic though; when are we going to see the printer now with the optional automatic shredder attachment (spam filter)? :)