Inkjet Anarchy

What kind of inkjet printer would Abbie Hoffman use? An Epson Stylus 760 apparently... Think inkjets are too pricy? Are you a "DIY" kind of person? Well then read the whole article HERE

Our "Destroy Your Printer Contest" Goes International

The destroy your printer contest from Recycler on Vimeo.

Recycler Magazine has done an internet television special about our "Destroy Your Printer Contest" on their RecyclerTV page on their website. You can see the video above.

Click HERE to see the video at Recycler Magazines website.

HP and Gartners "Magic Quadrant" for Managed Print Services

Where will Harry Potter work When He graduates Hogwarts?



Gartners "Magic Quadrant" of course. No doubt the "documentus Printus" charm will be most useful. All kidding aside it seems Gartner has placed HP in the Leaders Quadrant in its Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS).

From tecsa.com: HP believes this placement, coupled with the latest multifunction printer (MFP) market share standings and customer adoption, demonstrates its ability to provide customers with a robust MPS offering that delivers continued cost savings and increased productivity in the office.

See the whole article by clicking HERE

Is HP ready to Battle?

With not only Xerox but Ricoh readying the troops for a battle against the old giant HP one has to wonder does HP have what it takes to hold its ground? At the same time one might consider how long Xerox or Ricoh would last should they dethrone the behemoth that is HP. With hardware sales projected to be down by as much as 30% by years end these "big boys" of the printing industry know that what will make or break them is the strength of their MPS programs which of course are newbies compared to some smaller companies that have provided solid MPS programs for a decade or more.

Of course the sheer power of the "big boys" will for now provide a shield against any real competition from these smaller groups but all the "jocks" of the industry still have to worry about each other and HP with a 25 year head start in the industry should be pretty embarrassed if they get knocked off their high horse after such a head start.

When one looks at Xerox and Ricohs various strategic alliances with computer manufacturers and some of the acquisitions they have made, it would be wise for HP to get a reality check if they wish to defend their position within the industry. I suppose in the end only time will tell but for now, lets sit back and enjoy the carnage. The "big boys" screw ups which will inevitably happen as time goes on will make good commentary for the little guys while they chuckle and rest upon their years of experience.

In the words of Mills Lane........ "Let's Get It On!"

Fried chicken should be sold in a box, not an MPS Program

I would say that in the next few years we are going to be seeing the puppets of the MPS industry crashing and burning in one respect or another. When a company like Office Max offers a "MPS program" which is little more than supplying toner in a way that vaguely resembles that one aspect of a real MPS program these poor folk who hoped that by jumping on the band wagon of the next big thing and cashing in are going to get a call for printer repair, a new machine or some other element of the industry that only the "big boys" offer as part of their program and then they are going to call one of them for help.

Like the child who's mother told them not to play with matches, indeed they will be calling for burn relief from the experts when their "MPS program" shows its true colors. If you need to outsource many facets of your MPS program, you are not offering a solid MPS program.

Indeed The hotwheels version of a corvette will not win the race against the car of which it is modeled after. So if you are going to buy something in a box, stick with fried chicken and be sure to get your MPS program from a professional company who truly provides what they claim to offer.

Concept Printers

Below you will find an aggregate of concept printer blog posts with links back to their respective blogs.


RITI Green Printer uses coffee dregs for Ink



From gizmag.com: The paperless office is a great notion, but in reality there are still many scenarios where the printer needs to be switched on and fed with environmentally unfriendly consumables - paper and ink. Recycling and re-using paper for print jobs has become well entrenched, but the expensive and often frustrating process of replenishing the ink remains an issue for many of us. Which brings us to one of the cleverest recycling ideas to emerge from this year's Greener Gadgets competition - the RITI printer. This design concept by Jeon Hwan Ju takes your coffee or tea dregs, plus a little elbow grease, and turns them into an eco-friendly alternative to conventional ink. Read the whole article here


Wall Mountable Wireless Printer



From engadget.com: A concept printer shown at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and designed by Ransmeier & Floyd takes a rather different approach to the concept of a printer. Rather than the usual practice of placing your printer as far out of sight as possible, you'd probably want to place this concept model in clear sight. Presumably battery powered (who would want a cable hanging off the wall?) the printer would communicate wirelessly with the printing device, and then feed the printout into a clear region at the bottom. Read the whole article here


Slim MFP Concept Printer



From idsa.org: The SLIMFP concept is a combination printer/scanner (Multi Functional Peripheral or MFP), which, unlike previous designs, uses the same paper path to both scan and print, without the need to manually change the print head to a scan head, and vice versa. It is extremely compact and can be wall mounted, saving valuable workspace. Read the whole article here


Circular Concept Printer



From boingboing.net: This circular concept printer ("uses rotational, instead of linear, movement to reduce its size") was one of 130 winners of the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). Read the whole article here


Mini-Giant Printer



From tuvie.com: Mini Giant is a robotic printer concept that self-drives itself over a ZINK Paper sheet of any size in order to create a print. The main benefit of the ZINK technology is, it doesn’t require ribbons and ink cartridges. The designer has replaced the ink cartridges and ribbons with a heating system that can radically change its shape. Instead of using large scale paper into the printer, this concept brings this special type of paper laid on any smooth and hard surface. Mini giant is placed on the up left corner of a selected image and it will automatically move slowly on the paper surface. The back side heating place heats the portion it comes over and thus activates the ZINK paper’s crystals. With this small gadget, you can have a large format poster printer right in the palm of your hand. Read the whole article here