By Evan Ackerman
Printers are a pain in the butt. I have used printers for one reason and one reason only in the last few years, and that has been to print out airline boarding passes. I would LOVE to be able to use a printer to make photo prints, but that’s always more expensive pain in the butt-ness, since you blow through ink and have to use fancy paper to get decent results. The Canon PIXMA MX7600 solves half of that problem, since it’s designed with “the ability to produce crisp graphics and text on plain paper with the incorporation of the new Pigment Reaction (PgR) technology.” I have no idea how PgR technology works, but the result is that “curling, ink bleeding and printing through the paper sometimes associated with color inkjet printing on plain paper is dramatically reduced.” Cool, now explain to me why it costs MORE money to replace an ink cartridge than it does to buy a new printer, and I might start paying attention. The MX7600 can spit out a 1200 dpi 4×6 color print in 43 seconds, has six (!) ink tanks including a clear ink, can scan and copy and fax, and includes a card reader. MSRP of $400, available sometime this month.
[ Canon PIXIMA MX7600 ] VIA [ SlipperyBrick ]
.jpg "Good Ideas Turned Bad: $295 Keyport Keyholder")
“explain to me why it costs MORE money to replace an ink cartridge than it does to buy a new printer”
The printer is usually sold at a loss or given away in the hope to profit after you buy the third or fourth ink cartidge. I think this marketting model failed miserably and degraded the perceived value of printers.