We can talk about that how wastefull or how anachronistic it is. I totally agree, but what I find more interesting is, why so many people (including me) like this useless thing?
Did we somehow, reached a point where we get too much of our experiences through a computer or a mobile display? More and more information through a narrowing medium. Or just because to have more kind of medias? Does somebody have a better hipotesis?
Yeah. My first thought was exactly the same. Why do I find this interesting (I always have my phone with me)? My hypothesis is that with everything getting displayed through LCD screens these days, after a while people will crave for the old sensory experience - working with physical paper.
Not sure about the current generation which is growing up with iPads and may have never used a physical newspaper. I will be curious to see their reaction.
They've got the design down absolutely pat - the look of the item, the look of the print-outs, the site, the video - it's great.
They've also got some valid uses for it in there - yeah, we've all got screens, but those screens are used for an awful lot of other stuff - this gives one quick place to find a couple useful pieces of information, a whole lot faster than otherwise.
It is, however, absurdly wasteful. Anything I can read off that, I can save on my phone for a pretty comparable reading experience.
I think it's the software, more than the hardware, that's attractive - Give me that information in an app on the same schedule that little box would print it, and I'd use it. It looks like a pretty good filter and delivery mechanism, but I've got no use for a bunch of scraps of thermal paper…
When someone figures this out, they should sell the reasoning to HP. I haven't wanted to buy a printer in a long time even though $99 will get me a wifi capable touch screen fax/scanner/printer/copier these days.
Problem is HP makes money by selling ink. They, like most other printer companies, would rather sell the printer hardware at a loss and make tons of money off selling tiny amounts of ink for $20-40 a pop.
This thing is a thermal printer so the only thing they could sell you is paper and you can't really charge a large premium on paper.
