[gruez]

Apparently there's more to this. They're blocking the usb port to get the user to set up over wifi first, not because it's non functional. Why does a printer need to be set up over wifi? Because certain models are tied to hp ink's subscription service and sold at a discount.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37007036

[delfinom]

This is exactly what they do.

Not to worry, they also region lock the ink as well.

[1-6]

I wonder what happens when car companies increasingly connect their vehicles to cell towers?

[anonymousiam]

Things such as this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37971038

[qwerty456127]

They will make using an app on a vendor-locked smartphone the only way to unlock the doors, start the engine etc.

[eli]

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscription...

(I believe they rolled it back after an outcry)

[thrtythreeforty]

People have started identifying and pulling the fuses on vehicles' cell radios. I would also be interested in digging down to the radio itself and replacing the antenna with a dummy load.

[midnitewarrior]

That may create a parasitic battery drain if I radio is constantly seeking connection to a cell tower and not finding it. Subaru experienced a similar problem with their StarLink service after the 3G network shut down, car batteries started draining while trying to talk to towers that no longer existed.

[byteknight]

Buy HP from costco. They don't have the DRM.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Better still is to not reward companies for customer-hostile design and buy a different brand. Brother laser printers are my recommendation as ink-jets end up costing a lot more and involve more faffing around with trying to clear dried nozzles after they're not used for a while.

[danudey]

Brother printers are really something. I recently replaced my old Brother laser with a new one and was surprised to find that it's just as "it just works" as the last one was (which was also surprising).

I connected it to the network, and boom, everything I have can print. Didn't need to install drivers on most things (but the printer utility is handy). You can send it documents via IPP, but also any other protocol that might be a good way to get a document to a printer, including USB, POP3, IMAP, LPR, and like a dozen other options. It feels like one of their engineers sat down at one point and just went through every possible protocol they could think of and implemented a module for it, and they just kept it that way for the last 10+ years.

Plus second-hand toner just works, no DRM, and toner is relatively cheap all in all. I'm not getting screwed by them on printing cost, and if I were I can go somewhere else for my consumables.

[sentientslug]

Can I ask what model you have?

[smegsicle]

brother has in the past pushed automatic updates to lock out third party toner

[solarkraft]

Or don't buy HP =)