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Epson's Female Printer
zmcnulty writes "I finished translating the K-Tai Watch (Japanese) article about a new printer in the Colorio line from Epson. It's not only being marketed at women, it was completely designed by 'Team8' - an all-female project team created within Epson specifically for making a printer 'easy for women to use.'
Here is the original Japanese press release." Apparently they've been reading these studies.
Of this article http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/04/133725 9&mode=thread&tid=126 - an all-female designed Volvo. It was only a few days ago. Why doesnt the article reference this?
Posted_on Mar 16, 2004 - 10:52 AM by zmcnulty
Its a printer by women, for women.
I first thought this was just being marketed at women, but no - it was completely designed by Team8, an all-woman project team specifically created by Epson for this project.
More information on what makes a printer female inside.
Seiko Epson will release the Colorio me: E-100, atransportable inkjet printer developed under the printer easy for women to use themeon April 23rd. The printer is officially Open Price, but indicators suggest it should cost around 20,000 yen.
The Colorio me: is an inkjet printer designed by Epsons Team8, an all-woman project team formed specifically for the purpose of creating a printer easy for women to use. It has a handle on the round-style case for transporting.
Its an inkjet style printer, and prints using one ink cartridge with 6 colors. The printer resolution is a maximum of 2880 x 1440 dpi. To confirm what is being printed, it features TV output, and connects to the PC via USB. The size is 256 x 154 x 163mm (W x D x H), and it weighs 2.7kg.
Another feature of the Colorio me: is its ability to connect to cellular phones (with cameras)and digital cameras and print directly- and in addition to SD cards, Memory Stick, and CompactFlash, it supports miniSD cards and Memory Stick Duo when equipped with seperate adapters.
Loaded on board is the Cell Phone with Camera Correction mode, and images are printed on glossy card-size photo paper. Pictures taken with a cellular phone can also be printed easily. Finally, infrared and Bluetooth (Ver 1.1) wireless support is available as an option, and when the size and print mode is set via the operation panel on the printer, it can print wirelessly.
In addition, the Colorio PM-D1000 video-deck shaped inkjet printer will be released in May. The price on this one is also Open Price, but indicators suggest it should cost around 40,000 yen.
The PM-D1000 also supports miniSD cards and Memory Stick Duo with seperate adapters, as well as the Cell Phone with Camera Correction mode. It also has wireless (infrared and Bluetooth) support as an option. The size is 430 x 420 x 109mm (W x D x H), and the printer weighs roughly 8.3kg.
Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppa
Colorio me: Press Release:
http://www.epson.co.jp/osirase/2004/040316_1.htm
Colorio PM-D1000 Press Release:
http://www.epson.co.jp/osirase/2004/040316_3.htm
And this problem has been solved by USB. The days of finnicky parallel-port printers are long gone.
you have to remove the space
The unofficial
Damn right. I concur with the other poster. Get yourself a used small-business grade HP laserjet off ebay. Those mofos weight 50 pounds and are nearly indestructible.
Hmm... "good sense of style"... stay cool, iPod must be gay! :)
The first computer programmer was a woman. Look it up if you don't believe me.
What are YOU talking about, youngster?
load "windows7"
The article doesn't mention that Hopper was the first person to find a 'bug' - http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer _bug.htm
Also we ought to mention Ada Lovelace - Enchantress of Numbers, Founder of Scientific Computing, whoe helped Babbage with the Analytical Machine.
Actually, this printer makes a great deal of sense in a Japanese context. Its mission in life is to connect to mobile phones, which are overwhelmingly used by and marketed to young women in Japan. (Girl's mobile phone culture is very strange and heavily developed - google "gyarumoji").
Collecting photos of each other is a major social pastime for young Japanese women, there are a number of businesses specialized in this such as the print clubs. Increasingly, print shops are offering printouts from mobile phones. The Epson product seems designed as something that can be taken along on an outing to make prints immediately.
A lot of Japanese electronics for home use are designed to be stored when not in use - so portability, compactness, etc. are important. The concept of a dedicated home office or computer desk is relatively rare.
What Epson has done is design a product very specifically focused on the lifestyle of young keitai girls. These girls are usually *very* tech savvy. So the product is not necessarily "dumbed down", but with a feature set adapted to their needs.
The interesting survey question will be:
Q: Which of the following most strongly influenced your decision to purchase a Colorio me: E-100?
A. It was designed for women.
B. It was designed by women.
C. Price and/or total cost of ownership.
D. Brand name.
E. Other.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Which is probobly why it can print without a PC... This actually sound like an interesting design from a technical point of view, not just an face lift of an ordinary printer.
Okay, it was inevitable that people would make jokes about "pink printers" without following the links, but the translation site seems Slashdotted. I can read Japanese, so here's some of the actual features. There are 12 features listed, but I don't have time to do a full translation - Someone else can do that if they wish. Some of the most interesting features:
From this page:
1. Even when not connected to a PC, many digital devices can do easy 3WAY Direct Print.
(1) 5 types of memory card slot. Simply put the memoory card in the slot, and use the buttons for easy control of speedy printing. Memory card types: SD, miniSD*, MMC, CF, Micro Drive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Pro Duo*, Memory Stick Duo*, Magic Gate Memory Stick, Smart Media, xD-Picture card
* - requires adapters.
(2)USB Direct-Print. Using PictBridge, directly connect digital cameras with USB cable and print. You can view the pictures on the camera's LCD display while choosing pictures to print. Because it uses PictBridge, the choice of digital cameras is greater.
(3)Optional Infra-Red card, Bluetooth(R) units allow direct wireless printout from digital cameras, camera phones, and PDAs. Choose size and settings on the printer, and transmit data to it. With Bluetooth(R), you can transmit from 10m away. Take a picture away from the printer, start printing, and it will already have started when you get to it.
...
4. Connect to TV with video cable, allowing you to preview photos to print or change settings onscreen. Can show memory card contents without a PC, and do a slideshow of photos.
...
7. USB interface for external perhipherals to connect, for example, MO or CD-R drives. You can print the contents of MO and CD-R drives, as well as move photos from memory card to MO, CD-R drives. Safe backup of your media.
This actually sound like a cool printer, I don't think it's particularly feminine, but shows great industrial design. It's too bad Slashdotters are dissing it, it reminds me of the initial reception of the iPod...
Not with women that don't have a sense of humor about themselves or anything else....
"A sense of humor" and "offended by ridiculous stereotypes" are not mutually exclusive.
However, "male chauvinist" and "getting the point" seem to be, in your case...
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
Ha ha, yeah. According to the advertising industry, men are completely unable to choose their own cough syrup. That always cracks me up. Perhaps it's just that my secret feminine over-the-counter-medication-fu allows me to choose wisely when ill.
But I feel obliged to politely point out that we're still earning (on average) only 92 cents on the dollar compared to men. And the gender-based salary discrepancy is even higher in high tech fields. And if anyone says women don't earn as much as men in high-tech fields because we're not as good, I will personally punch them in the face.
As far as I'm concerned, registering for the draft would only be fair... as long as you're all sure you WANT us in the military. A lot of guys are still pretty pissed about that, you know.
Anonymous Coward wrote: Women don't go as much for 90-hour internships in Emergency Medicine and Surgery, where you lose patients on a daily basis. They go more toward Pediatrics, a 'safe' field that rewards them with seeing a child grow to adulthood.
Wrong. When my sister was in med school, she seriously considered emergency medicine because she wanted to have a family and being a specialist in emergency medicine means never being on call. Many women become emergency medicine doctors for just that reason. Pediatrics, with its midnight phone calls from panicked parents, can play holy heck with your own family life.
In case you are interested, my sister wound up becoming a surgeon because she is very, very good at it. She had to put off child-bearing in order to complete her residency training, a price that male surgeons do not have to pay, and since male fertility extends until much later in life, would be less of a cost anyway. Fortunately, she thinks it was worth it.
As for the part about women not working as many hours, maybe it's because when they get home they have to do most of the housework and child-tending. They are probably too tired to do any more work at their jobs than they already are! (My sister, incidentally, works longer hours than her husband and still does the bulk of the household chores.)