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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.
Careful, guys!
It'll work well for the first few months then get tempermental. You'll be getting ready for work when a sheet of paper prints out saying "You're not wearing that are you?"
It'll start being non-responsive for a few consecutive days per month and have the odd spill of red ink on your important work. Then it'll start to cost you loads of cash in consumables.
You'll come home to printouts in the tray saying "You never take me to Best Buy anymore..." Finally, after a hard day at work, you'll get back to your abode only to find a Post-It note on the refrigerator saying "Moved out with the iPod, he understands me."
No siree.. give me a He-Man HP LaserJet anyday.
Trolling is a art,
The studies showed dissatisfaction with the way that electronics were marketed towards men. Women said that they were treated differently, and in many cases, were assumed to be stupid or unknowledgable, compared to men. Brenda Myers, quoted in the CNN article that the slashdot link in the parent links to, said, "Every time you go these places [national electronics retail stores], they think women don't know anything, and they don't you the same features as they would when my husbands goes with me."
Creating a printer that will be marketed under the theme "printer easy for women to use" is not going to mollify complaints like Myers, instead, it seems to reinforce her argument that electronics retailers and manufacturers think women are stupid. Saying that this printer is easy for women to use is really just saying is that women aren't capable of using all the other printers.
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?
Does it still say PC Load Letter?
...are we going to get the MAN'S printer??? Sexist bastards!
...how is operating a piece of computer hardware ever gender-specific?
Smells like somewhat of a double standard to me.
Informatus Technologicus
And it connects to the computer with a DB25 female instead of a DB25 male, right?
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
This thing sucks... Every 28 days it locks up and I cant use it for like a week.
Couldn't help but note that that old dying technology Bluetooth is an option. ;-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This is just a Scam to sell cartridges. Who needs "black, red, yellow and blue" when you can have "puce, rose, lavender and turquoise"?
Scented inks, anybody?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
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
I called it a 'fucking bitch' more times than I can count.
If the printer is being used by a male (via the BO sensor), first thing it will ask is "Does the letter look fat in font size 14?".
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
The main difference is its been designed to handle 2 inch Lee Press-Ons nails.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
The "Colorio me:" is an inkjet printer designed by Epson's "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.
IANAW but I really don't see a need to make this thing look a) like a kitchen appliance b) have a handle and c) support tons more stuff than 99% of people use.
Adding a handle is not going to make ANYONE more likely to carry it around nevermind ladies (the only people that get to carry computer equipment are men -- at least in my experience)
Having 1000 options for importing data is also confusing. KISS.
That's my opinion.
It's pretty obvious this is going to sell pretty well to women, it's just the handle strikes me as useless.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
A printer that looks like a portable radio? How on earth is that revolutionary? *rolling eyes*
And I can't imagine my mom being able to use that any better than she can use a normal printer. It doesn't matter what it LOOKS like...there's still the matter of actually figuring out how to hook the darn thing up, and THAT is what she has problems with.
"I came here to chew bubble gum & kick ass...and I'm all out of bubble gum"
How about one designed for men? The Epson I have seems to have been designed to be used by a robot.
I mean a real man's printer would weigh about 100 pounds, have a titanium shell, be able to hold 1,000 sheets of paper at a time. The cables that come with it would be an inch thick with massive connectors on each end that make satisfying "clunk" sounds when plugged in and lock into place. Every component would be made of steel: form feed would be achieved by pulling some burnished lever requiring manly strength that would mechanically push the paper through. And paper jams? There'd be no paper jams, if the paper wasn't in the right place the printer would crush it into oblivion.
Oh and the GIMP-Print people would already have a driver for it ready to go when I bring it home.
John.
What exactly is "easier for women to use"?
You put paper in one end, and it comes out the other end with words and pictures on it. Maybe japanese women are exceptionally stupid, I dont know. Does it come preloaded with paper and ink, and you throw it out rather than having to figure out how to put paper in?
Besides crafting it in pink plastic, or some other aesthetic nonsense, whats different?
The "designed for women!" thing is a great marketting gimmick. I mean, how many households buy two packs of razors, one for him, one for her. The only difference being that hers are pink.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Now to make a car that women can drive, and we are all set...
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
installing it on a high shelf.
I would shell out some serious bucks for a printer that had a super-easy-to-clean paper path, that was liquid resistant (ever try to get orange juice or peanut butter out of a laser printer?!!) with liquid resistant ink.
Hrm... also maybe retractable cords, bluetooth to the computer, anything else that can keep kids from getting tangled in the wire jungle at the back of a PC.
Any generalization is a stupid one.
I ought to have a whole herd o' them thangs purty soon!
See what I've been reading.
We know women don't make good drivers.
You don't make equal by making different. This sort of thing does not benefit women any more than apartheid benefits ethnic minorities.
Now here's a suggestion: why not make it easy for everyone to use? Or is that just too logical?
K
It comes in Ferrari red with black rubber grips, and a black leather "sports" dust cover. The feed trays are made of diamond pattern steel plate.
It has curves like a lotus, and when it prints, a speaker simulates the sound of someone revving a Harley Davidson. Spoiler, drilled aluminum function keys, and a portable base with 110-spoke alloy rimmed casters are available as a special option package.
The top of the printer also has special recesses for holding a beer and a remote control.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
All these things are also separately marketed toward men. Sure, the boxes are different, and the ads are different, but they're basically the same product. At some point a long time ago, someone figured out that gender-neutral products didn't do as well as ones that skewed toward male or female, and everyone else followed suit.
So please only find the "printer for women" insulting if you find the notion of women's shampoo, socks, towels, cars, hair dye, and paper towels insulting.
-- Fratz, human
Printers aren't very personal objects. If I had gender issues with any of my electronics, I'd be more concerned about my phone, mp3 player, keyboard, mouse, monitor and computer in that order.
In soviet russia stale jokes recycle you!
Two years later:
Well honey, it's been fun, but I just saw a smaller, younger, faster, sexier model I just have to have. Don't worry though, I know a guy who's really desperate and I told him I would let him have you.
No, the female printer analogy is much more accurate. Cheap to begin with and always going for the Lock-in.
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.'
What makes it "easy for women to use" as opposed to any other printer?
I swear.... with all the "women's rights" stuff, and women bantering on about how they want to be treated as equals, then why do we have "Lifetime, t.v. for women(tm)", or "Special K, A Cereal Designed For Women's Nutritional Needs", you know, "Strong enough for a man, made for a woman"
And finally the one that made me literally fall out of my chair when i heard it:
"Rogaine for women. Because women should not have to suffer from a man's problem."
Don't get me wrong, i mean... i dig chicks, but I guess i just don't understand why women have to simultaneously prove that they're both equal and special. They're like that with a lot of other things too. I cannot rationalize that, but they refuse to see anything wrong with a lot of their logic.
But what do i know? I'm just an insensitive male clod!!
do() || do_not();
Printer pr0n.
...design a printer with a single 6 color cartridge. It's bad enough my printer has 3 colors in one cartridge. Nothing like sucking money from the weak of mind.
--- "1.21 Jigawatts!" -Doc
Sooo... is the hood welded shut? ;)
HitScan
female printer? i'd never buy one of those. I have a hard enough time keeping my blasted slave drives.
One week a month the thing prints out only in red. Total mess.
...are we going to get the MAN'S printer??? Sexist bastards!
OK, way too much time spent on unix today. My immediate thought was "There is no manual entry for 'printer'".
However it does lead on to another thought - how to finally move Linux on to the average home desktop. Clearly it too needs to be more female-friendly. And I know just the way to do it...
To go with the man command, there needs to be a woman command. It should pull the man entry, then pull google's "I'm feeling lucky" entries to replace every word in it. The end result is something that doesn't really tell you anything useful, takes way longer to get to the point than man would do, but gives the user a reassuring feeling that they've really shared with the command.
Given all the creative types on slashdot, I'm sure we could have a script working within the afternoon, in all the main distributions by the end of the week and Microsoft finally bannished within the month.
They are clearly labeled whether they are Female or Male on each end. Does it get more gender specific than that?
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
I don't think I have to mention how mental the Japanese are over cameras. Well, most (female) Japanese also like the photobooths that give you little stickers with your photo on them. I think this printer is designed for the average japanese schoolgirl who wants to take pictures with her friends and then print them out immediately, hence the handle to carry it with you. It doesn't even look like it prints on regular 8.5x11 paper, just 35mm print size photo paper. Add in the fact that it can print from a camera phone and you've got a device that would be a hit with ganguro girls everywhere.
:)
BTW, check out the pic of the girls of team 8, HOT!
God is real unless declared integer.
So I've been told...
Q: "What's the penalty for bigamy?"
A: "Having two wives."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and with such a stunning deluge of churlish "humour" about women it has suddenly become apparent to me why computer programmers can never get dates!
2 1337 4 u!
I can remember target marketing directly at women as far back as the 70s. Lionel released it's "Lady Lionel" which had simpiler instructions, all pink and blue cars, and is now a very valuable collectors item. However, at the time, the Lady Lionel compeletely flopped and it did more harm them good to the Lionel train company.
This signature was left intentionally blank.
Printer for woman features
Known problems:
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
WHAT THE FUCK are you talking about, you young whelp?!!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
...That we now have mice with no balls. Printers are tempermental enough, damn it! ;)
But if you do aim at the ground and miss, you just learned how to fly. Or, I guess the dart did. Whatever.
that all people lack technical proficiency. This allows me to be pleasantly surprised, rather than disappointed, when I find out that the support technician on the other end actually knows how to turn his/her _own_ computer on, and that no, it really isn't a drink holder.:-P
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
This gender specific stuff is idiotic. Printers for women only? What are they going to do?
Print on politically correct 6 by 8 inches paper?
Each printout will have a pink boundary?
It will be tuned to your biological clock and avoid printing in red for a few days?
Photos containing photos of violence, guns etc will be left out like that currency thing?
This printer can fit in your handbag you purchased for 1200 from prada?
If you're ugly, will it make you look good?
Epson's next going to come out with wood color printers that look like ammo boxes for the guys?
I mean wtf is this?
I'm sure this does happen, but I don't think it's a reflection of women having inherently less technical ability than men. I would see it more that women are less likely to feel embarrassed about asking questions, whereas a man might research his purchase beforehand just to avoid looking clueless in the store.
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.
Some of the features everyone seems off about strike me as kind of useful.
To start with, the handle. I could actually see a lot of use for this myself - I am not printing often, and it would be nice to make the printer easier to tuck out of the way. Also, I have a laptop and it would be nice to sit out on the porch with a printer at times. The actual device looks about twice as big as I would like for such use though (if that's an 8x11 sheet of paper in the press photo).
The second thing I kind of like is the video. It's nice to have a last minute visual confirmation of exactly what the printer is about to do. I didn't read the whole thing but it would be even better if it auto-detected paper sizes loaded to provide a helpful warning it was going to crop.
The single ink cartridge is still a bad idea though, even though it's simpler... I don't know. I think more people would have a problem with the cost than figuring out which ink cart needs to go I know, you could hit a button and it would print out a slip telling you exactly what ink carts to buy so you could take it to a store and hand it to a clerk. That would be useful anyway, as even with one cart it can be tricky knowing which thing to buy when you get to the store. I always forgot which exact model of Epson Stylus Photo I had (was it the 700 or 750?) which was kin dof annoying, and I was trying to be careful.
I do agree though that the idea of a "Womens Printer" is pretty stupid, just make a printer that's easier for everyone to use and you will have a lot of happy customers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Oh well, back to cryo-sleep until it all comes together. ;)
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
When I'm in the mood to print something, its print mechanism aches.
When it is in the mood, it takes forever to get warmed up. When it doesn't successfully print something, it's my fault no matter how long I spend trying to get it to print. Occasionally, it tries to fake printing.
Watch out for a paper jam! That takes months to work its way out....
-fragbait
To take it to Best Buy, you insensitive clod! Didn't you read the parent post?!
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.
This thing is about marketing, period.
We have all grown up in a society where products are gender-coded from a very young age.
Just think about children's toys with a "boy" model and the "girl" model are exactly the same, except one is pink and the other is red or blue.
Or Gameboy vs Gamegirl.
Seems to me that this a is just a variation on that.
Why does a printer need a carrying handle? How often do you move a printer?
Believe me, make it easy to move, and women will move it. Functionality? Bah! There will come a day--and only females know which day that will be--when it has simply been in the same spot too long and must be moved immediately. Look at furniture, for instance. I don't know what great, catastrophic, disaster we are being saved from, but for some reason when a woman has the revelation that "the day" has come, it's an emergency. And it is. Because if you don't help her realize the destiny of every piece of furniture in the house--and I don't care if she wants you to move the dining table so the kids have to crawl under it to get to their seats--she's going to have a splitting headache that will last until you do.
We know how women view electronics..
Aparently Apple is releasing a new imac, specifically desinged for the ladies. Dont worry guys, there is one for us aswell. Here is the article
Why is it that when people hear "designed for/by women" they think "I will be a pussy if I use it", and immediately belittle and deride the object in question? Maybe the fairer sex can shed some new light on printers and cars, amongst other things. Women tend to look at things from a different angle. They are more practical than most men. I am a practical person, as I am sure most geeks are. I would rather have a good printer designed by/for a woman than a P.O.S.
I hate sigs.
You want just the specs, nothing else and certainly no marketing aimed specifically at a you. That's pretty funny and self-centered because products sold that way ARE using marketing aimed at a technical sub-group. Those bullet-pointed spec sheets are written specifically for your market segment and what is more, they clearly work because you prefer them.
Does anyone else think it looks like a Cyberman from Dr Who.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
The real question: How many females-per-minute can this thing print out?
First off, I am a woman, and I don't really see any use for this printer as opposed to any other printer with the same features. It's definitely not much sleeker and doesn't seem to be easier to use from the description. I personally don't see a need for a "woman's" printer in the first place because most of the women I know - friends and coworkers - are techie enough to use a regular printer anyway. If some women want to buy it because it appeals to them, they're entitled.
/. may be dominated by male geeks, but there are few of us "geeky girls" out here reading the boards. A few of y'alls jokes made me chuckle, I'll admit, but the hostility of a few of you nerds makes me think you're a bunch of lonely, lonely boys. With such an attitude towards the opposite sex, I don't wonder why.
Second, I'm no Femi-Nazi but the woman-bashing on this story is ridiculous. Sure,