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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.
Does it still say PC Load Letter?
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
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
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.
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.
It doesn't support a bajillion options you're not used to seeing because it's designed for women, it sports a bajillion options you're not used to seeing because it's designed for Japanese domestic consumption. As far as I can tell, Inspector Gadget would stick out on a Tokyo city street mostly because his shoe-phone didn't have a color camera in it and play more games than a GameBoy Advance.
Coming soon to Slashdot: meta-meta-moderation!
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
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();
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!
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
Oh well, back to cryo-sleep until it all comes together. ;)
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
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.
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.