Fones, Computers and Other Technical Junk

[MN-Skeptic]

Apple to halt sales of some Apple Watches in US

Apple plans to stop selling some versions of the Apple Watch in the United States as soon as this week to get ahead of what could be one of the most momentous patent disputes in years.

The company confirmed to CNN it will no longer be selling its Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, starting Thursday on Apple.com and from retail locations after December 24.

The decision to take one of its most popular products off the shelf follows an ongoing dispute with medical maker Masimo over its blood oxygen feature. Apple has routinely marketed its smartwatch as a life-saving device, which has helped launch the Apple Watch into the stratosphere, making it the most popular watch sold around the world. But its skirmish with Masimo threatens to undermine that.

Apple said a review period is in progress with the International Trade Commission related to Apple Watch devices containing a blood oxygen feature.

“While the review period will not end until December 25, Apple is preemptively taking steps to comply should the ruling stand,” the company said in a statement.

It added: “Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers.”

The company said, if the order stands it will “continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the U.S. as soon as possible.”

More at the link above.

[RTH10260]

cause I looked up the company.

It's About / profile https://www.masimo.com/company/masimo/about/

[northland10]

After 6 years, a cracked screen for 2 years (though mostly under the screen protector), and a piece of console tape on the edge covering the exposed part of the crack (cut myself once), I finally let my Samsung S9 retire. I might have done it earlier if I was working in the office and little hiccups would be more of an issue but who knows.

Until this Samsung S24+, I have only had 2 phones since 2014, both Samsung. I have phones longer than many folks have cars.

[RTH10260]

I also tend to stick to my hardware, long past what manufacturers planned for. I mostly had to upgrade cause certain apps is use, the ones with banking and security features, keep upgrading and drop support on old versions of Android. As I am not in the habit of carrying my phone with me in my apartment I now keep the "old metal" each in one room with a prepaid sim card for emergency use. Finally earlier this year I had to retire one of the oldest models cause the last wireless company dropped support for the 2G standard. That unit likely went back to 2010/2013. Newer models may end their life prematurely cause their batteries are no longer user replaceable.

[Rolodex]

So this is kinda weird.

I have had an Epson printer for probably 10+ years (maybe even 14). It's been fine; my home printing needs aren't onerous and it's done a pretty reliable job over the years. So the other day, there was a message on the screen that the printer ink pad was full and so it wouldn't do anything at all.

Did some research and it's the pad where extra ink goes from the ink jets when printing. Never even knew that was there. I also learned that it's not really something I can fix myself, tried to contact Epson (as advised) and have never heard back from them. I've not really been able to update drivers for awhile bc of the age of the machine, so no problem saying good bye old friend.

So, I went yesterday and bought a new printer. The old Epson all-in-one was probably $120 back in the day and 10+ years is probably way past how long it should last for a pretty cheap printer/scanner. Got the new one all set up and I'm good to go.

But this morning I was having coffee with a friend and she had to leave because they were delivering a new printer to her home. She also had an Epson and lo and behold she'd gotten the same message about the ink pad and her machine had shut down, too! What are the odds. (I'm pretty techy and no problem setting mine up and it took very little time - she's in need in the Geek Squad for a printer which makes me laugh; I could have done it if she asked but whatever).

I wonder if Epson just got tired of complaints or something and just shut down all their (wifi-enabled or registered) printers.

[poplove]

So this is kinda weird.

I have had an Epson printer for probably 10+ years (maybe even 14). It's been fine; my home printing needs aren't onerous and it's done a pretty reliable job over the years. So the other day, there was a message on the screen that the printer ink pad was full and so it wouldn't do anything at all.

Did some research and it's the pad where extra ink goes from the ink jets when printing. Never even knew that was there. I also learned that it's not really something I can fix myself, tried to contact Epson (as advised) and have never heard back from them. I've not really been able to update drivers for awhile bc of the age of the machine, so no problem saying good bye old friend.

So, I went yesterday and bought a new printer. The old Epson all-in-one was probably $120 back in the day and 10+ years is probably way past how long it should last for a pretty cheap printer/scanner. Got the new one all set up and I'm good to go.

But this morning I was having coffee with a friend and she had to leave because they were delivering a new printer to her home. She also had an Epson and lo and behold she'd gotten the same message about the ink pad and her machine had shut down, too! What are the odds. (I'm pretty techy and no problem setting mine up and it took very little time - she's in need in the Geek Squad for a printer which makes me laugh; I could have done it if she asked but whatever).

I wonder if Epson just got tired of complaints or something and just shut down all their (wifi-enabled or registered) printers.

A while back I had the same message on my Epson XP-830. Epson wanted me to send it to them and they would fix for $25. I found some software that would let you set the counter back (one time) about 20 percent so you could still get your stuff printed. Since I used to build and fix PCs, I decided to try to fix it myself and it worked beautifully. I found the part online for about $20 and a detailed video on how to do it. I did have to pay $8 for a reset code. I've had no issues since.

[Rolodex]

I did find the info about getting a code to set the counter back, but nothing about a part (maybe I didn't look hard enough). I wouldn't have trouble opening it up and replace a part (with the right instructions available) but the copy quality had been getting janky. So I didn't mind getting a new one and boy does it make nice documents. I haven't tried scanning yet so I hope it's not too bad to figure out. And the one I got wasn't really expensive; amortized over all the years of use my epson was cheap and hopefully this one will be, too.

[sugar magnolia]

We usually get about 6-8 years out of our printers and the usual reason for their death is a total and complete failure of one or more of the inkjets getting clogged. We buy Epsom exclusively for the simple fact that they use pigment inks rather than dye inks, and produce the absolute best prints on fabric. Dye inks just crock and wash out, so it has to be pigment. Good color saturation, good color match, and good adhesion with the fabric. I do a fair amount of vintage and antique quilt repair and restoration and I can get the best match of a scanned piece of fabric to replace a missing piece on the existing quilt. I'm working on one from the early 40s right now that has some 20-30s feed sack prints in it and is missing a few of the patches. The scans and prints I've made from the undamaged ones are so close to the original pieces you will never be able to tell the difference once they're in the quilt. The hardest part is sometimes finding a match for the base fabric, never the print itself.

I can't remember ever having an issue with any of our scanners, stand alone or on the printer.

[bill_g]

You run fabric through a standard ink jet printer? Never heard of such a thing. :spock_eyebrow:

[sugar magnolia]

You run fabric through a standard ink jet printer? Never heard of such a thing. :spock_eyebrow:

It has to be ironed to freezer paper, but yes, it goes through just like paper. You can also buy pre-backed pieces already cut but I am not a big fan of those.

[bill_g]

It has to be ironed to freezer paper, but yes, it goes through just like paper. You can also buy pre-backed pieces already cut but I am not a big fan of those.

Freezer paper has something that will cling to cloth when you iron the fabric? I wasn't aware of that either. Thanks!

[sugar magnolia]

It has to be ironed to freezer paper, but yes, it goes through just like paper. You can also buy pre-backed pieces already cut but I am not a big fan of those.

Freezer paper has something that will cling to cloth when you iron the fabric? I wasn't aware of that either. Thanks!

Yes, the shiny side is a polymer that can be ironed onto fabric or a piece of paper or whatever is flat and can take the heat of an iron. I don't recommend ironing it to paper though because it's practically impossible to get off. The Reynolds freezer paper (NOT wax paper or parchment paper) even has a little note on the corner of the box somewhere that says great for quilting (or maybe appliqueing) and it is! Parchment paper has the opposite use in quilting in that it is used to prevent things from sticking together when you iron it.

[bill_g]

It has to be ironed to freezer paper, but yes, it goes through just like paper. You can also buy pre-backed pieces already cut but I am not a big fan of those.

Freezer paper has something that will cling to cloth when you iron the fabric? I wasn't aware of that either. Thanks!

Yes, the shiny side is a polymer that can be ironed onto fabric or a piece of paper or whatever is flat and can take the heat of an iron. I don't recommend ironing it to paper though because it's practically impossible to get off. The Reynolds freezer paper (NOT wax paper or parchment paper) even has a little note on the corner of the box somewhere that says great for quilting (or maybe appliqueing) and it is! Parchment paper has the opposite use in quilting in that it is used to prevent things from sticking together when you iron it.

Thank you Sugar!

[Uninformed]

Quilting + refrigeration + computer technology = amazed

[Rolodex]

I had looked at getting another Epson, but ended up with an HP. So much depends on your personal printing needs. My old printer printed CD labels - right on the CD and I never used that feature. It had a second paper feeder for different sized paper and I never used that, either. A lot of the newer Epsons are also ink tank based. I don't think I print enough for that to be economical; it seemed to be good for those who print a lot. I also wanted to have 4 cartridges (3 colors and one black) rather than one all color cart - I run out of black way before I run out of colors and that was with a double-size black cart. My printing needs are basic; I printed one doc today and scanned several pages I needed to send to someone. That about my usual. Very cool that the Epson prints on cloth!

[sugar magnolia]

I had looked at getting another Epson, but ended up with an HP. So much depends on your personal printing needs. My old printer printed CD labels - right on the CD and I never used that feature. It had a second paper feeder for different sized paper and I never used that, either. A lot of the newer Epsons are also ink tank based. I don't think I print enough for that to be economical; it seemed to be good for those who print a lot. I also wanted to have 4 cartridges (3 colors and one black) rather than one all color cart - I run out of black way before I run out of colors and that was with a double-size black cart. My printing needs are basic; I printed one doc today and scanned several pages I needed to send to someone. That about my usual. Very cool that the Epson prints on cloth!

Any brand printer will print on fabric. Epson is just the only one that has the permanent pigment ink that doesn't wash out. I've used my reallllly old HP for some black-only printing too, but the black ink was the only pigment based one. The other colors in the HP were dye based inks.

[Rolodex]

I had looked at getting another Epson, but ended up with an HP. So much depends on your personal printing needs. My old printer printed CD labels - right on the CD and I never used that feature. It had a second paper feeder for different sized paper and I never used that, either. A lot of the newer Epsons are also ink tank based. I don't think I print enough for that to be economical; it seemed to be good for those who print a lot. I also wanted to have 4 cartridges (3 colors and one black) rather than one all color cart - I run out of black way before I run out of colors and that was with a double-size black cart. My printing needs are basic; I printed one doc today and scanned several pages I needed to send to someone. That about my usual. Very cool that the Epson prints on cloth!

Any brand printer will print on fabric. Epson is just the only one that has the permanent pigment ink that doesn't wash out. I've used my reallllly old HP for some black-only printing too, but the black ink was the only pigment based one. The other colors in the HP were dye based inks.

So interesting! I never knew that much about inks! I've only ever printed on paper, every once in a while on photo paper or a transparency (for an overhead projector! LOL) and a couple of iron on transfers. The most common beyond-typing-paper use for me would be special paper, like postcards or mailing labels.

[sugar magnolia]

Hope you're not just being polite by saying "interesting" instead of "boring." This shit has fascinated me since it first started showing up as a DIY option in the fiber groups. Other people had done most of the research on the details when it became popular and I just took what they learned and did a shit load of experimenting with it. I've done less and less as POD fabrics like Spoonflower have come down in price and up in quality over the last few years but it's still cheaper and better to print my own when I have a specific, very small, piece to get an exact match for when doing quilt repairs.

[Reddog]

Thanks Sugar, very interesting.

[Shizzle Popped]

We usually get about 6-8 years out of our printers and the usual reason for their death is a total and complete failure of one or more of the inkjets getting clogged. We buy Epsom exclusively for the simple fact that they use pigment inks rather than dye inks, and produce the absolute best prints on fabric. Dye inks just crock and wash out, so it has to be pigment. Good color saturation, good color match, and good adhesion with the fabric. I do a fair amount of vintage and antique quilt repair and restoration and I can get the best match of a scanned piece of fabric to replace a missing piece on the existing quilt. I'm working on one from the early 40s right now that has some 20-30s feed sack prints in it and is missing a few of the patches. The scans and prints I've made from the undamaged ones are so close to the original pieces you will never be able to tell the difference once they're in the quilt. The hardest part is sometimes finding a match for the base fabric, never the print itself.

I can't remember ever having an issue with any of our scanners, stand alone or on the printer.

This is one of the reasons we now have an Epson printer. Because my wife does all kinds of weird shit with our printers that even I didn't know could be done on a printer.

[sugar magnolia]

This is one of the reasons we now have an Epson printer. Because my wife does all kinds of weird shit with our printers that even I didn't know could be done on a printer.

"You have to be smarter than your machine."
I've said that to students about a bazillion times. Some get it, some don't, and some just manage to break their machine and take up knitting.