French investigate Epson for
‘deliberately reducing printer life’
Prosecutors in France are
investigating whether Epson
deliberately reduces the
lifespan of printers and
cartridges to force customers
to buy replacements.
The Japanese company is
the first to be investigated
under a French law that
makes it a criminal offence
to shorten a product’s life
in order “to increase the rate
of replacement”.
France is thought to be
the only country with such a
law, though the European
Commission is considering
similar legislation across
the EU.
The lawsuit has been
brought by French campaign
group Halte à l’Obsolescence
Programmée (The Stop the
Obsolescence Program). It
claims Epson’s ink cartridges
are programmed to stop
working when there is still 20
per cent of the ink left.
Laetitia Vasseur, the
association’s founder, said
Alexa, are you on PCs? ‘Soon, yes!’
You’ll soon be able to use
Amazon’s popular Alexa
‘voice assistant’ on Windows
10 computers after Acer, Asus,
HP and Lenovo all said they
plan to build it into machines
released later this year.
This would let you perform
WAKE UP TO
ALEXA
Amazon has launched a
new Echo device designed
to replace your traditional
alarm clock. As well as
waking you up, the Echo
Spot lets you make audio
and video calls. It’s on sale
now priced £119.99 (www.
snipca.com/26786).
French consumers have been
“scandalised by the short
lifespan of printers and
ink cartridges”.
The group also slams
Epson for the price of its
printer cartridges, saying:
“2,062 Euros per litre of ink.
That’s twice as much as
Chanel No. 5 perfume”.
In addition it has accused
Brother, Canon and HP of
planned obsolescence,
though only Epson is
being investigated.
If found guilty, Epson faces a
€300,000 fine that can be
increased to five per cent
of the company’s average
turnover from the past three
years, while executives from
the company could be jailed
for two years.
Consumers have long
suspected companies of using
planned obsolescence. In
some tasks on yourur
computer with
your voice withoutt
having to use
Microsoft’s
Cortana.
Alexa is currently
ly
available in
Amazon’s Echo
range of smart
speakers, which
respond to your voicee
commands to play
music and control your
heating, and give information
such as weather forecasts,
traffic updates and news
headlines. These devices were
one of the big sellers in the
UK at Christmas.
Asus said it will add Alexa
to new models in its range of
particular, they’ve accused
printer manufacturers of
setting an artificial lifespan
for printer cartridges.
But some experts say
there’s no evidence that
planned obsolescence exists.
A 2013 study by the University
of Bonn in Germany on a
dozen electrical appliances –
including TVs, kettles and
vacuum cleaners – found
no proof of “deliberate
vulnerability”.
• Own-brand or third-party:
which printer ink is right
for you? Turn to page 60
Vi
VivoBook and
Ze
ZenBook laptops (the
UX
UX410UA in the latter
is our new favourite
la
laptop – see page 30).
Ac
Acer plans to add it to
Sp
Spin, Swift, Switch
an
and Aspire models,
wh
while Lenovo will
bu
build it into ThinkPad
an
and Yoga laptops.
HP is bringing Alexa to
it
its Pavilion
Pavili Wave PC, which
resembles one of Amazon’s
Echo speakers (pictured).
Not all Alexa features will
be available immediately
– some will require a software
update. As well as speaking
responses to you, some of
Alexa’s answers will be
shown on screen.
IN BRIEF
SKYPE GETS TOTAL
ENCRYPTION
Microsoft is testing
end-to-end encryption
(E2EE) in the beta version of
Skype. It has teamed up with
encryption-messaging app
Signal to launch the Private
Conversations feature. This
form of encryption, already
used by WhatsApp, can’t be
intercepted by third parties,
such as hackers or security
services. For now Skype will
encrypt only text, files and
audio messages, not video
or audio calls. Read more on
Signal’s blog: www.snipca.
com/26738.
APPLE LETS YOU KEEP
OLD IPHONES FAST
Apple will soon release
an update letting you turn
off the feature in iOS that
deliberately makes older
iPhones slower to stop their
batteries suddenly shutting
down. The company admitted
in December that it slows
old iPhones, but claims it’s to
improve user experience so
phones don’t unexpectedly
freeze or reboot. Apple boss
Tim Cook said he doesn’t
recommend users turn off
the feature.
Tomorrow’s
world
This diagram
shows how
Microsoft
hopes we’ll
all one day
be using computers.
It’s a US patent for a
headband measuring brain
activity through electrodes
on the scalp, letting the user
control programs and devices
with their thoughts. Microsoft
reading our mind: what could
possibly go wrong?
31 January – 13 February 2018 7
Copyright of Computer Act!ve is the property of Dennis Publishing Ltd. and its content may
not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.