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Printer It's funny. Laugh.

Epson's Female Printer 697

Posted by michael from the tee-hee-tee-hee dept.
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.
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Epson's Female Printer More

Epson's Female Printer

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  • No damn way.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:17PM (#8581565) Homepage Journal

    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.

  • Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dartmouth05 ( 540493 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581568)
    This completely misses the point!

    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.

    • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Doesn't_Comment_Code ( 692510 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:28PM (#8581727)
      I agree. This isn't the first instance of such a campaign and it probably won't be the last time you see something like it. I've seen it take many forms from targetting women to minorities to old people. The whole thing is just rediculous.

      The only thing I want from a marketer are specs - not pictures of happy people using the product, not warm fuzzy slogans, and certainly not a message that their product was designed for me specifically... or for "the rest of us."

      Specs please. What does it do. What doesn't it do. How much does it cost. Thank you.

      • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by JonKatzIsAnIdiot ( 303978 ) <a4261_2000@ya h o o .com> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @04:09PM (#8582204)
        Specs please. What does it do. What doesn't it do. How much does it cost. Thank you.

        Ahhh, but that's the point. The perception is that women find tech specs cold, stark and heartless. Tech specs are "male", happy people and warm fuzzies are "female". I was going to say that it's all bullshit, but there is quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. Just look at how cosmetics and shampoo are marketed. Also look at how many women there are in "hardcore" tech positions - meaning network and system admins, programmers, etc. I've seen women start those positions, and I've seen them leave. How many programs and incentives have been instituted over the last twenty years to encourage more women to get into science and technology? When do they begin to work?

        I guess that's a roundabout way of saying that (generally) men and women think and process information differently, and that's OK. Each has strengths and weaknesses, perfectly set up for a kind of symbiotic interdependance. But you are right - a female printer is kind of ridiculous.

        • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Unknown Kadath ( 685094 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @05:32PM (#8583210)
          Also look at how many women there are in "hardcore" tech positions...

          I'm an aerospace engineer, and I do finite element analysis on jet engines for a living. It's not computers, but does it count for your purposes?

          One of the things I've had to face up to is that women really are less than one in twenty or so (wild guess based on observation) in my profession. Things like the printer for women, or the car for women with the hood welded shut that featured in a recent article, makes me want to simply scream in frustration.

          The issue I have with your point is that there's nothing about a woman's innate information processing capabilities that prevents her from looking at a list of features for two printers and picking the one that better meets her needs. The problem is learned helplessness. Being told not to worry her pretty little head, sometimes in so many words. It's rampant in sales and marketing of any kind--those horror stories you hear about women trying to buy cars or computers and being treated like 6 year-olds? They're all true. It's happened to me every time I've gone to make a big-ticket technical or mechanical purchase and it's positively disheartening. (The opposite problem exists in some men, who get talked into buying way more computer/car/grill/whatever than they actually need.)

          The political issue of women in science and technology (and the flip side of men in caregiving positions) is way offtopic, and not something I really feel like discussing, because it makes me all ranty.

          -Carolyn

          • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:4, Interesting)

            by instarx ( 615765 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @03:39AM (#8586960)
            Thank you for taking the time to explain things to these people who just assume that the issue is within the women, when it is really within their perception of women. Unfortunatly you have very little chance of changing their male 20-something minds because they are convinced that their view of the world is the only valid one.

            I would like to add that the stereotype of the non-technical woman is likely perpetuated by women themselves out of shear frustration. As I get older I find that sales people have started talking down to me because as an "old guy" (50) I must not know anything about computers (or HDTV or you name it). I usually just let them insult me because it isn't worth my time to smack them between the eyes. This assumption by sales people that I am a moron is a recent pheomenon with me so I can't even imagine what it must be like for women who have been talked down to for their entire lives.

      • 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

    • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RealityMogul ( 663835 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:40PM (#8581858)
      Those marketing types are completely sexist. I for one think that men and women consumers are equally stupid when it comes to technology and treat them accordingly. I'm an EOE (equal opportunity elitist) when it comes to these matters.

      If corporations want to market products to consumers in general, they should steal a 20 year old idea from Apple and make everything only have one button. But don't make it light-up when it's pressed or someone will think it's a night light and call tech support and complain their printer only works when its dark out.

    • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dutchmaan ( 442553 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:42PM (#8581887) Homepage
      I have to say that some women give other women a bad name. My mother wants to get a computer but thinks she is too stupid to buy one. Now my mother is in fact not stupid at all and I actually have to argue with her that she is smart enough to learn computing..

      When she walks into a store and says "I don't know what kind of RIM or ROM it needs" I can easily see how salespeople would develop an impression that women in general are not that bright when it comes to computers. In actuality, women IMHO don't mind not knowing something and asking to be informed where as a man wouldn't be caught dead not knowing what the hell he is talking about..

    • Re:Completely misses the point! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Grishnakh ( 216268 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @04:07PM (#8582183)
      One big thing I see everyone missing here is the part about women shopping at "[national electronics retail stores]". This is their first mistake right away. If you go buy a TV at one of these places, like Circuit City, Fry's, or worst of all, Best Buy, you're confronted with an annoying, know-it-all, moronic, pimply-faced 17-year-old kid who treats you like an idiot, no matter what sex you are. Of course, they probably treat women even worse since men are usually more assertive and less tolerant of 17-year-old kids. But the bottom line is that the salespeople these stores hire are not employed there because of their sales and customer service skills, or because of their technical knowledge. They're employed there because they're willing to work for minimum wage.

      So what makes anyone think these idiotic sales droids should be turned to for buying computer equipment, which is significantly more complex?

      If people (men or women) want to be treated better when they shop for stuff, they should stop shopping at stores that use minimum-wage employees for their front-line sales staff. Of course, this won't happen because Americans want everything as cheaply as possible, which is why the big-box stores do so well, and making products to cater to specific groups isn't going to change this situation at all.

    • Who still relies on salespeople for information about products?

      We have the internet for comparison shopping now. The only reason we still need the surly teens in the blue vests any more is to open up the cage where they keep the expensive things once we tell them what we want, and then carry it up to the checkout for us. And that's the same whether the buyer is male or female.
    • 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.

      While this doesn't address a great deal of the issues raised by the article (such as marketing and salesjerks), having a printer designed entirely by women does address some of the issues with women and electronics.

      My hands tend to be smaller. It can be more

  • Reminds me... (Score:5, Informative)

    by TwistedSpring ( 594284 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581569) Homepage
    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? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DarkFencer ( 260473 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581570)
    Does it still say PC Load Letter?

  • When... (Score:3, Funny)

    by gid13 ( 620803 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581571)
    ...are we going to get the MAN'S printer??? Sexist bastards!

    • Re:When... (Score:4, Funny)

      by keep_it_simple_stupi ( 562690 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:22PM (#8581640) Homepage
      Agreed. I believe that while the printer is warming up, it should sound like a Chevy Small Block running at around 5K RPM rather than a 747.

      If this were the case, I'd have the power saver function set to 3 seconds so that it'd have to warm up for every print job.
      :-D

    • Re:When... (Score:3, Funny)

      by freeze128 ( 544774 )
      We already have one. It's the HP Laserjet II.

    • woMAN (Score:3, Funny)

      by nick_davison ( 217681 )
      ...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 e

  • I need to ask... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HaloZero ( 610207 ) <[protodeka] [at] [gmail.com]> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581576) Homepage
    ...how is operating a piece of computer hardware ever gender-specific?

    Smells like somewhat of a double standard to me.

  • Connectors? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jaywalk ( 94910 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581577) Homepage
    And it connects to the computer with a DB25 female instead of a DB25 male, right?

  • Time of the month... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Enze6997 ( 741393 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:18PM (#8581582)
    This thing sucks... Every 28 days it locks up and I cant use it for like a week.

  • Strong enough for a man, but meant for a woman (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:19PM (#8581585) Homepage Journal
    Avoiding all the usual stereotypes, humor and marketing concepts, try as I might, I can't objectively think of a reason why a printer for a woman should be any different than a printer for a man. As far as I can see, it's just another printer design created by an independent group of designers. It all looks reasonable to me, assuming that handle can be removed from the Colorio me: E-100 (OK, it does look like it should have Louis Vuitton printed on it somewhere, but trying if it works better than what I've got I could care less who it was designed for.)

    Couldn't help but note that that old dying technology Bluetooth is an option. ;-)

    • Avoiding all the usual stereotypes, humor and marketing concepts, try as I might, I can't objectively think of a reason why a printer for a woman should be any different than a printer for a man.

      This is the one thing that worries me about this discussion. Sure none of us can come up with a good reason, and that translated article did say that the printer was supposed to be "easy" for a woman to use which suggests that it's just a dumbed-down printer. But I have to wonder, is it not possible that this re

  • Ink cartridges (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mateito ( 746185 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:19PM (#8581590) Homepage
    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?

  • /.ed (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:19PM (#8581592)
    Female printer from Epson [slashdot.org]
    Posted_on Mar 16, 2004 - 10:52 AM by zmcnulty
    [slashdot.org]

    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 [impress.co.jp], 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_toppag e/18067.html [impress.co.jp]

    Colorio me: Press Release:
    http://www.epson.co.jp/osirase/2004/040316_1.htm [epson.co.jp]

    Colorio PM-D1000 Press Release:
    http://www.epson.co.jp/osirase/2004/040316_3.htm [epson.co.jp]

  • My HP printer is female (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Crowhead ( 577505 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:20PM (#8581597)
    I called it a 'fucking bitch' more times than I can count.

  • The main difference (Score:3, Funny)

    by bigjnsa500 ( 575392 ) <[moc.oohay] [ta] [005asnjgib]> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:21PM (#8581617) Homepage Journal
    The main difference is its been designed to handle 2 inch Lee Press-Ons nails.

  • carry a printer? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:22PM (#8581628)
    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.

  • And one for men? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JohnGrahamCumming ( 684871 ) * <slashdot@ j g c . o rg> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:25PM (#8581689) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • 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.

      I've got a better solution for paper jams: a fireproof printer. When it detects that paper is stuck, it will send a jet of flame to consume the wayward sheet.

    • Re:And one for men? (Score:4, Funny)

      by diggitzz ( 615742 ) <diggitz AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @04:25PM (#8582420) Homepage
      Maybe that's a printer for beefy American manly-men, but...

      The men who need it to be less of a battlebot and more of a device would have it weigh next to nothing but be incredibly resistant to scratches, dents, or otherwise falling apart. In fact, the "correct" way to fix simple problems would actually be to bang/kick it a few times.

      It would have a compass, a barometer, a thermometer, an altimeter, and a scientific calculator, and it would glow different colors for different print status stuff (or at least just have lots of blinky lights).

      It would be voice activated, and possibly IR activated too, there would be like 50 buttons to push, some of them just for the sake of having buttons to push.

      It would have to be a combo-printer, with a phone, fax, scanner, copier, and hi-res camera, maybe it would sync with your Palm device, it would email/call/page/IM you when it's out of paper/ink/toner/fuel cells (or maybe it could just order the stuff itelf).

      There would be a built-in multimeter and toolkit that hide in some little compartment.

      It would be natively 64bit, have at least a 120GB hard drive, a huge print buffer, several types of card readers, I/O to ethernet (and an 802.11g card, of course), bluetooth, IR, video (sv, dvi, vga, and composite), quadraphonic audio, a few USB ports, firewire, and maybe a serial port for connecting extra "sensors".

      And to save cost, it wouldn't come with a manual (men don't read instructions) or warranty (you're going to void that by taking it apart anyway), but don't worry there would intentionally be lots of "extra pieces" for when you put it back together.

  • Me no speaky the japanee (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:25PM (#8581690) Journal
    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.

  • Excellent..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by frodo from middle ea ( 602941 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:25PM (#8581696) Homepage
    Now to make a car that women can drive, and we are all set...

  • It won't stop us sysadmins... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Boss, Pointy Haired ( 537010 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:26PM (#8581699)
    installing it on a high shelf [thesun.co.uk].

  • Designed by Mothers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ferralis ( 736358 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:26PM (#8581700) Homepage Journal
    I'd go for this if the equipment were designed by mothers, not just women in general. The reason is simple: I have kids, and kids get into things, even the computer room you've worked very hard to be sure they stay OUT of. Perhapse I should say especially the room you've worked very hard to be sure they stay out of.

    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.

    ...and I'm just a 30ish male geek. Imagine what a few moms could come up with! :)

    • Re:Designed by Mothers? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Frobnicator ( 565869 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:54PM (#8582018) Journal
      I'd say 'designed by parents', instead, since I'm in the same boat.

      For example, I need to mod my computers to put a locking plexiglass cover in front of it -- to keep the little one away from the power, reset, and CD buttons.

      The printer has ONE button, and when my 1-year-old discovered it, we had a pile of blank pages and "Printer Information" sheets on the floor.

      I keep a spray-bottle of water and paper towels next to the monitor, since it will be covered with fingerprints every time I use the machine.

      I would like an optical mouse that really isn't, so my kids can just pick it up and play with the lights, while I use the real one.

      On Windows 98, I wrote a screen-saver program that put in a giant font on the screen whatever keys are hit. There was a message on the bottom saying "please type 'unlock' to unlock this computer". My (currently 4-year-old) daughter used to sit down with it, and say "look dad, I'm typing like you." I now keep it on her little computer so her little sister won't mess it up too badly. Unfortunately, I can't get WinXP to trap several key sequences, so it doesn't work there.

      There is a market for that type of thing, and it isn't being tapped.

  • This is where little printers come from. (Score:5, Funny)

    by RealAlaskan ( 576404 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:28PM (#8581720) Homepage Journal
    Now that printers are reproducing sexually, I'll get a couple of female printers to go with my stallions, and start breeding them.

    I ought to have a whole herd o' them thangs purty soon!

  • Gonna be a tech support nightmare.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Boss, Pointy Haired ( 537010 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:28PM (#8581728)
    We know women don't make good drivers.

  • When are people going to learn... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LordK2002 ( 672528 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:30PM (#8581742)
    When are people going to learn that solving problems with attidudes towards women (for example in computer shops, car mechanics etc) are not going to be improved by having special "female" versions of things?

    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

  • You should see the one for men. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Phat_Tony ( 661117 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:30PM (#8581745)


    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.

  • look at it this way (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fratz ( 630746 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:35PM (#8581802)
    There are cars that are made for and marketed toward women. There's shampoo for women. There's hair dye for women. There are even paper towels that are aimed at women.

    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.

  • This is ghey... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by devphaeton ( 695736 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:39PM (#8581838)
    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!!

  • fap fap fap (Score:3, Funny)

    by legomad ( 596194 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:40PM (#8581859)
    Printer pr0n.

  • haha (Score:4, Funny)

    by doobman ( 6198 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:45PM (#8581913) Homepage
    female printer? i'd never buy one of those. I have a hard enough time keeping my blasted slave drives.

  • One Week a Month (Score:4, Funny)

    by Necromancyr ( 602950 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:48PM (#8581939)
    One week a month the thing prints out only in red. Total mess.

  • I think I understand (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nanite ( 220404 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:50PM (#8581968)
    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! :)

  • Oh the jokes (Score:3, Funny)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @03:58PM (#8582063) Journal

    Printer for woman features

    • No error display: If you don't know what is wrong it certainly is not going to tell you.
    • When you insert a small usb plug in the usb hole it will show a gentle message informing you that size doesn't matter. Then runoff with the parallel cable.
    • A constant reminder to upgrade your lease to a purchase.

    Known problems:

    • Once a month the inkt is known to leak.
    • It will complain that you never ask it to print anything intresting anymore.
    • It will demand the finest in inks then only consume a tiny portion of it claiming it is on a diet.

  • It's bad enough.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Flavius Stilicho ( 220508 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @04:04PM (#8582133)
    ...That we now have mice with no balls. Printers are tempermental enough, damn it! ;)

  • Some features seem kind of useful (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) * on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @04:38PM (#8582583)
    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.

  • mobile phone link is key... (Score:5, Informative)

    by gpvillamil ( 108572 ) <gian...pablo@@@villamil...org> on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @05:27PM (#8583130) Homepage
    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.

  • How could this have even happened? (Score:3, Funny)

    by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2004 @05:56PM (#8583505)
    We know how women view electronics [allfunpix.com]..

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