Hardware and devices taking control

[Harrison]

The other day Alexa informed me that my Brother printer was getting low on black ink and would I like to order some more. Strange. I have ordered ink for this printer from Amazon, but I hadn't done anything to setup any smart features between the printer and Alexa.

The Brother printer is a smart A3 printer which is networked and supports everything you can think of, but I'd only ever set it up for smartphone printing and computers on the network. But I checked in the Alexa app and sure enough a Brother skill was installed and it could report ink levels and alert Amazon that it was getting low, find replacement genuine ink and ask me if I wanted to order it.

As I never set this up I can only assume the printer and Alexa did it automatically. The printer regularly checks for firmware updates and updates itself, so that might have been a new feature/addition. But I never shared my Amazon login with the printer, so I guessing it was Alexa discovering new devices on my network and automatically adding them. But also setting up a skill for them is a new one on me.

I have noticed all of my smart devices are now listed in Alexa, whereas before is was only ever devices you manually added. It is far easier these days to add a device and they tend to just work these days. Sometimes in the early days on Alexa you had to fight it and the other device's setup to get them working. But I'm not sure I like the idea that it will now just auto add and setup everything it finds on the same network.

Whilst this is a very nice feature for Alexa to create a notification that the ink level is getting low, and I'm happy to leave it working, it does raise the question about automation assuming you want it setup. Until now devices have normally asked if you want a feature activated, or you have had to manually switch it on or install it. Just because a device has smart features built in, I might not always want to use them.

And there is the security aspect.

[Kin Hell]

Aye, and before you know it, ....Amazon will be automatically charging you for the ink to your registered card & despatching it by Drone.

Meantime, your home security system is looking out for your unauthorised Drone delivery from Amazon Inks & will deploy sentry turrets strategically located on your property boundaries to destroy the incoming delivery!

[Harrison]

It's the start of Skynet. Just in real life it's called Amazon and Tesla.

[Kin Hell]

Welcome to the Twighlight Z0ne!

[J T]

Meanwhile, at JT towers - I spent possibly an hour trying to get the cheap-ass Epson printer that Lady T bought to connect to our wifi, because apparently using the Epson app to send a print job from her phone was too inconvenient, and having to move the laptop 'near ish' was a pain.

I had to spend a lot of time dicking about holding buttons, turning off and on, pressing the stupid button on the stupid router. Eventually it worked but that was mainly due to my dogged persistence than any skill or nicely set up system.

This Alexa integration doesn't sound so bad to me - but - i do worry a bit about the future, if everything is all interconnected and reliant, if it goes down people will be kinda stuck.

[Harrison]

Indeed, and I have experiment that very issue. A lot of my house is now Alexa integrated with smart things. My lights, central heating, hot water, front door camera bell, hoise security camera, and even morning wakeup alarms, are all through Alexa. So when the Amazon Alexa servers went down last year I couldn't control anything all day.

Regarding printers. I know your pain. Epson are the worst to get working. Although my Samsung laser was a nighttime. My current Brother printer has been the easiest to date. Most of the time it just works.

[Stephen Coates]

I just got my inkjet printer set up for the first time in a few years. Remarkably easy with a USB cable, and the manufacturer's driver CD for Windows, and Turbo Print for Linux. I probably will need to buy some more ink at some point though as I intend to print photos. My printer is too old to order the ink itself though.

[Harrison]

Wired connections to printers are always easier then wifi. At least the computer or device can see its plugged in, which is half the battle won. The nightmare with many printers these days is getting thrm to see the wifi and then getting the device you are printing from to see the printer. So many times I've had to fight the software to find a print. Even to. The point when changing to a different printing app in my phone sees the printer and prints fine, but another app refuses to see it at all.

Ethernet is a good solution and always has been though.

[Stephen Coates]

My [early 1990s] LaserJet connects through Etherner to my switch and can be seen from anything connected to the network (either wired or wireless). My Canon inkjet is USB though.

[Harrison]

A lot of routers these days have a USB port and a built in print server, so you can get a usb printer shared on a network without having to share it from a computer. Can be very useful.

And yes, the big advantage of am ethernet connected printer is you can conect to it via Wifi, but without the issues of WiFi direct.

Both my Samsung Laser and the Brother also have NFC. Open an image or document on your smartphone. Just tap it on the NFC area on the printer and it prints it. Bit of a gimmick, but I've found it useful to quickly print a PDF for things like postage labels.