HP has confirmed that new firmware that was considered a bug by some, making HP printers incompatible with third-party ink cartridges, was not a bug but an intentional update and there was not going to be another one that would resolve the problem. The company said that the initial update was conceived last year and was pre-programmed in some of the printers and part of a firmware update in others.It’s doubtful what goal this move will achieve, given that the printer market is already oversaturated and HP’s own printer business has been in decline recently. As HP cartridges are very expensive, it’s rather more likely that users will switch printers instead of splashing on original cartridges.
>pan>w Roman\';font-size:12.0000pt;" >Materials are getting more and better, too, allowing businesses to create objects that were earlier unthinkable, up to and including large items such as aircraft wings. Speaking of objects, this year 3D printing has advanced enough to allow for the creation of so-called consolidated parts: complex objects that in traditional manufacturing would be an accumulation of a number of separate parts assembled together.
Of course, app makers are not sitting idly by. We’re in for an influx of 3D printing apps, including virtual inventories based in the cloud and designer apps where you only need to feed in your requirements and the app will do the design.
