Archived Post

Huge thanks to our patrons

Well, look at that. It’s August 4th, which means Apple World Today has existed for exactly six months! We literally would not be here without you, our Patreon backers. Nor would we produce the news items, features and videos that you enjoy reading. 

Additionally, this month we were able to add Dennis Sellers to our staff, which we’re thrilled about. 

We’ve got more on tap for this month and I’m finalizing the calendar for September and back-to-school. You all have our gratitude and commitment to timely, quality work. Without further ado, huge thanks goes out to:

  • Erin Murphy
  • Simon H
  • Michael Duffy
  • Garry Winer
  • Ken Snider
  • Alan Koenigsberg
  • Marius Stedjan
  • Gregory Locke
  • Charles Akimoto
  • Albert Chu
  • Kris Markel
  • Ben Roethig
  • Adam Byram
  • Susan Stevens
  • Paul Gans
  • Michael Antignano
  • Doc Rock
  • Bill Wolf
  • Niels
  • Brian Alvey
  • Michael Hannemann
  • Stephanie Harrigan
  • Steve Sande
  • Bob Farrell
  • Beth Dunn
  • Laurie
  • Damien LeVeck
  • Alex Nachlas
  • Wayne Martin
  • Julius Mapalad
  • John Coyne
  • Craig Miller
  • Don Newmeyer
  • Patrick Adamo
  • Jesse Armstrong
  • Jon Shupe
  • Anthony Hosking
  • Tim Optenhoefel
  • Hilmar Pfister
  • Nicholas Wilkinson
  • Niall Blair
  • Jack McCullough
  • Michael Pariseau
  • Chris Duzynski
  • Tom
  • Joey Natividad
  • Tom Guinall
  • Karin Lord
  • Frank Fountain
  • Calendee LLC
  • Damon Uyeda
  • Michael Dunphy
  • Carol Caolo
  • Adrian
  • Ben Vaughan
  • Richard Morse
  • Mark
  • Andrea Suhaka
  • Dragos
  • Cyril Rickelton-Abdi
  • Steve Nicholson
  • Dan Mosqueda
  • Don Carlson
  • Patrice Brend’amour
  • Jurij
  • Rosemary Arce
  • John Goodwin
  • Scottie Wylie
  • Mirko Bautz
  • Mike Benert
  • Brad
  • Thomas Ingham
  • Stephen
  • Lee Marcus
  • Randy Murray
  • John Prichard
  • Darren Moser
  • J. R. Whitson
  • Geordie Korper
  • Estranged42
  • John Parkinson
  • Ajesh Bhargava
  • Derek Scott
  • Niels Joncheere
  • Jack Frysinger
  • Brian Erdelyi
  • Ian Mead
  • Frank Ferguson
  • Hal Sherman
  • Josh Suhr
  • Toby
  • Bob Ondrizek
  • Raghu Sugavanam
  • Steve Geniec
  • Richard Smith
  • John Ribaudo
  • Jerome Salesin
  • Mark Ross
  • Tim Liu
  • Peter
  • David Levy
  • John Reynolds
  • Eugene Bouley
  • Daren Wang
  • Douglas Fields
  • Lars Andrè Holtehagen
  • Lucas Bowers
  • Melissa Caolo
  • Adam Christianson
  • Michael Rose
  • Peter Skinner
  • Julie Kuehl
  • Mario Ciabarra
  • Brian Burkhardt
  • Ian Bradbury
  • Mike Barnes
  • Ken Magnuson
  • Samuel Herschbein
  • Brandt Ranj
  • Bob Peterson
  • Bert Jackson
  • Benjamin Hagan
  • Richard Taylor
  • Shelley Sperry
  • David
  • Ric Wilson
  • Harry
  • Brett
  • Gedeon Maheux
  • Henry J Yeackle III
  • Alex Cohn
  • Clarence
  • Dean Baird
  • Pat lyons
  • Mikel Potts
  • Paul Taylor
  • Chris Kelly
  • William Hamlin
  • William Lisowski
  • Mark Alexander
  • Paul Lagasse
  • Bart Carter
  • Cato Gaustad
  • Bill Groll
  • Henning & Holger
  • Christopher Martin
  • Paul Weir
  • Alexander Kühne
  • Lisa Shiroma
  • Matthias Eckardt
  • Eric Celeste
  • Richard Lenon
  • Therese Schwartz
  • Tim Marlow
  • Mike Knippers
  • Tom
  • Dale Gattis
  • Colby Ray
  • Gregory Seidman
  • Kyle Cronin
  • Grawlix Comix
  • Alison Bransfield
  • C.K. Sample III
  • Colman Reilly
  • Brandon Harris
  • Joel Hirsch
  • Sean Conley
  • Brendan
  • Joey Sartin
  • Phillip Turner
  • Randy Reitz
  • Rob Staenke
  • James E Updegraff
  • Bruce Hoffman
  • Marc Lattoni
  • Adam Johnson
  • Matteo Risoldi
  • Rick Smith
  • Jestyn
  • Jack Land
  • Dave Wilson
  • Stephen Alison
  • Smythe Richbourg
  • Nicole Sandblom
  • Hans Johansson
  • Colin Reid
  • Nancy
  • Robert
  • Paul Cancellieri
  • Eric Traband
  • Stan Seiber

 

A lot of Apple news for our listeners and readers today:

  • Apple Watch helps a Virginia man get needed heart surgery and get out of the hospital fast
  • Get yourself to your local Pei Wei restaurant, as they’ve just started accepting Apple Pay. Booyah!
  • Don’t be surprised if you walk into a Target store soon and have your iPhone start notifying you about deals
  • After a ten-year absence, Chronos StickyBrain for Mac is back

Don’t listen to podcasts? Read this one below…

Almost everyone who owns an inkjet printer has run into this scenario; you’re trying to get something important printed, and the printer tells you that a cartridge is out of ink. It happens frequently, and usually at the most inopportune time. Printer manufacturer Epson has taken a bold step with a new line of five new EcoTank inkjet printers that get rid of the pesky cartridges, replacing them with high volume ink tanks that are designed to keep your printer happy for two or more years of usage.

The printers come with bottles of ink in cyan, magenta, yellow and black, or in the case of the high-end WorkForce Pro WF-R4640, ink packs in the same colors. Squeeze the ink into the appropriate tanks or just slap the packs into the WorkForce pro, and you shouldn’t see that dreaded “replace ink cartridge” message for two years or more.

In the past, inkjet printer manufacturers have practically given printers away, with impressively-outfitted all-in-one printers bearing street prices of about $100. Those manufacturers expect users to pay them back by purchasing many expensive replacement cartridges over the life of the printer. For that reason, many users purchase remanufactured or off-brand cartridges that are less expensive, but may not work as well or even void a printer warranty. Epson realizes that they’re not going to be making money off of the ink refills with the EcoTank printers, so the off-the-shelf price of the printers commands a premium. The least expensive printer in the new line — the Expression ET-2500 EcoTank All-In-One Printer — goes for about $380.

Wilson Rothman at the Wall Street Journal calculated that a typical household could print out 35 black-and-white and 60 color pages every week for two years before the tanks of the ET-2500 would need refilling. Epson sells the full refill pack — all four colors — for $52. Over the same period of time using Epson’s less expensive high-capacity XL cartridges in an existing printer, you’d spend more than 10 times as much.

Epson can easily switch away from cartridges as its printer use mechanical piezoelectric printheads rather than the thermal ones you see on cartridges from HP and other printer manufacturers. The move is also quite a bit more green, as users will simply need to recycle four small bottles every two years instead of printer cartridges every few months.

The new printers are perfect for Apple users, as all but the low-end ET-2500 support AirPrint printing. The ET-2500 requires the use of the free Epson iPrint app.

Would you spend more money up front for a printer that would go for two years or more of steady use without running out of ink? Let’s see your comments below.

Steve Sande
the authorSteve Sande
Steve is the founder and former publisher of Apple World Today and has authored a number of books about Apple products. He's an avid photographer, an FAA-licensed drone pilot, and a really bad guitarist. Steve and his wife Barb love to travel everywhere!