Do Hewlett-Packard Photo Printers Lie?

In all fairness, this is probably not such big deal. I edit photos on my computer all the time, but when I do so I know that I am doing it and I am not hiding it. If anyone asks, I am proud to say I edited the photos. No expert is every going to be fooled by my cropping, lightening or other basic techniques I do very little of.

Improving the product a little may not be such a bad thing, but it can have dramatic consequences. I bet those printers are used to print photos that go into jury rooms too -- think about that.

Technology like this can be very dangerous, as one aspiring politician found out a few years ago. He had a new noise canceling microphone. What a good product: he will be louder clearer and not have the background noise. Howard Dean's infamous yell became the subject of late night comedians in part because the sound clip was taken out of its noisy context.

Imagine a line-up of HP business printers that when you printed out your financial results, the printer would automatically improve your numbers for you? The likes of Enron, Countrywide, the Greek government and Bernard Madoff would have great use for them. They also could claim they gave customers what they wanted as well ...

Complete honesty is very important and should not be undervalued. Giving the customer what they want, even if it is a lie, is not always best. If we are using a product we should know if it is automatically improving the results, and this is something that Hewlett Packard may need to better disclose.

Other companies like Lexmark (LXK), Kodak (EK) and Xerox (XRX) may be guilty of the same. I wonder if they have a model that removes mother-in-laws from the picture?