The tech world is getting excited about a tiny machine that prints items from the Internet, as Rebecca Greenfield wrote earlier today. But one commenter brought up an interesting question: Why not just buy a newspaper? 

Trying to parse why people might find Little Printer's receipt-sized printouts useful, grayzip writes: 

Theft of smartphones, snatched from users' hands, are on the rise. So it might come to be wise to read printouts on the subway, for instance.

Or a newspaper, of course, but tech types would never admit those remain useful.

Come to think of it, newspapers have plenty of advantages over Little Printer. For instance, you'd have to print reams and reams of Little Printer's narrow-margined paper to line a birdcage or cover the floor while painting. Don't cancel those newspaper subscriptions yet, techies! That is, if any of you still subscribe to newspapers... none of you subscribe to newspapers.

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David Wagner