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I lead a largely paperless existence. I’d rather see a full-screen photo on a computer than a 4×6 print. I resent it when word processors–especially the cloud-based Google Docs–squander my screen real estate on rulers and margins and page breaks that will never be physically incarnated on paper. And don’t get me started on the price of ink cartridges.
For my purposes, the last time a printer paradigm shifted was about 15 years ago when they sprouted USB ports. So imagine my surprise when I found myself impressed with new features in a Hewlett-Packard printer family that made me reconsider my distaste.
Here’s what happened. When my wife and I moved to England half a year ago, we pared our possessions back to what we could carry on a plane. Our bulky and seldom-used printer clearly was destined for some quality time in the storage facility.
The world isn’t ready to give up printers just yet, though: the electronic era has yet to fully arrive when it comes to direct debit forms, letters to the school district, and boarding passes. I reluctantly concluded I’d have to spring for a printer but procrastinated over the new clutter.
Fortuitously, though, HP announced a new line of printers with “ePrint” technology that struck me as the first big step into the future I’d seen with printers in a very long time.
ePrint, at least in theory, unshackles you from that onerous piece of software, the printer driver. To print a document, you can e-mail it to the printer’s unique e-mail address. The printer, connected to the Net via your wireless network, picks up the print job, including a variety of formatted attachments: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel; text; PDF; and images in JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF formats.
Forward-thinking features
It means you can print from your Net-connected phone, any computer in your house, or the Internet kiosk in the airport halfway across the globe. You can print from your iPad today and your Chrome OS Netbook tomorrow. You can print driving directions in the morning from an e-mail message on your work computer even though it’s been locked down by the corporate IT department. Presumably in the future you could print a recipe from your networked refrigerator, and given the number of cameras, in-dash computers, and other devices that will get Net access, this sort of interface will get more important.
By default, the HP ePrint e-mail address can be used by anyone who knows it. Somehow I get spam on a variety of e-mail addresses I’ve never actually used, though, so it’s a good thing you can change the settings to permit only a whitelist of authorized e-mail addresses. And you can click a button to create a new address as well.
The print drivers are still there, of course, and will get you a lot more control. But for my purposes, the wirelessly connected ePrint technology solves a niggling problem I’ve had for years: turning on the home computer with the printer’s USB connection and the driver software installed to print something stored on another computer.
However, I was sorely disappointed that when my artlessly named HP Photosmart Wireless e-All-in-One Printer B110a arrived last week, the ePrint technology hadn’t been released. A message promised ePrint would be done at some unspecified time soon, but I felt unhappy since I’d spent my money already.
HP activated its ePrint service Thursday, though, just in time for me to try it out–and to show off another feature I really like about this printer. Namely, it updates itself.
This, too, is a glimpse of the future, but not just for printers. The world is gradually shifting to software that updates with varying degrees of automation. My camera has significant new video features and a much-needed image quality fix that didn’t exist when it first shipped. My operating systems are routinely patched to close security holes. The Chrome browser doesn’t even tell me when it’s been replaced by a new version. As network connections become ever more common, expect the ghostly arrival of firmware updates for cars, video game consoles, and TV sets.
HP’s Photosmart B110a printer shows the direction printers will take as the Internet pervades everything electronic. Too bad about the driver software. Read this blog post by Stephen Shankland on Deep Tech.

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This post was submitted by Harshit.

Thanks to news.cnet.com