HP ePrint – if you can email it, you can print it
Last week, HP announced their new ePrint technology. With the ePrint platform, geek dads and moms can print a photo or document by sending an email to a web-enabled printer. You read that right. You can email your document to your printer. Cool. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago when dads and moms could only print to the printer attached to their computer. Now the printer doesn’t even have to be on the same network. The pace of technology is amazing, isn’t it? I can’t wait until the day I can email myself to another location (just think, Star Trek would not have been the same if Captain Kirk could’ve just emailed himself back to the Enterprise).
I think the new ePrint platform is something dads and moms will like for several reasons. First, if you can email it, you can print it. Second, you don’t have to install drivers or configure your printer for the network. Third, you don’t even need a computer to print a file. Now, dads and moms can print directly from their web-connected device (smartphone, iPad, netbook, etc) to any ePrint-enabled printer.
Printing in the Clouds
Thanks to ePrint, geek dads and moms can store documents or files in the cloud and print directly from the cloud when needed. In case you are wondering, when I mention cloud, I mean documents that are located online somewhere — like Google Docs, Picasa, and Calendar. Most people don’t actually know where their online files are located. As far as they know, the files could be located on a server in the clouds. With ePrint, users can access Google Docs, Picasa, Calendar, and other apps directly from their printers. No local proxy PC or web appliance needed.
ePrint Platform
The ePrint platform consists of web-connected printers on the hardware side and print apps on the software side. Every HP ePrint printer ($99 and up) will have an email address that enables users to print via email. Geek dads and moms also can send documents to print through a HP ePrint mobile app on their smartphone device to a home, office, or public print location (hotel, FedEx Kinko’s, etc).
Print Apps
Currently, print apps include:
- Yahoo! and msnbc.com for daily news
- Crayola and KoL.com for coloring pages and fun family ideas
- Picasa Web Albums for printing photos from a user’s personal account
- PBS KIDS literacy, math and science activities
- Facebook for printing from a photo album or listed events
- MapQuest for maps and directions
- Artsonia for images from the world’s largest kids art museum
- Arrival Guides – travel guides for hundreds of destinations around the world
- Live Nation for access to concert tickets and promotions
More apps will be available later this year.
eQuestions for ePrint
ePrint sounds great for people with smartphones, but the technology is new and I still have some questions about the platform. For instance:
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Can old HP printers be upgraded for ePrint? Probably not, but I’m hoping I’m wrong.
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ePrint supports Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF’s and JPEG image files, but what about other types of files? For instance, can dads and moms print financial reports from QuickBooks and Peachtree?
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In the event someone publishes your printer’s email address, can the printer’s email address be easily changed? And what happens when you sell the printer to someone else? Does the new owner have to pay a fee to change the printer’s email address?
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Can you still print the old fashion way (via USB, Ethernet, or WiFi)? I assume yes, but I’ve been wrong about this type of stuff before.
[Disclosure: I own an old HP LaserJet printer. It has a parallel port, but no RJ45 or USB port. It's also not WiFi enabled. I still love it even though my print server died and I can't use the LaserJet anymore because computers no longer come with parallel ports. Now, it's a really big paper weight.]
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This is a fantastic idea. GREAT review.