Epson Rolls Out AirPrint Support for Some Printers

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

http://netputing.com/airprintactivator/

Printopia looks great and all for enabling this for all printers. I heard AirPrintActivator had issues with Lion that were being worked on (beta version out yet?). But my guess is that Apple pulled it from OS X because of some agreement they had to honor with HP to give HP exclusivity for a period. The best part about this Epson news is that it signals the end of any such exclusivity agreement, so I am now hopeful that Apple will roll this back into OS X.

And I just bought a Brother printer. Oh well.

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AirPrint is the only way to go, IMO!

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bowlerman625 said:

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AirPrint is the only way to go, IMO!

Click to expand...

Agreed. AirPrint is awesome.

bowlerman625 said:

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AirPrint is the only way to go, IMO!

Click to expand...

Who really needs to print anymore? I can't remember the last time I needed to print something... at least a year or two ago.

seinman said:

Who really needs to print anymore? I can't remember the last time I needed to print something... at least a year or two ago.

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Yes because you don't need to print anymore means everyone doesn't need to print anymore.

The business world still prints quite a lot.

You can AirPrint to any printer shared from a Mac running Lion with a one-liner in Terminal. Works great with my 8 year old Canon multifunctional.

No need to buy an app to do it.

Kodak also rolled out e-printing for it's line of printers

Look like more e-printing is starting to show up, Kodak just added for it's line of printers e-printing. If you have one of the new printers you can print directly to it, if you have one of the older printers like i do, they have a little app that runs on the Mac and sends google print documents over to the printer.

petitpiton said:

You can AirPrint to any printer shared from a Mac running Lion with a one-liner in Terminal. Works great with my 8 year old Canon multifunctional.

No need to buy an app to do it.

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I hear the "Print n Share" app works real good and Printopia doesn't work unless your Mac is on...which in my opinion somewhat defeats the purpose of Airprint.

seinman said:

Who really needs to print anymore? I can't remember the last time I needed to print something... at least a year or two ago.

Click to expand...

I work in a school & kids need to print papers, teachers need to print reports, etc.

BC2009 said:

Printopia looks great and all for enabling this for all printers. I heard AirPrintActivator had issues with Lion that were being worked on (beta version out yet?). But my guess is that Apple pulled it from OS X because of some agreement they had to honor with HP to give HP exclusivity for a period. The best part about this Epson news is that it signals the end of any such exclusivity agreement, so I am now hopeful that Apple will roll this back into OS X.

Click to expand...

They already have implemented the raster filters which were missing in Snow Leopard in Lion. One small change to the advertising of shared printers and AirPrint will work with any printer shared from your Mac. You can make the change yourself in Terminal or wait for Apple to enable it in an update to OS X. It's trivial for Apple to enable this when they're ready to.

seinman said:

Who really needs to print anymore? I can't remember the last time I needed to print something... at least a year or two ago.

Click to expand...

There are still many instances where some of us need to print. Some movie tickets still need to be printed (though that's fast diminishing); foir those who don't own cars but need to rent when going on trips, it's better to print out maps then to use an IOS device. I often print out articles for friends who don't have IOS devices. If you have to do long form taxes, you sort of need a printer.

There are still many many reasons for needing a printer.

Most of my printing is for mailing labels to send stuff back to Amazon. Two non-Apple monitors now tried - I'm giving up ...

My parents said that they might be interested in getting iPads (although not seriously thinking about it yet). If/when they get iPads, this would be good. My dad loves to write and I could see hime printing up a storm for all his novels, poetry, etc. he writes. My home wouldn't print very often but may find a good recipe or something.

Mine is the WorkForce 630 They've really gotta add more AirPrint printers.

petitpiton said:

They already have implemented the raster filters which were missing in Snow Leopard in Lion. One small change to the advertising of shared printers and AirPrint will work with any printer shared from your Mac. You can make the change yourself in Terminal or wait for Apple to enable it in an update to OS X. It's trivial for Apple to enable this when they're ready to.

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nice... I'll google it when I upgrade to Lion this month.

I'm sad to see the Epson NX420 not getting AirPrint support while the NX430 does. I just got the printer with my iMac in June and it's good for scanning & printing wirelessly. But it needs AirPrint support! I have it hacked currently, but I dislike having to leave a computer on just to print to this thing...

BC2009 said:

But my guess is that Apple pulled it from OS X because of some agreement they had to honor with HP to give HP exclusivity for a period.

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I know HP is spinning off it's computers, is it doing the same with printers too?

Gary

Who'd want to buy an ink-jet printer? I'd only buy a laser one, they actually last like 5+ years.

BC2009 said:

nice... I'll google it when I upgrade to Lion this month.

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Make your search term "dns-sd AirPrint" and you'll find it.

I hate that they don't have an update for my Epson Artisan 810. It's wireless, has bonjour... but no AirPrint. Just bought it last year. Other than they WANT you to buy a new one to use AirPrint, half of the printers that they don't have AirPrint installed on are more than able to use it. Maybe they'll roll out an update sometime... doubt it though. Off goes the support email.

I love how everyone is reacting to this story by saying "all you have to do is enable such-and-such in the terminal or run this piece of software to make your shared printer AirPrint compatible..."

THE WHOLE POINT OF AIRPRINT FOR ME IS THAT I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE OUT MY LAPTOP AND HAVE A SEPARATE COMPUTER RUNING TO PRINT FROM MY IPHONE!!!

If I have to turn the computer on, I'll just print it from there... Sheesh!

Let us know when you guys have a patch I can install on my PRINTER to make it AirPrint compatible. THEN I'll be excited...

TheRealTVGuy said:

I love how everyone is reacting to this story by saying "all you have to do is enable such-and-such in the terminal or run this piece of software to make your shared printer AirPrint compatible..."

THE WHOLE POINT OF AIRPRINT FOR ME IS THAT I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE OUT MY LAPTOP AND HAVE A SEPARATE COMPUTER RUNING TO PRINT FROM MY IPHONE!!!

If I have to turn the computer on, I'll just print it from there... Sheesh!

Let us know when you guys have a patch I can install on my PRINTER to make it AirPrint compatible. THEN I'll be excited...

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Then presumably you're delighted that you can now buy a new HP OR Epson Printer! Past experience suggests expecting printer manufacturers to update firmware for their existing models is the path to disappointment. I think increasing support from more manufacturers across new models is the best you can hope for. Anything more would be a real bonus.

For me, leaving my MacBook in deep sleep and printing whenever I like from my iPad / iPhone works really nicely. I do recognise that will not be as convenient for everyone though. I'm only raising the Terminal route in this thread as I thought it might help some people out and as an alternative to paying for some third party application to do the same. YMMV.

Here's hoping for a flurry of printer firmware updates...