Why the hell should anyone give a boss more respect than a guy you bump into at a coffee shop?
They arent gods just because theyre positioned above you in the company.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Steve Jobs on AirPrint: 'Lots More Coming Soon'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Why the hell should anyone give a boss more respect than a guy you bump into at a coffee shop?
They arent gods just because theyre positioned above you in the company.
I'll second that.
Got a link to Printopia and bought - does exactly what Airprint should do plus print to pdf, jpg and print to dropbox.
Phoneview is also nice for any that want a closer look into their iPhone/touch/pad
So why can i buy a 10$ App for my Mac that does it all?
Installed 4.2.1 on the 4G and was instantly annoyed that none of my printers worked. Google'd for 10 seconds and found "Printopia".
Installed the demo, it works. I can print to all printers also and sent files direct to the Mac with show up in PDF format......
10 bucks...
So what the ****** is going on at Apple?
Installed 4.2.1 on the 4G and was instantly annoyed that none of my printers worked. Google'd for 10 seconds and found "Printopia".
Installed the demo, it works. I can print to all printers also and sent files direct to the Mac with show up in PDF format......
10 bucks...
So what the ****** is going on at Apple?
What about PDF Printing?!
What about PDF Printing?! All Macs have it built in...why not the iPad and iPhone? Print to PDF and then save it in iBooks...hello! Why isn't this done yet?
What about PDF Printing?! All Macs have it built in...why not the iPad and iPhone? Print to PDF and then save it in iBooks...hello! Why isn't this done yet?
Not true.
Airprint is done by having the app format a document in a single format and then this is sent to the Mac/PC and converted into a PDF on the fly.
The pdf is then printed using the printer-specific driver that is installed on the computer.
The direct to printer solution involves a similar process - single format that all those printers understand.
There are no drivers installed on the iPad or iPhone.
He's the CEO of one of the largest tech companies (by market cap) on earth. People are lucky they get any response at all.
I admire the effort.
Too bad my University's wireless network doesn't work with AirPrint, AirPlay, or Remote. But for some reason, I can SSH my iPhone
I'm using the hack too and so far it works great. Hopefully the AirPrint enhancements come on the new OS X update, as the hack may stop working then.
Steve mentions driverless printing on his email. I would imagine there has to be at least one driver to be able to print, and what he refers is to avoiding the need of a driver for each printer.
I think this is what HP has been trying to do. Make one Universal driver for PCL and another one for Postscript printers. Implementing this same concept on AirPrint should be beneficial for all of us.
A new printer is not something you buy everyday, so we need to use what we already have. Besides, all new ePrint units are inkjets, which are expensive to keep running. I'm staying with laser printers; period!
HP Printer Division must be very sore at the low sales.
The printouts coming from the hack look perfect. Nobody can tell these came from an iPad.
Hopefully "soon" means soon, not in 6 months or a year.
Too bad my University's wireless network doesn't work with AirPrint, AirPlay, or Remote. But for some reason, I can SSH my iPhone
Try PrintCentral, and also test AirVideo to see if you could stream movies from your computer at home.
This is awesome. The market works. Some industrious developer saw a need and met the need for what I think is a reasonable price.
If people don't want to buy a new printer and don't want to wait for Apple to deliver the functionality, buy this application and support this sort of enterprise.
I'll be happy with universal PCL and Postscript support. Just two tiny drivers to print without the need of a computer sharing printers.
BTW, thanks for your explanation on how AirPrint works. It helps me understand that I should look for alternative ways to print directly to a network printer located outside my home.
Skating where the puck is going to be...
I think Jobs meant "lots more printers are coming soon that support airprint".
While this is annoying, it fits with previous Apple decisions, it's really quite brilliant.
The thinking is this...
By making "Airprint support" a required feature for printers that get printed to from iOS devices, it forces the printer manufacturers to build-in support for Airprint if they want those printers to get a piece of this rapidly growing market.
Jobs knows full-well that 3rd parties will fill the "printing to legacy printers" niche by essentially enabling the functionality that Apple left out at the last minute. If they left it in, then it gives the printer companies an excuse to leave out Airprint support.
The longer-term goal is a world where you don't have to install 2GB of printer drivers (or download-on-demand printer drivers) on every computer you ship. We *should* be to the point where you can just send a PDF file to a printer over the network and expect it to accurately print it.
Assuming Apple did a good job of designing Airprint, 5 years from now the driverless goal will have been achieved, as most printers seem to have a useful lifespan of about 5 years (10 years for higher end printers.)
I think Jobs meant "lots more printers are coming soon that support airprint".
While this is annoying, it fits with previous Apple decisions, it's really quite brilliant.
The thinking is this...
By making "Airprint support" a required feature for printers that get printed to from iOS devices, it forces the printer manufacturers to build-in support for Airprint if they want those printers to get a piece of this rapidly growing market.
Jobs knows full-well that 3rd parties will fill the "printing to legacy printers" niche by essentially enabling the functionality that Apple left out at the last minute. If they left it in, then it gives the printer companies an excuse to leave out Airprint support.
The longer-term goal is a world where you don't have to install 2GB of printer drivers (or download-on-demand printer drivers) on every computer you ship. We *should* be to the point where you can just send a PDF file to a printer over the network and expect it to accurately print it.
Assuming Apple did a good job of designing Airprint, 5 years from now the driverless goal will have been achieved, as most printers seem to have a useful lifespan of about 5 years (10 years for higher end printers.)
Last edited:
It depends on your definition of driverless. It's either driverless or single driver printing. And it works because the printers (or the computers they're attached to) have gotten smarter.
AirPrint uses IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) and Bonjour to find and communicate with printers or print servers. The reason it's called driverless is that there's no printer-specific code required. AirPrint sends PDFs to the printer and the printer is responsible for transforming the PDFs into print pages.
Printers got cheap years ago because they moved all of the processing to the computer that was attached to them. Each printer accepted complex (and printer-specific) codes that the computer had to create. Cheap embedded processors have gotten very powerful so even cheap printers are able to print from the Internet, from memory cards, etc. That means you can send complete print-ready documents to those printers and not have to know anything about how the printer works internally.
The 10.6.5 AirPrint support (that was pulled) worked by providing an OS/X layer that accepted PDFs. OS/X would accept a PDF on behalf of a printer and use the normal OS/X print drivers to print it on the printer. It works just fine. The rumor is it was removed from 10.6.5 not due to technical issues but due to patent issues.
The AirPrint mechanism is generic, not Apple-specific. Some newer HP printers work with AirPrint because they accept PDF documents w/o requiring a driver. HP did this to provide support for printing from the Internet or via email. Linux operating systems (which use the same printing infrastructure as OS/X) can also be used as AirPrint servers, just like the 10.6.5 betas did.
Apple (and HP) picked this approach because it's "easy" to support and has no appreciable downside. There is public domain software for rendering PDFs (and PostScript) and IPP is a public standard for printer communication.
As often happens when Apple picks up a new technology standard there's a lag between implementation and widespread support. It'll probably take a year or two before other printer vendors provide equal support to HP.
I know there's the hack or stuff like Printopia that will allow me to print to shared printers connected to my Mac, but don't all these require my Mac to be switched on? The great appeal of AirPrint to me was to be able to print directly to my wireless Epson printer, not via my MacBook or Pro which would need waking up first.
Because it's not offered right now? I feel it's pretty obvious why someone would pay $10 for this.
They're probably making bank on it too.
Because he's one of the founders of the company; he essentially helped create an entire industry from an idea in his (and Steve Wozniak's) head. It's not just that he has a "ton of money."
It's been a while since I've used Linux, but can't a Linux computer print to any printer just about using CUPS, and without worrying about printer drivers? Or am I remembering incorrectly?
Please show me where I said that he was a god. When I compose an email, unless I know the person very well, I use a very professional tone when addressing the person. Obviously, many of you don't.
Installed 4.2.1 on the 4G and was instantly annoyed that none of my printers worked. Google'd for 10 seconds and found "Printopia".
Installed the demo, it works. I can print to all printers also and sent files direct to the Mac with show up in PDF format......
10 bucks...
So what the ****** is going on at Apple?
Why buy when you can use this for free?
http://www.9to5mac.com/35292/hactivate-airprint-on-10-6-5-with-easy-tool
i don't get it. you have - for example - a printer attached to a airport express, or you have a printer attached and shared on a mac book. and still you can NOT use it for air print? why not? because apple wants to force you to buy a new printer???
sorry folks, but this is ridiculous! besides that: why is it so important to be able to print? we are living in a paperless age, everything goes virtual and still people get crazy over an air print feature. are you guys getting excited about EVERYTHING that is a new feature, or are you REALLY needing to print things on your iphone?
ps: what do you actually print with airprint? if it is a photo, then use iphoto on your mac! if it is an email then: why printing an email???
sorry folks, but this is ridiculous! besides that: why is it so important to be able to print? we are living in a paperless age, everything goes virtual and still people get crazy over an air print feature. are you guys getting excited about EVERYTHING that is a new feature, or are you REALLY needing to print things on your iphone?
ps: what do you actually print with airprint? if it is a photo, then use iphoto on your mac! if it is an email then: why printing an email???
It still works. As long as your Mac can print to the printer, you can print to it via your Mac using Printopia. Of course, you need to have your Mac switched on, and PC users can go suck it.
Anyway, what's with the sense of entitlement. Who says this feature should be free ? It no doubt cost a lot of engineering effort to develop, and Apple could of by rights charged you an upgrade fee to install 4.2. Heck - I bet a lot of other mobile vendors would have done.
FWIW I heard that the reason full Airprint functionality was pulled was for legal, rather than technical reasons.
So in the meantime, AirPrint is useless unless you just happen to have one of the 'approved' printers...
Thanks Steve...
Thanks Steve...