AirPrint, Lion, and HP

[rworne]

I'm writing this because of a request I got yesterday about setting up AirPrint on an XP box. It got me thinking...

It's soon going to be a year since this feature come out, and yet we are still stuck with official support for a number of HP manufactured devices. Various 3rd party hacks and solutions popped up, but I find it odd that Apple has introduced nothing, even with the release of Lion (which broke stuff).

I'm not looking for a technical solution, but was wondering why this feature is being left to whither on the vine. The only possible reasons I can think of are a patent or license issue (probably held by HP), or they made an exclusivity arrangement with HP for a certain time period in order to get native support for it on some printers.

I'm starting to lean heavily towards that second reason. Why else are no other printer manufacturers releasing compatible printers? I wonder what will happen when the next version of iOS comes out and we hit a year after the AirPrint debut.

 

[classicalbear]

Airprint is stupid

AirPrint should be so simple, that's what happen when you sign up with only one company (HP). Almost no printer support it.

Yes you will tell me : "it compatible with most printer IF you install THIS or THAT on your computer" BUT I DON'T WANT TO USE A COMPUTER!!!

That's the point of having a iDevice like the iPad... not using a computer.

And the ones compatible with AirPrint are expensive. I'm waiting for a sale when I'll see one... I want a Laser, All in One printer... no ink... gave enough money to those Ink companies...

 

[rworne]

That's the point. One would think Brother, Canon, and Epson (who make no competing tablets) would jump on board. Especially Epson who released a print utility of their own on iOS devices.

The question is: why has no other company stepped up to the plate, and why Apple never released an AirPrint service for OS X or Windows (officially, that is). I've messed with the activator on OS X, it worked great.

I'm not really expecting an official answer, just asking the MR hive mind for an opinion.

 

[mpaquette]

I was just thinking about this the other night. There can't be any technical reason why Air Print isn't used by more manufacturers. Maybe the licensing is too expensive? Or HP has an exclusive?

 

[RossMc]

http://www.macworld.com/article/155674/2010/11/airprinters.html

 

[rworne]

http://www.macworld.com/article/155674/2010/11/airprinters.html

That article, while informative (thanks), basically said that other vendors are trying proprietary approaches. None of which work like (or is easy/seamless) as AirPrint. Everyone is looking at vendor lock-in and that is not healthy. All the more reason to wonder why the hell Apple doesn't polish up the AirPrint service and release it.

An exclusivity deal is all I can think of - sort of like when Netflix could only boot up off of a PS3 or Wii with a disc when it was plainly obvious they could also boot off an application on the console. But, no problems with the 360. After a year, Hey! Netflix everywhere!

Another confusing thing is the lack of someone trying to stop the service from working with other printers. Well, up until last week when Lion came out and broke it.

 

[classicalbear]

Stupid

Some people should be kicked in the ass.

The question is not clear, why is it only HP having AirPrint printers?

If I had Job in front of me, I'd ask him "No matter how rich you are, don't you feel stupid announcing something that in the end will never develop? It's like saying : my wife is pregnant.. but after 3 years... still no baby... but it's coming look at her belly" hehehe

 

[ethics101]

I just got a HP C310 all in one printer. All I had to do was connect it to the internet and my iPad recognized it right away. Real simple. Got it free after rebate too

 

[4DThinker]

Apple needs to get this ironed out. It'll take ubiquitous printing to all major brands of WiFi-enabled printers to win the tablet vs notebook race. My HTC Evo3D comes with it. Not sure if HTC put it in their tablet or not. Should that feature move to IceCreamSandwich (all platfoms), or even as updates to Honeycomb 3.2, then it'll be iOS catching up again, and another year waiting for it. I can get more work done on my Evo 3D than on my iPad simply because it prints directly to the Canon printer I already own.

 

[ryanide]

Printopia works for me

I like Printopia on my Mac that allows AirPrint to my canon and brother printers. I usually leave my mac sleeping and just choose Wake on LAN in the system preferences (energy). It wakes the Mac to print then goes back to sleep. No big deal. And for a $10 program, I didn't have to buy a new HP. Printer (which I would never buy anyways).

Now that I have a Mac mini server that's always on, Printopia is a no brainer.

 

[btbrossard]

The question is not clear, why is it only HP having AirPrint printers?

I'm going to assume there is money involved in only HP being able to sell AirPrint printers.

Other brands of printers worked with AirPrint in it's beta, so why were they all removed except for HP?

I also use Printopia with my Canon printers.

 

[ryanide]

Maybe HP is the only one willing to pay Apple a license fee for including AirPrint functionality...?

 

[rworne]

Maybe HP is the only one willing to pay Apple a license fee for including AirPrint functionality...?

With such a huge gap between needed function and the amount of iPhones/iPads out there, I'm finding it hard to believe that other printer manufacturers simply are willing to ignore this market. Any one of them could have come out with a service that works with their specific brand, but none have. I understand if only new models supported it, but there's - nothing.

EDIT:
Looks like exclusivity is not the case. It's a patent issue, and HP holds the patent:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7636584.html

We'll get in other printers in about 19 years.

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

AirPrint should be able to print to all wirelessly accessible printers

If I can print wirelessly to a printer from my MacBook I should be able to from my iPad. In my case I can print to a HP Officejet Pro 8000, which is connected via Ethernet to my Draytek Router and to an HP PhotoSmart Pro B9180 connected via my iMac and shared via Ethernet as the iMac is wired to the router with a Cat6 cable and wakes from Ethernet command (the HP B9180 can be connected via Ethernet but since Snow Leopard gives weird messages, like "no print heads installed", I have gone back to USB. I have not tried on Ethernet on Lion but since it is no longer a current printer, I would be surprised if the driver had been updated and corrected). I have tried a number of the print utility apps and they are are all very buggy, particularly on trying to get the page set up correct. AirPrint is a real disappointment that it cannot access any accessible printer. There is no technical reason it could not be made to.

 

[mfr1340]

aipplay and hp printer

I set up my hp tp airplay print with all lm ipad2's, iphones, macbookair. It was easy just useing the printer,(no comp). It took 30 seconds to set up.

 

[rworne]

If I can print wirelessly to a printer from my MacBook I should be able to from my iPad. In my case I can print to a HP Officejet Pro 8000, which is connected via Ethernet to my Draytek Router and to an HP PhotoSmart Pro B9180 connected via my iMac and shared via Ethernet as the iMac is wired to the router with a Cat6 cable and wakes from Ethernet command (the HP B9180 can be connected via Ethernet but since Snow Leopard gives weird messages, like "no print heads installed", I have gone back to USB. I have not tried on Ethernet on Lion but since it is no longer a current printer, I would be surprised if the driver had been updated and corrected). I have tried a number of the print utility apps and they are are all very buggy, particularly on trying to get the page set up correct. AirPrint is a real disappointment that it cannot access any accessible printer. There is no technical reason it could not be made to.

In a sane world, yes you should. I read over the patent, and the gist of it says that it covers printing by mobile devices in this way:

1. Discovery of printers
2. Creating a common "intermediate" universal format to transfer to the printer (this is the urf file)
3. interpreting and printing that intermediate format.
4. receiving status from the printer on the mobile device