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Apple Delays or Cancels Support for AirPrint Via Shared Printers on Macs and PCs?

shartypants said:
This seems typical of Apple, if they can't get it right, don't offer it.
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Rather that than the Microsoft model of offer it whether it works or not, and maybe try to fix it later. Apples rep will suffer a lot more if AirPrint is unstable and crap than if they delay it so they can "get it right."

I have no use for AirPrint, but I'm sorry for those that were looking forward to it, my boss included. His son was planning on printing school work with his iPad.
 
srauber said:
Normally they don´t care about faulty software so much cause when people are concerning about issues then the response from apple will be it´s the users fold or don´t do it ...... and a lot of users are so happy and will say that they don´t need the features anyway.....:eek:
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That's utterly inaccurate. Just look how promptly they released a fix for iPhoto '11.
 
Ouch!
So from
aristotle said:
*Ahem*
http://www.apple.com/ipad/software-update/

No changes on that page. Who should we believe? Macstories? Appleinsider? Apple? If they were "cancelling" it wouldn't Apple have updated that page already?

So we are supposed to believe this because allegedly a developer contacted Apple "Support"? Uh, yeah as if someone on the support line would have more up to date information than the Apple website. Right. The supposed tech support person probably just wanted to get the call over with if it even happened in the first place.
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and...

aristotle said:
It is not an article. It is a "rumour" from another site which plagiarized another site. Ever played telephone as a kid?
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We end up with...

aristotle said:
So it seems that there is an issue with the driver software on 10.6.5 so we might have to wait for 10.6.6 for printing to printers connected to Snow Leopard macs but it does not seem like it is going to disappear from 4.2.

In a nutshell, it will work on windows but not Snow Leopard because of driver issues until either 10.6.6 or a patch to 10.6.5.
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Did that vicious U-turn give you whiplash? And I love the lack of an apology for slandering the dev who reported this. Stay classy.

As for the 10.6.6 patch, who's peddling rumours now?



northernbaldy said:
I'm pleased apple have the balls to hold back then something doesn't work
Saves me pulling my hair out trying to get it to work

I'm sure you lot would go mental if apple knowingly released unfinished software
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Judging by your name you've spent a lot of time pulling your hair out dude. I've said it before and I'll say it again, OSX Spotlight is broken so there's a precedent in them releasing faulty software
 
I have an HP printer capable of doing wireless printing right now...so technically I could be printing from my iPad, iPhone 4, whatever, by using the printer's e-mail address. But I don't. Ever. Because most of the reason I'm using my iPad is that I'm reading stuff I don't want to have to print out. When I'm using it to type documents, I usually wind up finishing them on my laptop since they need editing from iPad-esque mistakes (www.damnyouautocorrect.com). Really, the biggest reason I could see for desperately needing AirPrint is to use when you're on the go, and have brought your iPad as your only computing device, and want to print out business reports, boarding passes, etc. But how often are you going to have access to a wirelessly connected printer in those places anyway?

I'm not saying that AirPrint shouldn't be a feature of an iPad, I'm all for give people choices of what to use and how to use it, I just think it's crazy for people to say "well I'm not updating from 3.2.2 now," there's just too many necessary features in the new software; AirPlay, multitasking, etc.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

I posted about this twice over the last few days, and it is true: AirPrint support appears to have been removed from the latest 10.6.5 betas and the windows iTunes beta that supports it has also disappeared. It's still fully implemented in 4.2 and works fine with the older 10.6.5 betas and the iTunes windows beta.
It's possible it will get added back to 10.6.5 or 10.6.6 or it's possible it will get pulled completely and never return. In the meantime, I'm keeping 10.1 iTunes windows beta running on an old PC and printing quite happily
 
Ritsuka said:
Seems to be still working in 10.6.5 10H574...
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If that is true, I think we are seeing a drop of support, not functionality.
Other posters have, however, tested it and it didn't work. That could be a case of incompatibility (exactly why support could be dropped) or it IS gone in the latest 1.6.5. seed.
 
Currently works just fine on GM with 10.6.5 Beta. I have had no problems so far. But, if they remove the feature, I will be pissed. I paid $300 for my WiFi printer, and I refuse to buy another one just to get support back.
 
As far as I'm concerned, Airprint is the one 'Vital' feature missing. If they drop it now, after announcing it and building people's expectations, they need their heads seeing to.
 
No doubt the wise and God-like Majesty of Steve Jobs will soon send a one or two word response to a grovelling acolyte from his iPhone to explain the situation...such as:

who prints?

S. Jobs

Sent from my iPhone

I guess when you are as rich and powerful as Apple, and your customers will literally queue to buy anything with an Apple logo on it then you can afford to nail them in the ass constantly without fear!!
 
boyplunder said:
As far as I'm concerned, Airprint is the one 'Vital' feature missing. If they drop it now, after announcing it and building people's expectations, they need their heads seeing to.
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They're not dropping AirPrint - what may be going is the support for AirPrint through OS X / Windows shared printers (which has never been officially announced anyway IIRC).

There also seems to be some conflicting reports, with some devs reporting it missing from the latest OS X beta build and some reporting that it's still working for them: Maybe it's just a bug?

Thinking about it, I guess it's also possible that Apple never had any intention of supporting AirPrint through shared printers and added it to Betas purely so Devs could test their printing functionality
 
chrono1081 said:
Yes I know big companies use them that is why big companies pay me the big bucks to trouble shoot them. You obviously know nothing about HP printers, their crappy drivers, especially if its an all in one unit that is a bit older, or their constant need of firmware updates.

Like I said before, if its a true rumor, and its because of compatibility issues, my bet is that it has to do with HP printers.
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I'll bet the engineers writing these "crappy" drivers and "firmware updates" are getting paid 10 times as much as you are.

Since you did not write these drivers and firmware updates, I highly doubt you are in a position to claim anything substantive that HP printers are causing the AirPrint feature to be removed.
 
chrono1081 said:
If this is true and it is indeed cancelled due to incompatibilities I bet anything
Its incompatibilities with HP printers. Those things always have problems doing anything network related.

ANd before anyone flames and says HP printers are great, you haven't networked near as many as I have. They have issues.
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That's an arrogant statement considering you know nothing about anyone else's experience. Whatever you've seen is limited to your experience, no one can take you as the definitive authority on HP networked printers.

chrono1081 said:
Yes I know big companies use them that is why big companies pay me the big bucks to trouble shoot them. You obviously know nothing about HP printers, their crappy drivers, especially if its an all in one unit that is a bit older, or their constant need of firmware updates.

Like I said before, if its a true rumor, and its because of compatibility issues, my bet is that it has to do with HP printers.
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I would have to say then that they are wasting their money.

boyplunder said:
As far as I'm concerned, Airprint is the one 'Vital' feature missing. If they drop it now, after announcing it and building people's expectations, they need their heads seeing to.
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Can you say "white iphone".
 
I can't even imagine how AirPrint could work anyway, since I had to install like 3 different drivers on my Mac to be able to print to the printer connected to one of my PCs. I can't install any drivers on the iPad, so I imagine it would simply not work.
 
AzN1337c0d3r said:
I'll bet the engineers writing these "crappy" drivers and "firmware updates" are getting paid 10 times as much as you are.

Since you did not write these drivers and firmware updates, I highly doubt you are in a position to claim anything substantive that HP printers are causing the AirPrint feature to be removed.
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Singling out HP is unfair but TBH, printers in general are a PITA in terms of user experience. Mediocrity is the norm there.
 
baryon said:
I can't even imagine how AirPrint could work anyway, since I had to install like 3 different drivers on my Mac to be able to print to the printer connected to one of my PCs. I can't install any drivers on the iPad, so I imagine it would simply not work.
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That's why AirPrint has been developed - it defines a single standard "protocol" that the iOS device will use. This can then either print directly to printers that support this protocol or (previously) to a windows or Mac computer via a process that re-printed sent jobs using a locally installed printer
 
ClowerPower said:
The point of things like iPad is the device is portable and prevents the need for printing anything. I'm glad they dropped the feature. Stop printing things. There is nearly no reason to do it anymore. If you are printing, your process is wrong. Re-evaluate! Challenge your company to reduce paper waste.
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Shut up with your tree-hugging, hippie crap!!! - OMG, I just noticed that your username is ClowerPower... the cherry on top!

j/k ;)

No seriously, I don't print squat at home and haven't for years [in large part for the reason that ClowerPower stated... hippie!!!]. However, I would like the option to print if I have to from any networked computer or iOS device.

This removal of AirPrint will not go over well with neither the iOS or Mac OS X user base if true.

[I'm betting this is either false or a VERY temporary delay though if true, as I'm sure SJ will be LIVID over this and dispatching "teh" ninjas for immediate damage control.] :apple:
 
Warbrain said:
"Apple's Tech Support" isn't going to know if it was cancelled or not. That's a waste of time.

I'll try it in a second and see what happens. Sound good?
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"Apple does not comment on unreleased products." And they don't tell their sales or support anything about those products, either.

Thanks.

Is Warbrain Old English for "voice of reason?"

I think you're right. Support is in iOS 4.2. This won't happen unless they rip something out of 10.6.5. Which is unlikely but possible.

So long as my USB HP laser model prints through my Airport Extreme network share, I'll be happy. If it turns out I have to go sit down in front of my Mac and print from a cloud-stored copy, well I must say that I'll... Go sit down in front of my Mac and print from a cloud-stored copy. This is one of those things for me. I want Airprint and I want Airplay, too. Although I have neither a new Apple TV nor even a new Airport Express and I have both an Xbox 360 and PS3 -- don't ask; we're buried under game consoles; for my work; no it isn't always nearly as much fun as it sounds -- both places in the house where there's good stereo equipment and a large HDTV. And a $15 piece of streaming server software that allows seamless, high-quality wireless transport of ALL my music and photos, and what little video I have to stream, not just the subsets of same synced to my 32GB iPhone and iPad. I could shell out about a hundred bucks for a new Apple TV or Airport Express. But why?

If Apple took Airprint to computer-shared printers out it's because it was riddled with frustrating issues, and came off like a hack. Apple hates to ship hacks.
 
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