Steve Jobs on AirPrint: 'Lots More Coming Soon'

[Meandmunch]

Printopia.

Seriously download and install the demo, takes like 30 seconds. I have access to all the printers on our network. Works flawlessly.

The future of AirPrint has me very excited.

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/

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[DotCom2]

We have 3 printers in our home. 1 Laser and two ink jets that we have had for quite a while now that just, well...WORK! I see no compelling reason to replace. If AirPrint is only going to be supported on e-printers going forward, I can see where *MOST* people are just not going to be able have much use for airprint. I mean how often does one replace a printer anyway?

 

[Skoal]

No, but a $7.99 utility Printopia works like a charm for any printer. Not everything in life is free. All of you that are bitching about why Airprint is not in this release should try building some software someday. Sometimes you run into issues and rather than release something buggy (which still happens from time to time) you hold off and try to make it better so that the constant complainers don't whine as much when it doesn't work perfectly right out of the box.

On one had you state that Printopia "works like a charm" and on the other it sounds like your defending Apples lack of airplay usability at this time because of what it takes to build this software. I don't get it. Even Apple had this working prior to the release.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Well lets translate this.

Airprint just became a worthless gimicy feature for most of the world.
Reason being is most people are not going to go out and buy a new printer. Big time if they have a good quality printer or a laser printer. Both of which tend to go threw many computers before they are retired.

The printer manufactures are not going to give up their drivers since it allow for much better control over for the computer to print with. It would of been better to have it shared with a computer and let the computer handle the printing.

Lovely apple you make yet another worthless and gimmicky feature that will never be used.

 

[johncarync]

Remember the Bondi Blue iMac?

Anyone else remember buying the first iMac on the first day? The only way to print was via a USB printer...and there was only ONE printer out there that had a USB connection. It was an HP InkJet. Today pretty much every printer has USB.

Now there are 11 printers that work with AirPrint. In a few years they all will. Thank you Apple for pushing us toward the future. For those who want infinite backward compatibility, buy a PC with a floppy drive and a serial port.

 

[ctdonath]

Actually it doesn't. It's non-descript speech that accurately states more than 11 printers will be supported in the future. He doesn't say how or that it will include any existing models. ... No, he does what he should, not get embroiled in long winded discussions that will force his or Apple's hand to anything. He states a concise, often non-committal, response.

Quite. Funny how soundbite-based text conversation is so often criticized for not being utterly complete and precise and thorough unto constituting voluminous tomes. Instead of being glad a CEO deigned to answer a question with a reasonable and concise response, so many are quick to condemn him for not elaborating on which printers are/will/should-be supported, for omitting precise details of the new protocols involved down to bytecodes, for not explaining which flunky is responsible for the delay and why he hasn't been drawn & quartered already, and for not personally asking the critic exactly which sword he should fall on in penance.

"the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so" - Ratatouille

 

[linux2mac]

Thank you Apple for pushing us toward the future. For those who want infinite backward compatibility, buy a PC with a floppy drive and a serial port.

Agreed.

 

[ctdonath]

Reason being is most people are not going to go out and buy a new printer. ... Lovely apple you make yet another worthless and gimmicky feature that will never be used.

Lovely you declare that your whim is the definitive imputation of value upon the works and needs of others.

I _have_ held off buying a new printer precisely pending AirPrint support.
Much as iPad is the epitome of paperless, we do live in the real world and do at times need to print.
Nice to see Apple attempt to end the decades-old chaos of printer drivers, and have the clout to perhaps do so.

And if you don't like it, and consider it worthless, you don't have to buy one and don't have to use the feature.

 

[disco13]

MORE PRINTERS w/ E-PRINT?

I read this as there being more e-print capable printers on the way....

 

[oldMac]

Well lets translate this.

Lovely apple you make yet another worthless and gimmicky feature that will never be used.

Sorry - but I think Jobs has got it right on this one.

The idea that people will have an iPad (or iPhone) *and* a PC which has been configured for Airprint is convoluted. If I carry my iPad to the other side of the office, or on a trip for that matter, should I really have to worry about whether or not there is a compatible PC hooked-up to a printer to route my print job for me? Why can't I just do basic printing regardless of the device?

This isn't 1988. The idea that PCs carry around a jagillion drivers to allow them to print to every conceivable printer is a necessary evil that was borne from the history of the PC, printer and the high costs associated. It's time to move on to a world where a basic printing capability is guaranteed between all devices. That's the vision that Jobs is aiming for.

In the meantime, buy a $10 or $20 utility to bridge your new-world device to your old-world printer. Consider it an investment toward a better day when your children will say "what's a printer driver?"

 

[Bevz]

On one had you state that Printopia "works like a charm" and on the other it sounds like your defending Apples lack of airplay usability at this time because of what it takes to build this software. I don't get it. Even Apple had this working prior to the release.

+1 I don't get it. If Printopia works perfectly and Apple themselves had this working just fine prior to release, WTF!

 

[pcharles]

More Fake Emails

Why do we keep falling for them when we know that Apple does not discuss unannounced products or enhancements?

 

[Kenrik]

What other ceo even replies to customers at all?

Beat you to it.

 

[w00t951]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

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???

Do you have a job? If you get one you might notice that most companies remain paper based.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Sorry - but I think Jobs has got it right on this one.

The idea that people will have an iPad (or iPhone) *and* a PC which has been configured for Airprint is convoluted. If I carry my iPad to the other side of the office, or on a trip for that matter, should I really have to worry about whether or not there is a compatible PC hooked-up to a printer to route my print job for me? Why can't I just do basic printing regardless of the device?

This isn't 1988. The idea that PCs carry around a jagillion drivers to allow them to print to every conceivable printer is a necessary evil that was borne from the history of the PC, printer and the high costs associated. It's time to move on to a world where a basic printing capability is guaranteed between all devices. That's the vision that Jobs is aiming for.

In the meantime, buy a $10 or $20 utility to bridge your new-world device to your old-world printer. Consider it an investment toward a better day when your children will say "what's a printer driver?"

Considering how I know most offices printers are set up. Not a good argument.
Most offices that I know of that have any mid size set up or larger of computers tend to use a print server to handle all their printing needs. The print server is generally a virtual server who's only job is to handle printing. It means it is housing all the driver needed and it could easily be configured to handle low and behold shared printing for airprint.

Your system would not work with that set up and if it is even a smaller office low and behold the computer you would be connected could easily house it.
Btw the print servers generally are able to handle printers connect to anohter computer. It is really nice how shared printing works. As long as the printer server can handle airprint none of the other computers on the network need to deal with it.


Like I said worthless feature. Companies are not going to rush out and go buy 5k+ new printers for their offices. Instead they would rather just install the shared printing on the print server.

 

[ctdonath]

+1 I don't get it. If Printopia works perfectly and Apple themselves had this working just fine prior to release, WTF!

WTF = the technology is a lot more complicated than you realize. Just because it's easy to use (a la "it just works") doesn't mean it's easy to make happen; in fact, it can be very complicated. "Working just fine" fails to account for what happens when it doesn't. Not unusual for a major, nearly-perfect, almost-done feature to get scrapped at the last minute because one "small" defect proves intolerable and unfixable given the requirements.

Think of the Honda Prius: it works just fine ... except for those very rare instances of spontaneous acceleration. The lot of 'em were recalled for major modifications, and the whole line would never have been released had the bug been known in time.

 

[bigian]

Ipad printing

What a big let down the new Ipad update was regarding Printing and using your own printer really big mistake here by Apple.

i downloaded the Print Central App and free software to install on any Mac or Pc and was up and running in two mins printing anything from my ipad through my Mac including emails, pictures web sites. its the best App for ages for the ipad and Iphone, its worth every penny and what Apple should have included in the first update. Come on Apple your lagging behind here as the Other Ipad devices that are on sale at the moment can print out of the box and have a Camera and do almost everything the ipad can do much cheaper. if we are paying for a premium device from apple i expect to get the best system apps that are really basic and make the ipad stand out from the crowd.

no more mistakes Steve

 

[ctdonath]

Like I said worthless feature. Companies are not going to rush out and go buy 5k+ new printers for their offices. Instead they would rather just install the shared printing on the print server.

Ya think Jobs hasn't thought of that? Maybe part of the delay in full AirPrint support is working out print server support. It _is_ a lot more complicated than you seem to think. Easy to get a limited office set up for a particular peculiar configuration; much harder to set up universal support. The point isn't just having your IT department set up shared printing for each machine, it's having anyone walk in with an unconfigured iPad and print without even specifying where the print server is.

 

[Vizin]

The only reason people are upset is because AirPrint was originally announced to work with any printer (connected to a networked computer). Had they only planned to have it for supported printers in the first place there would have been some grumbling, but it would have passed.

They're also upset because Apple hasn't acknowledged this whatsoever, they seem to be pretending they never planned to offer it as originally announced at all.

Apple doesn't seem to handle its own screw-ups very well. Atennagate showed us it takes a huge media (blown waaay out of proportion) for them to admit fault at all.

A little note from Steve saying something like, "sorry, we ran into technical/patent/whatever issues with the original AirPrint" would go a long way. It's not like consumers have lost any money on this.

 

[oldMac]

Considering how I know most offices printers are set up. Not a good argument.
...
Like I said worthless feature. Companies are not going to rush out and go buy 5k+ new printers for their offices. Instead they would rather just install the shared printing on the print server.

You just described how it works now (and has for the last 15 years.)

Check back with me in 5 years when you find most of those dumb printers have more horsepower than the servers that currently serve them. HP will likely be leading the way - running their newly acquired OS on said printers.

 

[flopticalcube]

WTF = the technology is a lot more complicated than you realize. Just because it's easy to use (a la "it just works") doesn't mean it's easy to make happen; in fact, it can be very complicated. "Working just fine" fails to account for what happens when it doesn't. Not unusual for a major, nearly-perfect, almost-done feature to get scrapped at the last minute because one "small" defect proves intolerable and unfixable given the requirements.

Think of the Honda Prius: it works just fine ... except for those very rare instances of spontaneous acceleration. The lot of 'em were recalled for major modifications, and the whole line would never have been released had the bug been known in time.

Toyota?

It was working perfectly fine in the 10.6.5 beta so it was pulled for reasons other than technical.

 

[Daveoc64]

Why do we keep falling for them when we know that Apple does not discuss unannounced products or enhancements?

What says this is fake?

AirPrint was announced at the press event earlier this year. It was the exact opposite of "unannounced".

Apple still has the press release on their website:

http://www.apple.com/uk/pr/library/2010/09/15airprint.html

 

[Daveoc64]

At least he replies... Seriously what other CEO even cares that you exist other than that you buy the product.

What other ceo even replies to customers at all?

Beat you to it.

Not sure what it's like in the US, but over here writing to the CEO/Director/Whatever of a company is commonplace. You'd always get a response, even if it is just being handled by a team of people on his/her behalf.

 

[Daveoc64]

The only reason people are upset is because AirPrint was originally announced to work with any printer (connected to a networked computer). Had they only planned to have it for supported printers in the first place there would have been some grumbling, but it would have passed.

They're also upset because Apple hasn't acknowledged this whatsoever, they seem to be pretending they never planned to offer it as originally announced at all.

Apple doesn't seem to handle its own screw-ups very well. Atennagate showed us it takes a huge media (blown waaay out of proportion) for them to admit fault at all.

A little note from Steve saying something like, "sorry, we ran into technical/patent/whatever issues with the original AirPrint" would go a long way. It's not like consumers have lost any money on this.

Bingo.

 

[Hal Itosis]

According to Steve Jobs, everything they do is "awesome, magical, beautiful, revolutionary, amazing, gorgeous, huge". I'm not a native speaker, but I think that Apple's marketing department urgently needs a vocabulary upgrade.

Marvy.