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Steve Jobs Replies Regarding Rumors of AirPrint Issues

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Apr 12, 2001
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After yesterday's report that support for using Apple's AirPrint feature in iOS 4.2 to print to shared printers connected to Macs and Windows PCs appears to have been scrapped at the last minute, one MacRumors forum member emailed Steve Jobs to inquire about the fate of the feature. Jobs reportedly replied, noting that AirPrint has not been canceled.
Q: As a release-day purchaser of an iPad, I was elated when you revealed iOS 4.2 would support AirPrint. Now comes reports AirPrint support has been pulled from 4.2. Between announcements/assurances of the white iPhone, and now the pulling of AirPrint, is Apple going to lose credibility and become known for announcing "vaporware"?

A: AirPrint has not been pulled. Don't believe everything you read.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the exchange sheds little light on the situation, as the initial report did not claim that AirPrint had been entirely pulled, only that printing to shared printers connected to Macs and PCs had been removed at the last minute. Consequently, both the rumor and Jobs' comments can be entirely correct.

Apple has touted that AirPrint will allow users to print directly from iOS devices to compatible printers, with HP leading the way in releasing AirPrint-friendly printers. That aspect of AirPrint has not been rumored for discontinuation, with only printing to other printers accessible via sharing from Macs and PCs being the subject of the claims.

Apple has been rumored to be releasing Mac OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 today, with iOS 4.2 set to follow on Friday, although we have yet to see any indication from Apple of today's rumored releases.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Replies Regarding Rumors of AirPrint Issues
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/10/steve-jobs-replies-regarding-rumors-of-airprint-issues/
Funny (in a sad way) how people take the fact that Apple pulled printer sharing support from Airprint, but practically everyone's saying that Apple's pulling Airprint entirely. As the article said, HP is making Airprint ready printers.

People today are so used to extremes. People tell me that life isn't just black & white; there are many shades of gray. While I believe that, I also believe people only really understand black & white. My high school band teacher had a saying, "People only remember the first song, the last song and if a dog runs through in the middle." Sad, but true.
 
You would think that when a member of this forum emails Steve, they would at least take the time to get the issue right. This is so disappointing because it's probably the most we'll ever hear from Steve on the subject, and it's a complete non-answer because of how the question was phrased. Of course AirPrint was never pulled, what we all ACTUALLY want to know (aside from the member who emailed him apparently) is whether the support for shared Windows/OSX printers was pulled.
 
If the 10.6.5 release is as soon as rumored, then there's no reason to get your panties in twist about this rumor before the release is actually here. After that, sure, freak out all you like.
 
"Don't believe everything you read." How ironic of an answer was that!!! It you went by that answer, then you shouldn't believe Jobs' answer either :)
 
well I guess that's a reason to hope that the previous reports weren't true... but we all should know for sure soon enough :)
 
I secretly hope one can never print easily from an iPad. I have 140 laser printers, and the yearly costs on them is more than most school's tech budgets, and I want it to go away. Forever. This shouldn't be the domain of the iPad. Go green, go cloud. There is rarely a real reason to print anything, at least in EDU. We are totally electronic NOW....
 
This just seems very odd to me, from a technology standpoint. If it's using the print drivers already built into your desktop OS X, which should already be tested and working, where are the issues coming from? Wouldn't the iOS device just do something like package your document up into a PDF (already built into the Cocoa APIs) or PostScript doc and stream it to the desktop? It seems like the video streaming should be much more of a challenge, yet that appears to be working.
 
Les Kern said:
I secretly hope one can never print easily from an iPad. I have 140 laser printers, and the yearly costs on them is more than most school's tech budgets, and I want it to go away. Forever. This shouldn't be the domain of the iPad. Go green, go cloud. There is rarely a real reason to print anything, at least in EDU. We are totally electronic NOW....
Click to expand...

+1 to that. I am much more interested in convenient ways to share documents from the iPad with other handheld devices (outside of iOS) wirelessly. It's a pain that we need a shared WiFi network and both devices connected to it or not-so-convenient Bluetooth. I hope Apple quickly adopts the new WiFi standard allowing device to device transfers.
 
Man, the person who asked Jobs this question should have really made it more precise. Of course AirPrint hasn't been pulled. What might have been pulled is the Mac OS / Windows Printer Sharing ability that AirPrint offered... Now we know the exact same thing as before.
 
hachre said:
Man, the person who asked Jobs this question should have really made it more precise. Of course AirPrint hasn't been pulled. What might have been pulled is the Mac OS / Windows Printer Sharing ability that AirPrint offered... Now we know the exact same thing as before.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not quite sure why people can't get the concept of being specific. Airprint has not been pulled. People should know that based on the original story. What they should be asking is, if Airprint will work to shared printers still.
 
Going back to look at the original iOS 4.2 announcement but I don't recall anyone ever saying specifically that wireless printing was supported through a shared printer in OSX or Windows on a Mac or PC. I always took it to mean wireless printing through either an Airport connected shared printer or a Wifi printer supporting Airprint.

Does anyone have a link that actually stated that this feature was OSX or Windows shared printer specific?
 
It was never pulled...this was just somebody making up crap....We will all be happy on friday.

It works in all the betas....
 
Canon MG6150

Just as an aside, I am happily printing to my wireless Canon MG6150 using Canon's own app - trouble is it is limited to photos!
 
thank goodness. i need to airprint all the time, like when i go paperless on all my bills. oh wait...
 
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