Apple, HP Promote Wireless Printing for iPads and iPhones

Good news for anyone using iPads or iPhones in the work environment; wireless printing is coming in iOS 4.2. And while that might be a bit of old-news for those who’ve been following Apple closely, some new news is the fact that HP is jumping on board with AirPrint. Read on for details…

Apple’s press release says AirPrint will automatically find printers on a local network to print text, photos or graphics right over WiFi. The tech works without any drivers needed, though obvious requires a computer to be attached to the printer. The good news is that it will work with a PC or Mac, but as of now, reports are coming in that Apple requires you to have the developer version of Mac OS X 10.6.5 installed for this feature to work.

If you’re a developer already, you’re all set to go.

But here’s the more interesting spin. HP is jumping on board with AirPrint, and they’re not just going platform agnostic, they’re skipping the platform all together. Apple’s release says that HP existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the first printers to support direct printing from iOS devices. HP’s official quote in the release comes from Vyomesh Joshi, HP’s executive VP of the Imaging and Printing Group. He feels that the simplicity and ease of use will be a big deal and that people “are going to love [it].”

Apple says they intend to support a wide range of printers, citing that even basic inkjet printers to laser printers will be eventually able to be access via AirPrint. The starting line up will be no other than “compatible” HP printers, like the HP Photosmart, Officejet and LaserJet Pro series (that are ePrint enabled). Oddly, iOS 4.2 AirPrint leaves out iPhone 3G support, and only the iPad, iPhone 4, 3GS and iPod Touch second generation and above will support this new feature.

Here’s the bigger question at hand: How useful do you think this feature will be? Will it be good for just waking up, parusing your e-mail, printing something you need before headed out the door to work, or will it change the way that office and enterprise collaboration work?

This blogger thinks anytime you can remove the issue of drivers, that’s good news. Once upon a time, this blogger spend too many hours installing annoying printer drivers for specific network printers as a help desk tech.

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