Enabling More Printers for AirPrint With Printopia

For those user who’ve upgraded to iOS 4.2, Ecamm Network provides an effective and reliable solution with Printopia. For $9.95, Printopia enables AirPrint on any printer your Mac can connect to and works with both Leopard and Snow Leopard (great for those still using PowerPC-based Macs). Not only does it allow printing, but it will also convert files to PDF or JPG for storage on your local Mac or on Dropbox.

Printopia has three key requirements: your iPad must be on the same network as your Mac, you must be running iOS 4.2 or higher, and the application you’re using must support AirPrint. If you don’t meet all those requirements, other options exist and I detail them below.

Pinnacle of Printing: Print Bureau

Eurosmartz has nine different printing apps ranging in price from $2.99 to $12.99. Print Bureau ($12.99) encompasses the features of all each in a single app and can print emails, contacts, calendars, pictures, clipboards and both local and cloud-based files. If it’s on your iPad or accessible via your iPad, Print Bureau should be able to print it. I was able to directly access iDisk, Google Docs, Dropbox, box.net, FTP, and WebDav with the app.

Printing directly from Print Bureau can produce inconsistent results, since it communicates directly with printers. Fortunately, Eurosmartz also offers an alternative method using a companion application called “WePrint.”

WePrint works on Macs running OS X Tiger and above, as well as on XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Instead of having Print Bureau (and any other Eurosmartz apps) print directly to the printer, WePrint intercepts the file and routes it through the desktop’s native printer software, ensuring near-perfect compatibility.

Moreover, WePrint will monitor an email address for you and print any files you send it via the iOS app, thereby enabling printing from outside your local area network. They call it “Printing Over 3G”, but you can be on any type of network to use it.

Other Alternatives

For basic photo printing, a majority of manufacturers have their own printing apps, which are usually free. I’ve tried both HP iPrint Photo 3 and Epson’s iPrint. Both print pictures very well (including screen shots from other iOS apps). Considering these manufacturer-based apps are free, having them all in case you happen to need them is probably a good idea.

Other apps I tested such as Wella’s Print Magic, Avatron’s Air Sharing Pro, and Microtech’s ePrint weren’t always compatible with every printer in every situation. The key advantage of these apps is that they don’t require a “helper” application to be installed on a separate computer. In public environments like a computer lab or hotel, Wella’s ePrint was the most reliable. I was able to walk into a Wi-Fi network and simply print to an available printer. Great for printing a boarding pass at the last minute!

Developers Picking Up Where Apple Left Off

While we’ve come to expect the ability to print from any program on our Mac, it’s sadly still not fully baked in to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Fortunately, programs like Printopia and Print Bureau are helping users bridge the gap between Apple’s printing hype and the iOS reality.

Any other solutions you’ve found that aren’t listed here?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• In Q3, E-Books and White Spaces Ruled
• Google’s Chrome OS: Dead Before Arrival?
• How Starbucks Can Become the Barnes & Noble of E-books

Samsung Galaxy Tab possibly printing

In conjunction with the iOS 4.2 beta, Apple has issued a press release touting “AirPrint.” The trendily named wireless printing feature for iOS will be included with iOS 4.2 in November.

“AirPrint is Apple’s powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download,” gushed Apple VP Philip Schiller.

First demoed at the Apple Event in September, AirPrint will initially work with HP ePrint printers or shared printers on a PC or Mac. HP ePrint printers use unique e-mail addresses to receive documents from devices with e-mail capability, supporting a variety formats including Microsoft Office, PDFs, rich text, HTML, and others, though no mention is made of iWork.

Compatible shared printers include HP Photosmart, Officejet, and LaserJet models. Of course, only iOS devices capable of running iOS 4.2 will be AirPrint ready: iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (second generation and later).

As nice as wireless printing from iOS devices will be, the unanswered question in the press release is why we are hearing about it again. The answer is the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the first real rival to the iPad launching this week in the U.S. that is wireless printing capable. This is something of a role reversal for Apple, fighting a real competitor with features on paper, paper that can’t yet be printed wirelessly.

I’m not going to debate the merits of upgrading with you, since I’m sure you’ve already wrestled with that particular demon yourself, but I did want to take a look at the gaming side of Apple’s new 3GS, and the amazing potential it boasts for bringing cell phone gaming to even more lofty heights. I knew it was better at handling graphics, but just how much better only became really clear yesterday, thanks to a post at Gizmodo looking at how the 3GS handles hardware emulation.

In short, it handles it very well. Much more adeptly than its predecessor, the 3G, in fact. ZodTTD, homebrew coder extraordinaire and jailbreak enthusiast, recently managed to get his Playstation console emulator running on a new 3GS, and the performance gap between it, and the same program running on a 3G, provides a tantalizing hint at what could be coming in the near future for 3GS gaming enthusiasts.

The results are amazing. The 3GS runs PSX game Final Fantasy VII flawlessly, albeit in a tiny space, since the screen is mostly taken up by clunky controls. ZodTTD demos the game in action in the YouTube video included below, so you can see for yourself. Sadly, none of the game’s lavish cutscenes were included, which really would’ve provided an accurate measure of the hardware’s capabilities.

Even without cutscenes, this performance beats the same game running on the same emulator on the iPhone 3G by a wide margin. So far, developers seem reluctant to exclude 3G users by developing games specifically for the 3GS, and instead claim that some games will scale based on your hardware capability. I think it’s only a matter of time, though, before some companies start taking the lead in 3GS exclusive development, a move which Apple will likely want to encourage from a product differentiation standpoint.

Add to better first-party hardware in the 3GS the ability to connect with third-party devices via the dock connector interface and over Bluetooth, and you have a recipe for a great gaming machine that can match, or even exceed, the likes of the PSP and DSi in terms of both core and casual gaming. The oddly themed GameBone Pro appears to be the first such device on the horizon, but I’m sure it won’t be the last. It’s a controller with a built-in battery, microphone and speakers that uses new hardware device access APIs in the 3.0 SDK to control your phone.

It’s a nice start, but as Kotaku points out, companies will have to build support into their apps if they want players to be able to use the device. So before we see a truly useful iPhone controller, industry players will have to agree on a coding specification that third-party hardware makers can then use in all of their devices.

With third-party device access, and much improved graphics capability, Apple has opened the doors for an unrivaled gaming experience on the iPhone. Let’s just hope developers are up to the challenge.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• Report: How Mobile Cloud Computing Will Change Tech
• A 2011 Green IT Forecast

Before you make the jump into consolidation of those separate devices with a new AIO printer, you might want to define some simple criteria. What is your budget? What are your needs? Do you know? Well, hopefully this article will set you down the right path. For one, let’s start with a modest budget of $300-400. Next, let’s define some functional criteria.

Recommended Features

• Excellent print quality (documents are readable) even with prints from draft mode
• Network capable (Ethernet), so it can support printing and scanning from the device to a computer and vice-versa
• Automatically copy, print and scan on both sides of the paper (duplexer)
• Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for multiple page copies/scans
• Separate trays for printing paper vs. photos/envelopes
• Stores at least 150 sheets of paper
• Fax support with memory and auto-redial/fax
• 8.5×14 paper support for printing and scanning
• Color screen for easier readability of device functions
• Excellent customer/technical support
• Great software support for drivers and provided applications
• Six-ink system for more flexibility
• Low total cost of ownership (TCO)

Optional (Bonus) Features

• Wireless network capable
• Printing directly to CDs/DVDs
• Memory card access/support (over the network)
• Photo printing: 4×6, 5×7, 8×10 or larger
• Quiet or moderate noise production

Performance

Printer speed is always subjective, as most manufacturers provide the best specs based upon the lowest quality settings. For example, you will see that at an AIO prints 32 pages per minute in black and white. This seems impressive, yes? Well, this speed example is in draft mode, not full quality.

Until there are metrics that define the entire spectrum of how each unit performs when printing in draft vs. best and color vs. black & white, it just doesn’t make sense to use speed as a realistic criteria.

What are the choices?

Using the above requirements, it probably makes sense to visit your local office supply/big box store and try some of the printers in person. I took the liberty of doing this for you and here are some of the choices available in the specified price range (please note, the prices mentioned are current retail at publishing):

• Canon Pixma MX850 – $199, 5-ink, comes close to meeting the criteria except in build quality as the ADF seems flimsy
• Epson Artisan 800 – $299, New model on the market, ADF does not support duplex copy/scan, print duplexer is a separate purchase, comes with a 2-year warranty
• HP Photosmart C7280 – $269.99 (usually $299.99, although HP has instant rebates now), ADF does not support duplex copy/scan, all other above required features met
• Lexmark X9575 Professional – $249.99, New model to the market, 4-ink, duplex copying and printing (not clear about duplex scanning – although it can duplex copy), comes with 5-year warranty
• Brother MFC-6490CW – $299.99, New model to the market, 4-ink, no duplex support

If you want to stretch your budget by a little:

• Canon Pixma MX7600 – $399, excellent build quality, all criteria met
• HP OfficeJet Pro L7880 – $349.99 (usually $499.99, although HP has instant rebates now), very large dimensions, all recommended criteria met

Getting to one printer from seven

With seven (including the two that stretch the budget) different printer models to choose from, here are some considerations to minimize that choice to one or two.

Let’s take the Brother MFC-6490CW, Canon Pixma MX850 and Lexmark X9575 Professional off the list because they are not traditional six-ink printers. The Lexmark has the option to go six-ink, although there is additional cost.

Printer count: 4

Let’s remove the HP Photosmart C7280 because it neither supports duplex copy or scan. Anecdotally, I really like the form-factor and build quality of the Photosmart. It is a very nice printer with a pretty comprehensive feature set. If duplex is not important, then this model is an excellent choice.

Printer count: 3

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7880 was removed because of its sheer size (it has the largest dimensions at 20.91″ x 19.09″ x 17.48″) and the fact that it is outside the budget of $300. However, with an extended budget, this is a very nice printer as it meets every requirement, including printing 8×10 photos.

Printer count: 2

Recommendations

$300 range – Epson Artisan 800 (full review) as it meets most of the recommended and most optional requirements. It’s only missing feature is the ability to duplex copy and scan.

$400 range – Canon Pixma MX7600 (full review) does meet every recommended and most optional requirements as well. The added bonus is that it, like the HP OfficeJet Pri L7880, has the ability to duplex copy and scan.

Additional Resources

I recommend that you read as many professional and blogger reviews of the products to see if anyone has found any particular issues with the printer you want. Other than some hardware failures, most of the AIOs were reviewed well, so I don’t think you can make a bad choice here. Good luck in your decision making process and toward improving and consolidating your SoHo environment.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Report: 3-D Computing From Digital Cinema to GPUs
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• What Google’s Honeycomb Means for Apple and Microsoft

Full disclosure: I have owned two other Canon printers (a MultiPASS MP390 and a Pixma MP970) and they both have been exceptional in terms of print quality as well as being made like tanks.

One of the novel features of this device is the way in which it puts the ink to the paper. Initially, the Pixma 7600 lays down a layer of clear ink and then begins to add the respective colors. Honestly, this seemed like a marketing gimmick, until I viewed the print quality.

To be clear, the Pixma MX7600 print quality for documents is fantastic. Color pops on the page and even small point sizes (6-8pt) are readable. Further, when using relatively inexpensive paper, the ink does not bleed. I have not printed any photos, although the demos from within the store I have seen are exceptional. As an additional bonus, the Canon prints in near silence and includes a quiet-mode setting.

The Pixma MX7600 supports duplexing for copying, scanning and printing. It supports networking over Ethernet, although it is not wireless capable. From the unit, you can scan items to any Mac on the network.

One annoyance with this unit is that setting it up over the network is a little clumsy. First, you must connect the printer to the Mac via USB while at the same time, connect it to the router over Ethernet. This happens because Canon implemented their own network discovery software rather than using Bonjour from Apple.

On the positive side, each time you print, the printer tray door opens automatically, avoiding any potential paper jams. It’s nice to see Canon consider small touches like this for an AIO printer because in a network environment, it is possible that users will be printing where they cannot directly access and/or see the printer and ensure that the print tray is extended.

Another small issue with the printer is that you cannot mount media cards (compact flash, etc.) over the network. This feature is only available via USB. If this is an important feature for your SoHo, consider it in your evaluation.

Faxing with the Canon is relatively straightforward. Insert your document into the ADF, utilize the touch screen to specify the destination and send it. The Pixma MX7600 can store up to 100 speed dials and has a 250 page memory for previously receive faxes, making it easy to reprint them.

As an added bonus, this printer is built like a tank, which is pretty exceptional seeing how it is made of recycled plastics. Nothing feels flimsy or under-developed.

If I were to make any recommendations for the next generation of this printer, I would suggest that Canon increase the size of the small 1.8″ color screen for additional readability. Epson sets a new standard here with their 7″ touch screen display. Canon could consider this as well, although call me old school, but I like the mixture of simple screen and hard buttons with the Pixma MX7600.

Canon’s support team is excellent. The standard business reply time via email is 24 hours. I received a reply within two hours of problem submission. Further, the answer was clear and solved my problem immediately (setting up the printer over IPv6).

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of this printer includes the following:

Capital costs

• Canon Pixma MX7600: $399 (MSRP)

• Replacement Inks: $92.94 (5 x 14.99 low capacity + 1 Clear Ink @ 17.99)

The inks can print approximately 800 pages (averaged across all colors) before replacement. If you print a ream a month, expect that you will be spending about $60 (average). Granted, this is just printing/copying regular paper. Your mileage may vary if you print photos and other types of content. For more information, Canon has this information at their support site.

Please note, it appears you can only currently purchase the ink cartridges from either Canon directly or at Amazon.

Conclusion

If you are in the market for a new all-in-one printer, and have a more sizable budget, then you should consider this device from Canon. The Pixma MX7600 is a very solid device with a rich feature set.

Personal Sidebar

After five weeks of research and testing printers, there was much learned. For one, there are many great products out there for SoHo users to choose from when selecting an AIO printer. Second, be clear on your personal/business needs for selecting a printer. Lastly, make sure that you understand the costs of what you are purchasing, as buying a printer is not a one-time action.

For me, the Canon Pixma 7600 met my requirements and is becoming the SoHo daily workhorse in our household. Its print quality, build quality, relatively manageable TCO and ability to duplex copy/scan/print made it the clear winner.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Report: 3-D Computing From Digital Cinema to GPUs
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• What Google’s Honeycomb Means for Apple and Microsoft

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

I want to be able to print at home without disconnecting everything from her computer and connecting it to my MacBook. I have heard that it is super easy to add printers in OS X, but haven’t tried to add one on a network yet. I have, however had excellent success adding printers anywhere else, especially if they are IP printers.

It started off well enough, I selected “add new printer,” then chose “more printers” and chose Windows printing.

Network Neighborhood worked instead of Workgroup for our XP network. I connected to the network, authenticated, and then tried to print. No dice.

I didn’t know what to do, and I couldn’t find any helpful resources on the internet. So, I decided to try turning on file and Windows sharing in the sharing preference pane.

I will spare you the frustrations that entail when adding the printer 15 times and authenticating with different passwords. Let me digress here and say that I am shocked that when I was trying to add my printer, there was no search box that allowed me to type in part of the printer number and narrow the search down. Instead, I had to scroll through that list for a long time trying to find the browser. And, besides, nobody owns or uses the things at the top of a long list. People always use what is the third or fourth one from the bottom (maybe I should start looking at the bottom, instead of the top).

What finally worked was authenticating through the add printer dialog as my wife’s username and password. Well, at least I thought that would work. That spit out 20 blank pages and 5 gibberish pages. But at least the connection was not refused as it had been so many times before.

Back to the drawing board. Another search led me to Gutenprint, so I tried to add the printer again after installing that. That worked! Kind of.

Gutenprint only kind of worked because it didn’t have my printer model number: HP PSC 2355xi all-in-one. I had to choose a lower model number (HP PSC 2210) and that one printed out my document correctly.

I decided that I would try to install the specific printer driver again, and see if that worked. I had already done this, but for some reason, my specific printer model never showed up. I installed it, and my printer driver never showed up. So, I guess that I will have to stick with a lower model number than my printer’s model number. I can live with that.

I still had a question, though, what about Windows sharing? I know that is for Windows users to be able to print to a printer connected to my Mac. I disabled that and file sharing and it worked just fine.

This took me a long time to figure out, and it was very frustrating. I am happy to say that it is pretty much the only frustrating thing that has happened since I switched to a Mac. Frustration was a weekly theme when working with my PCs in the past.

So, in summary, to add a printer via the network your Mac that is connected via USB to a PC on your network, download Guten-print and be sure to authenticate as a real user of that PC.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks