Canon Pixma MX870: Well-Balanced Multifunction Printer Performs Well, Offers Inexpensive Ink

For $200 (as of May 26, 2010), the Canon Pixma MX870 color inkjet multifunction printer offers a lot of features and performance for the money, especially for small-office or home-office users. Its ink prices are good, too.

One of several new inkjet MFPs introduced by Canon in recent months, the silver (with black accents) Pixma MX870 is both sporty and simple in design. Big buttons on the front control panel let you bring up its major functions (copying, faxing, scanning, and memory-card reading), and the menus appear on a 2.5-inch color LCD. Augmenting the traditional four-way rocker navigation button is a scroll wheel around its edge if you prefer to twirl through options; an 'OK' button occupies the middle of the rocker nav.

The MX870's performance is more than adequate for a small office. On both our PC and Mac test platforms, plain-text pages emerged at a rate of 6.4 pages per minute. Color pages averaged 1.8 ppm on the PC and just under 0.5 ppm on the Mac. Also on the Mac, scanning a 7.5-by-9.9-inch photo at 600 dots per inch averaged about 45 seconds, while scanning a 4-by-6-inch photo at 1200 dpi took about 90 seconds. Color prints on both plain and photo paper had rich, smooth color, and text pages looked black and sharp. Our only beef involved color scans: At the default settings, they were excessively dark, giving the appearance of being shot on a rainy day.

Business-friendly features abound: You can connect via ethernet, USB, or Wi-Fi. The beveled scanner bed cover includes a foldout, 35-sheet automatic document feeder, an essential feature for any office. The Pixma MX870 also has an unusually generous paper capacity, with a 150-sheet undermounted drawer for plain paper only, plus a 150-sheet rear vertical tray for feeding all other kinds of media. The automatic duplexer helps you save money and trees. The unit will even lower the front output tray automatically before printing. ("Open the pod bay doors, HAL.") Card readers accommodate CF, MS, and SD formats; you'll need a third-party adapter for xD. There's also a PictBridge port. Canon sells a Bluetooth adapter (BU-30) for $50.

The Pixma MX870 has a separate ink cartridge for each color. The pigment black (PGI-220) costs $15 and is specced to last for 324 pages, or 4.62 cents per page. The cyan, magenta, and yellow CLI-221 cartridges cost $13 each and should last for 510 to 535 pages each, which works out to about 2.5 cents per color per page; a page with all four colors would cost about 12.4 cents. The CLI-221 photo black will lasts for about 814 4-by-6-inch photos, by Canon's reckoning.

The Pixma MX870 is one of the best-balanced inkjet MFPs we've tested recently. It delivers good performance and good features for the price. While the machine is best suited for a small or home office, its media slots and good color output make it useful for a busy family as well.
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Remains of the Day: Flurry Backs Down, Dolphins Step up

Legos are good for more than just toys, and dolphins are poised to take over society as we know it. Oh, and I'm sure it's all relevant to technology somehow. It's the remainders for June 2, 2010.
Flurry modifies data collection after being called out by Steve Jobs (AppleInsider)
During his interview at D8 on Tuesday, Steve Jobs took a direct shot at analytics firm Flurry--which creates software that developers work into their programs to collect statistics about users--for not disclosing what it was doing to users and for outing Apple's prototype devices. Now, Flurry has hurriedly scurried, saying it will no longer collect device data. Is that all it took? Jobs hulking out? JOBS ANGRY! JOBS SMASH!
Awesome Lego printer uses felt-tipped pens, tiny workers (Wired)
Remember when your mom used to bug you to stop playing with Legos and get out of the house? Well, that's probably because you were too busy making spaceships and robots and not busy enough making an actual working printer. Just one question: what does the dude on the horse do?
Apple's iPad helps researchers speak with the animals (9 to 5 Mac)
The iPad is apparently so easy to use that dolphins can use it to pick symbols for communicating with humans. Research scientist Jack Kassewitz says, "As this database of dolphin symbols grows, we'll need fast technology to help us respond appropriately and quickly to the dolphins." Great. We've invented a device that lets marine mammals boss us around. Way to go, humans.
Google adds background images (Google)
Grown bored of the plain white background of Google's homepage? Spruce it up with a picture of your choice, from your own stores or from a myriad of other choices Google offers you. No doubt this is all part of a sinister plot for Google to collect information on where you took your last vacation.

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Canon Pixma MX350 Offers Good Features for the Price, but Ink Costs Are High

The Canon Pixma MX350 color inkjet multifunction printer (for printing, scanning, copying, and faxing) offers a good assortment of features and capabilities for an affordable $150 (as of June 2, 2010). Though its ink costs are high, it's a better deal than the lower-priced HP Officejet 4500 Wireless, which has similar strengths and a few more weaknesses.

The Pixma MX350 is easy to install and use. You can connect it via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi. Canon bundles a multitude of useful scanning and printing apps with the Pixma MX350; you can choose to install all, none, or some of them during the setup routine. The clearly labeled control panel includes buttons to summon major functions. The 2.5-inch color LCD shows menu options and also previews photos. A round, four-way rocker button with a perimeter scroll wheel simplifies navigation.

The sturdy chassis has beveled edges that make the unit look less boxy. A 30-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) folds out from the top; a letter-size flatbed scanner is situated beneath it. All media types load into the vertical rear input slot, which has a plain-paper capacity of 100 sheets. In front is a 50-sheet output tray, along with CF, MS Duo, and SD media-card slots behind a small door. The MFP also has a USB/PictBridge port. Canon sells a Bluetooth adapter (BU-30) for $50.

The Pixma MX350's performance is acceptable for light office duty. The MFP's plain-text printing speed was consistent across PC and Mac platforms, at 5.7 pages per minute. On the PC, 4-by-6-inch color photos printed on letter-size media at 1.7 ppm. On the Mac, a near-letter-size image took 2.5 minutes to print (that's a rate of about 0.3 ppm); a 7.5-by-9.9-inch photo at 600 dots per inch scanned in 55 seconds; a 4-by-6-inch photo at 1200 dpi scanned in 90 seconds; and a single page of text copied in 21 seconds (a rate of 2.8 ppm).

The quality of the Pixma MX350's printing was good for an inkjet MFP. Text and lines were impressively sharp--better than what we saw on the similar Canon Pixma MX340. The bright color palette resulted in an orange tint to fleshtones, however. Scans were dark at default settings, but copies looked quite rich, with deep blacks and smooth colors.

The Pixma MX350's costs per page are higher than average. The MFP's standard-size supplies include a 200-page PG-210 black cartridge ($16, or 7.3 cents per page) and a 244-page CL-211 unified color cartridge ($22, or 9.0 cents per page). A four-color page would cost 16.3 cents. The high-yield options are also expensive: a 401-page PG-210 XL black cartridge ($22, or 5.5 cents per page), and a 349-page CL-211 XL color cartridge ($27, or 7.7 cents per page), making for a 13.2-cent, four-color page. If your print volume is low, these costs may be tolerable; but if you plan to print a lot, a model with cheaper inks will cost you less in the long run.

The Canon Pixma MX350 gives small-office and home-office users a versatile set of features for an affordable up-front price. But anyone who prints more than a few pages a day should look for a model with lower-cost consumables. The Canon Pixma MX870, for instance, costs $50 more than the Pixma MX350, but offers less expensive inks, plus a second input tray and an automatic duplexer.
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Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 Boasts a Touchscreen and Supercheap Black Ink

The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 color inkjet multifunction printer (which handles printing, scanning, copying, and faxing) is priced on the high side ($300 as of June 4, 2010), but it's packed with features that would satisfy a busy home or small office. Lexmark sweetens the deal with supercheap black ink and a five-year warranty.

Admirably, Lexmark has customized the setup routine by skill level. If you want hand-holding, you can click through a long parade of dialog boxes that explain every minute detail, from plugging in the AC cord to inserting the cartridges. If you don't want the walkthrough, you can skip it. Wireless is a breeze, too: The onboard routine searches for and lets you join any available network in just a few steps. USB and ethernet connections are also available.

The Pinnacle Pro901's standout feature is its 4.3-inch touchscreen control panel, which gives the machine a cleaner look than a raft of buttons would. Even better, the menu structure is intuitive, easy to navigate, and well thought out. Other features include a roomy, 50-page automatic document feeder atop the unit's letter-size flatbed scanner, and automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). The under-mounted, 150-sheet front paper tray provides adequate capacity, though it feels flimsy when you remove or insert it. An optional second 150-sheet additional tray costs $100 from Lexmark. Media slots accommodate SD, xD, MS/MMC, and USB/PictBridge media. Lexmark's bundled software is great for controlling the scanner and the printer, though it lacks some editing and creative amenities that more-consumer-oriented models offer.

Small and home offices print a lot of plain text, which is where the Pinnacle Pro901 shines. Its speed is nothing special: 6.3 pages per minute on the PC, and 3.9 ppm on the Mac--but text quality was unbelievably black and crisp. What's more, this model and its other high-priced cousins (the Lexmark Platinum Pro905 and the Lexmark Prestige Pro805) can use the 105XL high-yield black cartridge, which costs just $5 and lasts for 510 pages, which works out to a scant penny per page. It's enough to make a monochrome laser printer nervous. Avoid the 100XL high-yield black, which also fits this MFP but is extremely expensive--as are the standard-size 100 cartridges.

Color quality and pricing are less impressive. On the PC, 4-by-6-inch photos printed at 1.8 ppm. On the Mac, a 7.5-by-9.9-inch, high-resolution photo took about 85 seconds to print; a 600-dpi scan of the same photo took just over a minute, while a 1200-dpi scan of a 4-by-6-inch photo took about 75 seconds. Color images had a fine-grained look--slightly foggy, but even. While fleshtones tended toward yellow and colors tended toward pink, they were believable. Color scans tended to be dark, but only color copies truly disappointed us, with distracting crosshatch patterns. The 600-page 100XL C, M, Y cartridges cost a middling $18 apiece (or 3 cents per color per page). Lexmark's standard-size color inks are incredibly overpriced and best avoided.

Lexmark's Pinnacle Pro901 is a worthy contender for your small-office bucks. Though we consider the Canon Pixma MX870 a better overall package for a lower price, the Pinnacle Pro901 supplies the cheapest black ink and the longest warranty.
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Lexmark Interact S605 Inkjet Multifunction Printer Has a Great Touchscreen but Awful Ink Prices

The Lexmark Interact S605 color inkjet multifunction printer avoids being just another $200 (as of May 22, 2010) printer/scanner/copier by including a 4.3-inch color LCD touchscreen for its control panel (think iPod Touch or iPhone). Unfortunately, that embellishment doesn't fully compensate for the machine's pricey inks and other shortcomings. Overall, the HP Officejet 6500 Wireless is a better deal in the same price range.

The Interact S605's 4.3-inch touchscreen control panel is its standout feature. Not only does the touchscreen look great, but Lexmark did an excellent job with its icons and menu structure, making it intuitive, easy to navigate, and well thought out. The touchscreen also gives the machine a cleaner look than a raft of buttons would. Automatic duplexing (two-sided printing) is the other big plus. But otherwise, the Interact S605's features are unremarkable: There is no automatic document feeder, just a letter-size flatbed scanner. The rear, vertical input try holds a scant 100 sheets, and the front output area accommodates 25 sheets. Media slots support MS/MMC, SD, and xD card; there is a USB/PictBridge port as well.

Lexmark's adaptable setup routine walks novices through every step, but allows savvier users to skip through at a faster pace. The wireless installation we chose required a brief connection via USB. There is no ethernet. Lexmark installs exactly one shortcut--to the Lexmark Printer Home software, which covers scanning sufficiently but does not address any photo or creative features.

The Interact S605 performed adequately in our tests. On the PC, plain-black text printed at a midrange rate of 6.4 pages per minute, but on the Mac, it managed a lackluster 4.1 ppm. On either platform, text was crisp and very black. Full-color, 4-by-6-inch photos (printed on letter-size paper) averaged 1.9 ppm on the PC; on the Mac, a 7.5-by-9.9-inch, high-resolution color photo printed on letter-size paper in about 83 seconds (0.7 ppm). Photos exhibited a slight greenish tint and high contrast that provided great detail in darker areas but made fleshtones look unnatural. Color copies looked washed out.

You may have seen Lexmark's ads for $5 ink cartridges on TV or the Web. Alas, the Interact S605--unlike, say, the Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901--can't work with that supercheap 105XL cartridge. The standard-size ‘100' inks include a 170-page black cartridge ($16, or 9.4 cents per page) and separate 200-page, cyan, magenta, and yellow color cartridges ($10 each, or 5 cents per color per page). The high-yield ‘100XL' versions are a little more expensive than average: a 510-page black costs $25 (4.9 cents per page) and 600-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges cost $18 each (3 cents per color, per page). These high prices may be tolerable if you print fairly little, but they dampened our enthusiasm for this product.

The Lexmark Interact S605 has some nice features that could tempt someone buying for a small or home office. Unfortunately, its pricey inks make it unsuitable for all but the lightest-volume situations.
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Epson B-510DN Inkjet Printer Rivals Color Lasers With Its High Print Speeds and Low Ink Costs

The Epson B-510DN could become the first crossover color inkjet printer success, outperforming the other members of its cohort--along with many lower-end color lasers--in print speed and cost per page. All this talent comes at a high initial price ($599 as of June 28, 2010). But if you need speed, volume, and economy, plus good photo printing, the B-510DN is well worth considering.
The B-510DN's design is efficient rather than aesthetically pleasing. Replacing consumables is a snap, thanks to the front ink-cartridge bay, but the bay protrudes awkwardly from the unit's face. The control panel consists of a two-line monochrome LCD and a few buttons whose purposes are clear even without word labels. The front input tray holds 500 letter-size/legal-size sheets and has a 170-sheet output tray on top. A rear input accepts envelopes and the like (or another 150 sheets of paper). It can connect via USB or ethernet. Automatic duplexing is included as a standard feature.
Pages virtually flew out of the B-510DN. On the PC, the printer generated plain-text pages at an average speed of 14.7 pages per minute, and 4-by-6-inch color photos on letter-size media at 3.4 ppm. On the Mac, it delivered plain-text pages at 13.82 ppm, and a four-page PDF of mixed text and graphics arrived at a rate of 2 ppm. A high-resolution color photo (at near-full-page size) printed at 1.1 ppm.
Print quality was very good. Photos on Epson's own matte paper had accurate colors and a slightly dotty (but even) texture. The same images on plain paper looked washed out and grainy. Text printed on plain paper appeared nicely dark but a little fuzzy--one of the few areas where similarly priced lasers and even the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 Wireless fared a little better.
The B-510DN's consumables are extremely inexpensive. Its standard-size supplies include the T616100, a $40, 3000-page black cartridge (which works out to 1.3 cents per page) and $50, 3500-page cyan (T616200), magenta (T616300), and yellow (T616400) cartridges (1.4 cents per color per page). A full-color page would cost just 5.6 cents. The high-yield colors (with T617 designations) each cost $60 and last 7000 pages, or 0.9 cent per color per page. Epson also offers two larger black tanks: the T617100 ($50), a 4000-page cartridge; and the T618100 ($70), an 8000-page cartridge. The former marginally reduces the cost per page to 1.2 cents (hardly worth the bother compared to the T616100), while the latter cuts per-page expense to just 0.87 cent. A maintenance tray to collect leftover ink costs $17.50 and lasts for 35,000 pages. The Oki C610dtn color LED printer costs a little more and is a little faster, but its toner is a bit more expensive, too.
The Epson B-510DN removes nearly all question of whether an inkjet printer can succeed in business. It offers competitive speeds and ink costs--enough to make vendors of some lower-end color lasers nervous.
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Apple Updates HP, Epson Drivers for Snow Leopard

Apple has released updated sets of Snow Leopard drivers for Hewlett-Packard and Epson printers and scanners.
First on the line is version 2.4 of the Epson drivers, which comes in a package listed on Apple's download page at a whopping 737MB; Epson Printer Drivers 2.4 provides updated compatibility between Mac OS X 10.6 or later and dozens of scanners and printers made by the manufacturer.
On the HP side, the update, dubbed version number 2.4.1, is listed at a significantly smaller 388MB. (Note that actual update sizes vary, depending on the specific drivers you need.) HP Printer Drivers 2.4.1 requires OS X 10.6.1 or higher in order to function and provides support for both printers and scanners made by Hewlett-Packard.
Both updates can be installed through Software Update, or obtained directly from Apple's Website for Support Downloads.

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Epson Unveils $100 Wireless Multifunction for Home Users

On Wednesday, Epson introduced the latest member of its NX line of multifunction printers, the Stylus NX420. Targeted at home users and students, the new print/scan/copy device costs $100 and features 802.11n WiFi, as well as USB 2.0 connectivity.

The printer uses Epson's smudge, fade, and water-resistant DuraBrite Ultra pigment inks in four individual cartridges--one each for cyan, magenta, yellow and black--claiming print longevity of up to 118 years. Using ISO speed tests, the company claims print speeds of up to 6.4 pages per minute in black and 3.3 pages per minute color.

To print photos without a Mac, the NX420 offers a built-in memory card slot that supports multiple flavors of SD, xD-Picture Card, and Memory Stick formats and a 1.5-inch preview LCD. Editing features include sepia, black and white and red-eye removal.

The Stylus NX420 has a 1200-dpi optical resolution and flatbed scanner with 24-bit output. The multifunction device is now shipping, Epson says.

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Adding HP Printer to a Network

Reader Chris Rose recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and faces a common issue. He writes:

We just upgraded to 10.6 and I have a network HP2100TN printer that used to use Appletalk on the network to be accessed by my computer. It is no longer seen. How can I make this printer work with my iMac over a network?

As you've discovered, AppleTalk isn't supported in Snow Leopard and so you need to find another way to communicate with the printer. I have an HP LaserJet 1300n that I used over AppleTalk prior to Snow Leopard and faced a similar situation.

The first step is to find out the IP address for your printer. In order to do that, you have to force the printer to print a status page. How this is done varies by printer company and, to an extent, printer model. In your specific case, briefly press the printer's Go and Job Cancel buttons. In a short while a couple of pages should emerge and on one of those pages is the printer's IP address in the form of a common internal network address--192.168.something.something, for example. The instructions for printing such a page are found in the printer's manual and online.

Now that you have the address, launch System Preferences, choose the Print & Fax preference, click the Plus (+) button at the bottom of the Printers list, choose IP in the resulting Add a Printer window, and in the Address field enter the printer's IP address. If all goes according to plan, your printer's name will appear in the Name field at the bottom of the window. Click the Add button and your printer is added and made available to you.

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Epson Introduces New WorkForce 520 All-in-one Inkjet

Epson on Tuesday announced the availability of the latest addition to its WorkForce line of printers. The new WorkForce 520 is a $130 multifunction inkjet printer that the company claims is the fastest in its class.

Featuring built-in 802.11b/g/n wireless networking as well as 10/100 Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity, the WorkForce 520 is targeted at small businesses looking for an affordable all-in-one unit that can print, scan, copy and fax.

The WorkForce 520 uses Epson's DuraBrite Ultra pigment inks in 5 individual ink cartridges--one each of cyan, magenta, and yellow and two black cartridges. It has a 1200 optical dpi flatbed scanner with a 30-page Automatic document feeder.

Epson claims that the WorkForce 520 can print up to 15 pages per minute black and 5.4 pages per minute color, using ISO standard print speed tests.

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Dell 3330dn Monochrome Laser is Superfast, Superaffordable

The Dell 3330dn monochrome laser printer may not look exceptional, with its compact footprint, low price ($599 as of April 5, 2010), and rather basic feature set. But it offers impressive speed and print quality, plus plenty of connectivity and other ways to grow. It would be a good choice for a busy small or medium-size workgroup.

The 3330dn blew through our formal PCWorld Labs tests almost as quickly as did the Lexmark E460dn, which it closely resembles. It printed plain-text pages at a swift 23.8 pages per minute, and it handled a variety of color graphics at a good average speed of 7.5 ppm. As often happens, the printer ran slower when connected to a Mac, turning in page rates of 18 ppm for plain text, and 4.3 ppm for a document with mixed text and color graphics (printed as grayscale). Text quality was perfect, but graphics quality was marred by noticeable banding and a limited midrange of grays that made round objects and shadowy areas look too dark or too flat.

The printer's monthly duty cycle of 80,000 pages indicates that Dell built it for high-volume use. The 3330dn is a jack of all connections, too: You may attach it directly to a computer or NAS box via USB; to your local network via ethernet; or even to an old-school print server via its parallel port. If you need more than the standard 64MB of DDR2-SDRAM memory, a side panel opens for easy access to the upgrade slot. Dell sells modules ranging in capacity from 128MB to 512MB; the latter costs $120. From the front, you can pull a handle to unfold a 50-sheet multipurpose tray, or you can open the entire front panel to reveal the printer's toner cartridge bay (a side button unlocks the panel). Automatic duplexing is a great paper-saving feature. A rear fold-out straight paper path handles envelopes and other thick media easily. But for a printer this fast, the 250-sheet standard input tray and 150-sheet output tray seem unduly small. You can add a 550-sheet input tray for $100.

Theo pcworld.com

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HP Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless

HP's Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless color inkjet printer could cure some small offices or workgroups of their color-laser envy. Even the lowest-end color lasers can't compete with the Officejet Pro 8000's speed, features, and print quality--and its inks are cheaper, too.

The inks are so cheap, in fact, that we have to talk about them first. The standard-size supplies (the printer ships with a set) are already a bargain: A 1000-page black cartridge costs $26 (about 2.6 cents per page), while each 900-page cyan, magenta, or yellow cartridge costs $20 (about 2.2 cents per color per page). A four-color page would cost about 9.3 cents. The high-yield cartridges are even better, as HP has priced them at $36 for 2200 black pages (about 1.6 cents per page) and $26 per color for 1400 pages (about 1.9 cents per color per page). That pegs a four-color page at just 7.2 cents.

Setting up the Officejet Pro 8000 is easy, despite the many dialog boxes to click through for the wireless setup. On the Mac, we had to add the printer manually in the Preferences/Printers dialog box--a bit inconvenient.

The Officejet Pro 8000 is full featured and well constructed. HP built it with thicker plastics than those on the lower-cost Officejet 6000 Wireless, and its included automatic duplexer unit adds extra stiffness in the back. On-printer controls consist of just three buttons: resume, cancel, and wireless. The last button toggles wireless on and off if you press and hold, or prints out network settings if you press it quickly. The ink cartridges nestle behind a door in the printer's front, an easier-to-access arrangement than the more common placement inside the printer.

One of the fastest inkjet printers we've tested on the PC platform, the Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless is also competitive with some of the lowest-end color laser printers. Plain-text pages exited at a peppy 10.3 pages per minute. Various graphics printed on plain paper (pie charts, Web pages, and the like) came out at speeds ranging from 4.2 ppm to 4.7 ppm. Photo printing took noticeably longer than anything else. On the Mac, text speed was a decent 10.7 ppm, but the printer slowed dramatically on other, graphics-heavy files we use: It took over 2.5 minutes to print a four-page PDF file with text and graphics, for instance, while a full-page photo at the best settings took well over 3 minutes.

Overall, the Officejet Pro 8000 produced very good print quality. Text was crisp and suffered virtually no defects, while grayscale graphics showed a level of detail in darker areas that many printers miss. Color images had a rich albeit somewhat dark cast that's typical among HP printers. Flesh tones tended to be orangey.

Macworld's buying advice

The HP Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless excels compared with other single-function inkjets. For a small office, it's also good to know that this model stands up well to the lowest-end color lasers.

Theo macworld.com

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Printing From Your IPhone, IPod Touch, and IPad

Printing from your iPhone, iPod touch, and now your iPad shouldn't be difficult, but it is. Think about it: all three mobile devices have built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, meaning that from the start its designers saw the device being part of a network, whether it was a home wireless setup or one that you connect to while visiting a café. The iPhone and iPod touch also come with a set of built-in apps--Mail, Photos, Notes, and Safari--that would, on a desktop, feature a Print option as a matter of course. Yet these apps, considered so crucial to the iPhone OS experience that you cannot delete them, do not allow you to print.

The simplest way to print from one of these mobile devices is not to print at all: it's to do what most users probably do, which is to e-mail yourself the photo, link, or note in question and then wait until you get to a Mac or PC, retrieve the e-mail, and either access the URL or print the attached photo or the contents of the message. Though simple, this is not an especially easy or elegant solution. Its biggest merit is that it works consistently and reliably, and almost ensures you don't lose vital information.

Fortunately, third-party app makers have come out with a number of products designed specifically for printing from your iPhone. Some of these apps have been upgraded many times since their introduction--including new hybrid versions that run on the iPad as well as Apple's other devices. The end result: a variety of fairly good printing solutions are available in the App Store. (We review a trio of apps elsewhere on Macworld.com.)

How they work

Still, users have some hurdles to jump through before they can print from an iPhone or iPad. First, of course, they have to buy and install a print app. Then, there's the matter of configuring it--rarely a simple process.

There's another issue, too. Given the limitations of the current iPhone OS--you can only run one app at a time--printing inevitably interrupts workflow. To print anything, you have to stop what you're doing, open your printing app, provide or gather some kind of material, print it, then exit the app and resume what you had been doing. There's no way around it--at least not until the iPhone 4.0 OS update arrives this summer and brings multitasking with it.

Most iPhone printing apps work in a similar fashion: when you open them you have access to your stored photos, your contacts (usually), and a built-in Web browser. Many of the apps, including more than a half-dozen very good ones offered by EuroSmartz, require you to download, configure, and keep running a program on a Mac or PC that's connected to a printer. Others, such as Dynamix Software's PrinterShare, enable you to print to your business or home printer via a Web account.

And some, like Microtech's elegant ePrint and Wellala's Print Magic enable you to print to any printer attached to your network, without the hassle of configuring intermediary software on a Mac or PC.

Printing problems

There is one major flaw that plagues all of these apps: none of them enable you to import your Safari bookmarks. This seems to be a limitation imposed by the iPhone's software. Most allow you to save bookmarks, and some, such as ePrint, even save your browser history. But no matter what, if you want to print Web pages, you'll be tapping in lots of URLs.

A common, but not universal, problem with iPhone printing apps is that sometimes Web pages will not print in a readable fashion: depending on the app you choose, you usually have little or no control over how a printed Web page appears.

There are exceptions. The better apps--ePrint, for example, and EuroSmartz's DocPrinter--format pages correctly for readable printing, enable you to select a default font size for printed Web pages, and may even provide print preview thumbnails.

Photo printing

If you are interested in only printing photos, printer manufacturers Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard offer free Wi-Fi apps that enable you to do so--but only with their respective printers.

These apps have received only fair reviews from App Store users, in large part because of the photo- and printer-specific limitations. But you can also use these apps to print screenshots you have taken of notes and portions of Web pages--anything you can capture on your iPhone screen. (You take a screenshot on the iPhone by pushing the home screen button on the front bottom center of your iPhone and the on/off switch on the top right side simultaneously; the screen shots are stored in your Photos library).

Try before you buy

If you want to give printing from your iPhone a try, it's probably best to try a free offering, such as ePrint Free or Printer Test for Print Magic, or an inexpensive app such as the $3 ePrint. There are limitations to the free offerings, but they give you a feel for how iPhone printing works. On the other hand, ePrint is a good full-featured printing app and one of the least expensive available.

Printing from an iPad

Not much has changed on the printing front since the iPad arrived in early April. Apple's latest mobile device has no built-in printing functionality, leaving users to turn to third-party apps for their printing needs. Pocket Watch, Microtech, Dynamix, and EuroSmartz have all produced optimized versions of their printing apps that run on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod touch.

EuroSmartz has even come out with an iPad-optimized version of its PrintCentral app that takes advantage of the Document Support feature in the iPhone 3.2 OS.

Document Support, which only works with the iPad at present, lets one app pass a file onto another app. In the case of PrintCentral, that means you can get a file via your iPad's Mail client and immediately send it to the EuroSmartz app for printing or for storage and transfer.

It's not exactly multi-tasking, but it's a way for third-party app makers to remove at least some of the hurdles that stand between users of Apple's mobile devices and printed documents.

Theo macworld.com

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