When Apple released the iOS 4.2 GM, developers began to notice that shared printers were being pulled from the service and that only a handful of select HP printers were actually compatible with iOS AirPrint (see list after the quotes below).
We are now getting hints that the list of AirPrint compatible printers is set to increase, if an email from Steve Jobs is actually real.
An email was sent from a guy called Stan who said…
“Dear Steve,
You got me all hyped about AirPrint. Now with iOS 4.2 released, I find out that I can only print on 11 select printers. Seriously?!Stan”
A reply came from Steve Jobs (if not fake that is)…
“Lots more coming soon. It’s what it takes to make a giant leap to driverless printing, which is huge.
Sent from my iPhone”
We are not sure at the moment if Apple [AAPL] just couldn’t get shared printing ready in time, or if they are coming up with some other way of getting the iPad to communicate with printers. Perhaps they are just tackling this one printer at a time. Hopefully we find out soon as the lack of print options was some what of a let down.
We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know how it pans out.
A list of printers that actually currently work right now with the service includes the following..
HP ENVY100 e-All-in-One
HP LaserJet Pro CM1415f
HP LaserJet Pro CP1525
HP LaserJet Pro M1536dnf
HP Photosmart e-All-in-One
HP Photosmart eStation
HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One
HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One
HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One
Six new printers are launching next month that will also be AirPrint compatible. These include…
HP Officejet 6500A e-All-in-One
HP Officejet 6500A Plus e-All-in-One
HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One
HP Officejet Pro 8500A e-All-in-One
HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus e-All-in-One
HP Officejet Pro 8500A Premium e-All-in-One
However, all is not lost. If you wanted to use print shares like was in the original plan then you do have the option of going about it an unofficial way. In simple form, you need to use some software called AirPrint Hacktivator on your Mac. Details of how all this works can be found at TUAW.
Via: 9to5Mac Image TiPb
I emailed Steve Jobs last night about the AirPrint printer issue and here’s what he said:
“Sorry. That’s the price of moving to a new printer driver free environment.
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 23, 2010, at 12:48 AM, Alan Brewer wrote:
> Dear Mr. Jobs,
>
> I am a fan of all your products, including iPad and iPhone. I was so excited when I found out that iOS 4.2 was going to include AirPrint wireless printing. I have an hp printer which is connected to a wireless network. However, I was disappointed when I discovered that my wireless printer isn’t compatible with AirPrint. Simply because it isn’t one of the select few printers. I want the ability to print directly from my iPhone to my printer without having to go out and buy a new printer. Is AirPrint going to eventually become compatible with other wireless non e-print hp printers?
>
> Again, I want to mention that I am a huge fan of apple products. I am addicted to my iPhone 4. And I’m not complaining about the new update. I just don’t want to have to shell out money for a new printer when the one I have is a good, and not cheap, printer.
>
> Thank you for your time,
> Alan
>
> Sent from my iPhone4”
As you can see, he is, pretty much, saying that you have no choice but to buy a new ePrint enabled printer if you want to be able to print from your iOS device.
Thank goodness I won’t need free drivers again. The cheap and simple solution is simply buy new printers. Don’t we already have this with bonjour? Why not make that more useable insted of trying to invent yet another wheel? In other news today, apple solves the problem of flat tires by making a new kind of run flat tire. However it will only be available on 11 new cars, and only on Suzuki’s new “luxury” models, prices start at $108,000. So say good bye to flat tires.
If you have a wired network Mac and a network printer, you can just share the printer from the Mac System Preferences, turn on wireless on the Mac, and connect your iPad/iPhone to the printer. It works without further Angst.