HP PhotoSmart e-All-in-One D110a It’s hard being a printer manufacturer in an age in which people want to cut down on paper. But tough times tend to prod innovation, and that’s exactly what seems to have happened within HP’s printer division.
Starting this month, all of HP’s new $100-plus consumer printers will feature built-in web-based services; ways in which consumers can use their printers without their computer being switched on and without even being in the house. I had a chance to try one of the most basic models, the $139.99 PhotoSmart e-All-in-One D110a.
Setup took a little longer than I was used to. Rather than just plugging in a USB cable (which is optional) and installing some software, I needed to use the device’s 2.4-inch display to connect to my router and enter my network password. I also needed to copy the printer’s IP address to my computer during installation and print out a code to log into HP’s website so that I could delete old apps and download new ones.
Apps, you say? Yes, apps. Like so many other consumer gadgets these days, HP’s printers now have their own collection of free mini-programs developed not just by HP but also several of its partners. Programs that came pre-loaded on the unit I tested included a Yahoo! news app that allowed me to print a 15-page newsletter collection of the day’s top stories, a Dreamworks app loaded with printable kids activities such as cut-out creatures and colouring sheets, a Sudoku app capable of generating devilishly difficult number puzzles and HP’s own Forms app, which lets users print off blank graph paper, music sheets, fax headers, and other useful formatted paper types.
Source: Theglobeandmail.com
Starting this month, all of HP’s new $100-plus consumer printers will feature built-in web-based services; ways in which consumers can use their printers without their computer being switched on and without even being in the house. I had a chance to try one of the most basic models, the $139.99 PhotoSmart e-All-in-One D110a.
Setup took a little longer than I was used to. Rather than just plugging in a USB cable (which is optional) and installing some software, I needed to use the device’s 2.4-inch display to connect to my router and enter my network password. I also needed to copy the printer’s IP address to my computer during installation and print out a code to log into HP’s website so that I could delete old apps and download new ones.
Apps, you say? Yes, apps. Like so many other consumer gadgets these days, HP’s printers now have their own collection of free mini-programs developed not just by HP but also several of its partners. Programs that came pre-loaded on the unit I tested included a Yahoo! news app that allowed me to print a 15-page newsletter collection of the day’s top stories, a Dreamworks app loaded with printable kids activities such as cut-out creatures and colouring sheets, a Sudoku app capable of generating devilishly difficult number puzzles and HP’s own Forms app, which lets users print off blank graph paper, music sheets, fax headers, and other useful formatted paper types.
Source: Theglobeandmail.com
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