HP touts web-connected ePrint printers with webOS devices [video] 72
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:50 am EDT 
HP’s continuing to use their new consumer property - Palm - in adds for other products. Just recently they launched a new series of printers including an ePrint feature that lets your print photos over the web, from your computer or smartphone. Now before you get excited over that “printing” dialog shown on the screen of the Pre (really, an original Sprint Pre?), we’re going to tamp down your enthusiasm with a dose of “the ad agency did that for effect” realism.
HP’s ePrint system is unique, but it’s not as integrated as the commercial would make it seem. With ePrint the printer is essentially assigned an email address to which you send your file or picture as an attachment, which the printer then takes and prints. So it’s compatible with any device that can send emails with attachments, including webOS devices and every other modern smartphone, and of course all manner of laptops, desktops, and other computing devices. Though we do like the idea of setting our grandparents up with an ePrint printer and just emailing them pictures that will print automatically without their having to fuss with downloading attachments (or checking their email).
The Pixi’s also been also included in an ePrint email sent out to HP customers. Amusingly, HP also features the eStation printer-tablet combo thing in both the commercial (after the break) and the email flyer. We have to wonder which HP will have more (or less) success pushing: old Palm hardware or a quirky hard-to-rationalize hobbled Android tablet and printer device.
Source: YouTube, HP; Thanks to everybody that sent these in!
72 Comments
Its awesome seeing the production quality that HP is capable of, Sweeeet!
As a former iphone 3G owner, tons of friends with Android based smartphones, my dad owning a iphone 4...there is no way I'd leave Web OS. The ease of use with Web OS is bar none. Nobody can compare in the multi tasking and easiness. Just love it. My wife loves it too on her Pixi Plus.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE THOUGH IS THIS:
1. HP doing away with the Palm brand.
2. Palm Pre 2...I just think its a waste and brings more negative image to Palm/HP.
Other then that I'm a happy camper!
now that's how hp makes it happen HP is just cool
looks like a PALMPAD at 30second in the video, docked on the printer
It would have been nice if it was a PALMPAD but it is actually a basic tablet running Android. I guess is was already in the pipeline before the PALM aquisition. Maybe the net round of ePrint printers will run webOS.
(as the article mentioned, if somewhat vaguely)
correction 20sec
nice advert
And there you have it the future of webos as a awesome remote web printer os.
Ty Hp for make the jump much easier..
I don't think that's quite fair.
HP has said for a long time now that they intend WebOS to be a cross-device OS, so it's not going to be in just Web printers. And we know that WebOS can do a lot more than just print over the Web.
I'm on the fence about making the jump myself, because the Pre 2 just doesn't wow me, but that has nothing to do with the Web printing.
I'm jumping for WP7 unless palm does something spectacular @ CES.
WebOS 2 lacks the wow factor for me, its the same thing with optimized crap like just type which by the looks of it will take more time with all the options, sub menus etc than just opening the app and getting to work.
I sure it will save a few seconds here and there but honestly if they think optimizing the system apps putting in a few missing APIs improving universal search, will save WebOS they are sadly mistaken...
To poster below don't be a WebOS drone there are other OSs other than android... Remove the WebOS blinders
Yes because spending 1.2 Billion (and counting) on Palm to solely put it on printers is sound strategy.
A lot of ignorant comments. Go to Android...one less whiner on here.
Umm, the printer doesn't run WebOS. In fact, the only thing in that commercial having anything to do with WebOS is the phone...
not a bad commercial. kinda cute. Much better than borg queen, leaving me optimistic for HP ads for future *gulp-hard to say still* HP webOS devices
Great production quality. If they will throw that production behind the Pre2 and whatever else is coming, it will be a whole new ballgame for the devices formerly know as Palm.
couldn't agree more
Love this commercial! Saw it first time last night watching Monday's "The Event". Had to replay/replay/freeze several times just to see she was pressing the email Send button to get the "Printing..." message (ad agency fx). Would love to see commercials of this caliber for all future Palm phones. Future's looking bright. Now Sprint just needs to get it together. !#@$#
i still don't understand the fascination surrounding printers that are connected to the web/cloud. im on vacation and i take a picture with my dinky cellphone, and then i want to instantly print it at my house (no ones home) or a relatives house so they can see my baby on vacation...? its working against 'the cloud' and having things accessible on screen. the consumer printer model is tired, and i doubt that attaching tablets to it, which inadvertently adds another step to printing, is going to revolutionize what we've been going through for so many years. everyone knows youre are going to spend more on ink and toner more than the printer itself within a set amount of time, so how does that make the product valuable in any way? its no wonder that companies give away twenty dollar printers when you buy a computer, its really dumb. instead of improving the ink tech, the printer tech, they are leaving it all the same, attaching a glossy surface, adding a tablet and web printing, and say that the model is revitalized. YOU are going to want this, trust us. they may know enterprise, but they havent grasped the consumer yet...
i agree with you on what you are saying. the fact that you can print a photo from anywhere is nonsense to me at best.
i was looking at getting this product for business reasons. i work a lot of trade shows and festivals selling products and it would be nice to just use my phone or palmpad for the sale and print where i am standing as opposed to bringing people to the laptop or what be it.
and im still not sold on the idea of it being a better system to what i currently have, but it would look cool in my mind.
i see your rationale for the trade show/business use, but for even that, that could be a local network, not web based. as long as the process is fluid and works well.
While I agree somewhat, my grandmother's only "screens" are of the TV variety. And she won't even try to use a digital cable guide, so she just has the tried and true channel up/down for surfing.
For people like her (and there are millions of them), printed copies of things, especially photos, aren't going away anytime soon. Despite the media portrayal of retirees playing Wii (and she has) and stories about older people flocking to the web, most older people (and frankly, lots of younger people too) still don't have a clue about technology. I got her a digital photo frame and setup remote access (via wifi from my parents house next door) so I could upload photos directly to it. The problem is, she leaves it off. I turn it on whenever I visit and tell her she should just leave it on, but it's always off the next time I try to login and upload photos.
My point is, printing is going to remain relevant for at least several more decades, and frankly, maybe even a LOT longer than that and linking them to the "cloud" is just the next logical step.
i dont think it would be appropriate to compare digital cable/satellite guides to something that resembles webos, as they are completely different beasts. if you gave her an apple tv with a minimal amount of buttons and an intuitive front to work with, the story would be completely different. the fact is that people are now beginning to evolve into the product, it is not the other way around. i doubt that the r and d teams are sitting around the room discussing ways the elderly can interact better, building it around them. they target the main demographic and go from there. there are plenty of youtube videos of grandmas cruising through their ipads with relative ease.
printing is going to remain relevant (for soccer moms) you are right, and if nothing about the core technologies of printing changes, we will always be the suckers in buying hundreds of dollars in ink a year ( or paying $400 for a tablet printer!), while hp goes down the same road as microsoft and thinks that they do not have to change anything about their product, they just have to make it look shiny and put it out there. for those that dont believe, innovation does still exist and there are still companies thinking. yes you can have a fantastic os to work with, but if you are pairing it with old, wasteful technology, your efforts are meaningless.
Check out Geckosystems.com.
Your Grandparents and some of us will have their CareBots (robots) before too long & Webos would be an appropriate UI for Grandma & Grandpa. These guys are looking at the aging BabyBoomers & this will be a $70 billion market ! Soon!
so printing will come out the CareBots rear & voice out the front?
I think this is just one example of what it can do. I looked at a video on the printer and since its web based, you can print things out right from the printer that you would usually need to get onto the computer to do. The example it showed was printing directions from google maps. Its pretty much making things easier and quicker to access and cutting out the middle man (computer) to do all the work. That alone I think is neat. This example of printing a picture from your phone though, I agree, isnt too exciting. Mainly because one, I dont print pictures anymore since everything is digital now and I just store them on my computer. And two, if I did, Id want to probably fix up the picture in photoshop first. But thats just me.
nice add. Horrible choice in song.
I won't correct Derek but will correct you and in doing so add nothing to the conversation:
It's 'ad' not 'add'.
There's nothing amazing or even innovative about automatically sending incoming emails to a print filter. You have been able to do this on *nix boxes forever. I could write the code to do this in a couple of hours. I'm sure somebody else already has, HP is just the one that has packaged and marketed it in a product.
The exploits sure will be fun, though.
Nice to see HP/Palm finally getting some "sleek" looking features well advertised. I swear I hated it when my iPhone fan friends showed me how they could check their emails and listen to their mp3s on their phones, all the while I'm saying "that's nice, but I've been able to do that for years with my Palm PDAs." You could say Palm did it first, but Apple is just the one to take that idea and package up in a pretty product with eye-candy transitions.
It doesn't matter. If people--the masses or Grandma--think it is innovative, easy to use & are drawn to the devices, that is what matters.
Think of how many functions people think Apple invented that came out years after we were doing them already--video, multi tasking, etc. Perception is everything.
Great, just what I need, a printer that automatically prints penis enlargement and v|agra spam messages for Grandma.
Thanks HP!
Seriously, I would assume there is some way to password protect this with a subject line or something?
Ah, nuts. you beat me to that complaint. :)
I was just thinking the same thing. Spamming people with pictures of my balls to waste ink/paper. Then i thought. HP has billions i'm sure their architect has thought of this.
My guess is you see the photo on the LCD first and this gives you the option to print or delete.
I hope HPalm makes a native "print" button in an app menu that is configurable with an email or ip address for these printers.
Of course, if you're making money by selling people 10 cents worth of ink for $30, then you probably want the printer to print as much as possible.
Could easily be solved with PGP/GPG signing. But anybody who understands how to do that:
1) could implement their own solution on a linux box, and it will be more elegant than HP's as a bonus. Hrm, maybe I should slap a web interface on it and sell little print server boxes to do this myself...
2) don't have any need for this outside of academics, so won't bother anyway.
And, of course, now HP will have a nice repository of pictures of your nekkid girlfriend if you print using this service.
There are whitelists you create.
A lot of the comments are just ignorant. Do you think HP would release something that allowed people to spam printers.
I agree with you. There probably will be some system of control but given that the article (nor HP for now?) doesn't addresse it and this is a tech site, I'm sure many others have thought of SPAM as soon as they read the article.
I'm curious how this will all work. Email is simple and sometimes the simpliest solutions work the best (this will allow them to have compatibility with every other connected device with email client) but inboxes of most people are so bombarded with SPAM because most people don't care about it and simply delete or filter certain messages (and continue spreading other people's email addresses by forwarding irresponsibly like lunatics...) - well, on a web connected printer this could be a bigger nuisance due to the screen size if people manage to make their ePrint given email address public (which some always do).
I understand but HP is not going to address security in a 30 second cutesy commercial with a baby.
Some people spend more time posting stupid comments then googling
hp eprint security
http://h30495.www3.hp.com/about/eprint#a3-1
People always spend more time posting stupid comments. This is the internets, after all.
beautiful. SPRINT, PLEASE!
SQUEEE!!! Spam that prints automatically!! Now I can come home to find that my printer cartridges have been emptied by advertisements for off-label drugs and "investment" opportunities.
Seriously- a printer with an email address, and someone considers this a good idea?
I'm sure they have some email filtering going on for spam. Plus i would hope you review the pic on the LCD first then decide to print it out rather than auto print. (unless you configure it to auto print)
Perhaps you can configure it to only accept "print emails" from a specified few email addresses.
yes, that's it. This has been covered already when HP first announced this tech in their printers. You have to set up a whitelist of addresses that it will accept emails from in order to print. This auto-printing spam complaint meme is not original, you guys.
And I would hope that HP realizes they will have to do better than just check the "FROM:" field.
They will need to ensure the email is coming from the server that it should come from, so as to prohibit "FROM" header spoofing, which is common nowadays.
Amazon's Kindle has the same email to device capabilities, with the same whitelist spam control. You log into Amazon and give it a list of approved email addresses that are allowed to send content to your Kindle's email address.
It is easy to use, so if HP mimics this model that'll be just fine.
at the very end of the ad (27sec) that is not a pre, but has sort of the same design as a pre (round edges, speaker looks similar). would you put it past HP to sneak little glimpses of a new device in commercials like this?
I know everyones probably had enough of the new phone rumors, etc. and its a reach, but it is possible...
I see a nice topic for a defcon presentation. If I were more motivated, I'd buy one of these and start seeing all the fun ways it can be exploited.
Who puts a baby right next to a cliff to take a picture? hahaha
I heard they went through a lot of babies in the making of this commercial
"No babies weren't hurt in the making of this commercial"
First, while I think HP has better marketing than Palm could ever have dreamed of, I think the example used in this commercial is ridiculous. Why should anyone print to someone else's printer, ad hoc? Also, do I really want to waste that much ink and paper when I can view the picture right on my computer or even my mobile device? I wouldn't appreciate it if I was sitting at my desk and found out someone just sent a huge pic to my printer and is wasting my ink, just so I can "see" a picture. If I feel it's printer worthy, I'll print it after I see it in my email.
Don't get me wrong, I think printing from your phone is a wonderful thing and will have a great number of uses, but the example they used was absolutely terrible.
Second, I think marketing should have an input on how to operate a device. Seriously, if their marketing department could think of an interface that "makes easy sense" of how to print and looks great, why can't Palm? There should be no reason why you couldn't press a print button and based on defaults previously set, send it directly to the default printer of choice, no questions or setup needed.
if I remember right the ad said any phone. This isn't a webos oops I mean hpos phone ad
for those complaining, you don't know the hell people go through trying to print on a networked printer.
'moms' will love this
ePrint!?! They have ELECTRONIC printers now!?!
I only see this useful to the old guys at work who print their emails. Now, they can print their work emails at home from work.
I also didn't find this technology useful when it was called a fax.
(really, an original Sprint Pre?)
I think Derek just disrespected my phone!
would explain why HP is spending so much on cloud services. Service providers will love this when you have to get the top data contract.
This is great.. Someone develop an app for Parking Meter Maids... They take a pic of your car & expired meter.. Open an app & type in you license plate # & get your email/Printer email & send your ticket to you.. Think of the savings in Paper tickets... Also the email copy to the admin server to track you guys that don't pay your tickets & then they email a warrant to your printer & your smartphone etc.. Wow who wants to develop this app?
would explain why HP is spending so much on cloud services. Service providers will love this when you have to get the top data contract.
Why is everyone talking about getting printers set up for your grandparents when the new printer and smartphone capabilities are so obviously being marketed to infants in baby walkers?
would explain why HP is spending so much on cloud services. Service providers will love this when you have to get the top data contract.
I fail to see why a new printer is needed to accomplish this *magical* email printing. This could be accomplished with an existing printer and software running in the background on your pc. Just like leaving your email client running in the background, and having it announce "You've got mail!" over your speakers. Here's the basic concept of how it works:
An email-client-like app is always running in the background. This app is only used for the email address that is used to print. This app is checking for incoming email on at a set interval. If it find new mail, it sends the attachment to the existing printer using the existing printer driver. Sure, it requires you to leave your computer on all the time with this app running. But you can use the same old printer that you've already invested in. Most people leave their computer and printer powered up 24/7 anyway. I bet somebody develops an app that does this within the next year. Although it's still bloatware that I don't want or need on my pc.
"Sure, it requires you to leave your computer on all the time with this app running"
You leave your pc on 24/7...not in a hibernate mode? You must get free electricity.
I don't see why people are bashing this idea. Being able to print from my phone would be perfect for work. It sure would beat having to incovience myself to send faxes...
Holy cow! That baby is awfully close to that precipice!
Quote of the day. *slowclaps*
go to cnn.com and the commercials there (at least for me). Good things: the ads kinda catchy with cool colors and theme and catchy music.
I think these guys know how ot advertise. And the pre's in teh demo which gets the word out.
I want ePrint... Or at least I want it when there is actually some apps for my Palm and my wife's Android to ePrint to it!
But it is good that HP is building demand for it. I can see lots of use for it, personally, so that things I want to know about/use later I can just ePrint from wherever I am and have waiting when I get home. (Like coupons, or concert announcements, that I would otherwise forget).
I see this as kind of like a "fire and forget" missile. very convenient, and shows that HP is really looking forward to things people can use. I'll probably get one for home and one for the office, so that stuff I need to do at work but don't want to have to remember, will be waiting for me when I am back in my office.
Go HP!
Man that video was a little weird. Why was the baby walker sitting right next to the edge of the Grand Canyon?
Meh, people are being hard on this (I'm one of them), but really, it's a good option for being able to directly print from devices that don't have print drivers, but do have email capability.
I'm thinking it will be transient, however, since IPP could easily be implemented. This will be a good thing, as perhaps print drivers will become more unified out of necessity eventually.
I don't see the appeal for printing pictures and such, though. Maps, howtos and such, definitely. Then again, you'll be able to do that directly with WebOS powered printers in the future, so again, this seems to be more of a stopgap than anything.
This add has just given Australia it's first "offical" introduction to webOS. Lets hope the reel thing isn't much further behind
This add has just given Australia it's first "offical" introduction to webOS. Lets hope the reel thing isn't much further behind
This add has just given Australia it's first "offical" introduction to webOS. Lets hope the reel thing isn't much further behind