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HP Photosmart D110a ePrint printer earns 5-star reviews despite lacking ePrint... wait, what?
See the bullet for HP's new D110a Photosmart e-All-in-One that says, "HP ePrint for printing anywhere." Well, you can ignore that for now. While HP proudly lists ePrint -- the ability to print PDF, JPEG, and MS Office documents received as attachments from any email-capable device -- as a flagship feature on its newest line of web-connected printers, it's not a working feature and it won't be until a software update is pushed out at the end of the month, according to support forums. Unfortunately, there's no notice of this on HP's own retail listing for the D110a (HP's first ePrint-capable printer), Amazon, or in brick-and-mortar shops like Best Buy. And curiously, that trio of 5-star "customer reviews" on HP's own site fail to mention the missing feature at all. Instead, owners will only discover this after calling the HP help desk or checking the growing list of disgruntled rants in HP or Amazon support threads. Not cool HP, not cool. [Thanks, Cliff W.]
HP unveils Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart Web: "world's first web-connected printer"
Looking to make the wild and not-entirely-wondrous world of printers exciting for the first time in decades, HP has just unveiled the "world's first web-connected printer." If you're wondering how it plans on accomplishing such an impossible mission, let us just say this: the Photosmart Premium is going the way of the widget. Up on the 4.33-inch front panel is Touchsmart Web, a touchscreen interface with several bundled, online apps to accommodate usual paper-friendly tasks such as printing Google maps, tickets from Fandango, coupons, recipes, Sudoku, etc. There's even a full-on HD Apps Studio just in case downloading new apps on one's printer really becomes the new hotness. The API's being made open for the entire realm of developers, but we have to wonder what kind of interest we'll see here. Pricing is set for $399, and if you're thinking "why not just buy a cheap netbook and plug it into my current model" we hear ya, but we get the impression this is aimed squarely at another crowd. Lots more details are just past the break. Update: We just had a chance to try the printer / Touchsmart for ourselves. First off, surprise, the screen is capacitive touch, and it works well -- but only one finger at a time. We asked a rep about multitouch and were told that while technically feasible, it's not gonna be supported at this time. The widgets are created with a combination of HTML5 and Java, and much to our surprise, video streaming has been implemented. The Monsters vs. Aliens trailer we saw was decent resolution, but really, it's not a place where we need pristine quality. More screens in the gallery below.
