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The best home printers
By Ben Keough This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to home printers here. From the very beginning of Wirecutter's existence, we've been testing printers. In total, we've spent nearly 500 hours researching hundreds of inkjet and laser printers, and testing dozens of them. The reliable, simple-to-operate HP OfficeJet Pro 8720, an all-in-one color inkjet, is a good choice for most people who need to print regularly at home. It delivers high-quality prints from any device you use, can scan and copy, and is just better designed ergonomically than the competition. We've also got recommendations for the best, least frustrating printers you can buy, whether you print every now and then or every day, run a home business, need to print projects for school-age kids, or even if you're a photographer who wants to print high-quality images at home.
Hacker hijacks 50,000 printers to tell people to subscribe to PewDiePie
Over the course of this week, some printers have been printing out a strange message asking people to subscribe to PewDiePie's YouTube channel. The message appears to be the result of a simple exploit that allows printers to receive data over the internet, including print commands. A person with the online handle TheHackerGiraffe has claimed responsibility for the attack.
HP bug bounty program aims to boost printer security
Bug bounty programs aren't just for computing devices and apps -- HP is launching a "first of its kind" bug bounty initiative to boost the security of printers. The program will see it partner with the security crowdsourcing company Bugcrowd to reward researchers who spot vulnerabilities in its printer lineup. Those who discover completely new flaws will receive up to $10,000, but even those who find existing flaws may get a "good faith payment" in the right circumstances.
Cubinote prints colorful sticky notes from your smartphone
Even with all the reminder and to-do apps out there, plenty of people are still fond of physical sticky notes. And if you don't want to pick one over the other, there's a startup trying to bring the best of both worlds together. Cubinote is a Bluetooth- and WiFi-enabled printer that pairs with an iOS or Android app to make sticky notes on the fly. The company says the product could come in handy if you, say, want to leave it at your home office and send reminders or other random notes to it from your workplace. Or if your parents don't live in the same city as you and you want to send them messages every now and then.
The best laser printer
By Ben Keough and Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After nearly 250 hours of research and testing over the past few years, we've found that the best choice for an affordable laser printer right now is the Brother HL-L2340DW. Among the dozens of laser printers we've looked at, the L2340DW is one of the most economical and least frustrating models you can buy.
Scenes from Epson's 'Digital Couture' show at New York Fashion Week
Since 2015, Epson has been giving up-and-coming designers an opportunity to show clothes made with digital printers at New York Fashion Week. This year was no exception. With the Digital Couture Project, the company is trying to push its line of textile printers as an alternative to handmade and heat-based prints, two of the most traditional fabric-design methods. These SureColor machines, which range from $8,500 to $26,000, can print on garments made from cotton, linen, nylon, polyester, silk or wool, letting designers choose from a wide range of materials when working on a collection.
Samsung Galaxy owners can print from their phone with ease
If you own a Galaxy smartphone or tablet, Samsung is about to make it easier for you to print pictures, documents and other files from it. Today, the company announced that its Print Service app for Android now supports the Mopria Print Library, letting you pair your mobile device to over 88 million printers without any extra drivers, apps or similar software. This means you don't have to worry about what brand your host printer is, saving you the headache of having to search for specific tools from different manufacturers.
HP says it should've better explained blocking third-party ink
Following a recent update that blocked some third-party ink cartridges fore its printers, HP formally apologized to customers this week for how it communicated about the change. Earlier this month, the company updated its firmware making cartridges made by other companies unusable on its printers. HP cited quality and security reasons for switching up its authentication process. Those third-party options are typically cheaper and as you might expect, customers weren't happy about not being able to use those supplies.
HP buying Samsung's printer business for $1.05 billion
Samsung's board has approved the sale of its printer operation to HP for $1.05 billion "to concentrate on its core business areas," it said in a press release. It plans to spin off the printer division into a separate company as of November 1st, then sell it its US rival, pending shareholder approval. Samsung's printer business employs 6,000 people and sold 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in printers in 2015.
The best photo inkjet printer
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. By Amadou Diallo After 76 hours of research and side-by-side testing with four different models, we found the $800 Epson SureColor P600 is the best photo inkjet printer for most people. It delivers professional-quality color prints, as well as black-and-white photographs that are as close to traditional darkroom prints as you'll see from any digital printer around. Its prints also last longer than anything you'd get from a typical online photo service. The P600 can print on a wider variety of media than the competition, and its LCD touchscreen control panel makes setup and maintenance easy.
Epson's new printers ease refill woes with ink tanks
We've all been there. It's late, and you have a final project or presentation due first thing in the morning. You've been awake for days and you've finally finished. Only when you go to print, there's no ink. Epson's latest printers offer a simple solution that should go a long way to remedying the issue: they hold more ink. The company's line of EcoTank all-in-one printers house so-called Supertanks instead of individual cartridges that are refilled with bottles of ink. What's more, each of the five models has a reservoir that holds the equivalent of around 20 sets of traditional cartridges (depending on the model, of course) and two support WiFi printing via a mobile device.
3D printer headed to the International Space Station this August
Astronauts on the International Space Station will need to make room for one more gadget: a NASA-certified 3D printer. The device, designed by Made in Space at NASA's Ames Research Park in Mountain View, will launch on SpaceX CRS-4 in August, a few months ahead of schedule. Initially, astronauts will test the printer in the ISS' microgravity environment, but eventually it could be used to build tools and other hardware needed for on-board repairs or cubesat deployments. Down the road, Made in Space's clients could also have access to the printer for their own experiments. "This is unprecedented access to space," CEO Aaron Kemmer said in a press release. "If you want to 3D print in space, contact us now." [Image credit: NASA]
Foodini is a 3D printer for everything from burgers to gnocchi
Who wants a 3D printer for just candy when you can have one that prints a five-course dinner instead? That's the idea behind Foodini, a new 3D printer that takes fresh ingredients and turns them into a culinary masterpiece. The device can do things like make custom ravioli, your own unique crackers or cookies, or even an intricate dark chocolate vase (if you just have to print candy). Its creations are made by filling the printer's "food capsules" with fresh ingredients and then inputting a recipe for the device to create. Foods can be printed in just a few minutes and eaten right away (if they're made from pre-cooked materials) or cooked after printing. Foodini is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter to manufacture its first run of the printers. $1,000 gets you in line to get one in January 2015, and a $2,000 investment can have you throwing your first printed dinner party by October of this year.
Canon's latest Selphy printer adds Instagram-sized square stickers
We'll forgive you if you've never heard of Canon's Selphy printer. It's an adorable little $100 printer that, in its latest iteration, has an especially zietgeist-y new feature: square sticker printing. "For the Instagram crowd," a Canon rep laughingly explained as we checked out the Selphy CP910 at CES 2014. Beyond the new square printing, little has changed from the previous Selphy. It still features ink cartridges bundled with paper, ensuring you'll never run out of hot dogs before you run out of buns. Moreover, with WiFi built-in, your latest Instagram selfie can be printed on the Selphy without having to move images. Pretty neat! Should that new feature be enough to spark your interest, Canon's Sephy CP910 ships to retailers "mid-month" for $100. Canon's also got a new Pixma photo printer here, and it's just $300 -- pretty great for an entry level photo printer. It's that big guy above! Head into the gallery below for a deeper look at both the Selphy and Pixma straight from CES 2014. Richard Lai contributed to this report.
This homemade '3D printer' spikes jello shots with infused designs (video)
Barista Bots, one of the most popular attractions at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, printed scanned logos, smileys and other shapes atop comped lattes. Thirsty attendees with 20 minutes to spare for the queue walked away with a free coffee and a robot-extruded froth. The novelty will have surely worn off by next year's SXSW, and we think we've stumbled upon the perfect replacement. It was born from a desire to turn otherwise ordinary gelatin shots into an original alcoholic treat -- meet the 3D Jello Printer. SpritesMods managed to accomplish this feat with a lot of creativity and a few recycled parts. They repurposed the stepper motors from discarded CD-ROM drives to move a syringe along the necessary axes, and used an old ejector mechanism to push down the plunger. An AVR microcontroller stores several different designs, which materialize in tiny jello shots using a cocktail of banana liquor, food coloring and a bit of corn starch to turn the liquid into a gel. SpritesMods is kind enough to help you get started with creating your own. Just dig up some choice e-waste and follow the tutorial -- you'll be mass producing the perfect New Year's Eve consumable in no time.
LG's new Pocket Photo 2 printer is incrementally smaller, better
We'll have to take LG's word on the success of its Pocket Photo mobile printer. Primarily because we fear the lady above and her soul-stealing stare, but also 'cause it would explain the investment in a sequel. LG's Pocket Photo 2 is slightly thinner than its predecessor, and is said to have an improved battery life with 30 photos' worth of juice. Printing resolution has been upped to 600 DPI and the platforms graced with companion apps are listed as Android, iOS and Windows 8. Otherwise, it's much the same as the original -- you pair up via NFC/Bluetooth, and can add QR codes and text to images before printing, as well as filters for the Instagram generation. Prior to a wider launch, the Pocket Photo 2 will hit Korea for an unspecified price in mid-January, shortly after LG tries to drum up interest for it at CES.
I want a printer that is 'Designed in California'
The last time Apple made printers -- well over a decade ago -- there was no iPad, no iPhone, and no Retina displays that could make a digital page look as real as a paper one. In many ways printing isn't as crucial to the average user experience as it once was, but more advanced printing tasks like producing high-quality photos at home are likely to remain for the foreseeable future. We may not need printers as often, but they're not going to outright die in our lifetime. Apple will likely never get back into the printer business, but could it? I think the answer is yes. Why Apple should make printers (again) At a consumer level, printing hasn't been sexy for a long time. In fact, you could argue that printing has never been sexy. Today's printing hardware, including the HP and Epson models Apple sells in its own online store, are clunky, obtuse, and ugly. If they don't have too many buttons for their own good, they sport convoluted (oftentimes resistive, ew) touchscreen interfaces that make navigating an iOS device feel like a Sunday drive. The customer reviews of these printers are mixed at best, with only two of the 12 AirPrint-capable printers on Apple's online store scoring better than a 3/5, and none of them beating a 4/5 rating. The HP model that I have can't keep an AirPrint connection to save its life, and the average rating of all the printers on Apple's online store is 2.5/5. Apple doesn't make 2.5/5 products, but they're selling them because they haven't seen fit to do it better (yet). Even when Apple sold its own brand of printers in the 80s and 90s, they weren't really Apple printers as much as rebadged Canon and HP hardware. If Apple were to decide to enter this fray, they would be starting with what is essentially a blank slate. The company could snag a printing engine from one of the many giants of the industry -- who you can bet would be lining up to get their slice -- but Apple would most definitely want to design the rest of the unit in-house. I mean really, look at the new Mac Pro and tell me who wouldn't want to see a Jony Ive-designed StyleWriter? Apple has a couple of things going for it already if it should decide to pull the trigger on printers: First, as mentioned above, the competition isn't exactly stiff. Second, AirPrint itself has matured greatly since its birth a couple years back, and I'd be willing to bet that an Apple smartphone would talk to an Apple printer with much less fuss (and consumer complaints) than is true of the current third-party units. It prints money The main argument against Apple making printers is also one of the biggest reasons why it should try; "There's no money in it." Yes, there's also no money for Apple to make with a smartphone, a tablet, or a micro desktop computer either, right? Apple is nothing if not the master at creating its own markets, and with a fresh take on printing, I don't think it's silly to think the same would be true once again. Conventional wisdom pushes the idea that the real money to be made with printing comes from selling the supplies, not the hardware. Well, that might be true when you can pick up an HP printer for $50, but let's remember the company we're talking about. If it's gorgeous, it works, and it has even a hint of that Apple magic, price is rarely a deal breaker for anyone walking into an Apple Store. I'm not saying you'll be searching for Apple-branded ink, but don't fool yourself into thinking Apple would be on the same playing field with HP, Epson, Canon, or anyone else in the business. Like it or not, "people who buy Apple products" is now a market of its own, and a pretty big one at that. Why Apple won't make a printer You're not likely to see a "Designed in California" label on a printer any time soon, and printers themselves are largely to blame. Apple is often at its best when creating a new product category, not entering an established one -- the iPod being a big exception here. Iterations on tablets and smartphones come fast and furious because Apple is already a leader in those spaces, but in categories where the company is merely a player, change comes slow if it comes at all (*cough*Mac Pro*cough*). I've done my best to avoid using "innovation" in this article, but that's what it really comes down to. I'm sure Apple could (or already has) come up with a feature that would breathe new life into consumer-level printing, but I couldn't tell you what it is. A sexy design, the "it just works" quality, and the Apple logo would sell more than a few, but in the end it's about giving people what they don't already have. I'm confident Apple has the brains to make that happen with a printer, I'm not convinced the company is willing to actually do it.
Engadget's back to school guide 2013: printers
Welcome to Engadget's back to school guide! Today, we're taking a look at printers. Head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as we add them throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back; in early September, we'll be giving away a ton of gear, including some of the picks in our guides. While you'll spend most of your time staring at a screen as you hastily pull together assignments at the last minute, you'll still need something to put your work to paper when the time comes to turn it in. Luckily, we're on hand to show there's much more to the wonderful world of inkjet printers than just pumping out projects, whether that be producing high-quality photos straight from your camera's SD card, or making memories tangible by printing straight from Facebook -- no computer required. There are scores of printers available at virtually every price point, so if you'd rather spend your last days of freedom not researching printers, then head past the break for our back to school suggestions.
ToughWriter prototype brings color printing to the cockpit, we go hands-on
You might be surprised to hear that many current aircraft already have the ability to print documents at 30,000 feet. Long-haul airliners like the Boeing Dreamliner and Airbus A340 A380 ship with a ToughWriter flight deck printer installed and ready to go, but the device has been limited to black and white output, which can be a bit restrictive when it comes to spitting out charts and weather information. Astro-Med, the company behind the cockpit printer currently churning out reports in thousands of commercial, business and military planes, has a spiffy new model on the way. We spotted an early prototype on display at the Paris Air Show this week, and while it's still a ways off from being cockpit-ready, the device works quite well, printing to ZINK paper at about 30 seconds per page, compared to 5 seconds for the monochrome version. Unlike the printers we're accustomed to using on the ground, a ToughWriter must be installed before an aircraft is certified, so it's really something you need to factor in before the FAA signs off on your plane. In other words, don't expect to simply swap in this new color model once it hits the market. It's also an expensive acquisition -- it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect pricing in the $25,000 range, though that detail has yet to be announced. The version we saw in Paris is very much a work in progress -- it far exceeds the maximum size allowed, and it's heavier than the targeted 10 pounds, too. It does print quite nicely, though, and once engineers manage to squeeze the printer into a smaller housing, it'll likely include AirPrint so pilots can print from their iPads, and possibly Android wireless support, too. Astro-Med reps weren't able to tell us when the color ToughWriter will take to the skies, and considering the certification involved, it could be a few years out. Catch it in action in the gallery below.%Gallery-191672% Update: We originally reported that the monochrome ToughWriter model is installed in the Airbus A340, however the correct aircraft type is A380. The error has been corrected.
Apple releases AirPort Utility 6.3 for Mac
Apple has released an update to its AirPort Utility app for the Mac, bringing it up to version 6.3. It adds the ability to extend a guest WiFi network across multiple AirPort base stations, support for WPS-capable printers and improved international support. It's a free download, as always. The 6.3 update requires an Intel-based Mac running 10.7.5 or later. You can grab it right now through Software Update, or head on over to Apple's update site.
