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FingerPrint app for Mac enables AirPrint for the printers Apple left behind
Printing never "just works," does it? There always has to be some wrench thrown in. We were hoping Apple was about to solve some of that with AirPrint, but at the last minute it left out the Mac printer-sharing functionalities that were supposedly going to arrive with Mac OS X 10.6.5. That means as of right now the only way to do AirPrint with the yet-to-be-released iOS 4.2 is to buy one of those fancy new HP printers with the AirPrint-compatible ePrint functionality. We're guessing Apple is just giving this feature a little more time in the oven, but if you're just too passionate about printing things to wait, the FingerPrint application from Collobos might fill the void. The $8 app shares just about any printer that your Mac can find over Bonjour and... well, that's about it. Some printers work, some don't, and there's a trial period to find out if it'll work with your particular setup. Too rich for your blood? There's always the hack.
Hands on: FingerPrint enables AirPrint for many non-compliant OS X printers
FingerPrint is a new Mac OS X application from Collobos Software that enables AirPrint printing for many OS X printers. AirPrint is Apple's new wireless printing technology for iOS devices. It works over Bonjour, Apple's version of zero configuration networking, allowing devices and services to communicate with each other on local area networks. As originally planned, AirPrint was supposed to provide printing to shared OS X printers and to a small group of HP printers that support HP's ePrint mobile printing service. However, this feature was disabled in the final Mac OS X 10.6.5 release, and AirPrint now only supports the HP printers. FingerPrint brings the capability back to shared printers without having to resort to Terminal commands. The $7.99 application works by browsing for Bonjour printer services. When it finds them, it re-advertises the printers adding a special field to the Bonjour data that indicates AirPrint compliance. By projecting that compliance information, your iOS devices are able to detect and then write to those printers using standard OS X protocols. Update: See our exclusive first look at Ecamm's competitive offering, Printopia for Mac
