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Apple releases updated Epson printer drivers
Apple has released the Epson 2.8 Printer Drivers update via Software Update. The Epson 2.8 Printer Drivers update clocks in at a massive 961 MB download and brings support for the latest Epson printing and scanning software to OS X 10.7 Lion and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. You can see a full list of supported printers here and if you don't want to download the update via Software Update, click here to immediately download the driver update.
Printer patents portend driver-free future
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published two patents in the past week that suggest Apple is trying to eliminate the much-loathed printer driver. As first noted by ConceivablyTech, the two patents each describe a way for your Mac to get the necessary driver information from the printer itself or from the cloud, without the need to install any software on the computer itself. The first patent, aptly titled "Walk-up Printing without Drivers," describes how the printer itself could basically contains the driver and the computer would then read that driver wirelessly, which would enable one to print to it. The second patent, titled "Data Formats to Support Driverless Printing, " describes a method in which a user's print job data would be sent to the cloud in the background after the user clicks "print" on his computer. The cloud then encodes that print job with the proper data format for the desired printer and returns the information to the computer, which then passes it on to the printer. It may sound convoluted, but the cloud method all happens in the background in a matter of seconds. Getting the right printer driver has been a bane for computer users since the '80s and with the rise of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, getting the correct driver on a mobile device could be even more bothersome. As Apple's patents suggest, storing the printer driver in the printer itself or in the cloud would be a way to ensure virtually any device can print to any printer.
Insert Coin: 6dot Braille labeler (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. It's difficult to imagine what life would be like without the ability to see, but "Assistive tech junkie" Karina Pikhart is working to improve at least some aspects of life without sight. Developed while she was a student at MIT, her 6dot labeler prints Braille onto standard DYMO tape using an embossing mechanism. The 6dot was named for the six dots used in the Braille system, and includes a built-in Braille keyboard for people familiar with the writing system, and the option to connect a standard QWERTY keyboard -- with characters converted in real-time, allowing the rest of us to print Braille labels as well. This incredibly practical system could literally end up being a life-saver for some blind people, who may not be able to identify pills that include only non-textured markings, for example. Pikhart has turned to Kickstarter to fund her project, seeking $50,000 in pledges to get the Braille tape rolling. A $1,000 donation lands you one of the first available 6dot labelers, while lesser pledges will be rewarded with a variety of custom Braille souvenirs. Jump past the break to see it in action, or hit up the source link for the full scoop from 6dot.
Visualized: Objet's 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer
It ain't easy being plastic, you know? Objet -- the 3D printing house that aimed to replace your office's all-in-one Epson back in July -- brought a few of its snazziest pieces here to SIGGRAPH, and we popped by to have a gander. Targeting the animation-inspired crowd that showed up here in Vancouver, the company brought along some Hollywood examples of how its multi-material Objet260 Connex helped movie makers craft prototype creatures before they were inserted into the storyline. Thor's Destroyer and Avatar's Na'vi were both on hand, as well as the two critters shown above. The hothead on the right was crafted in around 18 hours (and subsequently painted), while the cool cat on the left was built in three fewer. Wildly enough, that fellow required no painting whatsoever; so long as you're cool with shades of grey, you can program your object to be colored from the outset. Oh, and as for his cost? Around $80 for the materials -- slightly more for the printer itself. %Gallery-130291%
Engadget's back to school guide 2011: printers
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have printers on our minds and on our desks -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Sadly, most of your professors probably still expect assignments to be turned in on dried-up wood pulp. And, while that doesn't mean you'll have to remaster the fine art of writing in cursive, you will need a printer to put your (carefully proofread and thoroughly researched, of course) prose on paper. Jump past the break for our recommendations, and another opportunity to enter our back to school giveaway. Simply leave a comment below to be entered to win, and head over to our giveaway page for more details.
Canon PIXMA iP4920, MG5320 bring filters, 'creativity' to photo printing
Canon's just released a pair of new PIXMA printers that seem to rely on your lack of Photoshop knowledge. For the PIXMA MG5320 Wireless All-In-One and iP4920 Inkjet Photo Printers, functionality is pretty straight forward, but the outfit's hoping to reel you with the promise that the pair brings "creativity to a whole new level." That "enhanced creativity" comes in the form of "Fun Filter Effects," a set of elementary photo filters, like Fish-Eye and Toy Camera, and the ability to add soft focus and blur backgrounds. What's more, the MG5320 also allows you to print sans-PC from the company's PIXMA Cloud Link. If fisheye functionality is enough to get your creative juices, and cash money, flowing, the iP4920 and MG5320 are now available for pre-order for $100 and $150, respectively, at the source links below. A rather uninspiring press release awaits you after the break.
HP adds AirPrint support to more printers
In what it calls a significant expansion of its support for Apple's AirPrint feature, HP has added AirPrint support to eight more of its LaserJet models. AirPrint enables iOS device users running iOS 4.2 or later to wirelessly print documents, photos and other media using printers that support the standard without the cumbersome setup or search for printer drivers that's traditionally been a major stumbling block to printing. By downloading and installing a firmware update from HP, the following printer models will gain full support for AirPrint functions: HP LaserJet P1102w Printer HP LaserJet P1606dn Printer HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw Color Printer HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP HP LaserJet Pro M1213nf MFP HP LaserJet Pro M1214nfh MFP HP LaserJet Pro M1216nfh MFP HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw MFP These eight models are in addition to another five LaserJet models which already support AirPrint: HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fn Color MFP HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw Color MFP HP LaserJet Pro CP1525n Color Printer HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw Color Printer HP Color LaserJet Pro M1536dnf MFP
Receipt Racer makes printing fun, wastes more paper than you ever thought possible (video)
Sure, you could use your printer to spit out spreadsheets, but how about hooking up a DualShock 3 to play it like a video game? That's exactly what Joshua Noble and the undef duo did during a workshop related to OFFF last week, and the result is stunning (if not hilarious). The trio coded a game in openFrameworks, titled Receipt Racer, which uses a thermal receipt printer modded with a "light beamer" to display game info and represent a car, a DS3 to control it, and a laptop to connect the devices and run the software. A random track with obstacles gets rapidly printed while a player attempts to navigate it without crashing -- sort of like Lane Splitter -- or until the paper roll runs out after 164 feet. There's a tree-loving web browser version and the full details of how it works in the source link below. We scored just over 1,400 1,752 points; let us know how you do in the comments. [Thanks, Jesse]
Polaroid GL10 instant mobile printer now available for pre-order, Lady Gaga-approved
So you still can't stun 'em in a pair of Haus of Gaga-designed camera glasses, but the Polaroid GL10 instant mobile printer is now officially available for pre-order -- and rumored to be making an early debut in the men's accessories section at Bloomingdale's in NYC. The first of the pop star's Grey Label devices to make it to market, the GL10 connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to smartphones (including Android, Blackberry, and Windows phones) and via USB to computers and digital cameras. The little thing weighs 15 ounces, prints 3 x 4-inch classic Polaroid-style or full bleed prints, and boasts a Li-ion battery apparently capable of spitting out 35 photos per charge. Now you can make a real gallery of all those "this is my lunch" pictures you've been forcing on your Facebook friends for the past few years -- that is, if you're willing to drop $170 for a surprisingly understated celebrity-backed photo printer.
Vienna University of Technology builds a 3D printer, 3D prints the key to our hearts
We've all spent a good portion of the past few years imagining what we'll do as soon as we get our hands on our very own 3D printer. Of course, if you're of the particularly crafty, Make Magazine-subscribing sort, you've probably already built a few of your own. For those who don't know a soldering iron from a freshly-burned hole in their hand, however, it's been a matter of waiting for the technology to come down in size and price. A machine designed by professors at the Vienna University of Technology still has a ways to go on the roughly €1,200 (about $1,700) price, but it weigh in at a bit over three pounds, and that's not for your run-of-the-mill extruder -- this breadbox-sized machine uses lasers to harden plastics, allegedly with enough precision to produce medical parts. Looks like picking out the perfect gift for your professor friends in Vienna just got a lot harder.
Android-based Cellular printer writes text messages on your wall (your real-life one)
Ever wish you could write on people's walls in real life? Behold the Cellular Wall Printer, a collection of felt markers that receives messages via Facebook, Twitter, and SMS, and then transcribes them across any flat surface. Here's how it works: seven individually controlled servo motors push the felt pens up and down to leave dots and dashes in their wake. The contraption is manually operated, and Liat Segal, the inventor, adds that there's a timing system to ensure the printer transcribes neatly, even if you are in motion. Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact that the rig is controlled by an Android application, and uses an IOIO board to connect the electronic components to an Android device. (Our resident mobile expert Myriam Joire is pretty sure we're looking at a skinned Nexus One.) Check out a whimsical video demonstration after the break, with a couple more at the source link.
Shapeways Glazed Ceramics make 3D printed objects you can eat off of
We've seen them spit out fancy glass vases and tiny white strandbeests, and now the 3D thingy makers are pumping out cutesy salt and pepper shakers. Those hyper-glossy white rabbits pictured above are some of the first spawns of Glazed Ceramics, the newly minted food-safe material available from Shapeways. Glazed Ceramics are fired in an oven or kiln like traditional ceramics and are then coated with a lead-free non-toxic gloss -- the result is food-safe, recyclable, and heat resistant up to 1000 degrees Celsius. The new material is now available to Shapeways designers and will be until August 12th, at which point the company will decide whether its worth keeping around. For now you can sate your appetite for 3D printed shiny white dishes by clicking the source link below.
Canon printer drivers hitting Software Update
As if Safari and iOS updates weren't enough for one day! Do you use a Canon printer (including all-in-one printer/scanners) with your Mac running Snow Leopard? If so, you have an exciting new update waiting for you. There's no indication of what the new Canon Printer Drivers 2.5 version actually changes, so fire up Software Update, cross your fingers and hope your printing experience magically improves. If Software Update doesn't show that you have an update available, you can download the driver manually from the the relevant Apple support page. [via The Mac Observer]
HP enables Google Cloud Print on ePrint printers right out of the box
Man, remember when transferring data to your printer required a big fat cable and physical proximity to your ink spitter? Thankfully, we live in more refined times now and HP and Google have hooked up to deliver the first printers with driverless Cloud Print support, making the whole thing that extra bit easier. HP ePrint printers were already sophisticated enough to receive instructions via email and now they're casting aside the need for a connected PC to talk to Google's Cloud Print service as well. All you need is your machine's @hpeprint.com email address and then you're away, zipping pictures and text from your smartphone, tablet or laptop to the HP paper decorator. It's all seamless and wireless and probably feels like the future when you're doing it. We'd tell you, but we stopped printing stuff in 2004.
MakerBot's Interface Board Kit does PC-less 3D printing, turns your superhero fantasies into reality
If you're like us -- that is to say, wildly popular and devastatingly good looking -- then you're probably wondering why someone hasn't produced an action figure in your likeness yet. Well wonder no longer, for the folks over at MakerBot just announced yet another handy tool to make at home 3D printing even easier. An addition to the aptly titled Thing-O-Matic, the Gen 4 Interface Board Kit v1.1 is billed as a DIY interface that lets you operate your thingy printer without having to attach it to a PC. The kit comes equipped with an SD card slot for easy independent operation, and because the board's fully hackable, you can use it to control your robots or homebrew CNC devices, too. It sports nine programmable buttons and an LCD screen for feedback, and allows you to set and read temperatures, view build progress, or start a new project stored on the SD card. So what are you waiting for? Your self-aggrandizing bobblehead isn't going to make itself.
Fabricate Yourself Kinect hack turns you into a 3D puzzle piece
We've been whittling our likeness into bars of soap for decades, but lucky for us someone's come up with a far easier way to render our flawless good looks in miniature. Following in a long line of inventive Kinect hacks, the folks at Interactive Fabrication have produced a program called Fabricate Yourself that enlists the machine to capture images of users and convert them into 3D printable files. The hack, which was presented at Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in January, results in tiny 3D models that resemble Han Solo trapped in carbonite and sport jigsaw edges that can be used to make a grid of small, but accurate renderings. Fabricate Yourself is still in its infancy, and the resulting models are relatively short on detail, but we're no less excited by the possibilities -- just think of all the things we could monogram in the time it takes to produce one soapy statuette. Video after the jump.
TUAW Macworld meetup with HP tonight!
We're going to have a meetup tonight at Jillian's Billiards Club (101 4th St # 170 in San Francisco, right across the corner from Moscone West in the Metreon). Thanks to our friends at HP, who will be our gracious co-hosts, we'll have food and drink and demos of HP printers plus we'll be giving stuff away... including an HP printer! We look forward to seeing you there. The meetup starts at 7:45 PM Pacific and we'll end at 10 PM. Come meet the bloggers, see some AirPrint-capable printers (and try them out) and have some food!
Memjet: ink-on with the world's fastest printer
Sure the world of digital printing might not catch many people's eye, but there's something otherworldly about just how fast this thing spits out pages. Memjet's office reference printer is fast. How fast? 60 pages a minute, fast. Print quality looks fine at 1600 dots per inch and reportedly half the cost of ownership of other color printers. The trick behind the speed are the 70,000 nozzles firing more than 700 million drops of ink per second that print the page in one pass rather than the several passes of traditional inkjets -- or enough for a page a second. We're pretty sure if we had one of these at our disposal we'd be throwing as much material as we could at it just to watch the magic on the output side. %Gallery-113156%
Kodak intros Easyshare Touch, Mini and Sport cameras, Playfull and Playsport camcorders
Things are just getting underway here at CES in Las Vegas, and Kodak's on-hand in order to serve up its latest smorgasbord of optical treasures. Without further ado, allow us to present to you the Easyshare Touch -- a $149.95 offering with a three-inch capacitive touchpanel, a dedicated video record button, a 14 megapixel sensor, 5x Schneider-Kreuznach lens and an HDMI output. Next up is the $99.95 Easyshare Mini, described as Kodak's smallest camera yet. It's "around the size of a credit card," offering a 3x wide-angle optical zoom lens, a built-in front mirror (you know, for those glorious self-portrait sessions), a ten megapixel sensor and a 2.5-inch rear LCD. Moving right along, there's the $79.95 Easyshare Sport, which is the outfit's first waterproof camera that can go up to ten feet underwater without any significant consequences. It'll also shrug off dirt and dust while snapping 12 megapixel shots and previewing them on the 2.4-inch LCD. Sashaying over to the video realm, there's the $149.95 Playfull camcorder, which touts an ultraslim design (it'll "fit in the pocket of your skinny jeans," according to Special K), a 1080p capture mode and an unmistakable 'Share' button to get your footage onto YouTube or a social network without any wasted time. The company's also using CES as an opportunity to launch the next generation of its Playsport video camera, with this $179.95 model being waterproof up to ten feet, shockproof, dustproof and capable of logging clips at 1080p. You can also snap stills at five megapixels, and that previously mentioned 'Share' button is predictably tacked on here as well. Speaking of revisions, the Pulse digital photo frame is also seeing a gentle refresh, with this one available in 7-inch ($129.95) and 10-inch ($199.95) sizes. The newcomers add the ability to comment on the pictures you receive from friends and family, with our favorite predetermined response being "Such a KODAK MOMENT!" Seriously. Oh, and these also have an ingrained activity sensor that turns the frame off when you walk away, and brings it back to life when you re-approach. Finally, the ESP C310 all-in-one printer will be selling for $99.99, but so far as we can tell, Kodak would rather extol the virtues of its ink-saving abilities than drum up interest in its cutting-edge feature set. Further details can be spotted in the full release after the break. %Gallery-112240% %Gallery-112328%
RepRap prints transistors, but fabs have little to fear
Budding hobbyists almost have it too easy these days, what with all the ready-made components, Mindstorms and Arduino boards, but there's still a couple of folks out there kicking it old-school... and printing transistors at home. Yes, that's a RepRap 3D printer you see there, with a MakerBot Unicorn pen head, depositing tiny dots of silver ink to form intricate rows of tiny electrodes. Sadly, the printer doesn't currently automate the entire process, as you'll also need to separately apply a dielectric material and a host of chemicals to get a working field effect transistor from scratch, but once the basic process is perfected the possibilities, as they say, are endless. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a hot date with some vacuum tubes. Find the basic formula for DIY transistors at our source link.
