How do I print from my iPad ?

OMG, I don't believe your post!

Airprint is one of the best things to happen in recent times. Printing directly from my iPhone (and iPad) has been life changing for me in the sense that when I go to remote locations, I no longer have to lug my laptop around.

So, do you think that Apple should get no payback for developing such a great piece of technology as Airprint?

How much do you think they are making when excellent Airprint printers from HP are available in the UK from £39 inc VAT (and ink!), which is around £32 ex tax?

BTW, Deggie was completly correct in what he said about the patent issue.

Apple released AirPrint (and FaceTime) to the public domain and there is no licensing fee. Perhaps you should check these things before claiming a conspiracy is taking place.

Deggie,

With all due respect, none of what you've said is true. FaceTime and AirPrint are neither open sourced nor available within the 'public domain'.

From the wikipedia entry on FaceTime:

Upon the launch of the iPhone 4, Jobs promised that Apple would immediately start working with standards bodies to make the FaceTime protocol an "open standard." As of June 2011, it is not yet known to have been ratified by any standards body, and the extent of work by Apple with regard to this promise is unclear as Apple has not released technical specifications for the service. FaceTime is not currently supported on any non-Apple devices.

While FaceTime is based on open standards, Apple's FaceTime service requires a client-side certificate.^[12] I.e. while the protocol might become an "open standard", access to Apple's FaceTime service is controlled by Apple.

In the case of AirPrint, the Apple implementation appears to be subject to a patent owned by HP. Apple could very well have created their own technology that would sidestep this patent as the makers of software such as Printopia have done. The existin print sharing under Mac OS X has never been liable to this patent. I would suspect that Apple has brokered a deal with HP to allow them to depoy iOS compatible printers without the fee, while Epson and others will have to pay Apple for this functionality and Apple will then pass on a few bucks to HP.

If either of these technologies were open source, you wouldn't have to pay third parties for apps that use these technologies. There would be free apps available. Additionally, users of non iOS devices (Android) would be facetiming and airprinting all over the place, which they are not thus far.

Seth

Your patent you quote is for ePrint, which is held by HP, not AirPrint. None of the printer manufacturers have to pay anything to use it and I doubt you would see that many printers from that many manufacturers if they had to pay a fee to Apple.

There is a fee app, in a way, to use AirPrint, AirPrint Activator. As I said earlier due to patent trolls that side of AirPrint, which was pulled at the last minute, was available through the computer.

I had the same problem...I have the ipad 1 and an airprint printer and still didn't have an option to print. I finally figured it out. In order for the ipad1 to print, you need 10.5.3 version of itunes. Clicking "download" in my existing itunes did not work, so I went to apple.com directly, and the download for 10.5.3 worked just fine at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ . Once you have this itunes version installed, then the ipad1 can be updated to ipad's latest version of IOS 5.0.1. Updating to IOS 5.0.1 is very easily spelled out when you connect the ipad1 to your computer's USB. Then voila! With the new version in the ipad1, the "print" option exists on the menu. My airprint printer works just fine now. Good luck.

Airprint has been implemented in IOS since level 4.2. Level 5.0.1 is not required.

Itunes level 10.5.3 really has nothing to do with Airprint.

Printing on any operating system should be free and easy to do, with no licensing requirements, and compatible with any printer. Anything else is just stupid and ridiculous. It's hard enough to do much on a tablet as it is. It's not like Apple is hard up for money or something.

Things like this are what gives Apple a bad reputation. You shouldn't have to pay for some app to print.

No idea what you mean, you don't 'have to pay for some app to print'!

You can print to any print from an ipad if you install an ubuntu machine on your network. Using Cups you can install any printer and share. To the iPad these appear as airprint printers and you can print to any of them.

Enjoy

Daleforster wrote:

You can print to any print from an ipad if you install an ubuntu machine on your network. Using Cups you can install any printer and share

You don't need an Ubuntu machine.

CUPS runs on any unix based OS (such as Mac OS X).

This is a roundabout answer and <disclaimer warning> I usually find it skeptical when someone gives an "answer" to a question like this in the manner of which I am about to give 😝 </disclaimer warning>

I have fought hand over fist with Printing from my iPad. I have a Lexmark Pro 901 that I shelled out $500 for and I am just unwilling to go buy another printer with a new piece of "AirPrint" in it.

Also, I have problems installing anything that runs in the background ( oh, I remember my former MicroNot days too clearly, the burn scars having recently been healed!)

Alas, I regress. So, last night i needed to print something off my iPad.

Ugh, I tried to see if my Lexmark could get "AirPrint" (no) I tried the "print" application (called "Print") that I bought like a year ago (no) then, on a whim, I tried the app i bought about 4 months ago and holy moley, it worked: "Files Connect" (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/files-connect/id404324302?mt=8)

So, i did some research -> turns out, the find folks at Antecea are using something called "CUPS" to print -> (http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/overview.html>. The "Files Connect" app allows you to connect to other computers over a network (local network, ssh, ftp, sftp) Heck, it even allows you to browse other Macs on your network all from an iPad. You can view photos,reviews documents, open a document (like iWork docs) that on on your Mac on your iPad (I am rambling, I know) ; which is why I bought it in the first place -> pre iCloud days.

Anyway -> I bet that "AirPrint" is just a marketing repackaging of good ole CUPS -> which has prob been around since NeXT but only developers knew it -> and given a MS protocol . And the general population wouldn't understand "CUPS" , "So, tell Ian in Marketing to whip up a catchy, name that has some edge to it -and make it 'POP' while your at it" as a rebrand.

All this before I had my FIRST cup of coffee this morning! WHOO HOOOOOOO!

Anyway -> the caveat (what you thought this would allow you to print from Starbuck to a Kinkos without an Internet cnnection?!?) is that you have to be on yor home network -> or at least one that is connect to a printing through a Mac. Mind you -> any old Mac that has a printer to share.

Sounds similar to AirPrint, doesn't it?

Message was edited by: johnvsc -> because there were some typos and everyone LOVES to debunk a post with typos.

johnvsc wrote:

Sounds similar to AirPrint, doesn't it?

Frankly, no it doesn't. Airprint is all about not needing to access a shared printer requiring a Mac or PC to be switched on. There are many apps and solutions if that is what you want to do.

Similar, not the same 😝

John, there have been lots of 'shared printer' options for printing from iOS devices since the day Airprint was released. Printopia being one of the favourites.

There are also many apps like Printcentral that will print (without the need to have a PC or Mac switched on) to non-Airprint wi-fi printers.

I agree with igmackenzie's response to johnvsc's post. I, too, ran into the AirPrint problem (see my earlier posts in this string) and settled on Printopia as my solution. $20 isn't a giveaway, but the versatility of Printopia in being able to send items to non-AirPrint printers, Evernote, Dropbox, a Mac (or a specific folder on my Mac), and a specific application on my laptop, is, to me, well worth the investment. It installed effortlessly and worked from the first minute I put it on my system. The downside is that the Mac running Printopia has to be up and running on the network, however in my environment, that isn't an issue.

As always, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and Printopia isn't the only game in town. While it's the one I chose, and I'd unhesitatingly recommend it as a great tool for iOS devices, there are undoubtedly others that will take older, non-AirPrint printers and make them available from any iOS device. People stumbling across this string (and there are apparently a lot of them) should consider Printopia as one solution by taking advantage of their free trial as well as checking out other solutions that have been recommended by people in this discussion.