(PC) Laptop printing versus iPad printing?

No, it's a desktop OS vs iOS thing.
Apple removed the ability to print to printers connected to a PC/Mac in the release version of Airprint.

At the moment, there are only 2 ways of getting printers connected to your Mac/PC working with your iPad
1) use 3rd part apps like Printcentral or Printopia
2) use Google to find the workaround.

Option number 3, use a printer that supports AirPrint. However at the moment, that number is limited to the printers called out in the following page:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airprint.html

As AirPrint is a new protocol, printers must be updated to support it.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

HP Mac Architect wrote:
As AirPrint is a new protocol, printers must be updated to support it.

Andrew

I bet you any money that printers won't be updated.
You'll have to buy new ones.

Today, technology is a disposable item. People buy new printers; at least most of the time when the ink runs out. This is fact, again most of the time. Besides, starter inks on most printers are much less than the replacement ones as they are not meant to print lots and people these days don't print lots. The majority of people will eventually have to buy new printers; Apple just facilitate this process. I think Apple realized that if they decide to support USB printers, they might encounter some unforeseen problems; more so than sticking with AirPrint alone. They know 3rd party people can come in and step up to the plate as they did with Printopia or Print Central.

People believe the iPhone and iPad should behave like a normal computer. They complain it doesn't come with a USB port nor does it play flash or save files like a normal computer. They hate it when you have to save files to a WebDAV server or upload files through an FTP server. Things like this are cloud based; a little foreign to people who are not adept in cloud computing. Those who doubted cloud computing were quickly convinced once I showed them the power of cloud computing vs normal computing. Besides, if you're playing farmville or any Google apps on the web, and doing Rapid Share or MobileMe, you're already doing cloud computing anyhow! This is just another step into a different direction.

In a few years time, people are going to look at this and say, geez what's the big deal! Just like what's a big deal loosing the 3.5" floppy drive. Remember then people were just as stubborn as some people today..

Message was edited by: Coolmax

I'm sorry, but your argument is irrelevant in this case. The ability to print to any printer was already in 4.2 until last week when it was pulled by Apple. The favoured (unconfirmed) reasons were to do with legal rights, and technical issues.
Nothing to do with a technological revolution.

If the decision were yours, would you have included the feature even if it doesn't work?

I'm sorry, but your argument is irrelevant in this case. The ability to print to any printer was already in 4.2 until last week when it was pulled by Apple. The favoured (unconfirmed) reasons were to do with legal rights, and technical issues.
Nothing to do with a technological revolution.

Well, it's pretty difficult to say for certain why they removed it. Let's not make unconfirmed reports as facts as many of us are saying, including yourself.
Unless you know this for an absolute fact, let's not make a rumour fact.

What's factual is that people don't buy iPads and iPhones for that matter as a standalone computer. You just can't because you need a computer to initialize an iPad out of the box. You can blame Apple only if and when an iPad can stand on its own. That means, if I buy a new iPad, I should be able to use it right away like a computer without needing to sync to iTunes or upgrade its firmware without needing iTunes. If it needs to be tethered to a computer, than it should be treated as such don't you agree?

Message was edited by: Coolmax

Coolmax wrote:
Well, it's pretty difficult to say for certain why they removed it. Let's not make unconfirmed reports as facts as many of us are saying, including yourself.
Unless you know this for an absolute fact, let's not make a rumour fact.

Didn't suggest it was a fact. I said it was 'favoured unconfirmed reasons'. Now that is a fact.

Yes I posted this in another thread, but here it is again.

I think part of the confusion here is the difference in technologies. AirPrint relies on another technology called ePrint. As far as I know, this tech is designed to allow you to print without needing any drivers. Instead, the device simply submits something called a UDF (similar to a PDF) directly to a drop box on the printer. The printer then sees this "document" and prints it.

All printers, up until this point, used drivers to convert information from whatever app you are using into either PCL (printer control language) or PS (PostScript). These drivers are very complex and are updated routinely for enhancement, bug fixes, and security flaws.

The beauty of ePrint and AirPrint is that it now eliminates this issue.

In order for Apple to make it possible to print, directly from the iPad, to any of the HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of printer models out there right now, would require them to license the drivers from all the different manufacturers and incorporate all of that code into the iOS. This would nearly triple the size of the iOS install. Don't believe me? A recent update I saw for Mac OS X for only HP printers was over 150 MB in size. The entire iOS install is only about 500 MB.

Is it a pain that we are in the beginning phase of a transition to a new technology? Yes... Apple knew this would be an issue and they where going to try to support using your Mac as a "print server" to service those older printers. Unfortunately, somehing came up, that they are not talking about, that prevented them from doing this.

Maybe they will be able to do this in the future, and maybe not. We shall just have to wait and see.

On a side note, I was able to enable the print server functionality from my Mac without having to purchase anything or even copy different files from a shady web site. All I did was create an AppleScript that created a new file that re-enables this functionality in Mac OS X 10.6.5. The directions are in another thread in this forum and they work flawlessly.

Guess I just want people to understand that we really are talking about a new technology here and not just simply enableing wireless printing. Yeah, they could have done that, but it would have required a lot more work, a lot more space on the device, and a potential for a lot of instability in iOS.