ios5 killed printing by Print and Share

I like to think not. However, the recent changes forcing users to use AirPrint printers and killing other applications that relied on the print function in iOS 5 is absolutely unacceptable.

I related note concerns Lion, we're the recent upgrade also rendered some of the existing applications behave different. At a minimum, such upgrades should allow for backward compatability.

Add my parents (both in their 70s, and they used to love printing from the iPad 2) and myself to the list of people who are very displeased with this decision. We paid for Print n Share twice (their iPad2, and mine) and as of iOS 5 it's basically useless. My parents have a high-end all-in-one printer that is less than five months old and now it's a lot less useful to them (unless they specifically load web pages or read email in Print n Share's built-in browser/email reader). Documents are just not going to print at all, apparently. My folks aren't going to buy an AirPrint-capable printer when this one is essentially new and perfectly functional, and it's disgusting that Apple is trying to corner people into such a purchase.

I love my iPad 2. I stood in line for five hours to get it at launch, and it was worth the wait. I even wrote half of my first novel on it and I adore iOS 5, but this change to printing capabilities is ridiculous. I just got an Android phone, and now I'm starting to think maybe I should sell the iPad 2 and get myself an Android tablet instead.

BAD move, Apple. You're not doing yourselves any favors with actions like this.

I am going to start shopping around for Android, darn it. I don't want to, but you're really making it hard for me to justify keeping the iPad 2 around if I can't do basic things like printing from it without having to buy a new printer.

This is the first time I have ever added a comment to an on-line forum but I'm so insensed about this issue I had to spout forth somewhere. I too bought Print'n Share from the App store in good faith; used it happily onlt to find that Apple have now disabled it. How dare they! If it had been free and they were selling their own, I could possibly understand but this act of isolationism is outrageous. I was warned by a colleague before i bought my iPad that apple were only interested in me as a consumer and i pooh-poohed his view. Well now I'm convinced. I will not be buying another Apple product until they sort out this issue. I just hope Bill Gates will welcome me back into the MicroSoft fold like the prodigal son. Why was I so easily swayed. And I agree, the most frustrating bit is that Apple, in their arrogance, don't even respond to our concerns (nor even monitor these threads I would imagine).

One solution (or work around) is to use FingerPrint or Printopia. Both will run on your computer and make it act as an AirPrint server. FingerPrint has a Windows and Mac versions. Printopia is only available for Mac. The downside is that you need a computer and it has to be on.

I still feel Apple need to revise its decision and enable the Print function. I certainly hope they do not jeopardize solutions such as Fingerprint or Printopia.

Using FingerPrint or Printopia isn't really helping for people like my parents who rely on the iPad as their primary device.

Anyway, that's not really printing from the iPad-- It's just relaying print tasks to your PC/Mac and letting it do the job. If I wanted to do that, I'd just email the documents to myself and open them on the PC.

The main issue is that this function used to be enabled, and Apple disabled it. I paid $10 for Print n Share, as did my parents, and now neither of us can really get as much out of it as was promised. This is not the developer's fault; It's Apple's.

I think Apple should at least give people refunds when they break an App with an update. Ultimately, I'd rather see Apple turn the printing feature back on. This isn't a bug; It was a deliberate elimination of a feature in order to promote the AirPrint licensed products being sold by their business partners.

You want to know why Apple ignores you? It's all in the numbers, 9262 Views with 65 Replies.

Over 9200 people have visited this blog and only 65 of us had the guts, gumption, initiative to actually Reply. That's 0.7%. It's really amazing that Apple was the one who produced the lemmings ad all those years ago, mocking PC owners for blindly following Microsoft.

Now you Apple-ites are the lemmings because even those 0.7% of you who will say or write something, will just like the other 99.3% who didn't care enough to even Reply, you'll all walk right out and buy the next "whatever" that Apple tells you is the next thing you just have to have.

Apple doesn't care about you! They are ideologues. Apple and Steve Jobs for years have done this to you.. they change OS's and you find that 20% of your programs no longer work, or they work differently than the way they used to work. Apple say's, "Hey, you should be honored that you have had to suffer for being out here on the cutting edge, conquering new frontiers. You're an Apple man!"

A few years ago, Apple introduces their new Macs and whoops, they've done away with the floppy drives, leaving all of you who were doing your back-ups on floppy drives with no path to recovery. What did they say? "Hey our micro drives are better.... and you should be honored that you have had to suffer for being out here on the cutting edge, conquering new frontiers. You're an Apple man!"

And now, Apple knows that AirPrint printers are the way you should go, and they're in cahoots with HP (who bought into Apples hype and invested millions of dollars in these AirPrint printers) so they're 'kicking back to HP' by taking away one of the most basic of all computing technology.. basic printing functionality.

And, as we all know, they have the capability... it's been working for all of us for years... they just said they heck with you. This is the height of Apple arrogance.

If you listen carefully, you can hear Apple mocking all you smucks in the backgroud saying.."Hey AirPrint printers are the way you need to go .... and you should be honored that you have had to suffer for being out here on the cutting edge, conquering new frontiers. You're an Apple man!"

You know what? So was Adam, and he had the fall of mankind riding on his shoulders.

Wow. Smug, misinformed, tribalist jerk much?

"Apple-ites"? Really? "then you'll walk right out and buy the next whatever Apple tells you"?

Look, pal; I have exactly ONE Apple item, and I've enjoyed the heck out of it except for this ONE screwed up issue. I also have a gaming/HTPC rig that I built from the ground up, as well as an Android phone, but hey- Go ahead and accuse me, and all the other folks here, of being cultists or sheep who only use Apple products. That's easy to do, right? Instead of coming here to offer advice or say anything useful, you came here to insult people. Nice. I bet you're popular.

I could also point out that you spelled a number of things incorrectly and used all-bold text. You know what that looks like to the majority of people here? An Internet troll.

Honestly, what did you hope to accomplish with that post? Did you think your crazed, anti-Apple proselytizing would convert people to your point of view? Because, you know, nothing makes people rush to your side like insulting them and insinuating that they're stupid, right?

No. You came here to be a jerk to people on the Internet, because you have some weird personal beef with Apple and anyone who owns an Apple product. You aren't being helpful, informative, productive, or likeable. Mostly, you're just being an a██hole.

And one more thing: If you think Microsoft, Sony, Google, or any other large company is any more responsive to consumer complaints, or any less focused on profits, then you're also a blithering idiot.

You do have one good point: This forum doesn't seem to be worth monitoring, but that's mostly because of recent troll activity.

Good day, sir.

Hi Keith

With great respect I think you are missing the point regarding "sashelby's" post ( he says mounting his trusty steed and brandishing his gleaming rapier :} )

I believe the post along with the others in this thread is exhibiting frustration at what most people believe is a fundamental function of any computer ie the ability print output when required. This ability on the iPad has been neutered, as I am sure you will agree?

There are perhaps two issues overall, the first is that, when one buys a computer (which the iPad purports to be) it is taken as read that one can print the output and not be restricted to one type and a special function printer. The second is that printing flexibility was actually removed with the iOS update.

Yes, the perhaps the post you are reacting to was a bit OTT but as I have said I believe this is driven by frustration rather than anti-Apple feelings.

As a counter to the rather direct comments made by sashelby perhaps many of those 9000 or so readers of this thread could be potential customers !

Anyway enough said from me - it's coffee time and there are, thanks to the Lord bigger fish to fry - oh yes must be breakfast time.

You are correct about apple's apparent lack of response to the over 9000 of us reading about the issue- no one from apple support has responded. I would conclude that they don't care. Same thing when we spoke over the phone regarding printing.

Too bad we can't reverse the upgrade.

Agreed. Too bad -as with all big company's-they don't really need us anymore

Keith –

Wow, where to start. [NOTE: I was going to print your comments so that I could refer to each of them individually as I Reply. But gosh, I then realized YOU CAN NO LONGER PRINT from the iPad!

So here goes, as best as I can recall…

Regarding ‘internet trolling’ – since I’ve only ever written to 3 (now 4) Blogs/Forums, I think this tag may not fit.

Regarding ‘smug, misinformed’ – could be, but where I stated actual facts and you only gave me emotion so it’s hard to discern which of us is the most misinformed.

Regarding ‘tribalist’ – I’m an engineer, I haveno idea what this means.

Regarding ‘ONE screwed up issue’– could we at least agree that it’s a pretty big ‘ONE issue?’ I mean would you buy a Laptop or MacBook and NOT expect that it would allow printing? And let’s not lose perspective here. Apple HAS THE CAPABILITY to allow printing; at least 9,262 of us have been using it. Apple has PURPOSELY CHOOSEN to steal it away from us. It shouldn’t require a rocket scientist to recognize this was not a mistake. It was a planned, proactive action taken by Apple because they know more than their customers about how their customers should use their products. [Plus it’s a kick-back to all the printer manufactures whom Apple bamboozled into believing that AirPrint printing is the ONLY way to print. Since obviously Apples customers didn’t agree with that philosophy, Apple had to take this step to insure that “AirPrin tprinting is the ONLY way we can print.”

Regarding ‘bold text’ – You should thank Apple for that. I tried to ‘bold’ one word. I mistakenly ‘bolded’ the entire text. When I tried to un-do the bold text, it wouldn’t work. [They must have also removed the ‘un-bolding’ capability when they stole our ability to print.]

Regarding ‘convert people to your point of view?’– Hardly. What kind of a world would that be? I will share this though. I used to sell technology to Apple back in the 80’s when they were developing the first Mac. I’ll give Apple this, they may have had their up’s and down’s over the years but their know-it-all arrogance has never waned. [I think they never got over the fact that they couldn’t develop the technology that they had to acquire from my company. So, ok, maybe I do have history with Apple, and I'll probably have to concede the “personal beef” charge.]

Regarding ‘spelling errors’ – I gotta give you that one too. As noted above, I’m an engineer by degree [and in Sales by greed! :-) ]

Regarding ‘what did you hope to accomplish’ – Since you’ve stated that this “forum doesn't seem to be worth monitoring” you may not read this, but for the rest, here goes. As I’ve noted I’m in Sales. Let’s, just for a moment, assume you’re in Sales and your company has just introduced an “upgrade” to your latest and greatest, fast selling product that disables a primary, base line capability. Approximately 10,000 of your customers have shown at least a passing interest in a) what happened to this heavily used ‘base line capability,’ or b) are looking for some sort of ‘work around’ because they all (initially, in their heart of hearts) believe that this has got to just be a mistake, right?

Of those 10,000 uneasy customers, at least 65 have written to your company to express their concern, plead for your help, ask for restoration of this primary capability. What does your company do?

Well, 4 to 5 months later, Apple’s response is … nothing. Maybe my comments were meant to arouse the other 9,000 who have viewed this forum to direct their rightful anger, their disillusionment toward Apple, and paraphrasing the famous line from the movie Network, tell Apple “We’re mad as h___ and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

So you tell me. Does Apple care about their customers? Or do they just take us all for granted? I still love my iPad for how I use it... except it's now an absolute PITA to print anything that I used to do seemlessly.

Have a great day.

What a great response! 🙂

Come on Apple fix this ?%///?%?/%?%?%*&&

Great discussion, and an interesting point of view about AirPrint being the future technology, maybe it will be or maybe not (in a similar way that floppy disks are history now), but why in the world oh why would Apple block all printing capabilities!? At this moment I'm only interested in printing webpages, or whatever content to PDF, and the app Save2PDF (which I payed for) among all other features it has(d) allowed me to do that before upgrading to iOS5. At this moment I can't virtually print anything. After reading some of the earlier arguments by the various respondents, and seeing that all printing capabilities aside from AirPrint have been disabled, this is very very worrisome to me as a consumer. Can developers use a printing option in their apps, is that a matter of just updating their apps, at this moment it doesn't seem the case, so Apple is saddistically trying to enforce change. Whatever their reasons, but importantly the lack of communication, is not only non-productive but counter-productive! I don't know if Apple wants people adopt their ways, but as surely as anyone knows there are ups and downs to any product, and it's just a matter of time before the balance tips and consumers go to where they need to have their technological needs fulfilled. I've promoted companies in the past for their products (word of mouth is powerful) and as they failed to provide what I wanted to use their product for I've stopped talking about them. So Apple, you're losing you're consumer base, maybe you're not feeling it yet, or maybe you don't care, but you're no angel or god. Ying yang.

Has everybody used the following to express their concern. This was advised to me after one of my earlier posts was removed !

http://www.apple.com/feedback