My iPad can't find my wifi printer.

I have read and then re-read this thread just to find out if anything said warrants being told that "ranting, etc." is excessive and the poster could be excluded from this forum. I particularly don't see the language or any critique that would call for threats of banishment. Going so far as calling the poster "dishonest" is far more absurd than any concerns expressed by someone who is only striving to learn how they can print from their most recent Apple purchase in what is apparently a long line of loyal purchases.

I don't mean to escalate criticism here, but I have participated in tech user forums from the beginning of "CB" forums at 300 baud. Nothing I read in this tread comes anywhere close to too harsh on a vendor we all support through our continued purchases.

I hope people posting here continue to have a chance to get a little hot about features that they sincerely wish were included in products they purchase.

Just my view.

This is not his first post on this issue. If you read the other comments that he has made you understand full well that he knows there is no app to solve his issue and he is posting merely to complain.

I run a couple of businesses using pretty much just iPad (1st generation, no less). I do accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, spreadsheets, image manipulation, advertising and PR, email, maintain three separate calendars - two of which require extensive bookings, appts, notes and quotes, book and track travel schedules, confirmations of schedules, sales, orders, signing and returning contracts and forms, developing, editing and printing lesson plans/handouts and more all over the world. The PC's I have to work on are glorified storage units for my iPad at this point. I think your frustration is newbie related. Every new tech has a learning curve and not every device does every single thing for every person. So that said: you can print with your existing printer depending on what iOS you're running. See http://www.collobos.com/ if you're running iOS 5. For earlier versions check out AirPrint Enable (it was at www.edplam.com I think). Info for AirPrint Enable are on an older thread about printing from iPad, like sometime last year (2011).

Do a little research and get up to speed before you start crabbing. It's just more respectful to everyone and keeps these forums valuable. Thank you.

Mereditha misses the detail that I want to print from the iPad DIRECTLY without a computer in between; such as when I am traveling and want to print to, well, any available printer.

Mereditha's plug for "colloboz point comm", as far as I can tell, requires a computer in between to print.

Apple offers no suggestions. So, I am in the forums.

No one has offered a method of Wifi printing to date on this 3rd generation iPad (without the need of a computer in between). My research, trial and error has not found a solution either.

My suggestion to Apple would be to have more Transparency on this print issue and offer some real solutions - or at least some real transparency that you can load photos from your camera (I bought the photo adapter) and edit them on the iPad (I bought the full iWorks suite including iPhoto), but getting the photos and docs off the iPad and/or printing them is a real pain without the use of a computer as a go between - or buying an Airprint printer. I haven't found an Airprint printer that replace my 6-7 color Epson wide format printer.

As far as I am concerned, the iPad is a work in progress -- even in it's 3rd generation. The laptop too had growing pains before finding it's way into my carry on. Until I can print anywhere I want, or at least move iPhoto files to a USB key with drag and drop ease and therefore print anywhere I want, I've abandoned my iPad and I'm sticking to my laptop.

And goeffrey.lacy missed the point that I wasn't replying to him but was responding to Fasted60.

However, I get your point goeffrey.lacy. I think that not being able to print directly to any printer via WiFi is truly a well thought out commercial decision that only makes more money for Apple, HP and whomever. Making this decision says they chose to lose sight of the end user in lieu of more money. It's just a fact, not whining here. It is one of THE defining drawback of the iPad series machines to date. It's also a whiff of the marketing to come from producers in general: equal advantage contracting between producers leaving the end user stuck in a jam to squeeze out the last dollar from everyone. It's like the Las Vegas airport where a sandwich with just about nothing on it will cost you $10. It's shooting fish in a barrel...

That said, the iPad is a game changer in so many directions that it's currently sweeping the market despite this printing drawback. It is saving some trees. I know I don't print my contracts out anymore. I sign them on the pad and email them back, speeding up the process and saving on my overhead. So it is finding a different way of working because there aren't millions of people out there as put off as you are for some reason. I suspect that all newer printer producers will want to take advantage of this huge market and build in AirPrint. We're only in the first few years of this game changing technology with all of it's growing pains. Don't get me wrong - I have been frustrated by this issue with printing but it hasn't made me dump my iPad and everything I've invested into it. Somehow between a jump drive/card reader, email, Sugar Sync and PogoPlug I am able to access and print what I need wherever I am with hope for the future that printing won't be so crazy and there will be a fully functional USB port on iPad technology some day.

Fasted60, FWIW I'm over 55 and have many years of experience in the computer industry as well but going the 'my dog eats Kennel ration' route is neither here nor there. I completely agree that the iPad is a work in progress but also know that it was the tech industry that made RSN production/marketing supposedly acceptable, (Real Soon Now in case you've forgotten). You get what you built: nothing ever finished before it's sold.

Meridith, I too am well experienced, (1st generation Purdue grad - Computer Integrated Mfg - , And since it didn't exist in 1985 Purdue had to go through an

accreditation process, ie. I was schoold in IE, IET, EE, EET, CIMT, ME, MET etc.) I've worked in the Bank, Airline, Telephone, JIT, Warehouse industries. I'm now retired and living in France.

The U.S. didn't listen to W. E. Deming and he took his ideology to Japan... Zero tolerance made Honda and Toyota top in the Automotive industry. A couple of years ago my iPhone 3G ate a brick wall because it's of it's antenna problem. Now I carry a Japanese android phone, and it is terrific! It syncs with my mac, ipad, google, google calendar, contacts, (<< easily) looks great, has terrific reception, plays the same games as the iphone, and the forfait (monthly subscription fees) are half that of Apple.

If Apple doesn't want to lose respect, it needs to change it's philosophy of being "first out of the box." I want a good product, if I don't like it the product, I switch. I am a hard core mac fan, but I don't have much tolerance for sloppy engineering, politics, and this gadget war.

I realize the problem is the economy. There are only so many dollars out there and first one out of the box with a seemingly great product gets the bait. But I expect to be able to print with my $900 device - don't you?! After all, The iPad was touted to have every conceivable connection (wireless). Tell me; Why shouldn't I expect a wifi device to print, just as I have been printing via wifi for the last 10 years? Apple could fix it with a software update.

POINT: When Apple sold the new iPad, it was not transparent about wifi and it's printing capabilities.

I agree with you. My point was that before the tech industry hit it big products sold were FINISHED products. It's the Tech industry that made it okay to sell (for good money, I might add), unfinished product as if it were complete. The results of this conditioning has produced younger engineers educated in this unfinished culture. I think HP truly mined this for money in a big way that you'll recall: remember buying an HP inkjet printer when inkjet technology was making a huge splash for home systems when all we had prior were dot matrix printers? You would buy the printer but have to get the serial cable separately? Hellloooo? The printer wasn't even functional without a computer and they made you pay an exorbitant price for that cable. Greed wins out because people wanted those printers and that capability. So the stage was set for 'what's the next carrot we dangle I'm front of the customers to get them to continue to shell out their hard earned bucks?'. Inkjet printer prices had to drop so the ink went up...which translates on down to producing a tablet machine that has key elements held back at the discretion of the manufacturer, of course, because each of these elements can then be doled out one at a time with exorbitant expense attached. But it looks like Android tablets are seriously gaining ground due to capability out of the box that Apple should have offered from the get go. This hold the carrot mentality prevents good innovation from happening in generations of a series: iPad classic to iPad 3 are there REALLY any big developments? Three things would have done it: flash player, print anywhere and expandability. Those would have been huge to the market. So Android beats Apple there because of...greed. It's the only answer that comes up consistently to these questions.

I do love my iPad classic but yes, it could be so much better and should be by the third go round.

It's clear the iPad is locked down for printing. That became very clear when the file AirPrint Enabler was circulating online for iOS prior to 5.0. You could install that file, do a little registry edit and viola, iPad printed to any WiFi printer. It was wonderful. Since the new iOS release that doesn't work. Obviously Apple wanted to lock that down again.

Something is buggy about iOS 5 in general. Sending PDF files to iBooks has become sketchy, doesn't work on iPad since iOS update and now my AirPrint enabled printer can't be seen by my iPad. I've done everything to get it back, even Restore, rebooted PC &amp; printer and I've been able to print one thing from online today but nothing from anywhere else (not email, Pages, etc.).

I recently found the program FingerPrint (http://www.collobos.com/) that lets me print from my iPhone and iPad3 to my HP 6940 and Canon i470D non-airprint printers. There is a trial version to see if it will work for any individual situation. The cost is $9.99.

Suffice it to say that it's better to reboot everything to keep them working nicely together. I have a very strange computer at the moment that won't take any boot order it's given despite setting the boot order in BIOS, back up battery replacement, etc. Also in troubleshooting the AirPrint problem I systematically went thru each connection to make sure ports are functioning properly, etc. Once I had a situation where if my printer was on you could click two maye three times with a mouse on the desktop screen and the entire system would freeze. Turned out to be a CIA chip in the printer port. Tnis is definitely the iPad that has the problem though.

It works well for us. My wife is able to print recipes from our iPad. At first I could not use our HP printer but it works well with that one and our Canon printer. Try the free version to see if it works for you.