HP's Web Enabled Printer Doesn't Need a PC
HP this week announced the Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart Web, a printer/scanner/fax machine that offers integrated internet access.
The Photosmart Premium doesn’t have the ability to actually browse the web. Instead, the printer uses a 4.33-inch touchpanel and widgets from the likes of Google Maps, Fandango, USA Today, Nikelodeon, Dreamworks and more to allow you to access and print the latest news, directions, tickets, weather, coupons and puzzles. Users can also connect directly to Snapfish allowing for faster, easier printing and archiving as well as watch movie trailers (for some reason). As far as printing, scanning, faxing goes, it's actually pretty decent:
- Print speeds of up to 33 pages per minute black and up to 32 ppm color; 4 x 6-inch photos as fast as 18 seconds
- 4800 x 9600-dpi optical resolution scanning
- 48-bit color scanning
- Up to 33 copies-per-minute in black and up to 32 cpm in color
- Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi black copying with 1200 scan dpi
- Up to 4800 optimized dpi color copying
- Storage for up to 60 phone numbers
- 17.99 inches (w) x 19.33 inches (d) x 7.76 inches (h)
- 16.53 lbs.
- Pictbridge
- USB High-speed 2.0, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, Ethernet and Bluetooth
- Microsoft® Windows Vista™ or XP SP1 or higher; Mac OS X v10.4, v10.5 or v10.6
- Windows 7 ready, although some features may not be available.
Pegged for release in late 2009 the Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart Web will cost just shy of $400. Is anyone interested? If we had money to burn, we’d buy one in a heartbeat just because we like the idea of printing Google Maps, movie tickets and Sudoku puzzles. Then again, if we had money to burn we’d probably buy tons of other “useful” things like an machine that puts your pants on for you and then makes your eggs.
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This will be like surfing the net on my cellphone. It'll be a fun thing for a couple of houres and then I will get back to my 21inch screen.
Nobody's gonna use this. It's a bit like those internet capable fridges and stoves.
I want an Internet capable apple that's actually eatable.
I suppose you could use a potato as a power source.
I already have many PCs at home and I dont need a 'Web Enabled Printer'
This printer is for those that may not have a computer or someone that doesn't use the computer very often... which probably means most THG readers would be staying away. Great gift for your computer challenged relatives tho...
This printer is for those that may not have a computer or someone that doesn't use the computer very often... which probably means most THG readers would be staying away. Great gift for your computer challenged relatives tho...
I'm convinced that those who don't own a computer will NOT get this. Computer challenged relatives? hell, if they can't use a computer, they certainly won't be able to use this almost non existant screen. I just can'T picture my mother or father using this
@otaku tech guy: "Great gift for your computer challenged relatives tho..."
Eh I'm not really sure it's even that good for them either...
How about a laptop that scans, faxes and prints.
Now that would be cool
a laptop can already fax. Not sure about printing as modern printers tend to have fixed heads that if clogged, the whole printer not better than dead... I wouldn'T like that on a laptop, but as for a scanner, that'd be somewhat useful!
Portable printers already exist though.
Out of rescent HP Printers I have used, the print quality is poor compared to Brother and Epson.
Out of rescent HP Printers I have used, the print quality is poor compared to Brother and Epson.
yeah I think I agree. On regular paper at least. Brother's MFCs are fairly good printers.
And I've been disapointed to see integrated print heads on recent Hp models too...
So Grandma doesn't have a computer, but she's still paying for internet access? Seems like this printer is a pointless waste to me. Seriously, how many people have internet access but don't own a single computer? I suppose you could use a PS3 or XBox, but again, how many people own a PS3 or XBox but not a computer?
They should definitely put a coffee maker in it. And a Nintendo. Otherwise, it will be useless to the average person. It would be nice for journalists and news people, because you can search for articles really fast and then print them right away. But I would never shove out $400 for one unless it came with the coffee maker.
I have to say that I agree with alot of the above comments. However if you actually take a moment to think about it, it does have some practicality.
A few seconds of extra research found that it can upload pictures to SnapFish, therefore probably another other provider that makes an app for it (or possibly without one, who knows). For people who are not hard core about their online photo albums, but do like to add content this could be cool. Or if the only reason you are scanning the image is to upload it to a website.
The only other benefit I can see is the coupons and tickets. The apps that come preloaded are partner apps. My guess would be that you would get some deals otherwise unavailable. Will there be any good ones, I doubt it. Its some type of justification behind the idea though.
Regardless of how you feel about the concept I don't like the price. There is just no way I could see myself or anyone I know pay $400 for this thing, or even more than $200 unless the ink refills are really cheap (Well other than maybe some of the die-hard MySpace-ers). The coffee maker would help though.