Having trouble getting straight info on E-series & wireless printers?

[Sterlingsilver]

My 75 year old brother, (yes, the one who just discovered porn on the internet... to the point that his 2 gig 3G AT&T monthly service had to be replaced with unlimited in-home wi-fi), is now asking for a printer. I'm having trouble getting a simple, straight, recommendation on a low-usage printer. Evidently, the HP E-series printers have their own "email address", which could be cool for sending photos and documents to my brother quickly. But I also see HP has a really inexpensive wireless printer for $55 on Amazon, but with poor user-reviews. It also appears that the HP Photosmart Plus Wireless All-in-One Printer (CD035A#ABA) on Amazon for $75 may be decent, but it also isn't E-series. I did see an E-series printer on the Apple website, I thought, for about $100? My bro' only needs the basics. If he prints anything, it would be OK in "draft" mode. He lives by himself... unless he invites a girlfriend over! Any suggestions? Thanks, Al

 

[RAC]

The official line is that any HP ePrint printer has AirPrint (which is what iPad needs) built in. If that's what "e series" means (and I think it is), any of them should work with the iPad.

I bought the HP Photomart 110, which is not listed anywhere as iPad compatible, but does have ePrint and works flawlessly. It did require a firmware, update which can be done wirelessly from the printer, without using a computer. Apart from typing the wireless pass phrase into the printer, no set up was required at all.

There's free App called iPrint from HP. You don't need it for printing (that's built into iOS 4.2 ) but it is useful for scanning.

It cost AUD $99 which as of today is USD $99 but I would bet that it costs less in the US.

 

[Sterlingsilver]

Good info... it confirms the 110 performance

RAC... thanks. We went over to our Godson's parent's house for Christmas day, and Carlos, the husband, is a Phd. IT type that both works for a company that provides server services, and also teaches some classes at Univ. of CA at Irvine. He had an Ipad, and when I related my confusion in not seeing firm statements about the HP 110 printer, understood my concern. We both gathered that any E-series should work, but I was a bit concerned about the 110, as it had mixed reviews on Amazon.com, and I didn't clearly gather that it would do all the functions of the more costly E-series printers. But your reply tells me what I wanted to know. Carlos added that other companies are going to be chiming in with similar protocal printers. I'm going to review the 110 on Amazon and will probably order it. I've got a Prime account with Amazon, which means they deliver via FedEx 2-day on any item so ID'd as "Prime." I'm going over to the brother's house Wednesday to hook up his wireless modem from his phone carrier. I had him using the 3G monthly service from AT&T Wireless, which is a bit expensive for the limited 2gig data service at $25US/mo. Although it is a month to month service. Thanks again, Al