Game_Writer
iPF Noob
I can now print directly from my iPad to my new HP D110a printer without using a computer or any cables. It's pretty cool! 
The new HP110a wireless Internet printer doesn't require any drivers or any cables except power. The printer was assigned an email address at the factory and I merely have to email documents to it (of less than 5MB) and it will print them, as long as the printer has a wifi-connection.
I tried printing from two iPad apps that allow you to email your documents: Apple's Pages and an app called Notepad Pro that allows you to type text and draw images. In a matter of a few minutes, I had hard copies of my documents that were created on my iPad and never existed on a "real" computer. Sweet!
I did have to create a new gmail account to get it to work, though. While my YahooMail account would print if I sent messages directly from the email program on the iPad, Yahoo seems to intercept the messages from the apps and doesn't send them out. Very annoying. But gmail worked fine.
Also, if you just want to print text, or even just an email message, the printer prints a cover page for each job sent, which contains the content of the email message. No headers, no dates or times, or email paths, just the text of the message, as if the text were a document. So you can just send a text email to the printer and it will print that for you, even without adding an attachment.
Unfortunately, the range of supported document types is small, but includes the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, etc.), as well as PDF and simple text. I don't recall if there were others. But both of my iPad word processors can export to Word and PDF, so I'm good to go.
I'm rather pleased. I bought the printer today at Wal-Mart for $89.00. I'm not expecting to print my novel with it, so the possibly expensive print cartridges isn't really going to bother me, I don't think.
You are also supposed to be able to print to the printer over your local wifi connection from a computer, but I couldn't get that to work. I installed the driver on my computer (which is required for direct wifi printing, but not email printing) and the driver was fine, but when it was looking for the printer IP address, it couldn't find it. I know it was the right address, because the printer tells you the address in the little display on the front. You're supposed to just type that into your computer and it works. Well, it doesn't. Oh well, that's not why I bought the printer--and I can still email documents from my desktop computer anyway.
Oh, you can also set up a list of approved email addresses from which your printer can accept documents. Or you can leave it open so anybody can send them.
Curiously, the printer comes inside a specially-made tote bag for portability, along with a little shaving-kit-sized bag for the power supply (which is lightweight). This thing was designed for portability! Very nice! I took some photos that I'll attach, if I can figure out how.
So, I think it's very cool and certainly an excellent tool to add to my iPad.
Dar
The new HP110a wireless Internet printer doesn't require any drivers or any cables except power. The printer was assigned an email address at the factory and I merely have to email documents to it (of less than 5MB) and it will print them, as long as the printer has a wifi-connection.
I tried printing from two iPad apps that allow you to email your documents: Apple's Pages and an app called Notepad Pro that allows you to type text and draw images. In a matter of a few minutes, I had hard copies of my documents that were created on my iPad and never existed on a "real" computer. Sweet!
I did have to create a new gmail account to get it to work, though. While my YahooMail account would print if I sent messages directly from the email program on the iPad, Yahoo seems to intercept the messages from the apps and doesn't send them out. Very annoying. But gmail worked fine.
Also, if you just want to print text, or even just an email message, the printer prints a cover page for each job sent, which contains the content of the email message. No headers, no dates or times, or email paths, just the text of the message, as if the text were a document. So you can just send a text email to the printer and it will print that for you, even without adding an attachment.
Unfortunately, the range of supported document types is small, but includes the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, etc.), as well as PDF and simple text. I don't recall if there were others. But both of my iPad word processors can export to Word and PDF, so I'm good to go.
I'm rather pleased. I bought the printer today at Wal-Mart for $89.00. I'm not expecting to print my novel with it, so the possibly expensive print cartridges isn't really going to bother me, I don't think.
You are also supposed to be able to print to the printer over your local wifi connection from a computer, but I couldn't get that to work. I installed the driver on my computer (which is required for direct wifi printing, but not email printing) and the driver was fine, but when it was looking for the printer IP address, it couldn't find it. I know it was the right address, because the printer tells you the address in the little display on the front. You're supposed to just type that into your computer and it works. Well, it doesn't. Oh well, that's not why I bought the printer--and I can still email documents from my desktop computer anyway.
Oh, you can also set up a list of approved email addresses from which your printer can accept documents. Or you can leave it open so anybody can send them.
Curiously, the printer comes inside a specially-made tote bag for portability, along with a little shaving-kit-sized bag for the power supply (which is lightweight). This thing was designed for portability! Very nice! I took some photos that I'll attach, if I can figure out how.
So, I think it's very cool and certainly an excellent tool to add to my iPad.
Dar
