The year 2012 is going to be a good one for printers. While printing technology will (most likely) not change, printer manufacturers will be adding mobile printing via Wi-Fi and cloud printing via email to all the printer models they release in 2012. This technology will allow printers to follow their users away from their desks and on to their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Gone are the days where we must be using a computer sitting next to a printer to print anything. Now we’ll be printing from just about anywhere we want, to any printer we want. Get ready to embrace mobile printing and cloud printing.

In 2011 Apple, Google, HP, and Lexmark all introduced mobile and cloud capabilities in their printers and services to enhance our printing capabilities. Google’s Cloud Print App lets users print via email on any printer connected to a computer that has Internet access. Apple introduced AirPrint, which lets you use Wi-Fi to send a variety of print jobs directly from an iOS device to any nearby AirPrint compatible computer. HP unveiled ePrint, a service allowing you to email a print job from anywhere to an ePrint compatible HP printer. Lexmark’s SmartSolutions apps allowed users to display a limited amount of web based information on their printer’s LCD screen.

In 2012 we will see these manufacturers expand their mobile and cloud print offerings while others begin to get in the game. Canon, Epson, and Kodak will all release printers, this year, that are mobile and cloud print enabled. Canon’s printers will offer Easy-PhotoPrint (for printing from Android and Apple phones and tablets) and PIXMA Cloud Link (for printing from Google Docs and Gmail from your mobile device) apps. Epson will will release the same type of printer apps under the name Epson Connect.

Kodak will following suit, but has chosen to focus on the size of the email message users can send to their printers. As of now, mobile and cloud printing apps only accept print jobs of a certain size. I imagine other printer manufacturers will follow Kodak and over the course of 2012 we will see less limited size constraints.

If you are in the market for a printer this year, definitely make sure you check out mobile and cloud printing apps before buying. They promise to be a very useful technology.

Giving a printer? Thinking about buying one for yourself? Deals are abound, but before you head out to make that purchase take a few minutes to read our Holiday Printer Buying Guide. Inkjet or laser? Multi or single function? How much to spend? We’ve got the scoop on the best printers available this holiday season.

Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. They’ve all made our list. If you are out shopping make sure you check out the following.

Epson Workforce 635 Wireless All-in-One

The Epson Workforce 635 is built for office environments, but will work great for anyone. You may not want to spend the money (starting at $140.00) unless you do a lot of printing though. For those looking to save paper, and the environment, it automatically prints on both sides of a piece of paper. Printing photos? This may not be the printer for you. It’s photo print quality is average and its photo print speed is slow. The 635 is a visually appealing printer (shiny black) with a large, and easy to use, control panel. Replacement ink cartridges are reasonably priced. If you are looking for an office type printer (lots of text printing) this may be just what you need.

HP OfficeJet Mobile

Need to print documents, presentations, and handouts while on the road? The OfficeJet Mobile Printer is for you. Business professionals will love  it’s sleek design and print quality. HP has increased the printing speed over previous models and added Bluetooth wireless printing capabilities.  The printer also features a rechargeable battery. The drawback? It’s expensive (starting at $219.00). If you spend a lot of your work time on the road and need the ability print, this is the mobile printer you need.

Canon ImageClass MF3010

Easy to set up. Easy to use. Reasonably priced (starting at $109.95). The Canon ImageClass MF3010 is great for students, office professionals, and you budget minded folks. Here’s the bummer . . . No wireless networking or auto document feeder! If you can get past those two missing features get yourself this printer. You’ll be very happy with the print speed.

HP Photosmart Premium C410a

This printer is great for the home office crowd. Print, copy, scan, and fax all from the same printer. You are going to get quick print speeds and quality print outs. Those who don’t need to put a whole ream of paper in the paper tray every time they replace paper won’t mind the capacity of the paper tray (it holds a max of 125 sheets). The C410a will features wireless printing and offers access to HP’s Web printing technologies. A fair amount of features for its price (starting at $119.90).

Epson WorkForce 840 All-in-One

Another Epson printer! This multifunction inkjet printer quickly produces great prints (text and graphics). It also offers auto duplexing, wired/wireless networking, and support for mobile printing. If photo speed and quality are what you are looking for, you may want to skip this printer. This printer costs quite a bit more than the average All-in-One inkjet printer (starting at $314.99), but may just be worth it depending on your needs.

HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw

This is HP’s most inexpensive multifunction laser printer (starting at $199.99). Small budget minded offices are going to get the most bang for their buck with this printer. You’ll be printing, copying, scanning, and faxing in just a matter of minutes (set up is very simple). The M1217nfw offers a driver-less set up and both wired and wireless connections. It’s a work horse printer for small offices that do a lot of monochrome printing. Unfortunately, no auto duplex printing here.

Brother HL-2270DW

The only Brother printer on our list! Basic printing functions at a budget price (starting at $89.99). Brother’s reliable and easy to use printer is just right for home users or students. This monochrome laser printer features wireless networking and quick print speeds. Get is for good looking black and white print outs, not for graphics (not good!).

Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901

Lexmark printers don’t typically make these types of lists, so they’ve done something good with the Pro901. The good I am referring to is Lexmark’s decision to make a lower performing printer in favor of a printer that is cost effective. They are jumping on the “printer ink is to expensive” bandwagon, and hoping to sell a lot of printers because of it. With the lowest black ink cost per page available Lexmark is hoping consumers will look past black prints that are not of the same quality as other printers, slow copy speeds, and poorly designed SmartSolutions app in favor of a low printing cost. The printer itself might be slightly overpriced (starting at $147.00) for the features you get.

The good: The HP Deskjet 3050A features a refreshing design and its wireless Web connectivity lets you print in the cloud with HP ePrint technology.

The bad: The printer lacks an Ethernet port for wired networking and its dual ink cartridge bay is a money sink if you print a high volume of photos and color documents.

The bottom line: The HP Deskjet 3050A All-in-One printer marries an attractive design with the latest cloud printing technology in a multifunction device that works for small offices that don’t need to print a lot of full-color photos.

Although its print quality is limited by a dual-ink cartridge bay, the $80 HP Deskjet 3050A is built for productivity with wireless connectivity and mobile printing by way of HP smartphone apps and the company’s ePrint remote printing service that lets you access downloadable content from any computer. We wouldn’t recommend its 60-sheet paper input capacity and low-volume ink cartridges for larger offices, but the Deskjet is certainly worth a look for periodic users on a strict budget.

Design and features
The Deskjet 3050A’s natural, flowing curvature appears to draw inspiration from the aesthetic principles of mid-20th-century furniture designers. The external pieces are brushed with various shades of matted gray and burnt umber, and a 2-inch monochrome LCD pops out of a cut-out on top of the printer for quick access to application controls, the set up menu, and one-touch installation for a wireless connection and HP’s ePrint service.

A 60-sheet input tray also folds flush into the unit and features an adjustable marker that can align with a variety of media sizes down to No. 10-sized envelopes. Of course, several markings also exist for standard size sheets of 4-inch by 6-inch and 8-inch by 10-inch photo paper, but the single tricolor cartridge inside limits the quality of photos this printer can produce.

Pairing the 3050A with a companion computer is easiest with a hard-wired USB connection, but a wireless router offers a more elegant solution and lets you take advantage of ePrint, a service that lets you send jobs directly to the printer using a unique e-mail address issued to the printer when you establish a connection. Similar to your Facebook or Flickr e-mail address, you can load print jobs into the 3050A by either copying an article directly into the message body or attaching a document to the e-mail.

It’s important to note your home networking set up prior to buying this printer, as you absolutely need a wireless network to take advantage of cloud printing. Also, the 3050A lacks a networked Ethernet port, so only one user can print at a time. The ePrint system can print e-mail message attachments in the form of images, document files, PDFs, and photos, and it will send a separate job for any text that appears in the body of the e-mail.

The default preferences let anyone with the address print wirelessly, but you can also set up a list of verified senders to allow on a private network. We confirmed in testing that the ePrint functionality works with a wide variety of Web clients: we used Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and Microsoft Outlook with positive results, and you can even e-mail articles directly from an RSS feed like Google Reader.

The 3050A’s flatbed scanner accommodates up to 8.5-inch-by-11.7-inch documents, although the hardware doesn’t have an expandable hinge for thick media and books. It also lacks a USB port for saving resulting scans to a flash drive, so we actually recommend the HP Photosmart D110a e-All-in-One for amateur photographers and media professionals who want easy access to print and save photos.

Performance
We trust that budget users shopping for a printer like the HP 3050A will value cost over print speed, but it’s also helpful to know that this is a capable, if not slightly faster than average printer compared to the competition. Though the differences are negligible across all four speed tests, the 3050A did achieve top-tier results in our 10-page slide presentation test, and performed slightly faster than the photocentric HP D110a in all four tests.

We wouldn’t expect an entry-level printer to output flawless photos, and the 3050A certainly met those expectations. Overall print quality suffers as a result of the tricolor cartridge, and graphics-intensive samples like those for the presentation test mentioned earlier appear faded and blotchy right out of the machine. The biggest offenders, of course, are snapshot photos, and it doesn’t take a printer editor to see the color inconsistencies and overall lack of vibrancy here. You probably won’t feel comfortable using the 3050A to print a birthday card for friends and family, but we’re confident in its ability to produce decent-quality handouts for around the office.

Service and support
The HP Deskjet 3050A is backed by HP’s exclusive enhanced support services: a dedicated toll-free number, troubleshooting over online chat with an HP expert, and a one-year warranty that guarantees repairs with “Next-Day Business Turn Around” and offering brand-new replacement units for the first 30 days after purchase.

In addition, HP offers an added Accidental Damage Protection and a Pick-Up-and-Return program that sends an authorized courier to pick up your failed equipment and deliver it directly to an HP-designated repair facility.

You can find more warranty information by visiting the HP Support Web site, which also features online classes, FAQs, driver downloads, and troubleshooting tips, as well as a new shopping buddy that puts you in a chat room with an HP sales rep so you can ask questions before you buy.

Conclusion
If you’re shopping for an attractive printer for light use around the office or in your home, the HP Deskjet 3050A delivers acceptable quality prints and the convenience of mobile printing using ePrint. Photographers and busy offices should keep shopping, but light users who don’t want empty wallets will find an excellent performer in the 3050A.

(Review by Justin Yu – Justin Yu covers headphones and peripherals for CNET. When he’s not scouring eBay for useless ephemera or eating hot dogs for breakfast, he spends his time making fun of Internet culture every morning on The 404 podcast.)

Hewlett Packard (HP) has introduced their smallest color multifunction printer, the HP LaserJet Pro 100 color MFP M175nw.

This printer has, perhaps, the longest name ever for a printer, but it also contains almost as many features as letters in it’s name. The M175nw is targeted at home office and small-business users with limited workspace. It is only 17 inches wide, 17 inches deep, and 13 inches tall. Easy to fit in small spaces, and easy for one person to move. It features HP ePrint remote printing, allowing users to print from any mobile device (BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm OS).  The M175nw has a 150 sheet input tray, wireless networking, Ethernet connectivity, and a 35 page top loading auto-document feeder. It uses four separate laser toner cartridges.

Other features to note on the new LaserJet include a 150-sheet input tray; wireless networking along with USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity; four separate laser ink cartridges; and a 35-page top-loading automatic document feeder for hands-free scanning and faxes.

Multifunction printers always offer a touch screen. HP has decided that this printer does not need a touch screen because it did not get good reviews on their inkjet version of this printer.

The HP LaserJet Pro 100 color MFP M175nw retails for $350.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has introduced a toner cartridge authentication software aimed at helping toner cartridge users avoid using counterfeit cartridges. As of today, the LaserJet 1000, 2000, and 3000 series are all supported by the counterfeit software, which can be downloaded from the HP web site.

The goal of the software is to detect counterfeit toner cartridges and alert the user that the cartridge is not an original HP brand cartridge. It does so through a smart chip, on the toner cartridge, that communicates with the software when the cartridge is first placed in the printer. The software then communicates the information from the smart chip to an authentication service through the Internet (your computer must be connected to the Internet for the service to work). After validation, you receive a pop up message on your computer monitor telling you if the cartridge is authentic or not. According to HP, the new software has a 100% detection rate for counterfeit cartridges.

Where is the value in this for the consumer? You’ve downloaded the software and put a new cartridge in your printer. You now get a warning message. What are you to do? Hopefully you are able to return the cartridge to the vendor you purchased it from, assuming you were sold the cartridge as a genuine HP cartridge. What this really does is put an additional burden in the cartridge users life.

HP is able to gather more information on counterfeit cartridges, but you are stuck with the counterfeit cartridge and what to do with it. HP is not going to help you because it’s not their cartridge.

Additionally, if you take your genuine HP cartridge out of the printer and then put it back in the printer, the software will warn you that you have just put a used cartridge in your printer. I have even heard reports that the software will not let you continue to use the cartridge.

If you are a user of compatible or remanufactured toner cartridges, this software can also cause some problems for you. The software will warn you about using the cartridge and make make it quite difficult to actually get to use the cartridge. Perhaps this additional feature helps HP make sure you use their cartridges rather than those made by someone else.

I get the purpose of the software, no one wants to get stuck with a product that is sold as one thing (genuine HP toner cartridge) and have it actually be something else (counterfeit HP toner cartridge). But, the software can also create some hassles for the toner cartridge user. Give this some thought before you head out and download the software.

Last week HP announced a national shortage of its CE285A toner cartridge. This toner cartridge is used in the HP LaserJet  P1102W and LaserJet M1212 printers. The popularity of these two printer models are driving the cartridge shortage.

The P1102W is an entry level monochrome laser printer, while the M1212 is a multifunction machine. Both printers are reasonably priced, as is the CE285A toner cartridge. It retails for $67.95 and will yield up to 1,600 pages.

The next time you come across one of these cartridges you may want to see if you can find a second as well. HP has made no commitment as to when they might be able to address the shortage.

HP is putting a lot of time and money in their new line of eStation printers. Rightly so. I think they’ve found a way to evolve the use of printers in the home, to get the printer away from the computer.

But, with new technology comes bugs that need to be worked out. Here’s what you need to be aware of.

Price — The eStation C510 is priced at $399. That’s an expensive printer for the casual home user.

Connection Process — There is no wired Ethernet connection on the printer so sharing the printer among several computers can be difficult to set up. You must have a wireless connection set up in your home. If you don’t  you won’t be able to use this printer.

The “Zeen” Tablet — It’s very sensitive to the touch and lacks a lot of features we have become used to with our phones and tablet computers. The Zeen must able be connected (independently) to your wireless network. While the Zeen is capable of running Apps, users cannot access the App store because all of the Apps require hardware and features that the Zeen does not have. It does come with some Apps and you can download from a small selection at the HP store.

If you end up with this printer, make sure you come back and let us all know what you think of it. Thanks!

What’s good: The ePrint feature enables wireless printing by e-mail with an online job monitor. The printer features a detachable “Zeen” tablet.

What’s bad: The onscreen menu lacks print progress tools. The “Zeen” is still problematic and is prone to touch-screen mistakes. The system still has quite a few hang-ups and browser process errors. The printer lacks proper set up instructions.

What we think: This is a really cool printer with some really cool features (like ePrint and the “Zeen”). It is definitely the future of printing. But, I’d hold off on buying one until HP lowers the price (currently $399) and makes the machine a little more user friendly. The user interface bugs and network errors make it more frustrating than useful right now.
This printer does NOT have a Ethernet port, so you have to have a wireless network set up. If you don’t, it is completely useless.

(Source: CNET.com)

Here are a few facts relevant to the settlement of the HP lawsuit. Nothing is final until January 28 when the court gives its final approval.

HP has agreed to change the “low on ink” messages for their printers. The new message will say that ink level messages are estimates only and that cartridges can be used until print quality becomes unacceptable.

HP will disclose how to disable your printer’s underprinting fuction, or printing black text with color ink or a combination of black and color ink.  You will now be able to print with the black cartridge only.

HP will also disclose the expiration date for ink cartridges and will state why expiration dates are used.

HP will set aside $5 million to provide credits worth $2 to $6 redeemable at its website.  The credits will be redeemable for the purchase of printers and printer supplies.

Most interesting of all, and probably most disturbing to those of us waiting for our $2 – $6 credit, the Class counsel (those that represented us in the suits) will receive $2.9 million in attorney fees.

What is your reaction to all this? Take a minute and let me know. Thanks!

Last week we were able to release both a remanufactured and genuine HP 85A (CE285A) toner cartridge on our web site.

The HP 85A is a monochrome (black) toner cartridge that yields up to 1,600 pages. The remanufacured CE285A yields the same number of pages as the HP brand cartridge, but costs $28 less . . . using remanufactured cartridges has benefits!

These cartridges are designed for use in the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf mfp and the HP LaserJet Pro P1102 printers.