Discussion on:

How to set up printing from tablets and phones

I have been running Win8 desktop for about a month now. I love it except one thing. It takes two hours to print anything. I have an HP L7580. To print means:

1. Uninstall the print drivers and printers with the print management tool.
2. Uninstall the print drivers with the HP download cleanup tool (disconnect printer + reboot).
3. Remove HP crapware with Revo Uninstaller (reboot)
4. Install Printer with either the Win 8 discover printer or the HP download.
4. Print from Word. Not more than three documents. Do not print from PDF.
5. Pray the third one prints all the way.
6. Give pages with funny characters from the print driver crashing to the children to color on.
7. Put documents in dropbox and make note to print at work in the morning.

Anyone from HP here? Bet the next printer in my house doesn't say HP on it.

It doesn't require any special printer. You just need to have Chrome installed on a PC, then all the printers that are installed on that PC are available from your tablet/phone.

http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/

While I enoyed your article, you should have included a disclaimer that stated Microsoft sponsored it. Seeing that Windows has such a small percentage of the phone and tablet market, it would have been helpful to include Android at the very minimum.

That's not the 1st place I look for a new printer. My 1st step is to become familiar with the current/recent offerings from various manufacturers like HP, Epson, etc. I prefer to know if the product I'm looking for has the features I need. I've even been known to search for known issues with something I'm ready to purchase. What can I say: I don't like bad surprises.

Speaking of bad surprises, when did ink cartridges start having expiration dates? It's bad enough that they aren't (easily) refillable and that they can dry-out from lack of use. But now I have to worry about using the contents before some unknown date. WTF is up with that? Do all the inkjet makers do this or is it just HP?

Thanks for the article. When I bought an iPhone I discovered that I could not get to my several printers without using Apple software, and that software proceeded to screw up my laptop. Had to pay to get it removed! Now I E-Mail photos to myself, store, print, etc. I would as soon E-Mail to an address that printed directly, especially for photos and stuff that I don't need to keep on file.

I'm glad the author had a good experience. there are many (many) threads on the Surface forum about getting printing to work. My experience is mixed, at best.

Our old Brother MFC was starting to show its age, with mysterious non-jams and other intermittent problems. Stil, not to bad for a 9 year old Print/Scan/Copy/Fax device with USB and wired networking that was purchased new for US$100 after rebates. Decided to replace it with another Brother MFC. For US$90 during the 2012 holiday sales, I bought a Print/Scan/Copy/Fax MFC with wired and WiFi networking, PrintBridge, SD slots, web print, duplex printing and separate photo and plain paper trays. AND I found Brother's iPrint&Scan app for Droid that lets me print directly from my Android tablet and phone, without depending on "the cloud" or a new e-mail address. It's not quite as intuitive as printing from a personal computer. The app runs as a shell from which one selects what type of doc/pic/wep page to print. And there's a limit on doc size for pdf's. But it meets our needs at home for a quick dump of the typical document or web page from our phones or tablet.
I used to be a huge proponent of HP's printers, and until recently had a LaserJet 4+ that I still would rate as one of the greatest PC printers of all time. The 1994 vintage LJ was still working, but it didn't print color, and I no longer had the home office real estate or big document printing needs to justify keeping it. Newer HP inkjets have seemed big, a bit clunky, and expensive to supply with ink.

The author is a Microsoft "guy" and is representing that POV. It only applies to about 1% of us out in the world, though. The note by LedLincoln is much more useful to me.

Windows Windows Windows. How about trying this from an Andriod tablet or phone please.

i have a brother printer, I went to the app and found a app for my printer and it works fine. The only thing is I have to upload my picture and papers on to the app and print from there

I too have setup my old color laser (which I certainly can't afford to replace) as a google cloud printer. I now can printer from my two android tablets and android phone. It probably would work from a MS surface tablet as well. I also wanted to comment that although I have used HP printers for years and had good luck, I wouldn't buy one now. HP printers seem to have many little gotchas (like things that don't work right and the failure of HP to provide updated drivers and firmware to fix things and keep up with new technology) over the last couple of years. Their support absolutely sucks (not just my opinion as many of my tech friends feel the same). It seems a bit strange that this article seems to be promoting HP and buying new equipment instead of finding a solution to the problem. Anybody can solve problems by throwing money at it, but why bother writing an article about buying a new printer to fix a problem which could have been solved at no cost?

I thought the article was interesting but somewhat misleading. "How to set up printing from tablets and phones" and the first thing I do is get a new printer, chuck the old all because I got a new phone that wants to dictate my life. What's wrong with this picture?
I am all for innovation but when I have to build a new house because a particular paint type/color I like would not work on/adhere to my current (in need of painting) home, someone needs to reset the idiot box.
But that's exactly what is being done. What's wrong with getting a functional phone/device that FITS your office/home/lifestyle instead of getting an office/home/lifestyle that fits your phone/device? OK so how about someone creating an APP/API that will do the printer compatibility/conversion instead of buying a printer just cause new phone doesn't like the old one? Granted there is a limit to backward compatibility as it cannot be supported forever. But I think we are allowing technology to distort our sensibilities and rationalization while manufacturers oil the hamster wheels and take us to the cleaners.
Kudos to those using cloud to solve this issue.

a mon avis

- Article title definitely needs to change.
- The guy that used the term "idiot box ", I hope the writer took that personally .
- Unfortunately no cloud or wireless internet in our small rental business until we make our first million. I was hoping for an explanation of a scenario that involve some type of wireless Gizmodo connected to your vintage printer (ie. 3 month old Xerox 6505 color laser, lacking Wireless ) make it wireless and then a local solution for printing across the room not printing across the planet. I suppose my needs are just too simple and basic .

When are we going to be able to just sync everything easily? I know that most PCs require drivers to use printers, but what if one day I need a few hundred copies of something all in binders, could I just walk in with my tablet into a printer store and have my device sync with their system? Boom. My friend and I were talking about this while he was searching for printing in Vancouver and it would be feasible if people carried tablets were like people carrying smartphones. Heck this could even apply to smartphones.