After Apple introduced a new featured called "AirPrint" in iOS 4.2 many consumers were really excited to start using this technology and print directly to their printers from many different iOS devices (like an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad). If you're using iOS version 4.2 or later, you've got an AirPrint ready device.
When printing with AirPrint, your options are fairly limited. You can't select which pages you want to print or your preferred page layout. Even with these limitations, printing wirelessly to your printer can save time and eliminate the hassle of using a full fledged computer to do your printing. Printing on an iOS device can be useful to print maps, recipes, emails, and more. To help overcome the limitations that are inherit in iOS devices, apps can format and provide many different options for users so the print outs are useful and exactly what the end user needs.
With this new protocol comes questions as to what printers are supported now and in the future. As with any new technology, it may take printer manufactures some time to catch up to newly announced features. Here are a few common questions asked about AirPrint.
Does my printer support AirPrint?
In short, if it's not brand new, it probably does not. Since the AirPrint feature announcement, only a small handful a printers support the new protocol. So why are their only a few printers on the market that support AirPrint printers? Well, in short, it's because it's so new that manufacturers have not had the time to test and update existing printers to use the new AirPrint protocol. New models are being released all the time, so the next laser or inkjet printer may have this functionality.
Will my printer support AirPrint in the future?
It's hard to say which printers exactly will or will not support AirPrint. Epson has released a statement that no printers will be updated in 2011 that will support AirPrint. HP already has 25 printers that support the standard, but hasn't indicated which printers, if any, will be updated to support the new standard. Other manufacturers have not commented if they plan to support the new feature.
Why doesn't iOS have built-in drivers for all printers?
Although it would be nice to have support for all printers available today, doing so would require every iOS device to have drivers to support these printers. This would add about 4-6GB of driver data to each device. By creating the new AirPrint protocol, iOS only needs to support one driver and the manufacturer can then implement support for their printers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6476302
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