Peripherals of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chain to the PC, following Hewlett-Packard’s announcement Monday of the world’s first Web-connected home printer.
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The HP Photosmart Premium with the company’s TouchSmart technology allows users to print directly from online sources. A 4.33-inch TouchSmart panel on the printer — which HP described as the largest LCD touchscreen of any all-in-one inkjet printer — helps users navigate to the content they want to turn into hard copies.
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‘An Entirely New Printing Platform’
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Twenty-five years ago, said HP Executive Vice President Vyomesh Joshi, HP invented consumer printing, and the company has now reinvented the category with an entirely new printing platform — powered by touch and empowered by the Web.
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The Photosmart Premium printer comes with HP applications, but users can also download new ones from the HP Apps Studio. After browsing through the touch interface, users can go to a Web site and launch an app for customizing and printing the content.
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HP said its first app partners for what it described as this new content-on-demand delivery platform include USA TODAY, Google, Fandango, Coupons.com, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Web Sudoku, and Weathernews. These partners enable Photosmart Premium owners to customize and print news, maps, coupons, coloring pages, movie tickets, recipes and personal calendars, among other things.
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The printer can also connect directly to a user’s Snapfish account to upload, print and view photos. The company hopes a community of users will develop and share new apps, which can be distributed through the Apps Studio beginning later this year.
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The printer, priced at $399, also offers a variety of ways to connect to devices, both wired and wireless. It can print, copy, fax and scan on wires as well as from Wi-Fi-enabled PCs or Bluetooth-enabled devices.
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‘Peripherals Becoming More Important’
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Michael Gartenberg, vice president at industry research firm Interpret,…