HP printers can get emails

MAKER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP is making its printers Internet aware with embedded email addresses.

HP made the announcement during a webcast from Internet Week in New York. The company said that nearly all of its business and consumer printers will each have a unique email address.

Users essentially can print from any smart device to an email-enabled printer without the need for a driver. This allows printed output to be delivered in just the same way as an email message.

"We are once again revolutionizing printing to make web-empowered, cloud-enabled printing the new industry standard," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

"We know that our customers want an easy way to print their content, anywhere, anytime. We're making that a reality today by giving people the power to print from any web-connected device - smartphones, Ipads, netbooks and more - to any printer in our portfolio above $99. The world has changed."

In the webcast, Joshi claimed that HP's Eprint service will be as fast as printing locally and has been enabled since the evolution of Web 2.0 and cloud applications and services.

The Eprint service allows punters to store documents in the cloud and print using any device. Joshi used a Palm Pre to demonstrate printing to an HP printer. More surprisingly, he also used an Ipad, which has no embedded print functionality.

The printers talk to the cloud without the need of a local proxy PC or web appliance. Joshi also claimed that it doesn't matter what browser, operating system or device you're printing from.

HP then rolled out some content partners including Yahoo, Google and Nickelodeon to support Eprint. All said they'd be pushing services to entice users to print out even more stuff.

Things got slightly more interesting when the webcast was opened up as a panel discussion for attending journalists. As his opening gambit, Joshi claimed the email address itself is "obscure by default." He said that it will become more open up over time but is obscure because HP wants its customers to start using the feature "out of the box."

In other words, he was probably hinting at security issues involved in using an email address on a printer. Will you're HP Photosmart receive spam from the Nigerian consulate for an interesting business proposition? Thanks to the Times for asking what security safeguards are in place.

"We ran significant coding on the email address and it is password protected," said Tariq Hassan, vice president of HP's worldwide marketing and communications for its imaging and printing group.

"All of the backend work to prevent spam online has been done. We're doing everything we can," he continued.

HP ducked a question to see if the new service was an attempt to drive customers to print more overpriced ink. Then we were given an interesting nugget on where the announcement leaves HP's acquisition of Palm.

"The Palm WebOS is a great opportunity but it's too early to know exactly how it will play. As it comes to WebOS down the road, there is a big opportunity that extends beyond what we're announcing today," said Hassan. We think that means HP is still adding printing features to it. µ