(Time to read: ~ 5 minutes)
From the moment I opened the box, I’ve been delighted with my new HP eprinter!
You know the usual wrestling match you have, trying to get any new electronic device out of its protective cuccoon? Well HP packed this printer inside a bag and looped the handles through the top cardboard “tray” so you grab the handles to pull the printer out. I liked knowing that the printer was safely protected from being dropped as I extracted it. And I appreciated that the bag was made of obviously recycled material.
User Manual
Next, the unpacking and setup procedures are printed on the cover of the user’s manual, so I didn’t have to hunt through pages of “Important! Don’t proceed without reading the ISEE 4072.375.24A guidelines for electronic devices” to find them.
Touch Screen Integration
Then, once you plug the printer in, the instructions for what to do next and how to install the toner cartridges appear on the touch screen portion of the printer itself! And you can pause and rewind them – or replay them or choose to skip them all together!!
I was carefully watching which toner cartridge to put in first, which second, etc. until I noticed that each slot is marked with the appropriate colour. And the colour markers are also of different shapes – which I’m guessing is to support people who cannot distinguish the colours.
After loading paper in the machine (another demo video was available if I wanted it), the next recommended step was a print alignment test. Miracle of miracles, the machine itself printed out the material for the test!! And both it and the video screen in unison showed how to place the newly printed page on the scanner to complete the test!!
One Little Hiccup
Things got a little confusing at this point. One of the things I love about this printer is that it doesn’t need to be connected to a computer to function – just to a wireless network.
But the video screen tripped up a bit at this point. It gave me 3 options to do the printer setup, with “sofware supported” recommended, so I chose that. But it then told me to insert the CD into my computer (which was not present, and which is running Mac OSX Lion, so a printed sheet of instructions had told me NOT to use the CD but to download the latest software). And there was no “backup” option visible at that point to go back and choose the 2nd option (the 3rd was “do this later”).
So I pressed “Next” and the printer displayed the default screen. I pressed a couple of options (“Apps” and then “Print” I think) and eventually the screen told me what to press to configure the printer to connect to the local wireless network. (Press “Home” and then the “Wireless” button which had been blinking for a while). Fortunately I could remember John’s password so that step went smoothly.
Its Own Email Address!
Then yet another miracle! The printer printed out a sheet of instructions for how to assign it an email address (this is the most amazing miracle of all – see my next blog article on “Understanding Apple AirPrint vs HP ePrint”), including my printer’s own personal code.
So I went to the website indicated, set up a user ID and gave my printer its own email address! So now, wherever I am, I can email documents to it and it will print it. And they don’t look like emails – they just look like the document I wanted printed!!!
I ran a few tests, printing things from my iPhone, iPad and my Mac computer (I did need to download the software then, but the computer didn’t need to be connected to the printer) – and everything looks fine.
All this and AirPrint Too!
I also ran Apple AirPrint tests from the Pages word processing application (the app I use the most) and they also looked as I expected.
How I Hope to Use It
I do all of my journal writing and much of my thinking on my iPad these days. And sometimes it would be handy to have bits of that writing in hardcopy so they stay in a fixed “to do” place on my desk while I cruise other information and apps. That is the main purpose for which I intend to use this computer.
I am also hoping that knowing that I can convert some emails to printed form – even if I am reading them “on the road” – will encourage me to do more email processing away from my desk. Because I find it very helpful to print out emails that I want to respond to at a later time (there’ll be a future “Spacious Balance” blog on that topic… 🙂
Summary
As far as I can tell, the whole process took less than 45 minutes, even including all my testing and reading about the eprint apps, downloading them, and installing the software on my computer (there was an interruption when I went downstairs to get more paper, and decided to do some other things – shut down my computer and bring it up with me, feed the cat… – so I don’t have a precise time).
This is than I had expected, but overall I’m very satisfied, considering all the pieces involved. I’ll keep you posted with any new discoveries I make.
For those who are interested, the printer is an HP PhotoSmart 5510. I normally try to avoid inkjet printers because I think of their cartridges as being quite expensive per page, but these seemed fairly reasonable (less than $13 for each colour cartridge, less than $30 for a black high-capacity). The printer itself was just less than $100 – I think it is the least expensive printer with both ePrint and AirPrint capacity. (all prices excluding tax)
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