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Apple announced that wireless printing would come to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch in November with the iOS 4.2 software upgrade.
AirPrint will automatical finds printers on local networks providing the ability to print text, photos and graphics over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software. The company launched a beta version of the AirPrint wireless printing service to the Apple iOS developer program.
The company said that HP’s ePrint enabled printers will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices which indicates the service wont work on just any printer but will require specific support for Apple’s proprietary protocol.
“AirPrint is Apple’s powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download,” said Apple marketing boss Philip Schiller.
“iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to an HP ePrint printer or to a printer shared on a Mac or PC.”
Apple said AirPrint is designed to support a wide range of printers from entry level inkjet printers to office laser printers and that iOS 4.2 devices can print to printers shared through a Mac or a PC.
That last tid bit may open the door for third party software to support the AirPrint standard for some unsupported printer. Like almost all of them.
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