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IOS 4.2 will bring AirPrint, the grevolutionaryh technology which will let you print words and pictures from your paper-sized iPad onto paper-sized paper. Letfs leave aside that you could already do this using may third-party apps, and that printing is a somewhat backwards thing to be doing with an iPad anyway (like using a remote control to actually push physical buttons), and take a quick look at the tech itself.

AirPrint promises gdriverlessh printing, which isnft strictly true. Instead, it works in one of two ways. First, you can print to any printer attached to a computer on the same network as your iDevice. This will work with the next update to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and uses drivers already present on the host computer.

The other option is to print to an AirPrint-compatible printer, which will actually contain its own drivers. Instead of each printer requiring a different driver to make it work, Apple requires the printers to be capable of receiving an AirPrint print-job. This will work because printers these days are really low-powered computers.

This turnaround is quite amazing, and undoes decades of stupid incompatibilities. It also shows us just how wrongheaded were the complaints about the lack of printer support or USB-ports in the iPad. Instead of making a machine that acted like the current hard-to-configure computers, Apple decided to make a machine that just works. If third-parties want to sell peripherals for it, theyfll have to play the game. In this case, that game is buying licenses from Apple to use the dock-connector, the AirPrint spec or AirPlay, which allows wireless streaming of music and video from iOS devices.

Itfs clear that these schemes will be a money-maker for Apple, but my guess would be that the original idea was to get rid of annoying drivers.

Therefs actually a third way to print wirelessly from an iDevice, and thatfs to one of HPfs new printers, the Photosmart eStation, the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus and the HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One. These AirPrint-ready, but they are also email-ready. Each printer is internet-connected, and has its own email address. You just send it a document and it will soon be tattooed across a sheet of dead-tree. Howfs that for progress?