![]() Small: Lantronix's $100 xPrintServer Home Edition, a version of its print server appliance that adds a USB port to support as many as eight USB printers (if you use a USB hub to connect them) in addition to as many as two network printers. It handles an unlimited number of printers on its network segment, but performance can degrade after a dozen. Small to medium: Lantronix's $150 xPrintServer Network Edition, a print server appliance you plug into a network segment to add AirPrint support to most network printers in use today. It's the only product that supports printing from Android as well as from iOS. High end: EFI's PrintMe Mobile, software you run on a Windows machine on your backbone network or on multiple segments to AirPrint-enable most network printers in use today. The mobile printing options range from suitable just for home and small offices to a server product for a company of any size: It's easier to support those legacy printers that work just fine and are, frankly, cheaper to run than today's printers, which are designed to use high-priced, low-capacity toner and inks to fill printer makers' coffers. The protocol is now available for use in network devices, not just within printers. Best of all, you don't have to buy a new printer to use AirPrint. The good news is that there are now several options to print from your iOS devices when on a Wi-Fi network - and one to print from Android devices. For all intents and purposes, mobile printing today means iOS printing. Google's Android has no print support at all, and Google's Chrome OS goes through a clunky service called CloudPrint that uses your Windows PC as a print server - an inelegant approach implemented poorly by Google. (Apple has a nice primer on which iOS devices and new printers support AirPrint natively, along with some troubleshooting tips.) A year ago, Apple eliminated the technical loophole that let apps print outside of the AirPrint protocol, forcing developers to support AirPrint and its accompanying printers. Very few devices supported it then, and today you'll find backing mostly in inkjet color printers, not so much the kinds of high-volume laser printers used in businesses large and small. Apple didn't offer printing until fall 2010, when iOS 4.2 introduced the driverless AirPrint technology. Computers have been able to do so for years, but not the mobile devices increasingly pushing PCs aside for many tasks. When you need to print, you need to print. Yes, even some of those are becoming increasingly digital, but printing isn't dead, even if it is rarer. A backup copy of directions you can glance at while driving. Medical records to be shared with a new doctor. ![]() A checklist to bring into the store or specifications to bring to the shop. Yet there are times we need to print: An airline boarding pass or ticket to a show. The closest to print many documents get is being saved as a PDF copy for archival purposes, to be printed ( or faxed - another dying technology) later should the need arise. And more and more "paperwork" processes, from expense reports to vacation approvals, happen over email and via apps. More and more, documents stay digital, moving from person to person over email, file shares, and cloud storage, never to see a sheet of paper. It's amazing how much you can do digitally these days.
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