Whatever Happened with AirPrint Printers?

Remember when AirPrint came out and everyone was so excited because they could print from their iPad and iPhone directly without needing a computer? Remember how disappointed we were when we found out Apple had commissioned HP to create the 5 lone AirPrint printers with this capability? Then Apple told us “no sharing” your printer on a network either?

Well things have changed a lot since then. There is still a no sharing rule (that can be bypassed with some software), but today there are over 500 printers available on the market from over 20 different vendors with the ability to provide AirPrint to all of your iOS devices.

Check out Apple’s AirPrint page with the list of all of the compatible printers. Apple also explains the requirements needed to print to an AirPrint printer. Most of this should happen rather seamlessly though. The main part of this support article is the giant list of AirPrint printers. Initially I felt that Apple made a foolish decision to limit the printing on iOS devices to AirPrint printers. However, the printer companies naturally gravitated to where the money was… iOS, and now there are hundreds of these printers.

By the way I just picked up the HP Officejet Pro 8600 and it is very nice.