New HP Web-connected printers take it to the cloud

Internet Week commenced Monday morning in New York City with a keynote speech from HP's Vyomesh Joshi about the next evolution of Web-connected printing. HP's solution takes advantage of cloud-based data transfers and lets users send documents and pictures from any e-mail device to any one of HP's newest Web-connected "ePrinters."

HP first introduced the idea of Web-connected printing last year with its flagship all-in-one, the HP Photosmart Touchsmart Web. Now HP has plans to integrate its "print anywhere" plan across its OfficeJet, PhotoSmart, LaserJet, and OfficeJet divisions, and each printer will ship with an assigned e-mail address that you can use to print directly from any smartphone or Web-connected system; you can even store your collaborative projects in the cloud for worldwide printing access.

Consumers will also be happy to see the death of the dreaded printer driver--just keep the device's e-mail address on hand and you can print anything, from anywhere, at anytime.

HP also unveiled a new scheduling feature that gives users access to timed delivery of content from news outlets like MSNBC.com and Yahoo. In addition, HP announced a handful of fresh Web apps accessible directly on the printer, and representatives from Nickelodeon, Google, LiveNation, and Yahoo! were on hand to express their enthusiasm for the next wave of net printing. All of the ePrint apps can be downloaded and customized through the new HP ePrintCenter.