Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Print From an Android Tablet? 203
KowboyKrash writes "Does any Slashdotter know how to print from an Android tablet? I have read about Google Cloud Print, but will it work from all (or at least most) apps? Is there a better solution? A little background: With my laptop being four years old, and the battery failing, I want to replace it with a device with 10 hours of battery. I am purchasing an Asus Transformer Prime after Christmas as a gift to myself; my plan is to replace my laptop completely for portable computing. I've already selected several apps that should meet my needs, including Polaris Office, and TeamViewer to remotely access my desktop. So are there any printing solutions for Android? Printing to my network printer at home is good enough."
Cloud Print (Score:5, Informative)
Cloud print works for me very well from my phone and tablet. If printing to a home printer is good enough then it should work just fine for you. Does for me.
HP eprint Home and Biz (Score:2, Informative)
Use it all the time on my phone
About Polaris (Score:4, Informative)
Re:WiFi enabled printer? (Score:4, Informative)
You can do it via dropbox. See http://www.labnol.org/internet/print-from-mobile-phones/17827/
Check with the printer manufacturers (Score:3, Informative)
I recently found out Brother has an app for printing from Android and IOS [brother-usa.com]. Maybe the other printer manufacturers do too?
PrintBot works nicely for me (Score:3, Informative)
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.jsecurity.printbot&hl=en [android.com]
Note: I have no connection to the author, and haven't yet needed to try the paid version myself, so I refer to the (extremely restricted) free version.
Don't give in to masochism. (Score:2, Informative)
iPads can do this without paying extra money for a printing app. If your printer isn't "AirPrint" compatible, just run this program once on the mac that shares it: http://download.cnet.com/AirPrint-Activator/3000-18487_4-75327225.html
Re:easiest is best right? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I know, I'm boring (Score:2, Informative)
Many Archos tablets can be setup to dual boot with Android and Armstrong Linux (a full fledge desktop Linux). This isn't some hack, it is supported by the manufacturers.
I have a Archos tablet which is 4.3 inches and I can plug it to my computer monitor through mini-HDMI, use a full sized Blutooth keyboard and mouse and boot a full desktop Linux on it.
Re:easiest is best right? (Score:3, Informative)
If you looked in computer magazines from those days, you'd see some companies selling these black open-ended pyramids. The peak had a camera mount (and a hole for the lens, of course), and you put the big open end over the monitor face; the purpose was to eliminate all the reflected light.
Re:Replacement (Score:5, Informative)
You must have an iPad or something.
On my Samsung Tab 10.1, I just did a search for "printer" in the Market and found at least a dozen fully functional free apps with excellent user reviews. There is at least one that was made by each major printer manufacturer, I assume that's because they're selling printers and ink, that's why they're supplying their own apps fully functional for free (with not even a paid equivalent), but Cloud Print seems to be the best one since it relies on Google Cloud Printing Service and just seems to be universal (and that one is totally free as well).
This is not to say I disagree with your main point. A tablet is cool, but it's a not a good productivity tool unless you're a salesman or something. Mine has become exclusively an entertainment device these days, I use it for playing games, reading manga, watching videos, listening to/remote controlling podcasts/music, casually browsing photos/the web, casually playing with the gestures of the UI interface, basically almost anything but actual real work.
And yes, I do realize the Asus Transformer comes with a keyboard, but the problem is that, even with a keyboard, it's still a very seductive device that seems to have been optimized for playing games and consuming media first and foremost.
If you want an actual real useful light device with instantaneous startup time/connection to the web, and extremely long battery life, and assuming your needs are as simple as browsing the web, working on documents online, etc, I'd suggest you take a look at the latest Samsung Chromebook. When my relatives visit, they love my tablet and they also play with it, but they actually use my Chromebook to get actual work done (instead of their own laptops that start up just so damn slowly). Plus, the Chromebook comes with 2 years of free data (the 100 MB quota per month is laughable, but it comes in handy during the times I'm out of wifi range, and I just need a quick bit of information without wanting to activate my mobile hotspot, and the way it's done, the indicator/notifier for data consumption is very well done and very transparent despite the well known evilness of Verizon, there is actually no chance of unknown overages that will come bite me in the ass later on).
This is not to say that the original poster will actually follow my advice. I don't think that he will. The very fact that the tablet is so seductive a device, and the fact that the Chromebook is not seductive at all -- it's just useful, is probably the main reason he'll insist on getting a tablet anyway.