Lantonix's xPrintServer Allows You to Print Directly from Your iPhone or iPad

Plug-n-play devices don't usually live up to their names, which is unfortunate. What usually happens is you plug it in, fail, look at the instructions, get confused, re-read the instructions, get more confused, call customer service, get put on hold, hang up, get no helpful information, look on Google or YouTube for an answer and then throw everything in frustration. However, the one exception to that rule is the xPrintServer from Lantonix. Well, it may be the exception...

The only problem is how to print from your iPad or iPhone. If you've already purchased a printer with AirPrint capabilities then this should be easy for you to accomplish because, well, that's what it's made for. Though, if you are like most other people in the world and hold onto your printer way longer than you should, then you have limited options.

One of those options is to add a printing app to your iPad or iPhone. Unfortunately, those apps are generally tied to specific models of printers, which makes finding the right one hard. However, if the printer upgrades its drivers then you may have a problem.

The xPrintServer simplifies this. Essentially, the xPrintServer is a box that attaches to your router and to your printer. Once that's done, you can print from your iPad and iPhone, no matter where you are in your house or office. All is not perfect with the xPrintServer. Signs of stubbornness abound and connecting to a wireless printer via WiFi without the USB cable can be difficult and unresponsive.

Pricewise, the xPrintServer runs $100, which is a lot, especially when compared with an app that does the exact same thing for $5. The first thing you need to do, if you decide to go with the xPrintServer, is see if you have an AirPrint compatible printer and then check if there is an i-device app specifically for your printer. After that, consider how much you value simplicity. If the answer is worth $100 then you should give the xPrintSever a try.

Source: The New York Times - Printing From Your iPhone, at a Price

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New App Transforms Your iPad into A Scanner, Copier and Fax Machine

With things becoming increasingly more digital these days, the need for things like printers, scanners and copiers is decreasing. However, there are still those times when you absolutely need to use one or more of these devices. The problem is that these things are expensive and not many people want to fork over the money if they are only going to use the device a handful of times a year. Fortunately, there is a new app out for the iPad that is drastically cheaper than buying one of these devices and gives you the same benefits.

The Scanner Pro app, which sells for $6.99, uses your iPad or iPhone camera to take a high-res picture of documents and other things. Naturally, the larger screen of the iPad makes things easier but if all you have is an iPhone then you can use that too. Once you take a picture of the document you can send it to the cloud via Evernote, DropBox, Google Docs, etc... to store it. Your scanned document can then be printed at any printer that supports Air Print, turning your iPad or iPhone into an inexpensive portable printer/copier.

In addition to that, documents can be sent directly to any computer via local WiFi network, which makes getting PDFs into a computer faster and simpler. Scanned documents can also be faxed over the web for $0.99, which is just like making an in-app purchase. You can manually enter the fax recipient or you can pick one from a list of contacts and the fax is then sent in a few seconds once the payment transaction goes through.

When you take a picture of a document with the app, which also supports multiple pages, the app automatically determines the document borders before saving. Each page is clearly marked on the document and can be easily moved by touch, which is an important feature, as it provides you with a nice way to limit a copy/fax to only some of the scanned pages if need be.

The app itself can save pages as JPEG images or PDF documents and it is also possible to open the scanned image in an appropriate app for handling the selected document type from directly within Scanner Pro. This allows you to further tweak the pages and documents whenever you need to. If you occasionally need to scan, copy or fax something and you don't really feel the need to have an actual copier around gathering dust, the Scanner Pro app is definitely something you should check out. For $6.99 you really can't go wrong.

Source: ZDNet - Turn your iPad into a scanner, copier, and fax with Scanner Pro

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