HP Introduces A Bluetooth Printer

man_ls writes: "I found this on C|Net, it's an HP Printer that also supports Bluetooth. You can read about it here. Not that the Bluetooth will do anything except interfere with 802.11 wireless networks, but it's an interesting feature to have." Actually, Bluetooth shouldn't interfere with 802.11 except in confusing product marketing, right? Nice to see that at least one printer will actually hit the market with a short-range radio interface instead of wire (inconvenient) or IR (poor interoperability).

Comments

People are missing the point

[brunes69]

Alot of people are wondering what the point of this, talking about carrying the printer around, etc. The point of IR and / or Bluetooth on a printer, is now anyone can walk into the office with his laptop/pda/cell/whatever, and print instantly. No need to dock it, hook up a cable, install drivers (cause they'd already be instealled), etc. This is a godsend for people who do most of their work on the road. This is the reason printers have been IR compatable for some time.

HP JDGI

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, here's a classic example of people who Just Don't Get It.

I'm all for Bluetooth, but isn't the idea supposed to be for shor range communications? So that my cell phone can look up a phone number in my PDA, or if it's not there then in my Laptop?

What good is a Bluetooth printer if my desktop is more than a few feet away? Wouldn't 802.11b or 802.11a make more sense for something like a printer? That way my wife can print from her computer upstairs.

Like I said, I'm all for Bluetooth - I still want that supposed Bluetooth headset so that I don't have to pull out my cell phone to answer it, but a printer just doesn't make sense to me. Bluetooth should be in all the things I carry on me, so that they can communicate with each other - the Personal Area Network. Desktop things like printers and scanners and such should have wireless with broader range, so that every device in my house/office can access them.

That's my $.02

intereferance?

[Alien54]

I have seen a situation where a 900 mhz wireless phone and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo had some interferance problems, mostly in the headphone audio.

So the obvious question is if there are other similar problems possible/probable with all these other wireless devices.

Of course, technically, it is possible, but I am wondering about the practical worries, be it from the office next door or whatever, given the coming explosion in the range of wireless devices.