HP Photosmart Premium Printer gets connected

Fwd Tech  Tuesday 23 June 2009

Introducing the world's first web-connected printer

One day you will have a gadget that can do absolutely everything: make calls, take photos, print the photos, cook your sausages, eat your sausages, wash the dishes, then tidy up. But until that day you’ll have to make do with a number of gadgets that can do a number of things. One such convergence device is the HP Photosmart Premium Printer – the world’s first web-connected printer!

The HP Photosmart Premium Printer does everything a normal printer would do (print, photocpy, scan, fax) then throws in a touch of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with the later allowing internet connection without you even needing to go close to a computer.

Thanks to a built-in 4.33-inch touchscreen that’ll be sporting a number of widgets, you can access your internet faves without going near your PC. Online apps are also accessible with big names such as Google Maps being made available for printing off maps.

It’s an interesting idea. Whether it takes off or not remains to be seen. At the moment it’s being priced at $399 in the States (that’s around £245 to you) which, regardless of these tough economic climes, is a lot for what is fundamentally a printer.