Mobile Technology Has Reached Into

Mobile technology has reached into nearly every service sector except one: printing. Until now, consumers wishing to print documents while traveling or away from the office had few options. One option was to purchase a stand-alone portable printer. Such devices can be costly, but more importantly, they defeat the purpose of portability. Carrying around a separate printer is cumbersome and heavy. The only other option for printing was to use third-party services such as Kinko's. Such services are not always available or convenient.

A hybrid laptop-printer has finally been invented. Although there are others on the market, this product is more attractive, has greater functionality, and meets more of the ergonomic needs of consumers than previous versions. Moreover, this new laptop-printer is a Mac. Introducing the Macbook ProPrint.

This reinvented laptop-printer is available on Macbook Pro-models only, making their thickness only slightly greater than the standard Macbook Pro. After all, paper is thin. Instead of holding a paper tray like a typical printer, the user feeds one page at a time to the laptop printer. Considering that most portable printing will be light jobs, the functionality is fine. The Macbook ProPrint can print on standard office paper, on cards, or on envelopes.

A specially-designed printer cartridge resides in a compartment accessible at the back of the computer. About the size of a small portable hard disk drive, the portable printer cartridge is manufactured of impermeable materials to prevent any leakage that might compromise the computer. The ink cartridges are also refillable rather than disposable, making them as environmentally friendly as possible. They are also highly efficient due to the advanced ink jet technology that helps one cartridge last up to 100 pages. Unfortunately, however, only black ink is available. Future incarnations of the Macbook ProPrint will enable full color printing so that digital photos can be printed. Thus, the Macbook ProPrint will become the next generation of Polaroid camera. The Macbook ProPrint ink cartridges can only be refilled at any Apple Store or authorized retailer.

The print roller is about one-inch in circumference and adds a corresponding overall depth to the computer chassis. Including the ink cartridge, which weighs ten ounces when full, the total weight the printer adds to the standard Macbook Pro-is 21 ounces. This means that the Macbook ProPrint remains a highly portable and relatively lightweight computer in spite of having a fully functional printer built into it. The printer can be used on battery power only, but it is suggested that the a/C adapter be plugged in to avoid reduced performance.

Using the Macbook ProPrint is simple. It will automatically be set as the default printer on the Macbook ProPrint. In fact, any other computer with the capacity for mobile printing can send documents directly to the Macbook ProPrint. The printer on the Macbook ProPrint has its own identification on a WiFi network, so that other computers can send documents directly without having to email or share files. Remote printing is password-protected for maximum security.