HP Gives Printers Email Addresses 325
Barence writes "HP is set to unveil a line of printers with their own email addresses, allowing people to print from devices such as smartphones and tablets. The addresses will allow users to email their documents or photos directly to their own — or someone else's — printer. It will also let people more easily share physical documents; rather than merely emailing links around, users can email a photo to a friend's printer. 'HP plans to offer a few of these new printers to consumers this month, and then a few more of the products to small businesses in September.'"
Why is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
At work we have printers and scanners you can email to, from Ricoh.
Not sure what this is getting on slashdot for exactly?
Re:This (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. It's not like printers have been hacked with less [irongeek.com] to work from.
Re:fantastic! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:horrible horrible horrible idea. (Score:5, Informative)
who can't already print from their existing email client?
ipad users.
Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome to slashdot. A few pointers:
1) Not everything here is 'news'.
2) Not everything here is 'for nerds'.
3) Not everything here will make sense to any one given person.
4) Commenting 'why' has approximately zero chance of modifying any of the above.
Enjoy your stay!
Re:I really hope this has some form of verificatio (Score:5, Informative)
1. Spambots sending your printer garbage...
2. DDOS somebody's printer with a combo of tubgirl / lemonparty / goat.se
3. Invest in companies that sell ink
4. Profit?
Re:This (Score:1, Informative)
I foresee lots of Goatse emails to HP printers in the not-too-distant future...
Re:horrible horrible horrible idea. (Score:5, Informative)
CUPS supports three different printing protocols over TCP (which means, over the Internet). IPP (Internet Printing Protocol), for example, is ten years old, and it supports access control, authentication, and encryption.
Re:fantastic! (Score:3, Informative)
You're talking about Windows, yes?
Dunno about the HP printers used in large firms, but for the networked ones I've used, I can typically just telnet in to change the config, and jobs are magickally printed, without or without CUPS, but certainly without installing a boatload of management software. The one I use at home (an old 4090N) is easier to use and far less trouble than those ubiqitous plastic blue boxes with a Linksys logo that everyone uses. And certainly more reliable.
Re:Please. (Score:3, Informative)
Still, with a whitelist you'd have to know a valid sender. It's by no means foolproof, but it's a tremendous improvement over nothing at all. Well, until you get your email account hacked and spam harvesters know that you@gmail.com has the following three @myhpprinter.com (or whatever) email addresses in its address book.
That being said, if they just run everything through gmail's spam filter, it would probably be fine. That thing is absurdly accurate - at least in my experience.
Re:I really hope this has some form of verificatio (Score:3, Informative)
No, that'd be too expensive. Two girls, one thimble.
Re:This (Score:3, Informative)
Snarl! Hiss!
For two reasons:
1. I know about Jennifer Usher from the various transgender oriented USENET newsgroups and am not a fan at all.
2. Transphobia. Using a picture of a transperson in a derogatory way, is not cool, even if it's Jennifer Usher.
Re:This (Score:3, Informative)
HP is in the ink business, the printers are sold at a loss, so this is actually a good idea for them.
Every spam message earns them money.
Re:Please. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:This (Score:2, Informative)
Then I would suggest you should check what's been going on in the newsgroup that Usher pulls the most crap in - a.s.srs.
You might also want to check Jennifer Usher: Part 1 - Attacking transsexuals and transgenders [transboutique.com], Gov't worker: I can out people on my own time [transboutique.com], Ushers threats to sue me (which started half a decade ago when I proved Usher was a liar), Usher's crapfest in my journal, trying to trivialize rape [slashdot.org], trying to justify not calling it rape to another slashdotter [slashdot.org], and lots more. (Note: slashdot fails to show all the posts because of a "too-deeply-nested" bug - go to a.s.srs [google.com] for direct links.
Usher has been pushing a transphobic hate agenda on the Internet for almost a decade. Hence the label "transquisling". Usher spent years attacking other people in news groups strictly based on their appearance, all the while claiming that "unlike them", that Usher "passed as a woman at work." When I got fed up with Usher attacking several others back in the middle of the last decade, I exposed Usher's claims about passing at work as a lie. Usher is only getting what Usher has been dishing out for a decade. Karma is a bitch.
People should not be judged on their appearance - I've said that many times. However, if someone is going to attack someone for years else based on their appearance (as Usher did to Willow and others), they'd better not be living in a glass house.
Re:Please. (Score:3, Informative)
You know, it is perfectly acceptable for a paragraph to have more than one sentence in it.
Re:This (Score:3, Informative)
Most network printers afaict default to accepting print jobs and even adminitstration control from anyone who can directly connect to them. Usually this isn't too much of a problem because home users and small buisnesses are usually on NATed networks and larger companies hopefully have someone who knows what they are doing.
These printers OTOH presumablly connect outbound to some HP controlled server that accepts emails on thier behalf. That means if HP don't get this right they could be very vulerable to attack.