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.'"
This (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. It's not like printers have been hacked with less [irongeek.com] to work from.
Re:This (Score:5, Interesting)
This is an obvious opportunity to have an open source alternative. A simple program to recieve email from any address the user wants and let them add a custom subject field "password" that allows them to print remotely.
The idea isn't that great but if there's an HP driver version compared to even the most basic OSS version with the actual options to avoid spam delivery then it's a good thing for us. Not saying that people will print more or that they need to print from a device that they carry with them anyway, but if HP thinks there's a market a quick programmer could show them up very easily.
And the subject field / sender whitelist combo would be a good alternative to the so far unknown "features" that they fail to mention in the real article. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07printer.html?ref=technology [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
that'd actually be pretty easy to set up, using a procmail filter on an incoming mail server. you can already filter by subject line and execute a command on the incoming e-mail if it matches a specified filter. coupled with something like fetchmail if you're not running your own mail server (or more likely, if your mail server isn't on the same network as your printer), you could easily write a set of filters and scripts that would redirect specific e-mails to a printer. :)
Re:This (Score:5, Interesting)
I did exactly this back in 1991 to deal with printing from a computer behind a two-way firewall with extremely restrictive permissions. The easiest protocol which was permitted through the firewall was email, and it automatically meant queueing was handled properly.
Re:This (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (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 at
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Let the printer spamming begin!
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
You mean it hasn't already?
It's not like anyone could ever have predicted this from, oh, the FAX SPAM problem?
How would you like to accidentally staple a printout of this [google.com] to the last page of your report to the boss?
(nice way to thin out the competition at the office, though)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, dude, how 1980's. As soon as this printer shows up in the office, you're going to be emailing your report to his printer, and HE'LL be accidentally stapling that last page to the report for you.
Re: (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: (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:This (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This (Score:5, Insightful)
I can just imagine the first wave pf spam: 8.5x11 color photo quality coupons for printer ink refills.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This just reminds me of my mother's Gateway laptop that started having popup ads for Gateway after two years.
There's no reason HP couldn't do something similar with their printers.
I would trade problems... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This (Score:5, Funny)
But think of the new paradigm of email/fax spam, a synergy of such epic proportions as to usher in a new Zeitgeist.
Sorry.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Multimedia spam convergence.
DO NOT WANT!
Re:This (Score:5, Funny)
I find your ideas fascinating and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
...so post your printer's e-mail address!
Speaking of abuse.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear HP Printer,
PC Load Letter???? What the @#$!# does that mean?!?!?
Sincerely,
Frustrated User.
4Chan? (Score:3, Interesting)
Did you think of 4chan? For some reason, I did...
There was the run a while back where somebody discovered the admin page for large industrial printers could be easily searched to find unprotected panels, and that print jobs could be remotely administered... how many million pages of unsavory imagery were printed for the next day or two is anybody's guess...
Please. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell me these will use at least a whitelist to determine which emails get printed. I don't need a stack of full color Viagr@ spam in my printer tray.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Please. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (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:Please. (Score:4, Insightful)
Whitelists work because spammers often don't know which "from" address to spoof.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're right that they likely don't have your whitelist addresses if they just found your email publicly posted on a website like slashdot. If they somehow got your address from another person's infected computer the odds are a bit higher that they can find a whitelisted address.
Re:Please. (Score:5, Interesting)
So they can find *a* whitelisted address... maybe. And once they have my mom's email address, I can take her off the whitelist. I can call her and say "Yo mom, fix your shit."
But generally the problem with whitelists is not that spammers are clever enough to spoof whitelisted addresses. The real problem with whitelists is that we all get a lot of email from random unexpected sources, so we usually can't only allow whitelisted email in. A whitelist on a printer like this would probably work fairly well, since you don't want it to receive print jobs from unexpected sources.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok. You have my email address. It's public. What email addresses do I have whitelisted?
I see a lot of spamming that puts the "to" address in the "from" field. Apparently most people whitelist themselves?
Re:Please. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Especially when they start sending the 200Mb attachments...
Re:Please. (Score:5, Funny)
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Surely you mean:
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black toner
WE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON BLACK TONER
We noticed that you are running low on black t
Re: (Score:2)
Is whitelisting even necessary? I'm no networking guru, but I can permit or deny internet access, in either direction, on any port(s) or protocol(s), for any machine on my network. Give me one of those silly printers. I'll wrap that bad boy up, snug as a bug in a rug. And, Wireshark will quickly find out if I missed anything, like a "phone home" feature.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
LOL. Yeah, You missed EVERYTHING on this one.
Understandable though. You approached it like an IT person. Now go to the wall, bang your head against it furiously 10 times in a row and consider the USER. Banging your head just helps you think like one.
The user will not care about white listing or security, or any other reasonable consideration we can come up with in 60 seconds on /. about this ridiculously, deliciously, stupid idea.
This was a marketing exec over at HP that thought of a cool feature and ra
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You know, it is perfectly acceptable for a paragraph to have more than one sentence in it.
Re:Please. (Score:4, Insightful)
But I would wager that most 'Real nerds', when installing such a package on their system (you probably use the term "Winchester Disk" here), would refer to a package by the name they look it up with. Otherwise, keeping track of all the forking and renaming would be rather hard on one's memory. Oh, sorry, I mean to say "core", like your Real Nerd (TM) would.
Re:Please. (Score:5, Interesting)
We know how widely the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) [wikipedia.org] on port 631 is used; just because it implements access control, authentication, and encryption, avoiding the inevitable spam problem makes it much better for this purpose than any kludge using email protocols. If we could only teach the crew at geek squad to set it up and teach the clueless users how to use it, we'd be much better off.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Why all that hassle? I'm sure any spam message sent to a printer will have the evil bit set (see: RFC3514 [rfc-editor.org]), so you can just tell the printer to ignore those messages... Simple!
Re:Please. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Spam (Score:2, Redundant)
Now HP will finally make money off all those v1@grA ads I keep getting.
Too late? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I've stopped thinking about p
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
Recall what the printer manufacturers did when everyone started taking digital pictures. They put memory slots in the printer and software that would one-touch print the various picture formats. This was nothing that technical people would use, we all had computer with photo editing suites and high end printers, but for the mom wanting to print pictures of the kids is was a great way to sell ink.
This is all that is happening now. Someone has some snaps on their smart phone or feature phone with email. They want to print it but they don't really want to mess with the computer. They don't have a memory card that will work with the old printer. They don't want to go the marketplace and download the app and set up the printer. So they email. It works. One touch plug and play printing. They use ink that HP sells.
The other context to this is that ten years ago houses were not networked the way they are now, and network kit was not so cheap. Ten years ago a card or box to network a printer wold be north of $200, and a networked printer would be north of $1000. Now HP sells a network ready printer for $100 and most houses have a ethernet port to plug it into.
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: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:Why is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
Email address or it didn't happen!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I was thinking the same. Each printer (including the small desktop models) at my work can be emailed to and from, which works excellent with printing, scanning and faxing (receiving and sending). I've seen the same printers for sale at normal consumer shops...
If I understand correctly though, it will have a preconfigured, easy to set up web-based email adress om a HP server. Basically bringing the normal enterprise functionality to home users.
That would be fairly neat, but also rather useless and easy to abuse.
I really hope this has some form of verification.. (Score:5, Funny)
2. DDOS somebody's printer with a combo of tubgirl / lemonparty / goat.se
3. ???
4. Profit?
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: (Score:2)
two girls one cup ... of printer ink?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, that'd be too expensive. Two girls, one thimble.
So they will be easier to hack now? (Score:2)
So they will be easier to hack now?
How long before a bug in the email app is found and mass printers get hacked?
Re: (Score:2)
I think they'll start with the traditional printers before moving on to your new-fangled mass printers.
Faxing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Faxing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Faxing (Score:5, Funny)
And so now we're back to fax spam? Thanks HP!
At least there is a good part.
How many days until we get a post on TheDailyWTF regarding a PHB asking their employee to send them an email with a blank word document, because their printer is out of paper?
Re: (Score:2)
So, HP is going retro, they couldn't think of anything new so they re-invented the fax machine!
Invent! - they need to rethink that tagline...
Re: (Score:2)
Not to worry. It'll be protected by The Most Secure Windows Evar(tm).
fantastic! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:fantastic! (Score:5, Interesting)
While obviously Microsoft popularized it in the specific "designed for Windows" form in, as I recall, the Win95/NT4-era, I think that the concept of offloading functions from peripherals to software running on the workstation the peripheral was serving as a measure which both saves costs and ties the peripheral to a specific operating system predates its use by Microsoft -- NeXT, for instance, did the same thing with its Canon-manufactured laser printers, as I recall.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (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.
somewhere in the world... (Score:5, Interesting)
Somebody at HP deserves congratulations for this (Score:5, Funny)
...and by "congratulations", I mean a nice, hard punch in the crotch.
What in the hell were they thinking? EMAIL IS NOT A FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL, DAMMIT.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And TCP/IP wasn't designed with Carrier Pigeons in mind, but it can and does work that way...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What in the hell were they thinking? EMAIL IS NOT A FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL, DAMMIT.
Then what store-and-forward file transfer protocol should ISPs make available to their users to replace e-mail attachments?
Re: (Score:2)
Back to the Future 2 (Score:5, Funny)
Now when you are fired your boss can let your kids and wife know by printing out You're Fired from all the printers in the house.
Spam (Score:2)
Now we really can complain how spammers cost us money!
Open Standard (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, there are many possible problems with spam, etc. But at least they are using an open standard: email. Perhaps IPP might be better. This means any email user (including any smart phone user) can print which is kinda cool.
Re: (Score:2)
Finally I can toss out my fax machine! (Score:2, Funny)
For years I've been looking for a viable replacement for my aging fax machine. Fax... that's short for facsimile for you youngsters.
I know the rest of you have all been looking for an better way than plain e-mail to exchange physical copies of documents. There's just nothing like holding the document in your hand. Am I right?
So I'll let *you* decide what I need to have printed. Send me your stuff: tonerlow@anothersillymarketingideanobodyneeds.com
Great (Score:2)
Now we keep buying very overpriced ink cartridges just so some spammer can send Viagra ads directly to our printers, or worse, a facebook friend emails their entire set of holiday photos.
No thanks HP. Terrible idea.
Not new, and furthermore, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
For starters this isn't exactly new. It might be new to consumer grade crapware printers, but I believe I setup a Canon office copier that had the ability to receive emails and print them approximately 8 years ago.
Furthermore, why are we printing photos at home? If they're worth printing they're worth printing really well, which isn't cheap and should be done at a print shop, framed, and hung on the wall. Otherwise, gaze upon it on the screen, add it to your screen saver's image loop, and move on.
Re: (Score:2)
Furthermore, why are we printing photos at home? If they're worth printing they're worth printing really well, which isn't cheap and should be done at a print shop, framed, and hung on the wall. Otherwise, gaze upon it on the screen, add it to your screen saver's image loop, and move on.
Because low quality prints are fine for old people who can't tell the difference. This is the sort of thing that will probably keep some guy's inlaws from pestering him on a weekly basis if they can just get their hands on recent pics of the grandkids without having to work that dang mouse.
Re: (Score:2)
I find this odd to as we have an HP 4600 - and it supports e-mail mailbox support..
Re: (Score:2)
I bet people did this in the 1980s. A simple mail-to-printer gateway takes thirty seconds or so to set up in Unix. (But why do it? The line printer spooler protocol was in use already in the early 1980s).
And (Score:2)
And scanners must be webservers. I mean, it fits the paradigm completely - small, parametrizable requests, big gobs of response, and done. Why haven't they been built ?
Can you say... (Score:2)
SECURITY HOLE? This is going to be the greatest corporate espionage tool since the camera phone!
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
And discovered that just about everybody else had exactly the same reaction. There were two or three responses that at first glance seemed to think this was a good idea, then I read them closer and realized they were being sarcastic.
Great... (Score:2)
Another reason to buy HP's overpriced printer ink [slashdot.org].
PC Load Letter? What does that mean? (Score:2)
You have to watch those guys. One day they're innocently printing email so that managers will be able to read it, the next they're urgently requesting your assistance in confidential financial matters.
What's next? Printers downloading copyrighted material through p2p networks [washington.edu]? Those things are a menace!
HP: Hard at work for a better tomorrow (Score:5, Funny)
Amazed? Well that's just what we do.
Love,
Hewlett-Packard
Well lets see (Score:2)
Awesome! (Score:2)
SMTPS or a new avenue for identity theft? (Score:2)
SMTPS or a new avenue for identity theft? Tonight at 11.
Black email (Score:3, Insightful)
Just a New Way to Sell More Ink Cartridges (Score:2)
From the company with the most expensive and most annoying cartridges on the market. Its a shyster move to try to sell more HP ink products to the stupider members of the business community, not a well needed and clever feature.
And?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly my first thought. Then I thought, HP *must* be doing something to add some security so that only the owner, and friends/relatives specifically authorized by the owner, can send emails to the printer. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but nobody wants to waste $500+/mo on inkjet ink (which we all know is one of the most expensive substances in the world) and paper to print spam.
I doubt they'd require users to use public-key cryptography to verify their identity, but at the very least, they could
Re:horrible horrible horrible idea. (Score:5, Informative)
who can't already print from their existing email client?
ipad users.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I can mail from my phone, but I can't print. I can, however, forward it the the computer and print from THAT.
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
Now you'll be able to show your grandkids pictures of trees.