Hp Tango Printer: How does print app work? Could i use emulator?
December 30, 2019 11:20 AM Subscribe
I'm thinking of getting an HP tango printer for printing in colour and photo printing. Because it has free ink (sort of) for photos printed from your phone (actually "Mobile device.") using their app. So two questions: 1. Can I send photos from google photos to the app (and thus print edited pictures including those edited on my computer) easily? 2. What's the likelihood I can set up an android emulator on my windows computer and print from there and have those count as "free."?
Response by poster: You must print your photos directly from your phone via a wireless or Print anywhere, anytime connection to your printer."
What I was picturing was using the google photos app and then "share to" the HP app. So the print would come from the HP app. But without seeing the HP app I don't know if that's possible. But thanks for pointing out the limitations thing. I think I will contact them and ask what the limitations are.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:08 PM on December 30, 2019
What I was picturing was using the google photos app and then "share to" the HP app. So the print would come from the HP app. But without seeing the HP app I don't know if that's possible. But thanks for pointing out the limitations thing. I think I will contact them and ask what the limitations are.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:08 PM on December 30, 2019
What's the likelihood I can set up an android emulator on my windows computer and print from there and have those count as "free."?
From a technical standpoint I don't see how you could do this. Android emulators, if they offer any sort of capability for printing, will almost certainly only do what you could do directly on your phone. They won't show a virtual printer to Windows for it to use directly. Best you could do in theory is render out your document as a high-resolution image and get that onto the phone or emulator to print.
posted by Aleyn at 2:54 PM on December 30, 2019
From a technical standpoint I don't see how you could do this. Android emulators, if they offer any sort of capability for printing, will almost certainly only do what you could do directly on your phone. They won't show a virtual printer to Windows for it to use directly. Best you could do in theory is render out your document as a high-resolution image and get that onto the phone or emulator to print.
posted by Aleyn at 2:54 PM on December 30, 2019
The Tango printer, "free ink" thing seems too clever by half to me. Note that there is a size limit on the "free ink" pictures. HP makes its printer money on the toner. I get "your toner is out of date" messages all the time as encouragement to buy more toner.
That said, I would expect you could print directly from Google Photos, and you can put pics into photos on a PC and have it sync.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:05 PM on December 30, 2019
That said, I would expect you could print directly from Google Photos, and you can put pics into photos on a PC and have it sync.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:05 PM on December 30, 2019
Response by poster: So from the video that shows how to use the app that I found, I see the demo shows printing from google photos option. So that works. I did note the size-limit on the free pictures, but I would be printing 4x6 anyway (to put in albums). The real scam on the printing is obviously that they charge the same for b&w as for colour (Which they seem to want to sell as a feature "so simple!"), but for people who have only one printer would obviously be a giant money sink. I have a black and white laser printer, so would use this printer ONLY for colour. Which means 50 pages/month of non-5x7-or-smaller would be plenty. But I'm concerned now about the "limitations may apply" and the app to tell you how many free pics you've printed (Which suggests I should care how many, which suggests they're not so unlimited). I have not found a way to contact HP, but I didn't have time to search thoroughly. I did find the terms of service agreement, and the "limitations" are all about size and printing from phone/app, not about number of photos printed.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:15 PM on December 30, 2019
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:15 PM on December 30, 2019
HP has to count the pictures you print, even free ones, so it knows when to send more toner.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:42 AM on December 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 5:42 AM on December 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I contacted HP and they said there is no limit on the number of free photos. The limits are that it has to be printed through their app (which I believe works with Google Photos), and that the must be 5x7 or smaller, which is are the limits already stated in the marketing materials.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:11 AM on December 31, 2019
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:11 AM on December 31, 2019
« Older will it save: dressing(?) edition | Over-the-air TV signal suffers during live sports... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
As for #2, that really seems like cheating and if you get caught you'll definitely get kicked off the service at least. It's not much work to get a photo onto a phone if it means that much to you; plus you're paying for a certain number of monthly prints anyway.
To me, it very much reads like a lot of "unlimited" data plans. You don't get to read the fine print till you sign up, and then it will probably tell you how many "free" photos you are actually allowed to print before they stop being free.
posted by rikschell at 11:51 AM on December 30, 2019