HP Premium Touchsmart Web Printer

I was the lucky winner of an HP Printer from the blog of Anissa Mayhew. Somehow, Anissa has convinced HP to drink her kool-aid, she has printers to give and they even have her set up to host parties with her Aiming Low friends in swanky towns like Boston and New York. So, if you ever get the pleasure of meeting Anissa, note that she is a lovely person, a wonderful mother and friend and that she has a stash of HP SWAG - so make her share!!

My totally FREE printer arrived directly from HP via the super hot FedEx man. I wasn't expecting it, and I thought he was delivering my new hearing aid. I was working in the yard when he pulled up and he asked if he could carry it to the house for me. And, I'm like, dude, it's a hearing aid it can't be that heavy. And he's all, no m'am, it's BIG, upon which I peeked inside his truck and saw the glorious HP logo and I screamed. Just a little bit. Which made him think I was a little bit wonky.

So, it had arrived! Hunk was out of town and so I texted him that "IT's HERE"! Which proceeded to make him very jealous because he loves to open boxes that contain new gadgets/electronics. Since I was preparing to leave town myself I didn't have time to open my new printer right away. I had a crazy schedule which I was trying to accomplish a list a mile long and basically, Hunk was to arrive home, just in time to give me a high five on my way out of town. Since I wanted to be the one to open MY printer, I had to wake up an hour earlier the next day so that I could fit in time to piddle with it. At the crack of dark o'thirty, I was opening up my new box. And I took pictures because I was so excited. Dude, the thing was FREEEE!

My first view is of all the cables, which are neatly packed into a reusable bag - I thought that was super cool. THEN, oh then, I found that the ENTIRE printer was packed in a bigger reusable bag! The bag is amazingly large and I promptly filled it with stuff and took it out of town with me! So the entire printer was packaged in like 90% reusable/recyclable product. There were only two pieces of styrofoam and virtually no plastic. I have to say, this makes me happy.

I have only one complaint with the print cartridges. Instead of just having a tape across the well there is a piece of orange plastic that must be twisted off before they can be installed. It seems like a waste of a lot of plastic, they are pretty bulky. Additionally, on one of them I twisted it off and it left some remnants as it wasn't a clean break. I wondered if it would still sit properly in the ink carriage (so far it seems okay).

The printer was a breeze to set up, basically you just plug it in and then hit the button to search for wireless, put in your password and watch the magic happen. I then put the CD in my PC and let it do it's thing and I was ready to print in no time, which was good because I had a zillion pounds of paperwork to finish before leaving for my trip. So, my first use of the printer was for plain jane printing. I was racing against the clock and so once it was set up I just started cranking out the paperwork that I needed. And did I mention that it's wireless, so I was able to put the printer in the office and still be able to work from the kitchen.

Flash forward to today, this has been my first opportunity to play with the web applications on the printer. They are very cool. There are things like school papers, which isn't an entirely new concept for an HP Printer, but nonetheless it is an important app. I've found that I can check the weather - or have my kids check it before getting ready for school. My younger daughter has apparently figured out the Nickalodeon & Disney fun pages because I keep finding little projects all around the house. She is happy to print and entertain herself, which is cool that she doesn't have to log onto a website to print fun stuff. I also don't have to worry that she might make a typo and end up somewhere other than Disney or Nick. Believe me, with kids, the typos happen and they can see stuff that kids should not see.

I can log onto my snapfish.com albums without using my PC at all, the printer can access my account and allow me to print photos right there. I've found that I can print my own tabbloid to read - it will pull from websites like Jezebel, Engadget, The Big Picture, etc. and you can decide how many pages you want to read. Since I use my iPhone so much, I'm not likely to use tabbloid, but it is interesting and who knows... I can print from my iPhone which is all kinds of awesome. And there are recipes and coupons and games, and and and and....the possibilities are endless. I imagine the choices for apps will grow, much like the iPhone apps until I can do virtually anything directly from my printer.

I have no complaints for the printer itself, it is sleek and extrememly functional. It has all the features of most printers with the fax, copy, scan, but with the addition of the Web Apps it is quite a step further into convenience. Our household has 3 laptops, but we still manage to end up with someone needing a PC when there isn't one available and this printer can help with that. Hopefully the app developers will take this printer to even more amazing levels! I am waiting patiently for the app that will print out the missing sock.