Canon U.S.A. Announces Mobile Printing App for Home and Office Users

Canon U.S.A. Announces Mobile Printing App for Home and Office Users

New App for iPhone® and iPad® Enables Efficient, Intuitive Mobile Printing to a Wide Range of Canon Devices Including select imageCLASS Printers, imageRUNNER ADVANCE and imageRUNNER Office Systems and imageRUNNER LBP Printers

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced its Canon Mobile Printing App for iPhone® and iPad®, extending Canon’s already comprehensive support for mobile office users and consumers. Canon Mobile Printing enables users in homes and offices of all sizes to send print jobs directly from their iPhone and iPad to a compatible Canon output device.

The Canon Mobile Printing App is compatible with select Canon imageCLASS desktop laser printers and multifunction printers including the recently launched MF4000 models. The app is also compatible with Canon’s recently released next generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5200, 6200, and 8200 enterprise multifunction office systems. Additionally, the app supports most imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER ADVANCE enterprise multifunction office systems, as well as imageRUNNER LBP printers. Users can print Microsoft ® Office files (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx), iWork® files (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF and PDF files, photographs (stored in Photo Albums and taken with the device camera), and web pages directly through the app’s user-friendly interface.

“With today’s mobile workforce, being able to print on-the-go is becoming an increasingly valuable asset,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Marketing, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A. “The new Canon Mobile Printing App provides ease of use and places traditional print functionality at the fingertips of today’s mobile worker.”

The Canon Mobile Printing App features the following innovative tools:

OpenIn Compatibility Improves Efficiency

The Canon Mobile Printing user experience becomes seamless with the integration of OpenIn, a feature that allows users to capitalize on the functionality of the mobile app while navigating through files located elsewhere. The OpenIn feature allows users to easily navigate to Canon Mobile Printing directly from the application they are in, giving the customer more ways to access printing.

Variety of Supported Document Types Enhances Usability

Designed with the end-user in mind, the app supports a variety of file formats. Users can print Microsoft Office files (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx), iWork files, PDF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF files, photographs, and web pages can be printed directly through the app.

Wide Range of Compatibility Provides a Satisfying End-User Experience

The app supports devices running iOS 5.1 – 6.0 and is available for the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, the new iPad, iPad 2, and the original iPad. The app also supports most imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER ADVANCE enterprise multifunction office systems and includes support for the next generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE multifunction devices. In addition, the app supports compatible imageCLASS printers and imageRUNNER LBP printers.

Intuitive Printer Communication

The app can search for and identify Canon printers within a wireless (Wi-Fi) broadcast range – and automatically save these devices for future use. If the Canon printer cannot be found within a wireless broadcast range, users can manually enter the IP address of the Canon device to list it as one of their available print devices.

Opportunity to Choose Print Settings Optimizes Workflow

The app offers a variety of built-in printing options to enhance control and performance. Users can tailor print range, paper size, color output, and number of copies directly from the app. Depending on the finishing features on the printer, documents can also be stapled directly from the menu. Additionally, users can instruct the app to feed paper automatically or via the device manual bypass.

Preview Modes Support Enhances Ease of Use

Users will be able to preview documents, photos and web pages prior to printing to determine the ideal settings for a specific print job. Items with multiple pages can also be previewed by swiping the screen to move through the document.

The Canon Mobile Printing App is available for free from the App Store℠ or atwww.itunes.com/appstore. Search for “Canon Mobile Printing”.

For product specifications and device information, please visit the Canon USA website athttp://usa.canon.com/cusa/office/standard_display/DeviceListing

origanal article

Xerox, McAfee Demo Industry-First Method for Protecting Print Devices, Data from Malware

LAS VEGAS — Today Xerox (NYSE: XRX) and McAfee revealed new protection against malware and viruses with the first networked multifunction printer to use McAfee Embedded Control software, a sophisticated filtering method that allows only approved programs to get through. And while malware threats are most often associated with personal computers, Xerox demonstrated to attendees at the McAfee FOCUS 12 security conference that any networked device is vulnerable.

“When a multifunction device receives data and processes it for printing, copying, scanning or faxing, it becomes susceptible to malware attacks – a susceptibility that often is overlooked,” saidTom Moore, vice president, Embedded Security, McAfee.

The Xerox and McAfee security solution simplifies processes for IT administrators with software embedded into a multifunction device’s controller (the machine’s main onboard computer) to provide an immediate alert and audit trail to track and investigate the time and origin of security threats – and take appropriate action. This eliminates the need for IT administrators to constantly stay on top of malware threats and proactively block them.

Climax Portable Machining and Welding Systems, a company looking to expand into global markets, is testing the technology. “As we expand we recognize that we will increase our exposure to viruses and malware,” said David Richardson, the company’s network administrator. “Adding McAfee technology to our Xerox equipment is critical to protecting our intellectual property as we integrate multiple sites and systems around the world.”

Survey data from Xerox and McAfee underscores the need for embedded security in networked printers and multifunction devices. In a poll of office workers taken earlier this year, more than half (54 percent) say they either don’t always follow their company’s IT security policies (33 percent) or aren’t even aware of the policies (21 percent) – leaving the security of customer credit card numbers, financial reports, and human resource and tax documents at risk. The survey also showed 39 percent of employees who copy, scan or print confidential information at work say they wonder (at least sometimes) whether the information on a networked device will remain secure.

“IT administrators don’t always consider printers as a threat – and with the Embedded Control software, we’ve put up even more defenses in our products so they don’t have to,” said Rick Dastin, president, Xerox Office and Solutions Business Group.

Xerox devices protected and managed by McAfee Embedded Control and McAfee Embedded Management software will become available in 2013, with products in the Xerox WorkCentre® and ColorQube® product lines.

For more information about the Xerox partnership with McAfee, along with videos and images, visit http://www.xerox.com/security.

Original article

Samsung CLX-4195FW

Samsung CLX-4195FW

  • EDITOR RATING: EXCELLENT

MSRP

$450.00

  • PROSFast. Automatic document feeder. Touch-screen controls. Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Direct.
  • CONSNo duplexer. Only 250-sheet input capacity with no optional trays available.
  • BOTTOM LINEThe CLX-4195FW color laser MFP offers fast speed, reasonably good output quality, and suitable paper capacity for light to moderate-duty printing in a micro or small office.

BY M. DAVID STONEThe Samsung CLX-4195FW ($450 street) delivers most of the basics you’re probably looking for in a color laser MFP, from fast speed to a full set of MFP features. That alone is enough to make it a potentially good fit for a micro or small office with light to medium-duty print needs. However, it goes beyond the basics with extras that include a color touch-screen control panel and Wi-Fi Direct, which makes it easy to connect from a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. If you can make use of these extras, it can be an even better fit.

As with the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw color MFP $359.99 at TigerDirect.com, which also offers a color touch-screen control panel, the CLX-4195FW backs up the touch screen with a well-designed menu system. If you rarely give commands from the front panel, you may not consider this an important feature, but the more you use it, the more you’ll appreciate it.

Having a 4.3-inch screen to work with not only makes it easier to choose menu options for copying, faxing, and the like, it also makes it easier to change printer settings and even set up features like Wi-Fi Direct. Once you’ve used it awhile, in fact, you may find that conventional controls—with buttons and a small text-only LCD—seem painfully limited.

The Basics
Extras like a touch screen are nice to have, but they wouldn’t matter much without a foundation of solid basics. In addition to being able to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer using commands from the computer, the CLX-4195FW can also scan to a computer and scan to or print from a USB key using front-panel menu commands, and it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine. It can also work as a direct email sender, although it won’t work with email servers that require SSL, which means it may not work with the email system you use.

Other key features include a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning multipage documents as well as legal-size pages, and both Ethernet and standard Wi-Fi support in addition to Wi-Fi Direct.

Paper handling, unfortunately, is not a strong point. The single tray offers only a 250-sheet capacity. Although that should be enough for most micro and small offices, there’s no option to add more if you need it, which pretty much limits the printer to medium-duty use at most. Also notable for its absence is a duplexer (for two-sided printing), even as an option.

One small extra for paper handling is an unusual single-sheet feed mounted on top of the paper tray itself. It’s a little awkward to use, since you have to pull the tray out, insert the single sheet in the feeder, and then put the tray back in. On the other hand, it’s an improvement over having to swap out all the paper in the tray to print a single envelope or odd-size sheet of paper. So although it’s not as useful as having a separate manual feed tray, it’s better than nothing at all.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality

The SCX-4195FW is a little large to share a desk with, at 17.6 by 16.5 by 16.8 inches (HWD), and it is heavy enough, at 47.3 pounds, that you’ll probably want some help moving it into place. Once you find a spot for it, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests I connected it to a wired network, and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

The printer’s speed counts as a strong point. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at 6.0 pages per minute (ppm), which is a suitable speed on our tests for the 19 ppm rating for both color and monochrome. That makes it a tad slower than the less expensive Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF$399.00 at ElectronicsShowplace, at 6.3 ppm, but essentially tied with the more expensive Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn $429.99 at Dell. It’s also faster than most other printers in its price range, including, in particular, the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw, at 2.9 ppm.

The printer also holds up reasonably well on output quality. It doesn’t stand out from the competition on this score, but it is par for a color laser MFP across the board, which is reasonably high quality by any definition.

Text in our tests was easily good enough for any business need short of top-quality desktop publishing. Graphics output, similarly, was more than good enough for any internal business need, including PowerPoint handouts or the like. Depending on your level of perfectionism, you might consider it good enough to hand out to important clients or customers when you need the output to convey a sense of professionalism. Photos were near the high end of the range for color laser MFPs, which makes them close to true photo quality.

The one potential shortcoming for this printer is its paper handing. If you need automatic duplexing, a higher paper capacity, or at least a real manual feed tray, you’ll have to look elsewhere. If the paper handling is good enough for your needs, however, the Samsung CLX-4195FW’s balance of speed, output quality, and MFP features, along with the convenience of touch screen menus, makes it a more than attractive choice.

original article

Brother MFC-8910DW

BY M. DAVID STONE

One step up in Brother’s mono laser multi-function printer (MFP) line from the Brother MFC-8710DW $369.99 at TriState Camera, that I recently reviewed, the Brother MFC-8910DW shares almost all of the same features and specs. However, there’s one important addition. Instead of being limited to scanning only one side of a page, it can scan both sides at once. Not only can it deal with duplex (two-sided) documents, it can handle them at reasonably fast speed.

That alone is enough to make the MFC-8910DW of particular interest to any micro or small office or workgroup that has to scan, copy, or fax multi-page duplex documents. But it also helps that the printer offers all the same capabilities that make the Brother MFC-8710DW an attractive choice for heavy-duty needs.

Basic MFP features include the ability to print, scan, and fax, including over a network, as well as work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Conveniences include the ability to print from and scan to a USB memory key, as well as support for Wi-Fi and for a variety of mobile printing options, including AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Brother’s own mobile print and scan app.

Also loosely in the convenience category is the addition of on-site service to the one-year warranty, a little sweetener that isn’t included with Brother MFC-8710DW. The most important extra, however, is the duplex scanning.

Seeing Both Sides
As with most MFPs aimed at offices, the MFC-8910DW offers both a flatbed and an automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning. Unlike most of its competition, however, it can fit legal-size pages on its flatbed, so you don’t need to use the 50-page ADF for one-page legal-size documents. Even more important is that it can scan in duplex, which may be an even better feature than you think.

There are two ways to scan both sides of a page. What most inexpensive MFPs offer is often called a reversing ADF. With these MFPs, the ADF is doing the duplexing, scanning one side of a page, turning the page over, and then scanning the other side. With the MFC-8910DW, the scanner does the duplexing, with two scan elements that each scan one side of the page at the same time. The result is much faster scans, with the paper moving through the ADF only once instead of twice.

In theory, using two scan elements should let you scan both sides of the page as quickly as one side, which is usually true for most duplexing desktop scanners for example. In my tests with the MFC-8910DW, however, the scanner visibly slowed down when I scanned in duplex. The good news is that the speed was still a lot faster than scanning each side separately.

Paper Handling and Setup
The MFC-8910DW also scores well on paper handling for printing, with a 250-sheet paper drawer, a 50-sheet multipurpose tray, and a built-in print duplexer. That should be enough for most small offices, but if you need more, you can boost the input capacity to 800 sheets with an optional 500-sheet second drawer ($209.99 list). Note too that the combination of a duplexing scanner and duplexing printer gives you the ability to copy both single- and double-sided pages to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

As with the Brother MFC-8710DW and most other MFPs with a similar paper capacity, the MFC-8910DW is a little large to share a desk with comfortably, at 17.6 by 19.3 by 16.3 inches (HWD). However, it’s small enough to fit easily enough in most micro or small offices. Assuming you have room for it, setup is absolutely standard.

Speed and Output Quality
For my tests, I connected the printer to a wired network and ran the tests from a Windows Vista system. Interestingly, despite all the similarities to the Brother MFC-8710DW, Brother rates the MFC-8910DW at a slighter faster speed, namely 42 pages per minute (ppm) rather than 40 ppm. On our tests, however, the two were essentially tied.

Brother MFC-8910DW

I clocked the MFC-8910DW on our business applications suite (usingQualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 10.0 ppm. The Brother MFC-8710DW actually came in a touch faster, at 10.5 ppm, which isn’t enough of a difference to count as significant. As another point of reference, the Editors’ Choice OKI MB471 $352.27 at gocomputersupplies managed 9.5 ppm, putting the speed for all three printers in the same range of being respectable, but not particularly impressive.

Output quality earns the same general description: respectable, but not impressive, which translates to par quality across the board. Text and graphics output are both easily good enough for any internal business need. However, the text isn’t up to what you’d want for high-quality desktop publishing, and depending on how demanding you are, you may not consider the graphics good enough for, say, PowerPoint handouts when you’re trying to convey a sense of professionalism. Photo quality is suitable for printing photos in company or client newsletters and the like, and easily good enough for printing Web pages with photos.

When I reviewed the Brother MFC-8710DW, I pointed out that it was a perfectly good choice, with reasonably good speed, par output quality, ample paper handling, and all the MFP features that most small offices need. The MFC-8910DW offers all the same features, which makes it at least as reasonable a pick for any micro or small office. However, it’s the added ability to scan in duplex that makes it either worth picking or not.

Quite simply, if you don’t need a duplex scan capability, there’s no point in paying for it. You should be looking at the Brother MFC-8710DW or the OKI MB471. On the other hand, if you need to scan, copy, or fax duplex documents even occasionally, being able to scan in duplex is worth the extra cost. It also makes a compelling argument for choosing the Brother MFC-8910DW instead.

original article