Syber News

This is sort of a "obviously!" sort of "revelation." Steve Jobs is up to his "sometimes" habit of responding directly to customer inquiries. When asked (rather bluntly) about iPad printing, he said quite simply, "it will come."

The question itself was rather acerbic. It read, "Dear Steve,
Why no printing on the iPad? What gives?"

Obviously, to truly make the iPad the netbook replacement that Jobs envisions it to be, it has to come. There are myriads of different printers, however, and supporting that without customized drivers might, you would assume, be tough. This highlights just how well Microsoft does supporting all the hardware it must on Windows.

Still, there are already printing apps in the App Store, so it's definitely doable. You just can't expect all the bells and whistles of a fully customized driver that you might see on Windows or Mac OS X, but rather something that leverages mainstream Postscript (or PCL). It'll be a little more generic, such as "inbox" drivers that Microsoft ships with its OSes, ones that come "in the box."

This doesn't mean the drivers can't offer finishing options, such as duplex, etc., but they will not be as "snazzy" as something the manufacturer creates. Who knows, though, perhaps someday printer OEMs will make separate iPad drivers. It will be interesting to see if they run afoul of the App Store approval process.