mPrinter: A Tiny Printer for the Smartphone

While there are various ways to print from your smartphone, the mPrinter offers a convenient new choice.

The mPrinter features a simple design with practical use as the core of its function.  It can be used with either Javascript or WYSIWYG text editor to print small bits of information.  No special connection is required: it works through a Wi-Fi connection.

The printer has a built-in Wi-Fi web server and a thermal printer.  You can use it to print straight from any device that has a Wi-Fi connection or print a web page with just one additional line of code.  It also allows users to share what is called mPrints, or small bits of data such as weather reports and shopping lists.

This unique little device was designed by Andy Muldowney in his kitchen.  He has experience in hardware design, iOS development, and web programming.  He hired developers to assist with designing the case because he wanted it to look as good on the kitchen counter as in an office.

Muldowney put the project on Kickstarter and found open source hardware that was cost-effective for the prototype.  He got over $20,000 of crowdsource funding for his project and expects it to be ready to get in the hands of his backers and consumers around February.

The mPrinter uses analog technology to work with digital devices and is small enough to be used anywhere.  It will be available for use with both Apple and Android devices at launch.

While you may think of thermal printers as the kind used in cash registers to automatically print out receipts, they can go so much more.  The printhead on the mPrinter provides clear resolution for crisp text that is easy to read.  It also has the possibility to work with some black and white graphics.

Since the printer is printing out HTML, it can copy anything on a webpage to work with all languages to make it versatile for use anywhere.

[Images via new-startups]