A touch printer?!

Touch is probably one of the more intimate senses possessed by human beings. True, you can really feel it when a symphony orchestra hits a crescendo. Similarly, a beautiful image or painting has the power to move one to tears. Even the smell or taste of a wonderfully prepared dish can stimulate memories and give insight. But when you touch something, grasp it in your hand, you know it is there. It is not abstract.

Our modern world, technologically speaking, is full of intangibles. The bountiful information on the Internet is proof enough of this — bits and bytes of coded information that we can read, learn from, and interact with, but cannot really touch. The program that runs this computer that I am typing on is a miracle of codes and symbols, allowing me to translate my thoughts onto the word processor. I am not detached from this machine but I cannot touch the program because my fingers might ruin its language.

I can assume that I am not alone when I say that the general public is gaining interest in devices that have touch capabilities. Maybe it’s because things felt a bit cold before, and people didn’t really feel a certain connection with their machines. Maybe having the sureness of touch, when incorporated into these modern devices, puts the consumer at ease.

Touch technology has found its place in several gadgets: cellular phones, televisions and monitors, kitchen appliances with touch screens, shower controls that have touch screens — you name it, it can probably be touch controlled. And with Hewlett Packard’s new Photosmart line, touch has found its way into printers.

“We see a lot of people getting into a number of touch gadgets, not only printers,” says Gizelle Villacorta, Commercial category manager of the Imaging and Printing Group of HP Philippines. “HP’s new line of printers is geared towards the home user and it offers a wide range of products according to both your budget and the purposes you want the machine to fulfill.”

The Photosmart line of printers seem more like individual machines and not just mere peripherals to a laptop or PC. They are standalone devices that are more intelligent and can run on their own without having to be connected to a computer. The printers that feature a touch screen have a useful and easy-to-understand interface with a multitude of functions. Just for example: you can plug in your USB, SD card, or other storage device directly into the printer, select a photo using the touch screen, and edit it right then and there on the printer. That’s neat.

Members of the media were eager to try out the capabilities of HP’s Photosmart printers, and were delighted to find out that they could even print photos from their phones. These printers are so versatile that aside from not having to be connected to a computer, they run on wireless technology. All we had to do was turn on the Bluetooth option on our phones and send the picture to the printer. That simple. The rest is just magic.

“Incorporating touch into HP’s devices is a big step forward in adapting technology to better fit into people’s lives, so they don’t have to adapt to technology,” says Steve Breidenbach, Ph.D., Imaging and Printing Group Experience design master of HP. “In the current Photosmart lineup, we continued to innovate by making the Touchsmart interface simple and natural to use, and we have even made the entire printing experience more compelling by offering warm colors, photo realistic graphics, and quality sounds.”

Hear, hear! In this touch-friendly world, HP is looking for solutions to make things easier for you and I. No need to be scared or detached from these gadgets. And no time wasted, either. With these machines, it’s all just touch, print, and go.

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More information about HP is available at www.hp.com

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Or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HPTouchPrintGo

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E-mail me at enricomiguelsubido@yahoo.com.