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You know the problem: You're on the road, you check into a hotel late, its business center is closed, and suddenly you find that you have to print something. And you have no printer with you, of course.

The traditional work-around has been to fax a document to yourself at the hotel, but then all you get is a fax-quality document that may not be good enough. Now, you may have a better alternative.

PrintMe Networks, a new service for mobile professionals, aims to simplify printing away from the office.

Electronics for Imaging in Foster City, California, is launching PrintMe in 20 major U.S. cities in conjunction with several partners, including Marriott International, Sir Speedy, OfficeMax, and Palm. Printer makers, including IBM, Canon U.S.A., Xerox, and Minolta, and software and service vendors, including Yahoo, Adobe Systems, and others, are planning to incorporate PrintMe into future products.

Building a Network

Basically, EFI is establishing a network of "public" printers located in hotels, copy centers, and other locations, each identified by a unique identification number (note: not an IP address).

"It's like giving phone numbers to printers so you can call them up," says Ofer Tenenbaum, EFI's general manager.

Once you've set up a PrintMe account, you can print a document from a laptop, personal digital assistant, Wireless Application Protocol device, or cellular phone via browser, e-mail, or even just a phone call, for about $1 per page. You can even print directly from the PrintMe control box connected to the printer.

You can print e-mail, including most attachments, Web pages, pictures, or specific documents you've uploaded to PrintMe. No special software or print drivers are required. From the Web site, you can search for available PrintMe printers by city, state, zip code, country, or identification number. And if nothing else is available, PrintMe can still print to a fax machine.

The service works behind firewalls, so an enterprise can install a PrintMe server to simplify internal remote printing, especially from PDAs and other handheld devices. Sensitive documents can be given an ID number and sent to a PrintMe printer but not printed until the user physically gets to the printer and and inputs the ID number into the controller.

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