Print E-Mail and Photos Without a PC or Net Connection

Presto is a new online printing service that presents an innovative way to keep friends or loved ones with few tech skills in the electronic loop.

The service allows you to send e-mail, including photo attachments, to a Presto e-mail address. There, the service converts the e-mail and any attached photos into customizable layouts ready to print out on a $150 HP A10 Printing Mailbox (currently the only Presto-enabled device). The printer receives and prints information automatically, so your friend or relative need only walk over to pick up the printouts.

Because the Printing Mailbox connects to the user's phone line, it doesn't require an Internet connection or a computer to automatically check for and print content--which it does at intervals that you schedule during setup.

The Presto Service costs $10 per month, or $100 annually. It includes protection from spam, and an option called Presto Newsstand lets the Printing Mailbox receive and print popular columns, puzzles, recipes, and feature stories on a daily basis.

You can buy the HP A10 Printing Mailbox hardware through Amazon, Buy.com, Best Buy, Hammacher Schlemmer, or Skymall. Presto itself also sells the unit, and at the time of writing it was promoting a 60-day money-back guarantee. The service side of the equation must be purchased and configured at Presto.com. Usefully, your not-so-tech-savvy relative needn't be the one to go online and set things up: You can opt to be the account manager and also have replacement ink sent when the service says the device is running low.

Service Setup

My scenario for testing was to get the printer and service working for my grandmother. First, when I registered at Presto.com, I selected that I was, in fact, setting up the HP A10 Printing Mailbox for someone other than myself.

Creating the account was pretty easy. I entered details of the account manager (that'd be me), and created a mailbox username/Presto e-mail address for the actual user (my grandmother). I advised the service that the first call the HP A10 Printing Mailbox would make would be from my grandmother's telephone number and completed various other initial settings. One of these was preferred print font size; I chose the larger 14-point size to help make printouts easier for her to read.

Next step was to create a friends list, essentially a filter of those allowed to send e-mail messages for printing. After choosing payment options, I was able to customize further.

The service lets you select how printouts will look from a variety of design presets called Presto Styles. In addition to formats that include borders and designs, there are also festive themes that cover holidays, birthdays, calendars, and more. I also subscribed my grandmother to a daily crossword from the included Presto Newsstand service. Other currently available categories include Travel, Living and Lifestyle, Food and Recipes, Home and Garden, plus Arts and Entertainment (including TV guides). Presto says that subscription options for categories like sports, astrology, automotive, and daily news from a variety of outlets are coming in the first half of 2007.

The HP A10 Printing Mailbox can check for new messages and subscription content up to five times a day. Though you're able to define your own schedule, automatic checks are limited to on-the-hour blocks between 6 am and 11 pm. You may want to consider reducing the frequency of these checks if you pay for local calls.

Presto states that it currently offers local dial-in points servicing 90 to 95 percent of the U.S. population. As the company doesn't provide a complete list, I can only guess as to where that missing 5-10 percent might be. Questioned further, Presto advised that all HP A10 Printing Mailboxes currently use a toll-free number for scheduled checks, and will do so until some time in the first quarter of 2007.

Hey Presto! You've Got Mail

Next on my to-do list for setup: Finding a flat space close to a phone line to install the Printing Mailbox. The sleekly designed printer is slightly large at 15 inches wide, 6.5 inches high, and 18.4 inches deep.

A suitable location found, I plugged in the unit's power pack and installed the bundled tricolor ink cartridge. This was literally a snap, which is a good thing if someone not normally comfortable with technology could be replacing the ink. It's also worth noting that the device supports only HP's 95 (7ml) and 97 (14ml, high capacity) tricolor cartridges, which cost $25 and $35, respectively.

The bundled phone cord (standard RJ-11 type) directly connects the Printing Mailbox's LINE port into a wall phone jack. To let the Mailbox share the jack with a telephone, simply plug the handset's cord into the Printing Mailbox's 2-EXT port--just as with a fax machine. And if the user ever needs to make an urgent phone call while the Printing Mailbox is receiving information, they simply press the Stop button to free up the line.

The Printing Mailbox also has plus and minus buttons at its front right, used primarily to adjust the volume of the alert chimes that ring when it has produced new prints. A blue status light lets you know that the device is powered and ready to print, while individual paper and ink lights will flash when those items need replacing.

That's exactly what my unit was doing at this point: I'd yet to supply it with paper. Unfortunately, 4-by-6 photo prints are out: The HP A10 Printing Mailbox lets you use only standard 8.5- by-11-inch letter-size paper, though you can use any brand of paper you like. The unit's input tray holds 50 sheets, and its output tray (with flip-out lip) holds 25 sheets.

Performance and Quality

The HP A10 Printing Mailbox has a fairly low resolution of 600 by 600 and delivered prints at around 45 seconds per page. That's reasonable for a product of this kind, but I'm not sure if the quality is. I found the photos it produced to be grainy and washed out--more like what I'd expect from regular inkjets priced in the $80 to $100 range. Of course, those products don't have over-the-phone-line capabilities as the Printing Mailbox does, and your relative might not mind trading the subpar quality for the convenience of receiving the photos.

Presto and HP don't specifically recommend it, but I was curious to see if using glossy paper would improve output. It did. Contrast and color depth improved, though horizontal color banding became a little prominent.

For the convenience it provides, many people will probably find the cost of the service reasonable enough: a little over $8 a month if you go the annual route. I found it worked well, and its various options, such as subscriptions, are expanding each day.

Is the Presto service/HP A10 Printing Mailbox pairing the best bet for non-tech-savvy friends or relatives? I'd say no if they were comfortable with digital photography and wanted to use a photo printer with built-in media card readers. But my grandmother isn't, and I've now found a great new way to amuse her and stay in better touch with her.

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