[byronw999]

Hey all...

Just upgraded to a Torch 9810... I've been looking at the HP officejet 100... A wireless bluetooth mobile printer. Can I print directly to it from my 9810? Or do I need some sort of app?

Thanks in advance for any help

Byron

[byronw999]

Ok, I'm guessing this is a no go... Is there ANY way to print directly to a printer from the 9810.. If I have to use a cable or whatever fine... I can also buy/use any reasonably sized printer as I have inverters in my trucks.. I just dont want to have to drag a laptop around with me...I also dont want/like thermal printers if I have a choice..

[Dubdub]

I do not think so. Have you tried a Google search?

[byronw999]

I've searched till my eyes are about ready to bleed.... The really SAD thing is 9 years ago I could print directly from a Palm to a HP 450 IR printer... I cant believe this cant be done!

Still got the Palm and the printer somewhere in a box...Guess I need to dig them out if I want to print

[Medic48]

I'm thinking it'll need to be some sort of App (if it's even do-able). However, looking through Blackberry App World on my 9810 showed no results (paid or free).

There are mobile printing applications, however they seem to be via BES, Personal WiFi or through your wireless carrier.

--Phil

[byronw999]

Yup, I gave up and got my laptop tethered and went that way...Not I get to drag more crap around..

[mnbvczxc]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd reply to it since I am the ONLY guy on this planet that actually does what you are asking about. I've been printing from my smart phones, including the palm series units like the treos and such for years. The pathetic thing is that for some bizzare reason the concept of truly using a mobile office has been lost, or nearly lost since smart phones and now super phones have gained a much bigger audience in recent years. I blame the loss of this concept to the fact that the general mainstream audience that the phone designers are marketing to, don't want the feature because they aern't really trying to do mobile business such as the starter of this thread is trying to do. I know you just want a simple answer but I've put a huge wack of research into this one problem and my eyes are bleeding too, so hear me out.
I have been using a Canon ip90 portable printer with a bluetooth BU-10 add-on, probably similar to your HP450 except that it fits into my Toyota Yaris glovebox just to save from theft issues. I too hate the idea of tying it all to a laptop and creating even a bigger theft issue not to mention the delay with startup times required to turn on a computer. Anyhow . . . . I've just bought a blackberry 9900 (with 7.1.0 now installed) to hopefully replace my last Windows based smart phone and sadly can not do my invoicing directly into a stand alone printer like I had been doing for the past 8 years or so. So I'll be returning the Blackberry because I'm within my trial period and this will probably be my only contribution to this forum, that's why it's gonna be so long. So this is what I've found. You can do some printing with your setup and mine as well. And no, you can't find any software in the app store, you pretty much can only use what the phone has already inside it.
So first of all you need to pair your phone to your printer and that is done by turning both units on and using the "Setup" icon and then the "Bluetooth" feature. Turn BT on and make it discoverable and then add a new device and pair with it, the stock pairing code for these Canon ip90 printers is "0000" and yours is also probably something just as lame. Once that is all done then you can move onto printing. Some stuff does print but is pretty much useless, such as individual "contacts" can be printed by selecting a contact and then select the "menu" feature "send contact card" via "Bluetooth". And other sends out nondescript character jargon such as the free spreadsheet app under the "applications" icon in the "documents to go" app. Gee I really really wished that one worked! Though it might work for you because it is based on the driver capabilities on your printer itself and if it is able to take the muck that is sent to it from your phone and translate it. My printer did not. The format of the file is .xls and maybe your printer works with it. To do so just do the same print sequence as with the "contacts" print-job which is to select the "Menu" item "send" via "bluetooth".
There is also a free "Word to go" app included on the Blackberry 9900 (7.1.0 installed) which is your typical word document building application, and it can be accessed through applications/documents to go/document which is in the same place as the excel spreadsheet program and is printed out in the same way as the previous example. The problem is that it is a .doc file and bizzarely enough it too comes out looking like worthless jargon on my printer, but try yours and hopefully yours will support the file format.
The only worthwhile printing that I could get out of this Blackberry to Canon ip90 printer combo was done by "bluetooth" send . . . hey it worked!


Okay so it's 2:00am and I'm exhausted. I'll keep the phone and clean up this thread tomorrow if there is any interest in this subject.

[mnbvczxc]

So this is what I've figured out. Yes you can print invoices and pictures and various documents on the road from pretty much any BlackBerry phone that uses "Contacts" as well as Bluetooth. I'm actually not familiar with Blackberry but heck, if even my little LG GB255 cheapie clamshell phone can do it then surely a high end smart phone should too. The printer obviously needs to have the capabilities to receive bluetooth signals, but I don't think that tossing a Bluetooth dongle onto any old printer will solve that, though I could be wrong. So printing a picture is easy, just go to your camera and select the menu item "Send" via Bluetooth and select your printer from the list, As mentioned I'm using a Canon ip90, but a Canon ip100 or HP100 or HP450 etc. would work too. They need to be mobile printers with BT capabilities.
Printing from a .txt file is also straight foreward, but the problem is that I don't believe that there is an included app on the BlackBerry devices that will allow you to create or modify a document with a .txt extension. So I created whatever documents that I needed on my home computer and then just copied them on the MicroSD chip that installs into my BlackBerry. When ever I need to print one of these documents to the printer in my car I just open "applications"/"files" and I use the file folders search method to locate the document to be printed. Once found I just select "Menu" and "send" via Bluetooth to my printer. It sounds fiddley but it only takes a few seconds to print a document this way.
Invoicing is a bit more difficult, but still not impossible and there is no need to buy extra printing software which at this point isn't even available as far as I can see. Byron, the only way to print an invoice is to use a "Contact" as the template for your invoice, it actually looks pretty good and includes the typical invoice layout with the customer's name and address and other bits of information layed on the top quarter of the page, the other 3/4 of the page is used for the invoice details and this, you must build in the "Notes" section at the bottom of the "Contact" that you would use. I've been doing mobile invoicing this way for more than 5 years and though it is a bit fiddley it's not impossible as long as you take the time to build one well layed out invoice that you can duplicate into several others that will be modified to suite each sale or service call that would be billed. The invoices are easily altered for each individual invoice so that details like descriptions and prices and taxes and all those things can be changed on your BlackBerry device while you wait for your printer to warm up. I'm sorry for not giving a lot of details but it would take another page to generate that explanation. The convenience of not having a computer that could be stolen or that takes a cool minute or two to boot up makes this method of doing portable printing that much quicker, though the downside is that a printable excel spreadsheet would be the real answer and it's currently just not available.

Just a note, "Contacts" are actually .vcf files and can be stored just like .txt files for later printing.


Ron