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An interesting thought, interesting enough that Mobile Device Lease xChange is in negotiations with the major carriers here in the US for just such an option.  

The idea is, instead of dropping $199 on the iPhone 5 you would just have $20 a month added to your bill…  but wait isn’t the carrier already “subsidising” most of the cost of the phone in your bill?  Yep, so this ends up being a way to just subsidise “the last mile” as it were.  

I doubt this will work out to be any sort of deal for the consumer, except maybe if you just want to walk out of the store with the latest gear and no money down.  

Personally I’d rather see an option to foot the whole $500 bill for my phone and get a nice discount on my monthly payment.

Like that will ever happen…   Bwahahahahah

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iPhone vs Android

Ok this app isn’t for your mobile device, nope it’s an app for your Mac or PC that makes you mobile device oh so much more cool.  

For a while now you have been able to print from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch using something Apple has dubbed AirPrint.  It’s very cool if you have an AirPrint enabled wireless printer, but if you don’t then you are out of luck.  AirPrint is no good to you.  

Until now…

Introducing FingerPrint.  This is an app for Windows or Mac that lets you see any printer connected to your computer (networked or directly attached) and print to it from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.  Setup is simple and it just works right out of the box.  

Sure sure there have been hacks and workarounds to do this for a while, but they have been messy at best, you have to be comfortable with command line interface and in windows editing the services menu, yada yada yada, I know it’s no big deal for you, but would you want to explain it to your Mother?  No I didn’t think so, that’s why for $9.99 (Windows) or $7.99 (Mac) this is a heck of a deal.

But wait, there is a couple of more features that make this worth the few extra bucks besides just the ease of setup. 

Fingerprint comes built in with an option to “Open on my PC.”  Which does exactly as it says.  You open an email or document on your iOS device, choose open on my PC from the printer list, and in seconds the FingerPrint app has converted your print job into a PDF and has it waiting for you on your desktop.  

If you have a child that likes to create artwork on your iPad then this is worth it’s wight in gold (as well as saving boat loads of color ink, were you to try and print out everything she makes.)

But wait there’s more…

There is also a feature that lets your “print” to your dropbox account.  Yep, if you have dropbox setup on your PC or Mac that is running fingerprint, you can “print” your document to your dropbox, and a PDF will be saved to a FingerPrint folder in your dropbox account.  It’s like magic.  Now you have a PDF of whatever you “printed” instantly available on every PC connected to your drop box account.  

Now if that’s not worth $9.99 I don’t know what it.  

Now I know android has a similar printing service that in many cases is compatible with Apple’s AirPrint.  I don’t know if this would work with Android but, FingerPrint has a free trial, so why not give it a shot.  

Full Disclosure:  I am not affiliated with FingerPrint, I just found their product, tried it, and fell in love.  I think if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and don’t want to spend $100 or more on a new printer, then you really ought to try this out.  

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HP Photosmart D110A Wireless Printer (CN731A#B1H)

Or at lest that’s what Business Insider claims.

Me I think it’s a necessary first step, but it’s only the first step.

However the point they make are worth a read.

— The Industry Perspective: Reaching The Female Gamer By Ignoring Stereotypes | Ypulse

— End Piracy, Not Liberty – Google

Wow Android Life might have just won the award for the worst tech headline ever.  Well probably not, but still that’s a pretty misleading headline.  

Sprint is “betting the farm” on LTE, thats sort of like gamboling that the sun will come up tomorrow.  Well this is 2012, but even so…. I think you get my point.  

They aren’t betting on anything, they are going with the sure thing, that everyone else has picked.  Which means…  

We might actually be headed towards a phone system in America where you can carry your phone from one carrier to another.  We will all be on LTE shortly.  

Woot!

Roku to Launch Cordless Streaming Stick for TVs

Ok interesrting, the idea is you just plug this “stick” into the back of your TV, and boom you have ROKU without the little box.   

Neat idea, except… why bother?  Why not just put the Roku service inside the TV.  Just about everything being sold today is a connected TV, right?  So just include Roku as a menu option…   

Oh yeah right…  unless the TV manufacturers buy the rights from Roku to do that, Roku doesn’t make any money.  They make money by selling hardware.  

Hmm  can you smell Roku powered TV’s in our future?  Well it would make more sense to me than a Stick.  

Disclosure, I own and love my Roku box, it’s the best $75 I ever spent.  

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Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player