Daily App: Dell Mobile Print is Simple, Solid and Disappearing

DO NOT PUBLISH -- JHF

Dell's reseller partners have solid mobile apps to offer customers for printing to Dell's versatile and sturdy printers while on the road or in the office. But they'd better get them while they last; the iOS version of Mobile Print App for Dell reached its end-of-life on Dec. 31, and the days are numbered for Dell Mobile Print for Android. It a pity, really, because this is easily one of the best mobile printing apps that we've seen.

Shown here is the Android app's initial screen, and a microcosm of the app's intuitiveness and simplicity. Tap on any of the four main icons to see, as appropriate, a list of supported files on the device, a choice of image repositories or a browser, each accompanied by a print button. No internet or data connection is required to print from a device this long list of file formats: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pdf, jpg, png, gif, tiff, bmp, html, xml, xhtml, Google Docs, contacts, calendars, Gmail, and SMS messages.

Tapping on "other supported apps" displays icons for those apps, which include browser, calendar, Google Docs, Gmail, device contacts and Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The app displays exactly what it has to get printing done. For example, linking to Google Docs presents all files in grid or list view for the account currently logged in. Selecting Contacts slides a list of contacts in from the side for selection of one. In every case, a preview of what's about to be printed appears on the left along with printer settings and page thumbnails, if needed. Editable printer settings include those for range, copies, paper size and others as appropriate for the selected output device.

This app just works. If no printer is selected when trying to print, an obvious message is displayed. Tapping on the message scans the LAN and after a few seconds displays a list of printers. For long lists, printers can be sorted alphabetically, or by favorite or recently used. Just as obvious is the unfortunate banner reporting that the app will "soon" be replaced by the Dell Document Hub, a cloud-based printing and document collaboration system unveiled in 2013.

Dell Document Hub will reportedly do some fairly clever things, but from what we could learn, none includes printing from mobile device directly to a printer without a data connection. It will, however, provide single sign-on for Box, Dropbox, Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive and SharePoint. Also useful will be simultaneous aggregated searches across all supported cloud storage services. The Hub will be accessible from computers and mobile devices, as well as Dell Hub-enabled printers. This will add scanning and cloud-based OCR capabilities for converting scanned text into editable documents and standardized document formats such as vCard. Dell's new service surely addresses worker needs of the digital age, but could leave pragmatic solutions such cloud-free printing in its wake.