The device, dubbed HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web–a grand mountain range of a name if there ever was one–features integrated touch access and a selection of print apps through which users can find news, maps, coupons, movie tickets and recipes from the likes of USA Today, Google (GOOG), Fandango and Coupons Inc. Price: $399.

“Twenty-five years ago we invented consumer printing and today we are taking advantage of the content explosion and reinventing the category by launching an entirely new printing platform–powered by touch and empowered by the Web,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, HP Imaging and Printing Group. “By giving people access to the content they want at the touch of a finger, the ability to customize their printing experience and create their own apps, and enabling easy ‘one touch’ wireless set up, we are driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future.”

Not quite sure how significant a shift this represents. Is printing from the typical PC really so tiring and troublesome that it needs to be eliminated? In any case, here’s the HP (HPQ) press release:

HP Introduces World’s First Web-connected Home Printer
New applications platform revolutionizes printing in web-connected world

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2009 – HP today unveiled the world’s first web-connected home printer: The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web.

HP is bringing the power of the web directly to the printer and combining it with HP’s TouchSmart technology to give people quick, easy, touchscreen access to popular digital content.

Designed for the digital generation and connected households, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web features an entirely new web-based printing platform with HP applications (apps). Similar to other Internet-connected devices, these apps, which are viewable on an extra-large, intuitive-to-use TouchSmart panel, allow people to connect instantly with fun, informative and personal content.

In addition to receiving apps preloaded on the printer, people can download new ones as they become available at the HP Apps Studio to suit their interests and needs. With the sweep of a finger, users will be able to browse and view popular web destinations and simply touch the app of their choice to launch a web page where they can customize and print content on demand in an easy-to-read format.

As pioneers of this new content-on-demand delivery platform, the world’s first HP app partners will be USA TODAY, Google, Fandango, Coupons.com, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Web Sudoku and Weathernews Inc. Through these apps, people will have free access to customized daily news, maps, coupons, coloring pages, movie tickets, recipes, personal calendars and more – all at the touch of a finger.

The new printers also will connect directly to a user’s Snapfish account to view, print and upload photos. People additionally can access projects from the HP Creative Studio.

People will be able to create and share their own apps to customize their printers through the HP Apps Studio starting in late 2009. “Twenty-five years ago HP invented consumer printing and today we are taking advantage of the digital content explosion to reinvent the category with an entirely new printing platform – powered by touch and empowered by the web,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “By giving people access to the content they want at the touch of a finger, the ability to customize their printing experience and create their own apps, and enabling easy ’one touch’ wireless setup, we are driving a significant shift in how people will be printing in the future.”

Free HP apps available at launch
Industry leaders from the worlds of news, entertainment and information are the first to offer free apps debuting on the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. Consumers will be able to print daily, weekly or monthly news from USA TODAY, updated in real time and customized according to their interests, such as sports, news and politics.

“Today marks another change in the way our readers can access news and information as we bring print-on-demand to consumers’ homes,” said Jeff Webber, publisher, USATODAY.com. “People can print the latest stories from USA TODAY at the touch of a finger to better fit their busy, on-the-go lives.”

From Google Maps, consumers will be able to enter their destination and print a map; from Google Calendar, they will be able to print their weekly schedule to place on their refrigerator or bulletin board.

With Coupons.com, users can save money by printing coupons for groceries, restaurants, entertainment and more. People also can browse and print recipes for quick, easy meal planning.

Consumers will be able to search movies in their local area from any one of Fandango’s 16,000 theater screens across the country. They can then buy tickets in advance and print their tickets at home or the office, helping ensure an easy and convenient movie-going experience.

To empower busy families, the printer provides one-touch access to fun coloring pages and templates from DreamWorks Animation and Nickelodeon. Through the DreamWorks Animation app users also will be able to view movie trailers to upcoming releases without having to log on to a computer. Nickelodeon printables will include color-ins, word finds, mazes and more from top properties, including “Dora the Explorer,” “The Wonder Pets!,” “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “iCarly.”

For commuters, Weathernews Inc. provides a weekly forecast to allow for informed travel planning. With Web Sudoku, people can quickly print brain teasers for light entertainment on the go.

World’s first web-connected printer
The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web has an extra-large 4.33-inch touchscreen – the largest LCD touchscreen of any all-in-one inkjet printer on the market.

The versatile printer prints, faxes, copies and scans – producing laser-quality text documents and lab-quality photos – making it ideal for multitasking households. With a full range of wired and wireless connectivity options, the printer provides the flexibility to print directly from Wi-Fi-enabled PCs, Bluetooth®-enabled devices, the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPod touch using HP iPrint Photo.

ENERGY STAR® qualified, the all-in-one printer helps users save paper with automatic two-sided printing and reduces packaging waste by shipping in an innovative, reusable bag made from recycled plastics.

Pricing and availability
Expected to be available this fall, the HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web will retail in the United States for a target street price of $399.

HP Total Care
HP products are backed by HP Total Care, the company’s award-winning service, solutions and support, both in and out of warranty. The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web comes with an exclusive toll-free telephone support number for quick access to trained experts who will help people get the most from their printers.

HP support professionals also are available 24/7 by phone, email and real-time chat. HP’s online support options include consumer support forums, online classes offered at no charge, a dedicated support video channel, the PC Tune-up Center and the newly designed HP Customer Care site, recently named one of the “Ten Best Web Support Sites of 2009” by the Association of Support Professionals.

Customers also can access printer diagnostics and software driver updates with HP Printer Check. More information is available at www.hp.com/go/totalcare.

This week, I tested a product that marries prints with the digital frame: Hewlett-Packard‘s $249 HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center.

The A826 is the latest in H-P’s series of compact countertop home snapshot printers, meant to turn out small photos quickly. But it has an unusual form, with a large seven-inch screen that also allows for images to be displayed in slide shows, like a digital picture frame. This touch-screen also lets users edit shots using a finger or stylus. Pressing one button prints the image in about a minute and a half.

HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center

This new model, due in stores this weekend, is meant to work as a home photo kiosk, so it’s a bit bigger than H-P’s compact photo printers, which have built-in handles for portability and take up less space. The A826 is also pricier than these smaller printers — $70 more than the newest model.

I liked the idea behind this photo printer, editing station and digital frame. Its large screen, 5.6 inches of which are used for the photos, was a welcome change to most photo printers with preview screens that can’t be seen without squinting. But I was disappointed by some of the A826′s features. The newly added ability to draw on images, for example, yielded results that looked fine on-screen but printed out looking like scribble. Removing red eye didn’t seem to improve images on the screen; only when printed did these shots appear red-eye free. And the touch-screen wasn’t as sensitive as I would’ve liked, requiring a few tries to get some buttons to respond.

I couldn’t help but compare the A826 with standalone digital frames. Unlike almost all such frames, the A826 lacks internal storage meaning that in order to keep a slide show going, a memory card, USB drive or camera would need to be plugged into the device. Some digital frames also come with built-in wireless networking to pull images from the Web; the A826 doesn’t have this capability.

This device is hard to miss. Its rounded edges are covered in a stylish white plastic, and the screen is surrounded by black and a pretty shade of pale blue, making it look like a prop from the Jetsons cartoon. It measures roughly the same width as H-P’s compact photo printers, but stands more than twice as tall with the screen at the top so users don’t have to bend as far down to see images. Photo paper measuring 4 by 6 or 5 by 7 inches feeds into the back of the printer in a neat, enclosed compartment that holds up to 100 sheets.

A tiny speaker on the front side of the A826 emits cutesy chimes whenever the device powers on or finishes printing a photo, which I liked. It also uses its large screen for illustrating how to perform tasks like loading paper or inserting a print cartridge.

I got started using the HP Photosmart A826 for its digital frame capabilities, inserting my digital camera’s SecureDigital memory card into a slot below the viewing screen and queuing up about 400 images from my memory card. Images appear on the screen six at a time and in the bottom left corner of each there is a white circle, which can be touched to give it a red checkmark, putting it in the slide-show queue. Tapping the center of any shot magnifies it for editing.

I marked about 30 photos and played them in succession by touching a Slideshow button on the far right edge of the screen. This touchscreen button and others — representing Menu, Back, Print, Scroll Left and Scroll Right — line the left and right black borders of the screen. Only the buttons that make sense to choose at any given time will glow, so users know which ones can be selected and, therefore, can navigate a little easier. For instance, in the Get Creative editing menu, only the Scroll Left, Scroll Right and Back buttons glow.

I folded up a flap that covers the memory-card slots and left my slide show playing for a while on my kitchen counter. It worked like a digital picture frame, for the most part. If the A826 isn’t used for about 10 minutes, it will automatically switch into slide-show mode — a feature I found useful for moments when I didn’t remember that I left it on. This automatic slide show switches over to a black screen after about an hour, though programmed slide shows stay on until turned off.

Touching the screen when an image appears, mid-slide show, will pause the slide show for editing or printing. I used my finger to do simple editing, and most options are offered in large touch-screen buttons, though in more than one instance I had to press buttons with my finger a few times to get them to work. A small white stylus helped, especially for drawing on photos.

I drew cartoon bubbles coming out of people’s mouths and wrote little messages like, “Hey y’all!” bubbling from a Texan friend in a shot from her trip to Europe. These touches can be done in different colors and line thicknesses, and mistakes can easily be erased. They looked good on-screen, but when printed, turned pixilated and detracted from the photo.

I tried some more normal photo editing, such as cropping photos, enhancing a photo’s brightness and removing red eye. The last of these options didn’t work so well in my photos, seeming to leave eyes glowing on the screen. When I printed these shots for the sake of testing, I realized that red eye was actually removed in almost all instances. But this is confusing for users who don’t want to waste ink and paper finding out whether or not the image was corrected.

I found the A826′s most useful photo-enhancing option to be the ability to add captions to shots. These can be entered by using an on-screen keyboard, choosing from five fonts and six colors. The caption can be dragged around the screen to test where it will look best. These typed fonts looked professional and neat, especially compared with my own drawn-on editing.

Printing on the HP Photosmart A826 worked without a problem. It comes with five 5-by-7-inch sheets of paper enough ink for 20 4-by-6-inch prints. Value packs of paper and ink for 120 4-by-6-inch prints cost $35. The printer automatically detects whether it’s loaded with photo paper measuring 5-by-7 or 4-by-6 inches, and prints accordingly. A 5-by-7-inch shot takes a bit longer to print, but looked rather good.

The HP Photosmart A826 seems like it was designed with good intentions, and its large touchscreen is an improvement all on its own. But too many features of this device didn’t work the way they should, from red eyes that didn’t appear fixed on-screen to the touchscreen that didn’t always respond right away. H-P will find an eager audience with this home photo kiosk, but it needs improvement.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email: mossbergsolution@wsj.com

One of the most visually defining features of the digicam is its LCD viewing screen, and camera makers have steadily increased the sizes of these screens; those that once measured about an inch diagonally now measure over three inches. The results are breathtaking: Crisp, bright displays offer a beautiful way to view photos.

Some of these screens are so large that they take over the entire back side of the camera, edging out useful features like optical viewfinders. Buttons, too, are seen as hogging precious real estate on these pocket-size devices. The solution? Replacing regular LCD screens with touch screens that work as viewing screens, viewfinders and buttons rolled into one.

Removing glare from pets’ eyes is possible on the HP Photosmart R937.

This week, I tested two $300 digital cameras from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Pentax Imaging Co. that use large touch screens: the HP Photosmart R937 and the Optio T30. Both took gorgeous photographs, but I focused on how touch screens changed the way I used each camera, and found it took me far less time to become acquainted with functions thanks to the more direct nature of on-screen buttons. For example, left and right arrows that appeared on-screen beside an image could be touched to move from one photo to the next, while a tiny on-screen trash bin icon deleted pics once pressed. In-camera editing was also made simpler with these screens.

But because these camera screens are multifunctional, they must be clearly visible at all times — even in bright light or sunshine — and I found myself squinting to see both screens in the sunlight. In situations like this, an optical viewfinder would at least let you clearly see the subject of photos. On both cameras, the review or playback buttons remained as physical buttons, rather than touch-screen buttons.

The touch technology in these camera screens isn’t as advanced as “multi-touch,” which is used in Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Microsoft Corp.’s Surface Computing. But it is incredibly useful and will change the way you use your digital camera.

While the HP Photosmart R937 turns heads with its giant 3.6-inch screen, this device is too big and heavy to be categorized as a pocket camera. The Pentax Optio T30′s generous three-inch screen is smaller than that of the HP, helping this camera retain the fashionably thin look sought after in the pocket camera category.

The technical specifications of the H-P and Pentax cameras are quite comparable. They offer 8 and 7.1 megapixels, respectively, with 3x optical zoom lenses and digital image stabilization technology to aid shaky hands. Pentax says its Optio T30 will last for 200 shots on a full battery, while H-P claims 190 shots.

A touch-screen menu on the Pentax Optio T30

The $300 (after a $50 rebate) Pentax Optio T30 shipped in April as a follow-up to its two touch-screen predecessors: the Optio T10 (brought out a little over a year ago) and the Optio T20 (last fall).

A series of menus appear when you tap the center of the Optio T30 screen. In capturing mode, for example, a screen tap pulls up four menus: Capture Palette, Flash Mode, Drive Mode and Focus Mode.

The Capture Palette menu displays 16 different icons, one for each mode in which the camera can be set prior to taking a photo. It was a relief to see these large, colorful icons rather than trying to decipher confusing text descriptions or unrelated icons representing each mode. Tapping on an icon brought up a one-line, large-print explanation of it and tapping the on-screen “OK” button set the camera in that mode. Portrait mode, for example, brightens skin tones, while Sport keeps the camera in focus until the shutter is released — ideal for fast-moving subjects.

Most people will likely opt to keep their Optio T30 in default automatic mode, and this requires no touch button adjustments whatsoever. But I was more inclined than usual to switch into different modes using this camera. Knowing that I could tap the screen a couple times to adjust for various situations was a lot more appealing than digging through a list of options in a hidden menu, then finding the right button to select that option.

The Pentax Optio T30′s touch screen also allows for on-screen editing, such as drawing on a photo with an included stylus (my fingernail worked, too). You can also use what Pentax calls “stamps” — little cartoon icons that can be added to a photo. I made my own stamp by drawing an on-screen circle around flowers in one of my photos, copying the flowers and using them as a stamp in other images. This could come in handy if you need to superimpose someone’s head into a photo for which he or she wasn’t present.

The HP Photosmart R937 will ship the first week in August, marking H-P’s foray into the touch-screen digital camera scene. It measures over twice the cubic volume of the Pentax, but strangely, its zoom lens doesn’t protrude when in use — a feature often found in slim fashion cameras that doesn’t make much sense on this bulky model.

The R937′s stunningly large screen makes room for instructional icons that appear around the perimeter of the screen, and each can be tapped for direct access to a menu. For example, a box in the top right of the screen tells you how many megapixels the next photo will capture, and tapping on this box drops you into an image quality screen where you can adjust megapixels. Another on-screen icon for the flash works similarly — one tap and you’re in the correct adjustment menu.

Like the Pentax, the R937 works in default automatic mode without any adjusting. But again, different shooting modes (12 to be exact) were easy to change using touch menus. I found the H-P’s in-camera editing to be the most interesting aspect of this gadget. While reviewing photos, I opened an on-screen Design Gallery menu and found options for removing red eyes, enhancing photos like making the people in my photos look slimmer, and applying any of 13 artistic effects, like turning an image into a cartoon or a kaleidoscope-like view. I tweaked many of my photos using only touch-screen buttons, then saved the edited versions in addition to my old versions.

Time and time again while using both of these cameras, I realized that when commands were right on the screen where I could touch them to select what I wanted to do, the camera’s overall usability was improved and once-buried menus were demystified.

Touch screens and digital cameras make a good pair. I only wish that the screen quality on these cameras was high enough to stand up to bright sunlight. The HP Photosmart R937 is a bit too bulky, though it feels sturdy in your hand and its 3.6-inch screen is a boon. The Pentax Optio T30′s size and simplified touch user interface make it a good buy.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

Kodak’s main weapon in this new war is cheaper ink. Traditionally, H-P and other makers have sold the printers for relatively little, then made most or all of their money on the ink cartridges.

So, Kodak decided to reverse that business model. Its three new printers start at $149.99, not sub-$100 bargain prices. But its black ink cartridges cost just $9.99, and the color ones — which combine five color inks — just $14.99. And these are standard-capacity cartridges, not small or starter versions. Comparable H-P cartridges vary in price, but can easily cost double that, or more.

Kodak hopes consumers will be willing to spend more upfront for the printer to save later on the ink.

In a counter-move, H-P announced Tuesday that it will also be introducing new lower-price cartridges. But these new low-end cartridges will work only on future printers (and a few very recent models). And they will hold less ink than today’s standard. Plus, they will still cost more than Kodak’s cartridges: $14.99 for black and $17.99 for the combined color versions. H-P will also start selling larger-capacity “value” cartridges for the new printers that will cost about twice as much as the low-end ink, but print up to triple the number of pages.

How good are Kodak’s new printers? After all, cheaper ink isn’t really a bargain if the printer is lousy. To find out, I’ve been testing Kodak’s midrange model, the EasyShare 5300, which costs $199.99. It’s an “all-in-one” machine that combines a printer with a flatbed copier and scanner.

I compared this new Kodak with a roughly comparable all-in-one H-P model, the Photosmart C6180. This particular H-P model costs $100 more than the Kodak, because it includes some additional features. But H-P says that this printer has the same printing, scanning and copying quality and speeds, in the typical scenarios I tested, as H-P’s C5180, the direct competitor of the Kodak 5300, which costs the same.

My conclusion was that the Kodak EasyShare 5300 is a pretty good printer, with a good enough combination of quality, speed and functionality to satisfy people attracted by the lower ink costs. In my tests, it was better than the H-P at some things and worse at others.

One caveat: I didn’t try to verify Kodak’s claim that, overall, its printouts cost a lot less than H-P’s. Such claims depend on very specific sorts of test files produced and tested in labs. H-P disputes Kodak’s testing methodology and claims that Kodak’s printout costs are “about the same or only slightly lower than H-P’s.”

Also, the particular H-P models with which the Kodak printers most closely compare use a different ink system than most other H-P home inkjet printers. Instead of using one combined color cartridge that can cost over $30, they use five smaller separate ones that cost $9.99 each.

I decided to avoid settling this technical dispute and to just judge the printers using home photos and text pages from Microsoft Office that I considered typical. I used both printers at normal quality levels and didn’t enable any special quality or speed settings. I tested them with a Windows XP computer, though both printers also work with Macs and with the new Windows Vista.

In general, the H-P was a little faster, but not dramatically so. And the H-P has built-in networking, while the Kodak doesn’t. The H-P also has a better user interface, in my opinion. Kodak’s can be clumsy.

But the Kodak has a cool scanning feature the H-P lacks. You can place three or four photos on its glass plate at once and the printer will separate them automatically into individual images and scan them as separate files — as long as they aren’t aligned too crookedly. To do this on the H-P, you must manually draw lines around each photo with the H-P software.

When I compared plain-paper printouts, in black and white, and color, the printers were about equal in quality. The H-P was a tad faster, but the Kodak was plenty quick.

On photos, I had a mixed result. The 4×6 snapshots of family scenes came out better, to my eye, on the Kodak. They seemed sharper and brighter than the same files printed on the H-P. But I had just the opposite result when scanning several 20-year-old photos into the two machines. The resulting files produced by the H-P seemed sharper and brighter. The Kodak scans, while warmer, seemed fuzzier.

The worst feature of the Kodak is the way it switches between its plain-paper feed tray and its special separate tray for 4×6 snapshot-size photo paper. On the Kodak, you must manually push in and pull out the photo tray to switch between types of paper. The H-P handles this switch without any pushing or pulling.

Overall, however, the Kodak is a good enough first effort to get the company into the game.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. See video versions of my reviews at wsj.com/mossbergvideo.

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