Walt Mossberg

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Working With AirPrint

Q:

How does Apple’s AirPrint work? And what new things would I have to get to make it work?

A:

AirPrint allows certain apps on an iPhone or iPad to wirelessly print to locally networked printers. Officially, it works only on Hewlett-Packard’s new line of networked printers, which use a technology called ePrint. However, various programs have popped up for Macs and PCs that, when installed on a computer on your network, allow AirPrint to work with existing printers that are connected—physically or via a network—to those computers. One example I have tested successfully is Printopia, which works on Macs and is at http://bit.ly/dfjAsl. Others can be found by searching for “airprint for windows” or “airprint for mac” in a search engine. Note that you only need to install a small utility program on your computer, and nothing new gets installed on the iPad or iPhone, as long as you have the latest operating system for those devices.

Q:

Is there an external hard disk or other device other than online storage which will back up a usable copy of my entire computer complete with software programs and data? I am basically looking for a usable mirror image which would be available to load on another machine if the current one fails. I am not networked.

A:

You can certainly use an external hard drive for this without having a network, but the key is the backup software. For Windows computers, one popular choice is Acronis True Image Home, though there are others. If your computer is a Mac, the easiest choice is the built-in Time Machine backup software.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, at the All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com

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