USB and the OfficeJet- 9 August 1998
Dan
Knight
Last November I said Macs
needed parallel ports. I got a lot of letters on that, some
saying I made a lot of sense. Others said parallel ports
would soon be obsolete, replaced with the Universal Serial
Bus (USB) and FireWire. Nine months later, the world is still
pretty much a parallel place, at least in the Windows world.
Despite the fact that most shipping PCs have USB, most of
the printers, scanners, and all-in-one devices (i.e.,
multifunction machine with fax, printing, copying, and
scanning abilities) still use parallel ports. On the iMac channel I've commented that
Apple I wrote Where
no Mac has gone before, which
discussed the irony that Apple seems to be driving
acceptance of the Wintel originated Universal Serial
Bus. USB isn't the be-all and end-all of
interface design. While a competent replacement for ADB,
serial, and parallel ports, performance is far below what
Mac users get from SCSI. Still, in another article I
concluded that USB
is okay for the low
end. That said, I'm hoping the one reason I
promoted parallel ports on the Mac will be a reason for
peripheral makers to adopt USB. The all-in-one devices,
exemplified by the Hewlett Packard OfficeJet series, are not
Macintosh friendly devices. Based on features, my wife purchased an
OfficeJet for her adoption agency. We saw no reason it
wouldn't make a decent Macintosh color printer using
PowerPrint.
We saw no reason it wouldn't function flawlessly as a
freestanding fax machine and slow copier. And we realized it
would never work as a Mac scanner, but that didn't
matter. We discovered that PowerPrint plus an
OfficeJet does make a very nice color printer. We also
discovered that you must have a Windows 3.1 or 95 machine
with a parallel port for it to work as a scanner, copier, or
fax machine. - That's right, the OfficeJet 600
series is completely computer dependent for tasks as
simple as sending and receiving faxes.
Fortunately a local pastor heard of our
plight and donated an old 386 to Family
Matchmakers. Still, it was a
frustrating learning experience, since I tried the
SoftWindows and DOS card routes before concluding we needed
a real PC. That said, if these all-in-one devices
adopt USB, it will finally be easy to use them from the iMac
and PCI-based Power Macs. The hardware interface will
already be there; all we'll need is Macintosh drivers. If
the manufacturers won't create them, expect Infowave
(makers of PowerPrint) or others to do so. Finally, the small office/home office Mac
user will be able to buy and use the same kind of
printer/copier/scanner/fax machine that Windows users have
come to take for granted. So it looks like Macs really don't need
parallel ports. Further ReadingRecent Editorials- Teacher Tools:
Gradebooks, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 11/22.
- Screen Size and
Resolution, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 11/19. Why is the
iMac fuzzy at 1024x768? Why does a 17" monitor look unsharp at
1280x960?
- Reassessment, Eric
DeStafano, Mac Metamorphosis, 11/18. "The Windows platform is
dead, and Windows 2000 is going to be the final nail in the
coffin."
- Macs for design, Lynn, My
First Mac, 11/18. "The tables have turned, and I think it is time
that everyone (including software manufacturers), see the enormous
capabilities and adaptability that Macintoshes have!"
- Apple will rule the computer
world, Rodney O. Lain, Things Macintosh, 11/17
- Online with a PowerBook
Duo, Julie Fugett, Mac Daniel, 11/17
- Free web access, even for
older Macs, Rob Myers, Mac Musings, 11/17
- MyBook: A more portable
Mac, Dan Knight, iBook & PowerBook Page, 11/16
- Teacher Tools:
AppleWorks, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 11/15
- New @ Low End Mac:
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