Xerox unveils remote printing tools

Xerox has announced new tools for those who want to print documents from their mobile phones or other email-enabled devices.

The company's Mobile Print Solution (XMPS), which will become generally available in early 2011, will let people securely email their files, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF files, to their firm's private server, from which XMPS will send a confirmation code back to the user.

Once that is approved, the file will be printable from any Xerox Extensible Interface Platform-enabled multifunction printer.

"Our approach delivers simplicity for any location, helping mobile workers focus more on their business and less on how to print," Xerox UK marketing manager Chris Aked said in a statement. According to Xerox, printing in this way will allow the same formatting and print settings that would be available from the desktop.

The approach is similar to that taken by HP, which in June announced an email-based remote printing platform called ePrint. Google is also working on a system called Cloud Print.

Xerox has also released two new drivers for IT staff: a Mobile Express driver to tell mobile workers what printers are available for fast printing; and a new Global Print driver that can push driver settings, such as duplex printing as default, out to all employees on the network. According to Xerox, the new drivers will not have to be updated to support full functionality on future Xerox products.