A tiny, cloud-connected printer that can be used for offline news, puzzles and even social media content is now available for pre-order.
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London design studio BERG's LittlePrinter is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and its printouts look a little bit like grocery receipts. It plugs into your home Internet service and prints customized feed information from you at pre-appointed times, with content ranging from news articles to Sudoku puzzles to Instagram photos. The feed settings are customized and tweaked from a mobile app, allowing for on-the-go changes, as well as personalized reminders, allowing you to leave a physical note for a family member or roommate.
While that might not sound too impressive -- indeed, there's no getting around the fact that this it's more than a little gimmicky -- LittlePrinter's services are surprisingly flexible, thanks to its partnerships with top content providers like Google and the Guardian.
"Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and LittlePrinter will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper," the device's creators say.
Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.
Pre-order customers can expect their orders to ship in 60 days, BERG says in its official announcement.
Now for the bad news, however: If you're a U.S. customer, a single LittlePrinter is going to set you back almost $300 when shipping is taken into account. It's tough to imagine sales going through the roof for what's essentially a purely aesthetic device. By contrast, the well-known Raspberry Pi is a fully functioning computer, and it's available for as little as $25.
Staff Writer Jon Gold admits that he kind of likes the image of a Raspberry Pi hooked up to a LittlePrinter, as twee as it is. Email him at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.
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