Presto A10 Printing Mailbox for Presto Service

I bought this for my elderly mother several years ago and our extended family has been using it regularly ever since. It is generally good for what it does, with good administrative controls for the owner (me) to control the email accounts which can send to it. It certainly meets a need, but does not meet it as well as it should today.The printer itself is a now-old HP inkjet model (A10), which chugs along and puts out so-so resolution. In other words, the underlying printer needs to be updated and upgraded, IMHO, and soon! The printer was a basic model years ago when the Presto service started, and now, with the passage of time, there are surely many better options in printers for better resolution, better speed, better connectivity, better cost per page and better paper handling.I get regular email messages from my mother's service which says her printer can't print, and suggests a reboot. I dutifully go to her house and check the printer, which seems to think there is a paper problem. Open the 50 page paper tray and there is paper there. In good shape. Take paper out. Put back in. Printer prints one page in the queue and then shows another error. Repeat process. Another page prints. Then error message. Repeat until queue is gone. When I leave, all is well until the next error comes with the next email to print. This is not the hands' off printer it was before. Do I need a new printer? Perhaps. Do I want to invest in yesterday's printer technology with my new purchase? I do not. Would this work if my mother were located in another town? Absolutely not!Suggestions for improvement:Newer and better printer (print quality, speed, resolution, cost per page)Larger paper tray to handle more paperLonger ink cartridge duty cycle (more capacity)Option of connecting from printer to Presto server by wifi or wired Internet connection instead of only phone line (many homes have this now)Ability to diagnose problems remotely and smartly, or at least the option of a remote reboot (OK, maybe I am dreaming)For what it does, this is a decent unit when it works, except for the resolution. I would be happy if the printer issues above were solved, and would be willing to pay for a better printer with better output and connectivity.A10 specs:Media Size LetterStandard Input Media Capacity 50 sheetsMedia Handling 1 x Input Tray 50 Sheet, 1 x Output Tray 25 SheetMedia Type Plain PaperNumber of Input/Multipurpose Trays Installed 1Technical InformationMaximum Color Print Speed (ppm) 10Maximum Print Resolution 600 x 600 dpiPrint Color Color

We tried everything to bring my parents into the 21st century. We bought them a computer and set it up where they only had to click on the e-mail icon. But, eventually the computer needed to be restarted or would shut down itself and they were afraid to touch anything on it. They were very intimidated by it.This is the perfect solution. They LOVE it. It works amazingly well. There are no buttons to push. You can monitor the paper and ink level on the web. We can change the ink cartridge for them but they can handle refilling the paper. There is no spam and they love to hear the gentle chime letting them know they have mail. The photos print surprisingly nicely, but we invested in high quality paper for them. The printer does not take photo paper.There are only two downsides that I've found so far. One is that the email's cannot be reprinted, although to be honest, they haven't yet had the need for that so I guess it's a non-issue at this point.The other is that when it tries to dial out and someone is on the phone you can hear the button tones during your conversation and then an error message comes through via email for the connection to be checked. I haven't looked into this issue so there may be a way to fix this. If so, I will come back and update this review and change it to 5 stars. It really is an awesome product and HP has definitely found a niche.

Rosa, our Grandmother, is an 83 year old that does not even want to see a computer, much less touch one. The TV remote is pretty much her limit.Since half of us live on the East Coast away from her, we purchased the HP Printing Mailbox for her. At first, there was suspicion that this was "one of them new fangled computer things" that she wanted no part of.That feeling lasted about one day. She called us after her first batch of printed Email and told us how thrilled she was to get all that "Email." Every time we talk to her on the phone she tells us how much she appreciates her new "Email" link to the family. She even uses the term "Email" now in her conversations.Things we like:1. Low price for printer and service vs value provided2. Very simple for Rosa to use. Just loads paper and occasional cartridge3. Link to G'Kids who don't know how to write an old fashioned letter4. Ability so share pictures with her5. Daily automatic calls to pick up Email while Rosa sleeps6. Pure Email, no spam. Only people I designate can send Emails to her7. Gives Rosa something positive to look forward to when she awakens8. Hearing over and over how much she loves her "Email Machine."Things we don't like:1. Frankly, I can't find anything. The HP Printing Mailbox has functioned flawlessly. Sure, the pictures are not photo paper quality, but, she has pictures to look at and at 83 that is good enough. It also keeps the supply cost very low.Suggestions:With all the new found messages and pictures, Rosa needed a way to organize them rather than a pile of paper. So we gave her a 4 inch binder and an electric three hole punch so that she could easily keep everything in chronological order and organized.Highly recommend this product and the Presto Service. Rather than giving your G'ma that has everything another knick knack to further clutter her home, give her this gift of love. Good for G'Pas too, of course.In my opinion, the best gift you can give an oldster that is often lonely and feels out of the loop with technology that has left her behind.Oh, I almost forgot - how will she answer the Emails? The old fashioned way when she talks to you on the phone. She always comments on the Emails when we call her. The important thing is she be in the loop, not so much that she respond to Emails. All of us have too much Email already anyway.Jim Alfaro