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Dear Scotty,

I need to finally get a new printer/copier.  I also need a fax.  I will print all my photos at walgreens because it's cheaper than refilling the ink at home.  I just need a printer that will work reliably with my Mac via airport waves.  I need a copier.   I also need a fax that remains off until i turn it on.  I am old fashioned and need  a hard copy instruction manual for all functions. The CD ROM guide does me no good.  Mom has HP 7310 and likes it.  I'd prefer jut to have one machine like her and maybe even the same one, but i have hated my HP1610 and another one in the past for anything other than printing.  What printer/ combo would you recommend and where should I get it?  The HP set up assistant is more annoyance than help.

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Good to hear from you.  I haven't worked with your mom in a while so I hope she is well.  

Now, I agree that the HP set up assistant can infest a mac.  It often gets in the way more than actually help do anything.  I would suggest checking Best Buy and Office Depot but as far as printers/all in ones go, in my opinion, it comes down to two brands.  HP and Canon.  Canon has very good print quality but their user interface is not so great.  HP has decent multi-function capability however, like you said, the setup assistant can infest itself if you don't know how to kill it.  (I do)  HP's wireless printers in the higher series are very good and easy to set up on any wireless network.  The wireless network setup wizard onboard the printer is very easy to use.  But you can always just plug it up to an airport base station or express as well.  

Now as far as faxing goes, there are settings to handle different numbers of rings before it picks up to the fax line, but I believe overall, you'll have to change that manually if you'd like different behavior.  

One last thing.  I've come to the conclusion that even though HP and other print manufacturers claim it to be so, as of 2009 there is NO such thing as wireless scanning.  I've seen it work very inconsistently so the best bet for scanning is to directly plug in.  Hopefully the technology in this area will grow in the coming months but I'm not holding my breath.  HP has had the most success at making this work but it usually only lasts a day or so then something goes wrong.  

Here are a few to consider:

Officejet series with faxing...
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Officejet/1/storefronts/CB057A%2523B1H
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Officejet/1/storefronts/CB022A%2523B1H
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Officejet/1/storefronts/CB023A%2523B1H

Photosmart series  (I've set a couple of the "Premium" up and I've had mixed results.  Both times the printing has been slow)  Just thought I would throw it in.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Photosmart/1/storefronts/CC335A%2523ABA

I can't guarantee that HP would include any hard printed manuals at this point as the trend is now moving to paperless.  (ironic for a printer)
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