‘Presto’ is cool, but not for Canadians

It’s a great idea, and it works — but Canadians won’t know about it anytime soon.

Everyone has a relative, such as a favourite uncle or grandma, who doesn’t have a computer or Internet connection in their home. Therefore you can’t include them when emailing out photos of the kids or dirty jokes and other amusing “forwards.”

Last year, I had the chance to test-drive a new product called Presto (www.presto.com), it’s a US $10 a month service that works with the HP Printing Mailbox (US $150), which is basically a printer that plugs into a regular telephone jack instead of a computer’s USB port, and prints out emails and photos in hard copy.

You can also sign up for daily content such as Sudoku puzzles and recipes from Wolfgang Puck’s collection, and other content.

Another neat feature with the HP Printing Mailbox – especially with not-so-technically savvy users — is that it can automatically send an email to an administrator (such as a grandson, daughter or friend) when the printer ink is low or if there’s a paper jam, and so on.

Too bad the Presto folks just confirmed it’s not coming to Canada anytime soon.