Embodiments of the present invention provide a system for transforming entity device to a multi-functional device via a remote communication link. In particular, the system may be configured to receive an interaction request from an associate, via an associate device, wherein the interaction request is associated with a user, authenticate the associate using the associate device, in response to authenticating the associate, establish a remote communication link between the associate device and an entity device, receive an activation request from the associate to activate the entity device, via the associate device and the remote communication link, and in response to receiving the activation request, activate the entity device and transform the entity device to a multi-functional device.

A system for choosing a printer based on proximity comprising: a beacon to broadcast a transmission having a beacon ID; a printer to: receive the transmission, determine a received signal strength indicator for the transmission, generate a printer location signal including the beacon ID, the received signal strength indicator, and a printer ID associated with the printer, and transmit the printer location signal to a host server; the host server including a processor and a memory, the server configured to: receive the printer location signal from the printer, determine a printer location based on a predetermined location of the beacon, the beacon ID, and the received signal strength indicator, and associate the printer location with a printer zone; a printer proximity application to: receive a print request, the print request including a print data and a target zone, and transmit the print data to the printer in the target zone.

A printing system includes a printing device, a color management server, and a client device. An estimated ink use is determined for a print job within printing system. After printing operations, a baseline average ink use is determined for a set of printed pages of the print job. If the baseline average ink use varies from the estimated ink use, then a corrective action is taken to adjust ink use to be closer to the estimated ink use. The corrective action is a global corrective action for the entire document of the print job or a targeted action that adjusts only specified features or pages of the document.

A printing condition setting method is a printing condition setting method of setting printing conditions in a printing apparatus, including a learning step of performing machine learning by using ink physical characteristics and ink type information, a similarity score calculation step of calculating a similarity score indicating a similarity of a use ink used for printing in the printing apparatus with respect to a learned ink learned in the learning step, and a printing condition setting step of setting the printing conditions according to the use ink based on the similarity score.

A printing device includes: a communication interface communicable with a server capable of offering a specific printing service under a contract with the printing device; and a controller configured to control transition of an operation mode of the printing device from a non-contract mode without any contract with the server to a contract mode where the printing device is recognized as a contract-covered device eligible for executing specific printing under the contract. In response to receiving a command from the server to execute the transition to the contract mode, the controller is configured to perform: a determination process to determine whether the transition to the contract mode is to be executed; and a mode control process to maintain the non-contract mode without executing the transition to the contract mode against the transition command when the transition to the contract mode is determined not to be executed in the determination process.

A control method of an information processing apparatus including a predetermined application program that cannot acquire predetermined information regarding a communication apparatus using a predetermined method, includes acquiring, in a case where the predetermined information is stored by a different application program that is different from the predetermined application program and can acquire the predetermined information using the predetermined method, the predetermined information stored by the different application program, using the predetermined application program, executing, in a case where the predetermined information stored by the different application program is acquired, processing that is based on the predetermined information stored by the different application program, using the predetermined application program, and displaying a predetermined region for prompting a user to install the different application program, using the predetermined application program.

A storage medium storing a program causes a computer of an information processing apparatus to execute a method including obtaining information about a predetermined program stored in a communication apparatus, and controlling issuance of a predetermined notification about update of the predetermined program based on the obtained information about the predetermined program. The predetermined notification is controlled to be issued in a case where a version of the predetermined program is not a latest version, and the predetermined notification is controlled so as not to be issued in a case where the version of the predetermined program is the latest version.

An information processing apparatus acquires printing setting information including at least information on a sheet type relating to mounted sheets and information on a sheet width, which correspond to each sheet feed unit in a printing apparatus capable of feeding sheets from a plurality of sheet feed units, creates a first item for designating a plurality of sheet feed units whose both sheet type and sheet width are the same among sheet feed units of the printing apparatus, and a second item for designating a sheet feed port for which there does not exist another sheet feed unit whose both sheet type and sheet width are the same, and creates a print job in a case where a user designates the first item, the print job including a command for the printing apparatus to automatically select a sheet feed unit from among the plurality of sheet feed units included in the first item.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an image forming apparatus configured to print files stored in a plurality of servers. The image forming apparatus comprises a retaining unit configured to retain files transmitted according to an instruction issued by a user, a display control unit configured to control a display of a print instruction screen that includes a first list generated based on a storage file list showing files, which are files stored in any one of the plurality of servers and correspond to user authentication information inputted when logging into the image forming apparatus, and a second list showing the retained files, and a printing unit configured to print files selected by the user on the print instruction screen. The first list is a list obtained by synthesizing a plurality of the storage file lists that are transmitted from the plurality of servers, respectively.

An example non-transitory machine-readable medium includes instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to receive a job to print multiple copies of a document, process a page of the document to obtain a processed page, initiate printing of the processed page at a printer, transmit via a network the processed page to network storage, and, when ready to print a subsequent copy of the page of the document, retrieve via the network the processed page from the network storage.