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.

To control an image forming apparatus using a service on a network, an information terminal performs two-factor authentication and acquires authentication information through the two-factor authentication so that the image forming apparatus accesses the service.

A communication device may include a first type of interface and a second type of interface. The communication device may execute the communication of object data with a mobile device using the second type of interface after executing a specific process for causing the communication device to shift to a communication-enabled state, in a case where it is determined that the communication device is not currently in the communication-enabled state. Also, the communication device may execute the communication of the object data with the mobile device using the second type of interface without executing the specific process, in a case where it is determined that the communication device is currently in the communication-enabled state.

A printing apparatus includes: a printing section including a plurality of printing elements that performs printing on a medium; a power supply circuit supplying power to the printing section; a control circuit controlling the printing section and the power supply circuit; and a USB-Type-C interface configured to couple an external device and including a data transmission/reception terminal, a power input/output terminal, and a state identification terminal. When the state identification terminal detects that the external device that receives the power via the power input/output terminal is coupled, and the printing section performs printing, an amount of power supplied to the external device is large in a case in which a drive rate of the plurality of printing elements is low as compared with a case in which the drive rate of the plurality of printing elements is high.

An information processing apparatus connectable to one or more devices via a network. The apparatus includes a measuring unit measuring an inclination of the apparatus; a determining unit determining whether the inclination of the apparatus relative to a given surface of one of the one or more devices is within a predetermined inclination range; a receiving unit that receives radio waves; an obtaining unit obtaining identification information from the radio waves; a radio wave strength measuring unit measuring strength of the radio waves; a selection unit determining whether to select a given one of the one or more devices based on the strength of the radio waves; and a connection unit connecting the information processing apparatus to one of the one or more devices selected by the selection unit and for which the inclination of the apparatus is within the predetermined inclination range.

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 server system connectable to a print system including a transmission unit configured to transmit received print data to a printer includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire information indicating an amount of a consumable which is used for printing of transmitted print data to the printer, and a placement unit configured to place an order for the consumable to be used by the printer, based on the acquired information.

A method of automatically creating trust communities in a fleet of devices. The method includes finding candidate devices in a fleet of devices via one or more candidate discovery techniques and generating device-related data based on the candidate devices that are found, analyzing the device-related data via an analytics engine and creating one or more fleet orchestrator device lists based on the analysis of the device-related data, and automatically creating one or more new trust communities or suggesting joining one or more previously existing trust communities based at least on the one or more fleet orchestrator device lists for the candidate devices, wherein the one or more new trust communities or previously existing trust communities include at least a sub-set of the devices in the fleet, and wherein at least one of the managed devices in the sub-set of devices is configured as a root device to publish files via a file sharing function.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions, in response to being activated by an operating system, causing the portable terminal to perform: a first acceptance process of accepting an operation designating one of image forming devices communicable; a first storage process of causing the memory to store a first device ID, as a designated device ID; a second acceptance process of accepting an operation designating contents; and an operation instruction process of transmitting operation instruction information, and the computer-readable instructions, in response to being activated by another program, causing the portable terminal to perform: an acquisition process of acquiring, from the another program, a second device ID for identifying the image forming device; and a second storage process of causing the memory to store the second device ID, as the designated device ID.

An image forming apparatus includes a processor configured to: transmit an inquiry as to whether or not printing of print data is allowed to an authenticated terminal when the print data are received from an external terminal, the authenticated terminal having an authority to perform printing and the external terminal being not registered in advance as the authenticated terminal; and make preparation to print the print data when a permission to print the print data is received from the authenticated terminal.