This HP printer doesn't need a PC to print stuff from the Web

— -- Home PCs and printers have gone together ever since there were such things. So it is something of a revelation that the new HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One printer that I've been testing doesn't have to be tethered to a computer.

As the world's first Web-connected home printer, it can print directly off the Internet via applications or widgets that appear on its large lift-up touch panel. The $400 multipurpose contraption — it also faxes, copies and scans — is available next week.

HP is pitching convenience. Instead of using a PC to poke around the Web for stuff to print, you'll tap on the widgets, from HP and partners, to print coloring pages and crafts for kids, recipes, newsletters and pictures.

In HP's handy Quick Forms app, you can turn plain paper into graph paper, music sheets, fax cover sheets and more. In another called Tabbloid, you can print daily blogs from a gaggle of sources, covering business, celebrities, politics and other subjects.

You can't just print anything off any website, at least not without connecting the HP to a computer as with a regular printer. There's no browser on the touch panel on the front of the printer, though HP hasn't ruled out adding one.

Instead, you tap those colorful widgets representing the current stable of apps, letting you print such things as movie tickets from Fandango, maps and calendars from Google, discounts from Coupons.com and photos from Snapfish.com. Full disclosure: USA TODAY, which is making certain daily articles available for printing, is another partner.

There are just over a dozen print apps in HP's newly launched App Studio, with many more expected. To fetch them, you tap the Get More icon on the touch-screen.

Ultimately, you'll be able to have as many as 50 apps on the printer at one time. HP has or will be rolling out apps from CNet, Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, 60 Minutes, Flickr and others.

The apps are free, of course, because the more printing you do, the more paper and ink cartridges HP can sell.