Techcrunch is reporting on a special new email to hard copy system. The idea apparently is to allow people who do not have Internet access and are afraid of computers to receive emails.

The problem with this system is that it is very limited and long term maintenance costs will be significant. It does not seem to provide any means for sending email, which is very limiting. It is a full color inkjet printer and every email gets printed. If my Grandma were to print every email she received, she would be paying a fortune in ink and paper. Granted there are lots of people without Internet access, but this still requires a phone line, they might as well get a cheap dial-up account and be able to reply to the emails. Besides, basic email with real computers is not that hard to learn.