At a New York press conference on Monday, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced the release of a new multi-function, Android-based device – the HP Photosmart eStation – which can function as a printer, scanner, fax, etc.

Priced at $399, the new HP Photosmart eStation features a detachable 7-inch controller, which basically is a WiFi-enabled Android 2.1 tablet, capable of accessing the Internet as well as running some specialized Android applications.

Noting that the detachable controller comes with apps to print from Facebook and Snapfish, HP further revealed that the controller offers “one-touch access to customized content from Yahoo,” including search, mail, messenger, and weather.

Talking about the new device, Craig Stein, product manager at HP, said during the course of an interview that “any Internet page that is accessible via typical Android running devices should be accessible on the 7-inch removable display.”

Adding that printing is the key design element of the HP Photosmart eStation, Stein elaborated that any printable content which can be displayed can be printed directly to the eStation either from a Wi-Fi network or from the user’s home network.

Acknowledging that HP did not intend designing a standalone tablet device, Stein said: “The product we aimed to design here is one that really has its origins in print and that customers today are printing a lot of content that is on the web and we're trying to make it easier to get to that content without having to power-up a PC.”