FWIW, my Epson printer does seem to work pretty well over a wireless network connection if/when I don't want to bother pulling out a [micro]SD card & plugging it into a reader [or the printer itself]. To get an image from a cell or tablet to print I can use Dropbox, which works almost instantly, & I can open the image on my PC, optionally edit, & print. There's the Google Cloud Print service that I can use with any PC, cell, or tablet that can go on-line -- just use the Cloud Print app on a cell/tablet, or visit the site & log in, then print, though it can take a while for the print job to get sent to the printer. The Epson iPrint app [Apple & Android] connects directly to the printer via Wi-Fi & there's also Apple Airprint compatibility. And Epson has a service where you give your printer its own e-mail address -- stuff sent to that address prints.
The big difference with something like Walgreen's printing though is price... I buy 3rd party, reman ink cartridges, that may or may not last as long once printed, but cost ~$20-$25 a set. Epson brand ink costs ~$75 a set. If I bought the higher priced ink it would be cheaper to go to Walgreens. That said, printing at Walgreens or most stores with a photo dept. means using some very nasty chemicals, & they must 1st be produced, & later disposed of. I don't know what's involved in manufacturing printer ink &/or cartridges, how the overall environmental impact compares between the two, nor do I have any good info on effects on workers or how many workers are involved.
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My dad got me going on photography when I was 7 or 8. My 1st SLR was a somewhat rare in the US, Miranda Sensorex I picked up used as a teen. http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Miranda_Sensorex
I've still got some 1/2 decent 35 mm gear packed away in the closet. Digitizing the negatives or prints is a massive job I've worked on in spurts for years, & it seems barely scratched the surface. My 1st scanner was an expensive SCSI monster back in the early to mid 90s, & right now I've got a flatbed that also does negatives, the scanner on my Epson all-in-one, & a Minolta slide scanner -- having used those 3 types I'd recommend anyone interested in scanning their collection go the separate flatbed route [my problem is with a printer on my desk, there's little or no room for anything else]. From time to time the clearance section on the Epson & Canon sites have some pretty reasonable deals, though they can still get expensive for higher end models, especially those with photo corrections built into the hardware rather than being a software add-on. The biggest pain of the whole process for me is dealing with dust on negatives before scanning them - if I remember correctly the best solution for washing negatives comes from the UK.
FWIW, I've never found an automatic adjustment &/or filtering in software that consistently did as good or better job than manually working up an image -- that matters more to some people than others. I've found that usually the best starting point is a levels adjustment using a histogram... For each color, red, green, & blue you're shown what looks like a mountain range where both ends, right & left, don't quite reach the borders of the window -- below the histogram you've got 3 sliders, & I take the one on the right, moving it left towards the edge of the mountain range, then do the same for the left side, moving the slider right. You *may* also have some eyedroppers you can use, clicking on the blackest black, whitest white, most neutral, mid-range gray. Beyond that it's a matter of filtering, repairing scratches & such, fixing any color caste etc.
Digital cameras are a LOT more expensive than their film counterparts used to be, so fewer people use SLRs & such with big external flash units, and using a small built-in flash creates problems for indoor shots -- the effective range is usually only 10 feet or so, & it's centered rather than diffuse or bounced. For those shots I find an image editing app with layers essential -- add a layer with a circular gradient centered on wherever the flash was aimed, the point where it's brightest, then use that as a mask, brightening up everything else. The same technique works when the brightness of the sky causes everything else to appear too dark -- just use a linear gradient. We've gotten to the point where often image editing skill or knowledge is replaced by going on-line & reading tips etc. on how to handle most any problem &/or achieve most any effect. And many Photoshop tips/tricks, which seem the most common, work just as well in other software. If you do get into image editing, check out a site like Steve's Digicams [ http://www.steves-digicams.com/ ] before you buy your next camera, & check the review of any prospective purchase, paying attention to image noise -- a noisy image may not make a lot of difference when you're looking at a small print, but working with that noisy image in an editor can sometimes ruin your day real fast. That's one area where Canon did better than most others last I looked..
