Google Cloud Print
In response to the growing online phenomenon of ‘Cloud Computing’ (which you can read about in our previous article here), Google has announced its plans to launch Google Cloud Print, the first ever Cloud-based printing service.
Currently, printing a file requires the use of a PC to which a printer is connected – wired or wirelessly – with software and drivers installed on the PC. The concept of Cloud printing removes the need for the PC, by running the drivers and queuing print jobs in the Cloud. This allows us to print from any device, from anywhere with an internet connection - most importantly from devices which are unable to run printer drivers and software themselves.
For example, say you own a Smartphone, or even one of the new Apple iPads, which you use to browse the internet, and there was an email that you wanted to print a copy of. You could send a print job from your mobile device to the Cloud, which would send the job to your printer, which would print the email.
For this to work, printers need to be ‘Cloud aware’, i.e. they must be able to connect to the Cloud. There are currently no Cloud aware printers available – this is all still a proposed idea. Google have suggested that a legacy printer (i.e. every type of printer currently being manufactured) could be made Cloud aware through the use of a proxy – a piece of software which would run on the PC to which your printer is connected.
The development of Google Cloud Print is inspired by the impending Google Chrome OS, a new operating system being launched by Google in the second half of 2010. Google Chrome OS will run in the same way as many portable devices, like the iPad, which run Apps to complete tasks rather than programs and software, and therefore, devices running Google Chrome OS will only be able to print via the Cloud. You can read more about Apps in our summary of the iPad.
One major issue surrounding the idea of Cloud printing is the use of a proxy to make legacy printers Cloud aware: to send jobs to the printer from a device while on the go, the PC that runs the proxy would need to be continuously switched on, which is both expensive and very un-eco-friendly. Google have suggested that a solution to this would be the development of a ‘proxy in a box’, a piece of separate hardware that would run the proxies linking a printer to the Cloud wirelessly, acting like a kind of ‘printing router’.
Another question is whether the service actually over-complicates printing. Surely, around 90% of printing would still occur when you are in the same room as the printer. The fact that systems running Google Chrome OS will only be able to print via the Cloud means that a print job would have to be sent from a device or computer to the Cloud, then back down to the printer sat just a few feet away from you.
There are definitely advantages to being able to print from any device such as iPads and Smartphones when you are on the go. To reach a larger audience, however, Google will almost certainly have to find a way to make their Cloud Printing service more appealing and relevant to the majority of people who will still just be printing straight from their PC or laptop.
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