Google previews Cloud Print technology for Chrome OS on mobile

24th April, 2010 by adina
Tags: Chrome OS, Google, Mobiles, News

A few days ago Google addressed a problem that is common for portable devices by providing a technology that would let them print anywhere. Cloud Print is a technology that uses typical printing options in an application but sends the printing job to an Internet service that will talk to an Internet-aware printer or a printer connected through a proxy server. A user could print out a document on a registered printer even when being away from the home network.

The programming interface in development allows two-way communication and reports the print status back like a printer in the proximity of the user. Development includes basic code for the Chromium web browser and the Chromium OS platform. Google claims that the product is not software-specific and is targeted at all computers and mobile devices, which, of course, include smartphones.

Printing has been an important problem for the web-app-only Chrome/Chromium OS project and for tablets like the iPad as well. Both of them do not have regular software drivers designed for printing or do not have the physical ports necessary for direct connection. Cloud Print still needs a basic printing dialog but can avoid most of the printer related requirements.

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