Every Cloud Has a Toner Lining

Ars Technica reports: The question of how to print from wireless devices has been thrust once again into the limelight recently thanks to the printing-anemic iPad. Longtime notebook and mobile device users are quite familiar with the printing conundrum—cables, drivers, and all.

Google has announced that it's looking to address this problem in the form of Cloud Print. Part of the Chromium and Chromium OS projects, Cloud Print aims to allow any type of application to print to any printer. This includes Web, desktop, and mobile apps from any kind of device—potentially, this could be used on a BlackBerry, Windows machines, Macs, or even the iPad. (That is in addition to Google's own offerings: "Google Chrome OS will use Google Cloud Print for all printing. There is no print stack and there are no printer drivers on Google Chrome OS!" says the company.)

The devices would make use of a Web-based API to either communicate directly with cloud-aware printers, or to send signals to a proxy in order to communicate with "legacy" printers. Google says it's already developing software for Windows to perform this function, "and will support Mac and Linux later on as well."

Yes, there are already wireless printers that work over your local network without having to be tethered, but there are downsides to this solution (I say this as a semi-satisfied owner of one). The biggest hurdle is, of course, the fact that you must actually be on the same network in order to print. (I can't complete and print an expense report from this coffee shop, now that I'm thinking about it, for example.) VPN is an option, but that's an extra step that could be eliminated.

Then there's the problem we discussed above: My wireless printer only has drivers for real computers. If I buy concert tickets on my phone or if I compose a document on my iPad, I have to wait till I have access to a computer to print them. These inconveniences could easily be addressed by cloud-based printing.

Google says that the Cloud Print project is still in the early stages, but, like with its other open-source projects, the company has made the existing code and documentation open to the public. The documentation indicates that, in order to use Google's Cloud Print, users will have to associate their printers with their Google log-ins—a detail that might make some privacy advocates squirm. Still, Google stresses that it expects other companies to develop their own cloud printing solutions, so this is likely only the beginning of a trend.