Tag Archives: cloud printing
Is Cloud Print Going to be Held Off on Chrome OS?
Posted on 27. Jul, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 
12 Comments
…And so how am I supposed to print on my Chromebook? Judging from this Chromium Authors issue submission, it looks like over the past week that the Google Cloud Print Service is going to be removed. I’m currently running Chrome Stable and Chrome Canary for the Mac and I can see Google Cloud Print on both browser instances.
Yet on my Chromebook I can still see the service in the “Under the Hood” tab in Settings. The fact that the issue submission says that the “Cloud Print component app should not show up on Chrome OS.” is a bit concerning to me to say the least.
No one every really said that Google Cloud Print is a slam dunk and ready for primetime. But this really blows out a lot of functionality when you consider that you might not be able to print from a Chromebook and you cannot watch Netflix.
I know I’m being critical here, but let’s be serious. Without some of these functions Chrome OS is likely not as useful as perhaps advertised. I get the feeling that the launch of the commercialized Chrome OS platform for Chromebooks was rushed into action far more quickly than it perhaps should have been. Am I grateful that they did not hold it off any longer? Yes, I am. But that still doesn’t take away from the drawbacks that the operating system is experiencing.
Since Chromebooks don’t have a printer port, I would see that removing Cloud Print, even temporarily, is a major problem. This would be especially true in a business environment. While I believe that there is serious potential for Chrome OS in the enterprise, the harsh reality is that those types of users have the disposition where they will need to print things whenever they can.
How do you feel about the overall development and drawbacks of Chrome OS since its commercialize launch? Let the discussion begin in the comments!
UPDATE: As it turns out, the answer asked in the headline for this post is a resounding “no”. It’s not that Google Cloud Print is being held off, as in the comments below you’ll see that it is actually the Cloud Print Proxy service. “They’re simply preventing cloud proxy code from being included with Chrome OS builds, this isn’t turning cloud print off on Chrome OS.”
via @kendfinger
Cloud Print Proxy Service Available in Labs
Posted on 07. Dec, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Okay, so it’s not really called Chrome Labs anymore, more like Chrome Experiments. Regardless, if you’re using Chrome 9 you can head over to the Experiments page by typing “about:flags” into the Omnibox. You can then head over to the Google Cloud Print service page and then use your cloud-enabled printer. That is, if you have one.
We were concerned about the availability of Cloud Print at Chrome OS’s launch. TechCrunch’s MG Seigler is speculating that Chrome will run in three separate versions just like ever other build of Chrome: Dev, Beta and Stable. If that ends up being the case, which seems probable, then Cloud Print would work once Chrome OS Dev hits 9.
As Version 1 Approaches, More Screenshots of Chrome OS
Posted on 03. Nov, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
The guys over at DownloadSquad have a recent build of Chrome OS (0.9.111) set up with some nice screenshots of what we’ll be using in the very near future on a commercial device.
Here’s a look at the login screen. This has been touched up, no longer with the blue background.
[...]
thechromesource Daily: Links for 8/31/10
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Here is a way to see the source of a Chrome extension before you install it.
Is Google Wave ever actually going to die? This all reminds me of when they killed off Superman for a while yet continued the comic.
Here’s a rather strange-looking device called the PogoPlug that provides a solution to cloud printing.
Only humans can create applications for humans, which is probably why Google is so focused on a social media strategy right now.
Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature is better suited for Google Apps users than regular consumers.
Cloud Printing Emerges in Chrome OS
Posted on 05. Aug, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 4 Comments
When Chrome OS was first announced, one of the many issues brought up was the ability to print. The question was asked, “how are you going to be able to print with a cloud device”? Thus, the era of cloud printing was born out of necessity. And perhaps this new method of producing the digital into paper form will be better than the way we do it now.
DownloadSquad’s Lee Matthews discovered recently a cloud print dialog box in a Chromium OS build, and he’s anxious to start printing out some stuff right now.
I have already written at length about how this will be done, complete with video. I have to admit it is probably going to be easier to rely on the cloud for printing services. That’s because in instead of dealing with drivers and hardware connections with printers, they will just work like they are supposed to using servers specially designed to do so.
I’ve had to deal with printers in the past that make me want to turn them into a hot pile of plastic, Office Space-style. Here’s hoping cloud printing will be an elegant, easy to use solution. Now if someone could get rid of those stupid ink cartridges that cost hundreds of dollars that would be great too, but I won’t push my luck.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 6/9/10
Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Chrome OS will run legacy PC applications using a process unofficially called ‘Chromoting’ according to the Register.
In a partnership with HP, a launch of cloud-enabled printers will be coming soon allowing your printing to be wireless in the cloud.
The Dell Linux team has updated their build of Chromium, specifically for its line of netbooks.
Interestingly, Apple has been credited with spotting some bugs in the Chrome browser.
ZDNet asks, what will be the effects of Android and Chrome OS on the release of Linux distributions?
What’s the Solution to Printing in the Cloud?
Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Of the many perils associated with cloud computing, one that could potentially be very problematic is the issue of printing. Sure, we don’t print as much as we once did as documents go the way of “paperless” solutions. But the reality is that printing is not going to go away any time soon. A recent Chromium Blog post addresses this issue, announcing that Google will be working on a project called Google Cloud Print, which gives developers a peak at how this might work.
The service is going to run on Google servers, sending the printing information from a webapp to them and then to printing devices which as we all know requires drivers and sometimes other special software in order to work depending on the type of printer. There may be some concern about having to send documents directly to Google and then routing that information back to a printer, but I’m not sure how else printing is going to be accomplished.
In fact, this solution has already been proposed by another company called Cortado that has an application you can use to print things from an iPhone. Clearly you are unable to install print drivers on an iPhone, so this app is pretty cool. The concept is still the same, however, in that another machine somewhere with the correct software installed is doing the work of being the interface to the printer:
This still begs the question: are you concerned that the cloud will affect privacy? Or does it not matter anymore in an ever-transparent world that we live in?
