Android and iPhone users of Google's online services can now print too, probably, and if they've got the right supporting equipment. Google launched its cloud printing solution early in December last year, as an essential component of its Chrome OS. That release was only capable of printing out a single test page, limiting its …

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Tuesday 25th January 2011 12:00 GMT jake

Why?

I can already print to any of the printers on my network, from any of the computers on my network, on six continents. And I have print access to a network at McMurdo, on the rare occasion that I need it, thus bagging the seventh ... And yet, when I actually want to print something (maybe once a month or so), it gets sent to the printer at my elbow ... unless it's an ASCII-art Snoopy sent to a line-printer in my machine-room for one of my nieces or nephews. Why in the fuck would I want to send a print-job through a global advertising monstrosity like google?

Seriously, why? What is the point? Are people really this stupid?

Maybe I'm in the wrong line of work ...

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1. Tuesday 25th January 2011 13:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Maybe...
  
  Or maybe it's marketed at people other than those who have access to networks on seven continents?
  
  I think the point of it is pretty clear, it's to support mobile devices, i.e. Andoid and Chrome OS with the occasional Windows note/netbook running Google Docs. You know, so they can print without being connected to a LAN or if they are out of their SOHO.
  
  Maybe Google had their collective head up their arses when they didn't market this at you, but then there are a few billion people on the planet that aren't you.
  
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  1. Wednesday 26th January 2011 08:38 GMT jake
    
    @AC 13:08
    
    "Or maybe it's marketed at people other than those who have access to networks on seven continents?"
    
    Or maybe it's marketed at unthinking idiots who don't understand technology ... also known as "taking candy from babies" and/or "there's a sucker born every minute" ...
    
    "I think the point of it is pretty clear, it's to support mobile devices, i.e. Andoid and Chrome OS with the occasional Windows note/netbook running Google Docs. You know, so they can print without being connected to a LAN or if they are out of their SOHO."
    
    If they don't have physical access to the network the printer is on, what's the fucking point? The print-job will just sit there, waiting, absolutely useless to the person who printed it. And if they DO have physical access to the printer, why go thru' google? Again, what's the fucking point? Unless it's yet another tool for google to collect data from TheGreatUnwashed[tm], that is.
    
    "Maybe Google had their collective head up their arses when they didn't market this at you, but then there are a few billion people on the planet that aren't you."
    
    My point, exactly. The goo-twats are siphoning money from the ignorant. If I had the stomach for it, I'd be filthy rich instead of merely comfortably retired ... Conning people as a means of making a living is probably the real first profession ...
    
    One wonders if the folks that down-voted mine were planted by google ... There can't be that many people reading this particular forum who are that hard-of-thinking.
    
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Tuesday 25th January 2011 12:01 GMT Tom 7

Ah printing

the computing worlds abject failure to use computing technology.

A bit like using the Ferrari to drive to the stables because your arse isnt formatted for a car.

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Tuesday 25th January 2011 12:17 GMT Elmer Phud

Ah, progress

And to think it was only about 30 years ago working on phones in theXerox building on Euston Road (London (England)) i saw that the menu on the screen asked which printer, where? With 'where' meaning ' which country, which office, which printer'. All in glorious 256 shades of grey.

O.K., a closed network but well before the interwebs as we know it and well before M$ Windows and even Macs.

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Tuesday 25th January 2011 12:33 GMT Anonymous Coward

Works from my Android phone

Took a few seconds to find the printers via the web interface, but printed out really easily

Not sure how often I'd use it though as with a smartphone I never print stuff anymore...

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Tuesday 25th January 2011 13:57 GMT John Robson

Postscript

My post script printer got it's test page directly from my Android.

There is no need for it to leave my house...

Add a "view as PDF" option to docs mobile and we're sorted.

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Tuesday 25th January 2011 16:14 GMT Anonymous Coward

Can't wait for the first

page of ink cartridge ads to pop out of my printer.

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1. Tuesday 25th January 2011 22:16 GMT David Barrett
  
  Or
  
  Or 30 sheets of solid rainbows followed by 1 page page of cartridge adverts.
  
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Tuesday 25th January 2011 16:14 GMT Battsman

RE: "Ah, printing"

I'm an avid computer user - have been for years, I use a Kindle because I got sick of the waste (and the pile of paperbacks that I had no space for). I get my news via the Internet.

I still find printing an important part of my work. I find effectively and EFFICIENTLY marking up control schematics, logic diagrams, etc. with a keyboard and mouse to be next to impossible. NOTE: I'm not saying I can't do it, I'm saying I can't do it efficiently - and time is money.

Perhaps in another 5 years, I'll be able to use 3 or 4 monitors with a clean touch interface that would allow for efficient and quick manipulation of documents. However, the current technology (at least at a standard user's cost budget) just isn't there.

Or to put it another way, don't assume everyone's usage matches yours - printing is still a necessity for some people.

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1. Tuesday 25th January 2011 16:35 GMT J. Cook
  
  RE: RE: "Ah, printing"
  
  I can wholly agree with this: It's faster for me to find, say, network closets on a paper copy of the blueprints then trying to scroll around a electronic scan of the same document.
  
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  1. Tuesday 25th January 2011 22:16 GMT Ammaross Danan
    
    Re: Re: Re: etc. "Ah, printing"
    
    I'm in agreement too. There's just some things a few quick hand-scrawlings and drawings are perfect for. To do this on a computer, you need to load the doc in some editor that can support such things, save it, pass it on to whomever needs it, and hope your scrawlings are still legible and intact. Not to mention the pen interface, touchscreen, or crappy mouse-drawing one would need in addition to that software support....
    
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Wednesday 26th January 2011 00:05 GMT Gareth Howell

Why???

Generally when you (ok, at least for me) want to print you want the hard copy now. What is the point of printing a document out on the train home when I'm still an hour away? Or better yet printing when I'm on holiday?

If I don't need the print out immediately, then I can either wait till I get home to print it, or (big shock coming, you've been warned) I don't need to print the damn thing out to start off with.

This just seems like a marketing gimick and a case of developer syndrome.

Developer syndrome, is where a developer always want to work on the latest and greatest tech, some times when it isn't appropriate.

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Wednesday 26th January 2011 10:33 GMT Mr Will

Why? Simple

The reason behind this is driver-free printing. A lot of people are doing a lot of browsing, emails, work, etc on smartphones, tablets and in theory the forthcoming chrome OS.

Now I could send my document to my main PC, open it up and print it from there, but that's a bit of a hassle. Much easier to just be able to press print on whatever device I am using and let "the cloud" sort it out.

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1. Monday 7th February 2011 14:04 GMT Hayden Clark
  
  Driver-free
  
  This is the point.
  
  Now, only the computer running Chrome, attached to the actual printer needs the driver. When the Sales-weasel comes into the office, he can just print - instead of annoying some busy IT-bod until they install the driver for the printer he can see in front of him, and prevent the Power-point handouts he's printing appearing on a printer in another office!
  
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