Google officially announced the roll-out of Cloud Print today, which will enable wireless printing of documents and emails from mobile devices.
As we reported in November, the impending arrival of Cloud Print was revealed somewhat by accident when hints of an upcoming cloud-printing feature showed up in the Google Docs source code. This confirmed that the feature, announced by Google in April 2010, was on the way.
In a post cross-published to the official Google Docs and Gmail blogs today, Google formally announced that the beta version of Cloud Print would be appearing in the HTML5 mobile version of Google Docs and Gmail shortly. The feature was originally developed for use in Chrome OS and will now be available on any smart phone that supports HTML5. Google says they’ll be rolling the feature out to users “in the next few days.”
How does one set up a printer to work with this feature? Google has an FAQ dedicated to that very question. Unfortunately, printers can only be set up from a Windows-based PC, but Google says Mac and Linux versions of the tool are in the works.
We reviewed the Google Docs HTML5 Web app a few weeks ago and found it to be an incomplete, yet sufficient mobile document-editing solution. The ability to print on the go adds a whole new element of usefulness, especially for business users. Imagine receiving an important document via email on your phone after hours or over breakfast in the morning and then sending it to the office printer, where it will be waiting when you arrive.
It also raises possibilities for remote collaboration in cases when colleagues may be split up between a physical office and other locations.
Would you find it useful to be able to print documents and emails from your phone or tablet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
