Google launches cloud printing service

Wed, 26th Jan 2011

FYI, this story is more than a year old

In April 2010 Google announced Google Cloud Print, which is a service allows printing from any app on any device, OS or browser without the need to install any software.

Last month the beta service opened to users in the Chrome notebook pilot program and today Google has rolled out the beta launch of Google Cloud Print for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile.

As usual it looks like the service will go live in the US first, before spreading across the globe.

“Imagine printing an important document from your smartphone on the way to work and finding the printout waiting for you when you walk in the door. Just open a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail in your mobile browser and choose ‘Print’ from the dropdown menu in the top right corner. You can also print certain kinds of email attachments (such as .pdf or .doc) by clicking the ‘Print’ link that appears next to them,” explained Tyler Odean, Google Cloud Print Team.

The new feature will work on most phones that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 2.1+ and iOS 3+. And to get started, you’ll need to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print.

“This step requires a Windows PC for now, but Linux and Mac support are coming soon,” added Odean.

Jump over to the Google Cloud Print help centre for more.

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