Cortado, which lets users print from RIM BlackBerry smartphones, Apple's iPhones and iPads, is writing a software plugin for Google Chrome OS to let users print directly via WiFi or Bluetooth. Users will be able to trigger spontaneous direct printing from Google Chrome OS or Android devices. The utility will boost Google Cloud Print, which lets any application print to any printer from any computing device using Google's cloud computing infrastructure.
Google's Cloud Print solution for computers powered by Google
Chrome Operating System is still in its infancy, but at least one company is
marshaling its efforts around the solution for when it launches on netbooks later
this year.
Cortado, which currently lets
users print from RIM BlackBerry smartphones, Apple's
iPhones and iPads, is writing a software plugin for Google Chrome OS to let
users print directly via WiFi or Bluetooth.
Users
will be able to trigger spontaneous direct printing from Google Chrome
OS or Android devices. The plugin will support all existing printers and
nearly
all file types.
The utility will augment Google Cloud Print, a service Google
introduced earlier this month that lets any application print to any printer
from any computing device using Google's cloud computing infrastructure. Google
envisions the solution as a salve to the on-premise print solutions that use
myriad drivers to execute print tasks.
Cortado CEO and President Henning Volkmer told eWEEK that to
print via Google's solution, printers must support Google Cloud Print, or be
connected to a PC.
With Cortado's mobile printing capabilities, users do not have to search for a printer that
supports Google's cloud printing solution or have access to a PC.
"We
don't take something that already exists and try and cramp it into a
device that's not made for it," Volkmer said, when asked about Cortado's
approach to the printing market, which is hetereogeneous by nature. "Instead,
we build a tailor-made interface for each and every device we're working
with."
For
example, while the functionality of the Cortado Workplace solution for
the
iPhone is the same as that for an Android, Cortado will tailor the
solution for the Android platform based on the differences between the
iPhone and Android touch screens.
Cortado, whose free Workplace cloud printing tool is used by
more than 12,000 customers, will also offer a private cloud solution for corporate
IT departments that have more rigid security requirements.
Volkmer said Cortado, which charges $130 per user for a "
corporate server," will charge for the private solution.
It's early days for Chrome OS and Google Cloud Print,
neither of which are yet available in the market. Google Cloud Print is still
in what Google calls "preliminary designs," so there's no telling
that Cortado's Chrome OS solution will actually be a good fit for Cloud Print
when it arrives.
Cortado knows this, and professes to be nimble; the
company is simply preparing for what it sees as a fundamental shift toward the
cloud and that future will be steeped in mobile devices.
"While we know that this must be approved and
accepted by Google, we hope to have the company's support to provide the same
printing convenience for the Google Chrome OS that we already provide for major
mobile computing platforms," said Carsten Mickeleit, chairman of the board
of directors of Cortado parent company ThinPrint AG.
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