blog
Print from your phone? Not really… yet
August 22nd, 2007 by John BrianA article in the Times caught my eye earlier this week - it purported that HP had developed an easy way to print using a mobile phone. The idea 
intrigued me - I’m always on the lookout for cool SMS tools (there’s got to be more to it than poorly spelled messages filled with “ur” and other expressions used to save people the agony of typing two more characters… but I digress) and being without a printer on the road can be a nuisance - having to transcribe Google Maps directions by hand sort of defeats the point.
So I read the article and was disappointed to see that it’s not so much printing from a mobile phone as using a mobile phone as one of several devices in the process of getting something to print, sort of like saying you walk to work because there’s a parking lot between your house and your car. Here’s how it works:
The service requires users to first ??print? their documents to H.P. servers connected to the Internet. The system then assigns them a document code, and transmits that code to a cellphone, making it possible to retrieve and print the documents from any location.
Later, using the SMS message the service has sent to the user??s cellphone, it is possible to retrieve the documents by entering the user??s phone number and a document code on the Cloudprint Web site. The documents can then be retrieved as a PDF, ready to be printed at a nearby printer.
The service will include a directory service that will show the location of publicly available printers on Google Maps. The system currently works with any Windows-connected printer. A Macintosh version is also planned.
Make sense? It’s all the fun of using Kinko’s web upload service combined with the hassle of saving every text message that relates to a document you might one day need. But I decided to put my skepticism aside and give it a try - maybe the Times was just making it sound convoluted.
I started out be visiting CloudPrint.com. That’s apparently coming soon - looks like even the mighty HP can get scooped by domain kiters. So I Googled CloudPrint, and despite Google’s helpful suggestion that I was looking for “cloud print,” I eventually found my way to their easy-to-remember-while-on-the-road URL, cloudprint.hpl.hp.com.
I went ahead and clicked the install driver button to add the printer to my list, and after an install process that included an ominous-sounding “Port Redirection” program, I had the driver 
installed. Except for the confusing error message that popped up to tell me that in reality, I didn’t have it installed for some reason and I should contact my administrator (perhaps the single most unhelpful suggestion in the history of personal computing?). Okay, so they don’t support Vista - good to know if I’m on the road I should be running Windows XP. So I fired up my trusty Vaio to see if I could install the printer there.
I was able to install the driver without a hitch on Windows XP Home and went ahead and converted one of my earlier posts to a word document to print it. I chose CloudPrint from the list, just like any other printer. It popped up a window like the one shown below, asking me to enter in my sender name and recipient name. I appreciate that it lets me choose a variety of targets - this would let people send a document to everyone in their office to access it later if they needed it, such as a contact sheet or a reimbursement form. Once I sent the document, CloudPrint popped up a message to let me know that the messages were sent and to tell me the codes assigned to each (which was helpful, since I sent one message to my office phone, which can’t open a text message). A moment later, my cell phone chimed and I looked at the text message I’d just received from “nobody@host65.hrwebservices.net.” The message read:
New CloudPrint message from John Brian McCarthy (7038940080)
Title: Testing CloudPrint (3 pp)
Document Code: 686312
Hey, look - no “ur” or “thx” - does this really count as a text message? I opened the document on my desktop, and it opened remarkably quickly for a PDF. But what would happen if I forgot my document number? By entering my phone number and 
hitting, “Browse,” I was able to use a pin number (sent to my phone) to look through all the documents I’d uploaded to date. This feature is definitely cool, and I wish the Times story had emphasized it - rather than needing to keep dozens of text messages with all your codes, all you really need to remember is your own phone number and your pin to get every document you’ve ever uploaded.
Want to try it for yourself without having to install the driver? Enter in the Beaconfire telephone number (7038940080) with the pin 080766 to see the test document I uploaded.
I don’t think so. What’s more likely is that this is a pilot to see if people are interested in the idea of mobile printing so HP and others can sink in the money to really make it work. Imagine this scenario: just before leaving for a conference, you think about all the files you might need there, but don’t want to load your bag down. You collect them in an email and forward them to a special designated CloudPrint 2.0 email address. When you get to your hotel room, you figure out what your next day looks like and send a text message to your reserved CloudPrint address with a command, like “ShowFiles” or, if you’re feeling sophisticated, including parameters like upload dates or extensions: “ShowFiles 080107-083007 doc xls“. You get a list of files that you were hopefully precient enough to name logically.
As you’re taking mental inventory of what you need and walking down to the lobby, you start another text message to your CloudPrint address with a list of files to print and the 
number of copies of each. When you get there, you go to the CloudPrint kiosk (it’s right next to the ATM in your hotel that caters to conference-goers), check the machine ID number, and include that in your text message: “Print proposal.doc*2 budget.xls*1 prospects.doc*4 @ MKE-359.” The server receives your message, verifies that the sender number is authorized to print for your account and these files, and sends them online to the kiosk. Your documents print out, your account associated with the service is automatically charged and you head to the hotel bar, knowing that you’re ready for the conference the next day (or you’re swearing at the printer that’s blinking “Out of toner” - even this utopian vision can’t fix everything!).
That’s how I see the future for integrating mobile phones with printers - use them as remote control devices that act as keys to accessing your documents from anywhere in the world. No more printing out everything to be ready for contingencies, no more worrying about losing your flash drive and no more dealing with Kinko’s when you’re already running late. As for HP’s CloudPrint, cut out the PDF step and using the phone as a gloried post-it, and really make use of the technology’s strengths. I think that as clunky as HP’s first foray into mobile printing is, it should be lauded. It’s a step in the right direction (except the PDF part), and I hope to see us really make use of this sort of the synergy in the future.
Next time you go to a conference, think of what mobile printing could do for you. Unless, of course, you lose your cell-phone. Then you’re on your own.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Nice work on this. I’ll provide a link in my blog tomorrow, jimlyonsobservations.blogspot.com. I’m coming at this from the printer side.