Printing Industry News Digest

Printing Industry News Digest No.139, March 24, 2013

2013-03-25T16:09:00.003+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 139, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

IPEX 2014 grabs the headlines yet again this week with the publication of an open letter to all IPEX stakeholders, as first published via PrintWeek.com on Thursday of last week, aimed at promoting the positives of print. A series of cost saving measures for exhibitors have also been communicated as organisers Informa seek to show their understanding of the price of shows in these harsh economic times.

Prior to all of that excitement, the build up to its stable-mate show, North Print & Pack, is well underway. The Harrogate-based exhibition is the only major print focused show in the country this year, and the last event of any significant size in the run up to next years IPEX exhibition.

“Why Newspapers Still Matter” lecture occurs in the same week as debate continues in UK re Leverson, while newsrooms continue to cut back on journalists, and contract print revenues continue to struggle.

Shareholder unrest in the digital world as HP sees big protest vote against re-election of directors.

The Google Reader issue won’t go away. TechCrunch asks what of those users just stop using a news feed system. It also takes a look at the history of the feed reader. Feedly is tipped as the likely successor for many users, but who pays for all of that server power that this will require?

Google has, however, this week introduced a new package: Google Keep is a note-taking tool. Nothing sensational, but it might be another handy solution to those of us with failing memories! [still recommend Evernote though!]

Meanwhile, a realtime API interface with Google Drive is now something that developers can get excited about.

Android Tips: Regular readers just knew it wouldn’t take us long to start fiddling with the screen display of the Note II phone – the arrival of which was posted just last week. Our first screen creation on this device offers a decidedly monochrome theme, inspired by a glorious wallpaper image, coupled with some of the basic thoughts of the Holo Cards theme recently shown on this site, and a semi-transparent icon set entitled Glasklart. Our favourite Nova launcher provides the base, which allows us to employ a 5 x 9 grid and six dock buttons: phone, email, settings, text message, Opera browser, and Spotify. A basic nine app buttons reside in the lower / centre of the screen. We find this “simple” structure easier on the eye. The straightforward analogue clock face follows this same principle.

The four additional buttons along the top of the screen are in fact page-links. They connect to four additional screens offering further apps grouped by topic. The four buttons shown lead to: a tech settings page; a files page, including links to our favourite cloud storage sites; a “play” set of apps, including music, TV, films, and books; and a “links” page, including bookmarks to regularly visited news, print, and sports sites. Each of these pages includes a similar set of icons at the top of the screen, with the addition of a home button to return to the “home” screen.

Additionally, a swipe down the screen will take the user to a digital clock screen combined with weather info, along with an open Google-based diary for today with the next four appointments on show. A swipe up the screen offers a quick route to the browser with news headlines. For more technical details email PIND.editor@gmail.com

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND139

Missed Issue 138, with inkjet and newspapers? Then simply click here!

Issue 137: SRA1 format
Issue 136: offset installs
Issue 135: PUR binding

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.138, March 16, 2013

2013-03-17T20:15:00.001+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 138, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Following its previously reported trial runs, Axel Springer AG has gone big on adding inkjet to its newspaper printing web presses across Germany. A total of 33 inkjet systems are being added to presses to provide for the printing of unique elements within standard daily publications. Trails included gaming elements as well as local news enhancements.

Where did the box go? Adobe confirms that there will be no more packaged copies of its Creative Suite of products. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat and others will be available still via the company’s web site. Adobe also offers access to the software through a $50 per month subscription.

So Google Reader is for the chop? We certainly hope that this is not going to be the case, but if it is here are a few suggestions as to how to cope with life post-Reader!

Already this year two of our biggest customers have spent serious cash updating or largely re-inventing their web sites. Is it time for you to update, or can your business survive without the now traditional web presence? Mashable poses the question and looks at possible solutions.

If you’ve ever wondered why we, and others, get excited by Evernote then this article if for you! Lifehacker’s own Whitson Gordon could never get either. He has now! Mac users will be happy that they can now add notes from their menu bar.

Elsewhere in the cloud, Jolidrive wants to combine all of your cloud services into one, Dropbox is buying Mailbox, Box appears to be readying itself to take on Google Docs, and LinkedIn appears to be acquiring Pulse.

Android Tips: We focus on making the move from iPhone to Android in the phone department, and take a close look at the Samsung Galaxy Note II, a device where size really does matter. For many such a large device will be a non-starter. For the businessman on the move, we see it as a great combination of tablet and phone: OK for phone calls, but large enough to read without eye strain. There are plenty of reviews about, so we won’t go into the intricacies of the device, but we certainly do see it as a “Marmite” bit of kit: love it for the screen size or hate it because the format is not a pop-it-in-your-pocket style of unit.

Major pluses of the Note II: screen size for ease of web access. In fact it’s large enough to be able to split the screen to show two web sites in reasonable (adjustable) size. The S Pen: it really does take very scrappy handwriting and turn it into type. Takes a bit of getting used to for sure, but that’s tech for you! The flexibility of Android: we are not 100% sold on the basic phone capabilities – Apple still has the edge in our opinion – but overall Android is much more flexible than iOS, giving the user more opportunity to design an interface to suit their own personal needs. Having said that, would I recommend any Android phone to the average user? Probably not. We have been working with Android for some six months, and this phone for almost a week, and we are quite sure that you will need some hands-on software experience to get the most from the device. If you want a more straightforward “smartphone out of the box” product go for the iPhone. You are unlikely to be disappointed. If you like fiddling, and like the idea of taking one 5.5 inch screen out with you, rather than a smaller phone and a seven inch tablet for reading, the Note II is for you! One other probable plus: battery life. All reports suggest long hours from one charge on Note II – we are still not 100% convinced, but it is still certainly better than iPhone. If worst comes to worst, get a spare: the battery is very easy to swap out.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND138

Missed Issue 137, with news of SRA1 format? Then simply click here!

Issue 136: offset installs
Issue 135: PUR binding
Issue 134: Digital publishing

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.137, March 9, 2013

2013-03-10T19:31:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 137, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Further to last weeks stories of new litho installations, there is one more new press to focus on: Geerings Print has become the latest print business to do its calculations and realise that its not, in the main, a B1 printer but an SRA1 printer! Check out the massive savings that the directors calculated prior to placing an order for a Ryobi 925 with coater. In the digital world The Langham Press has unveiled its MGI Meteor device.

IPEX 2014 continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, with Canon becoming the latest heavyweight to pull out. One digital supplier is going to open their eyes soon and realise that they could make serious mileage out of being the star of this show.

Want a brighter printed future? The team at Duo Media has detailed the results of a survey of industry consultants who were asked for their predictions of the future. One aspect of future print, 3D printing, has taken some interesting turns this last week: 3D print production of a piece of human skull, for example, or a vending solution for small sized 3D printed parts.

I wonder if it includes newspaper publishers getting into education? That’s exactly what News Corp. appears to be doing: tablets for education from Mr Murdoch. Interesting! And if you’re one of us in the over 50 bracket, you might want to know what teenagers get about the internet that us grown up don’t.

Are you a cloud storage fan as yet, or does it still give you an uneasy feeling. Dan Gillmor gives voice to his concerns in an article from the Guardian.

By the way, if you have a tablet that let’s you choose your own favourite browser, you might want to take a look at the latest Opera (available in the Play store). It’s much neater then previous versions and extremely swift in our experience.

Android Tips: Nexus 7 fans have been anticipating the arrived of a dedicated, purpose built docking station for several months from Messrs Google & Co. The good news? It has this week been posted as available for order on Google Play. The even better news [for us at PIND, at least!] is that our order has already arrived - just two days after being placed. Most impressive - especially when the site said to allow at least two weeks from time of order. The less than good news? Word is that stock has already run out!

OK, so now we have your attention at least. A brief hands on review, with as little gloating as is possible, is the least we can do for other Nexus 7 fans. The summary: it's just fine. It does what it says on the tin. It supports the Nexus 7 in landscape mode, charging as it goes if you plug in your standard charging lead into the rear of the base. This does actually leave the original USB-mini socket free and available. Plug an OTG link in there to accommodate a standard USB stick, a keyboard with a wire, or (as in our picture) the business end of a cordless mouse. Presumably it would be possible to connect up a USB hub and plug in all three at one: we don’t have one right now, so we can’t try it.

Enough said I suspect. It is fine, appears to be just as well built as the Nexus 7 itself, and helps to extend the ability of the tablet, giving a pretty reasonable impersonation of a laptop when coupled with said cordless mouse and our favourite Apple Bluetooth keyboard (other keyboards are available!). Any questions?

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND136

Missed Issue 136, with news of offset installs? Then simply click here!

Issue 135: PUR binding
Issue 134: Digital publishing
Issue 133: Hard times for heavy metal

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.136, March 2, 2013

2013-03-03T19:30:00.001+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 136, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

I guess the best news of the week for many associated with the printing industry is that presses are still being installed, and they are coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes! A compact B2 machine from Ryobi, right the way through to a 17-unit B1 Heidelberg for Chesapeake.

With all of that press on their minds perhaps it was less surprising not to see them at this weeks Packaging Innovations event at the NEC, Birmingham. They might have been the only one’s not there! A busy show is a statement we are not using often in this day and age: this event was very hectic! Benson Group officially launched its new web site at the show.

Augmented reality has been a topic of discussion for some time now, and has proved a great novelty for many. It is suggested, however, that we are only just scratching the surface of AR, and that there is still much more to come: the glasses might change all of that! It is certainly one ideal bridge between print and the internet: an ideal tool for those in the printing world therefore!

AR is one way, perhaps, of helping print to create further smart anti-counterfeit devices for packaging, tickets, legal documentation, and other pieces of critical print. According to the guys at TechCrunch counterfeit is the new real!

We have been a fan of Bluetooth keyboard’s for various bits of phone and tablet kit for ages, but this Logitech product has a nice twist to it: a button to switch between two or three different products, meaning that you don’t need to re-configure your Bluetooth for each bit of kit every time you work with a new platform. Neat but a bit pricey right now.

Handy kit, however, if you are working from home and using a variety of platforms to get your tasks completed. Working from home is the future, suggests this article from the Guardian. If you are one of those home workers, you might well want to note the latest stats re tablet purchases, pointing to the popularity of the smaller format units. You might also be keen to read this article from Lifehacker on those small things that matter when buying a PC [the info is in the answers!].

On the subject of tablets, what do you use yours for? Some interesting answers here! Couch surfing is a major use, but then having a second internet screen whilst at a main workstation is a great plus too. We also find the seven-inch form great for traveling with in order to read (replacing the Kindle), whilst still being handy for typing notes into [see previous PIND discussion!]

Want to de-Apple your iPhone or iPad? No, not jailbreaking – just replacing some of those annoying iOS only apps. The Guardian offers a great little article with some interesting alternatives. Interesting if you are thinking Android in the near future! How about this e-ink based Android that will run for a week on one charge?!

One of our favourite bits of software, Evernote, got itself hacked yesterday. If you are a user, you will need to comply with a mandatory password change. Your data, it would appear, is all fine though, so don’t panic! NB: any IFTTT recipes that you use with Evernote in the mix will need adjusting with your new pass too. If you are not an Evernote user, why not?

Oh and by the way typeface lovers: it would appear that David Bowie inspired plenty of exciting letter forms, as well as some good tunes! I never did realise that you know.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND136

Missed Issue 135, with news on PUR binding? Then simply click here!

Issue 134: Digital publishing
Issue 133: Hard times for heavy metal
Issue 132: Morgana turns Swedish

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.135, February 23, 2013

2013-02-25T19:43:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 135, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

PUR perfect binding is in focus with Morgana Systems. Links to three short videos on the products are well worth a look as PUR moves to short-run digital work. The affordable DigiBook 150 is an entry-level hand-fed machine suited to very small quantities.

Meanwhile many companies expressed joy and delight at the recent Hunkeler Innovation days staged in Switzerland. Many are asking if this is this the new way forward for exhibitions. One voice against might come from Packaging Innovations at the NEC, Birmingham, this coming week.

Publishing, meanwhile, takes centre stage in London where the Publishing & Media Expo happens on Tuesday and Wednesday, at Earls Court.

Such a show is more than likely to have a focus somewhere within on self-publishing. The Guardian offers some sharp thoughts on this revolution for writers. Meanwhile, in the US, a David v. Goliath case is launching with three bookstores taking on the might of Amazon and six of the biggest publishers in America. Where’s your $5 on the outcome?! Restraint of trade is the basic point of focus.

What is next for books, asks the Guardian. A good question to go to the above show with perhaps. How about a talking book alongside the readable version? Gigaom imagines this to be a working product via your Kindle.

The 4G mobile network has been much in the news this last week, with the UK government and its wildly optimistic valuation taking centre stage. The guys quickest out of the 4G blocks in UK, now known as EE, do not appear to have taken the country by storm with their offering, which may well have influenced the bidding process. 4G should succeed in the long-run, but try giving us a decent network first and then asking for a hike in monthly subs – otherwise its very much like the kings new clothes!

For those at the techie sharp end it will surely come as no surprise to hear talk of double digit growth in the tablet computer market during this last year. Expectations from Forrester are for that to continue in the coming years with a figure of 55% online adult ownership in Western Europe by 2017. That equates to a whopping 147 million units in case you were wondering!

Some of those should certainly be Google Nexus products by our reckoning. With Google retail stores widely tipped to be on the way in the US, it would be good to see a better promotional push of these most excellent tablets. If a seven-inch form factor (or thereabouts) is on your shopping list, why would you buy anything else? Well, HP is now posing an option that might be worth looking at if you can wait until April . . . a $169 price tag (straight UK conversion: £111.44) is a very reasoned argument for the spec.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND135

Missed Issue 134, with latest on digital publishing? Then simply click here!

Issue 133: Hard times for heavy metal
Issue 132: Morgana turns Swedish
Issue 131: Kodak out of IPEX

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.134, February 16, 2013

2013-02-17T19:08:00.001+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 134, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Inkling offers an alternative digital publishing environment: competition for Apple and Amazon it would seem. Pearson, DK Publishing and HarperCollins show interest says TechCrunch.

All change at ABC: as digitally published magazines grow in popularity, so reporting stats have to change. Time-honoured ABC circulation figures are now able to point directly to both printed circulation and digital editions. This month marks that change point, and whilst print is still dominant for all leading players, how long will that remain the case we all have to ask.

The Sun to drop its iconic page three? Wouldn’t that be suicide for already dipping circulation figures? Murdoch and suicide don’t go together in our book.
It’s not all plain sailing however. Amazon competitor Barnes & Noble posts further gloomy news re Nook numbers. Publishers too are walking a thin line: Time Warner reportedly looking to sell Time. Hearst meanwhile is going headlong into the digital world.

Ricoh, it is said by the PrintWeek, has launched a digital v. offset calculator. The aim is to help users select the most appropriate printing technology. I wonder where it is weighted? Ricoh makes digital, not offset: a clue?

As a follow up to last weeks heavy metal view, the Australian team at Print 21 publishes its thoughts on Heidelberg’s latest sales figures.

Design for mobile, that a message that was promoted late last year by our friends at ccDotmeter, but it is strongly echoed at Poynter, where the stress is on the disruption for news-based sites. It points out very succinctly that mobile is going to be the dominant platform by next year, meaning that we are already very nearly there!

Want Winston to read you the latest? Great iOS app for reading through the latest news headlines from home, as well as from Twitter and / or Facebook. It’s not perfect yet by any means, but Winston is a great eye opener as to what is possible.

Ways to create multiple Dropbox accounts? We have thought about it, but for now the easier option is surely to create more Google Drive accounts if you want free storage space? Mega has loads too!

Need more than nine browser tabs open at a time? Lifehacker says no need. We are not wholly convinced. OK, you don’t need hundreds, but we tend have to seven pinned tabs in Firefox before we actually start browsing for real (mail, the diary, Twitter, the blog, etc). That leaves room happily for six or seven full sized tab headings as well if needed, which is rarely. Good post to read though!

Android Tips: Not quite so much a pure Android tip this week, more a general tablet talk piece really, and you could say several tips wrapped into one! This week we talk mobile and mobility. Still lugging a heavy, large, and ungainly laptop around with you? Struggling to find a train seat that will accommodate your on-the-go work unit? We just question whether you really need all of that hardware in tow: some will answer an unwavering “yes” to that, others might ponder on an answer and start thinking tablet. Tablets offer various configurations for working on the move. We offer a couple of very useable Android examples for your consideration:

Take Samsung’s 10.1 tablet, add the suppliers own Keyboard Dock station and its USB connector placed into the power slot on the right of the keyboard. Stick in any cordless mouse USB plug and you have a perfect imitation of a DIY laptop. The advantage, of course, is that the tablet separates at any time you like to provide a far more portable unit for swift internet browsing. Type your thoughts into Evernote, connect to your Dropbox account, and create Documents To Go while you travel.

Option 2: Connect just about any Bluetooth driven keyboard to a Google Nexus 7 tablet for a rapid transformation into a mini desktop. A similar USB to mini-USB plug will provide access for your cordless mouse if desired, however, landscape mode would be more successful for this – especially if you are using a cheap and cheerful stand, as shown in our picture. The devices shown really will provide a pocket sized computer for your excursions: the keyboard folds to fit in a jacket pocket, as the Nexus 7 slides into your inside pocket too.

For both of the above, connect to a 3G signal when you need it by tethering your phone’s connection and picking up that network on your tablet device. Mind you, how about doing all of the above on your phone (or should I say "phablet") anyway? Great connectivity focused video via YouTube featuring Samsung's Galaxy Note II phone and a few cables!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND134

Missed Issue 133, with hard times for heavy metal? Then simply click here!

Issue 132: Morgana turns Swedish
Issue 131: Kodak out of IPEX
Issue 130: Start of Android Tip Series

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.133, February 9, 2013

2013-02-10T11:54:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 133, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Two interesting news items from print’s heavy metal brigade this week. Firstly, KBA advised the world that a 2.5% price increase in its presses was going to solve all of its problems: questionable for sure! And then on Friday, Heidelberg posted its “strongest third-quarter operating result since 2007/08.” Sounds impressive until you realise that this still leaves the business some 32 million Euro’s in red ink YTD. Where to next for the big machinery boys?

InPrint came to our attention this week: an exhibition for the world of industrial print. This is a sector that we never fully appreciated in all honesty. However, a glance through the overly wordy definition of the title should be enough to make anybody involved in print sit up and take notice. Such a show spreads a pretty wide net, and certainly includes the wonders of printed electronics and 3D printing – two topics that we have spent time and words on in recent months. The show is set for Hannover, Germany and happens next year from April 8 to 10 2014: plenty of time to get your thoughts together on this massive topic.

Want some Google? Eric Schmidt is going to sell £1.6 billion worth of it during the course of the next year – that’s 42% of his stake. His estimated 7.6 million shares in the company represent 2.3% of Google's outstanding stock. On the subject of popular shares, LinkedIn stock has soared 19.2% on the back of some juicy earnings.

Least surprising news of the week? Following the recently reported chunky hand-out from Google to French publishers, the rest of Europe’s media wants some too. No such concerns in the US, as online subscriptions carry on increasing for the New York Times.

While the Guardian is happy to give out advice on how you might access the internet with your tablet, analysts are telling us that tablets will outsell notebooks in France this year. Mashable meanwhile is keen to offer suggestions on what to do with your old tablet.

On the subject of how to get online, the UK’s 4G network is gradually growing this year, with some 27 more towns coming on-stream, expanding the total to 65 conurbations.

Ready to get in line for Mailbox? Well, its getting nearer to reality, but it seems that if you want to be in a position to test the delights of Mailbox, already being touted as the best Gmail client for iOS, then you will need to join a pretty lengthy queue. We think we will wait until its finished.

Android Tips: Having brought you the delights of Nova Launcher last week, we feel wholly obliged to show you just what you can do with it this week. In doing so we are entirely indebted to Thand and his Holo Cards posting via Lifehacker. This minimalist Android theme really caught our eye. Hopefully it does the same to you. Our use of the theme is not 100% as yet, and most interpretations probably won’t be: we all have out unique needs after all. Firstly, ours has been adapted for a Nexus 7, meaning that six dock names can be used. If you just like the square app boxes, you can pick those up by downloading the Minimal MIUI Go Apex theme. Full instructions for the Holo Cards theme are here.

Those readers enthused to attempt the creation of something similar should note that the use of names rather than icons in the dock is so much more than it looks. The names are actually just links to another screen-page. Rather than launching an app, they just transport the user to a new screen of apps to select from. The nine squares in the main screen are app launchers in traditional sense – they just have no name labels displayed. The whole exercise of changing the theme and way of working Android is very educational in our opinion. Try it – you might enjoy it!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND133

Missed Issue 132, including Morgana turns Swedish? Then simply click here!

Issue 131: Kodak out of IPEX
Issue 130: Start of Android Tip Series
Issue 129: Educational publishing

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.132, February 2, 2013

2013-02-03T19:42:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 132, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Morgana Systems, a leading UK-based manufacturer of post-press equipment, has been acquired by Plockmatic International. The Swedish-based company is also well know as a developer and manufacturer of document finishing technology, with a strong focus on inline booklet making systems.

The IPEX 2014 team came out fighting this week with some revised plans for next year’s event, including a reduction in the length of the event from eight days to six, and a white paper which summarises the state of the printing industry extremely well, in our humble opinion. If you haven’t read the Explore PDF yet, download it here and read it today. It might help crystallise your thoughts on your business as well as on IPEX.

Earlier in the week UK Ryobi press distributor Apex Digital Graphics announced that it would also be in a position to provide the range of Konica Minolta digital printing machinery to print businesses.

Money still outstanding from Goodhead Group? Looks like you are in good company. Unsecured creditors are owed a total of some £9 million, and are unlikely to see anything but pennies it would seem. Consumables suppliers to take the biggest hit, you will not be surprised to learn.

After doing the sums a total of 40 regional journalist jobs look likely to go as Trinity Mirror seeks to share more share more news stories across its 100-plus titles. The new strategy? You guessed: digital first. Mind you, this is a drop in the ocean compared to Time Inc. where about 500 lay-offs are looking likely at the 21-title publishing house.

So just why is the Guardian not going for paywalls? Interesting look at the various monetising strategies for news publishers from Mashable.

French government sorts out Google on behalf of publishing sector to the tune of £52 million. Germany liking the sound of this.

So, eager to get your 3D printing business up and running? What products are in the market you might ask: well, Engadget offers its consumers guide to 3D printer products. Once you get one, you can print your own robot!

Least surprising stat: tablets show year-on-year growth of 75% as Q4 2012 numbers reveal a whopping 52.5 million tablet devices were shipped. The detail is more interesting, revealing that Apple is still way out in front in Q4 2012 with 43% of the market, but that shows a decline from 51.7% in 2011, though a leap in actual numbers from 15.1 million to 22.9 million units in Q4 2012.

We all like a bit of crystal ball gazing don’t we? Our chums at Mashable certainly do: you might like to gaze curiously through their 38 predictions for the future. Meanwhile you might also like this software – it makes predictions for tomorrow’s news by analysing today’s headlines!

Android Tips: Nova Launcher is a must for Android tablets in our humble opinion. It's a highly customisable launcher / home-screen replacement software for Android 4.0 and above. Key features include infinite screen scroll (loop of screens); the ability to define how many user screens you have and what order they appear in;

increase number of apps in dock – we use eight on the Nexus 7 for example; and have scrolling dock. Basic Nova Launcher is free, but we suggest you spend just a few pennies to upgrade to the Prime version – install the free software first and add Prime after. This adds a very good gestures capability for app launching, and unread counts for email apps. It's not just us! Some 32,000 five star ratings on Google Play suggest that others like this launcher too!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND132

Missed Issue 131, including Kodak out of IPEX? Then simply click here!

Issue 130: Start of Android Tip Series
Issue 129: Educational publishing
Issue 128: RSS news readers

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.131, January 26, 2013

2013-01-27T12:40:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 131, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

After a relatively quiet start to 2013 big stories have started to break this week. Just yesterday, Kodak announced that it was not going to be showing at next year’s IPEX event in London. Not the first big name to withdraw, questions might well be asked about the exhibition format. More news expected in the coming weeks.

Two heads are better than one? That might be the thinking behind news announced earlier this week regarding a possible agreement between Japanese offset-press manufacturers Ryobi and Mitsubishi. Discussions are taking place between the two, with a deadline set of June 30 for a final agreement.

Jobs cuts have been announced at the Financial Times. Some 25 jobs are at risk as the paper seeks to shift its focus and resources to online from the printed paper edition.

An optimistic post from Mashable on the wonders of print! “Why Printed Books will Never Die” sounds like a good read!

You have probably realised most of these, but here are eight ways in which 3D printing is different from printing (One: its in three dimensions . . . !). Printing a phone case is certainly something that your average print engine might struggle with.

Two articles that caught our attention last weekend: Don’t Mourn HMV says that there are better ways of finding music, and that small, specialist music shops will still survive; Every Company is up for Disruption focuses on keeping a focus on simple products, entering a market at the bottom. The two articles actually do connect rather well in our opinion, and might set some thoughts in motion.

There is a lot of guidance coming forth from some of our regular feed reads this week: you might like to scan through a few. How about 10 Good Tech Habits for starters; Fix the Internet’s Biggest Annoyances for a second; Four Social Media Lessons; and Six Blogging Mistakes as highlighted by Mashable. It might also be worth having a look at Eight Great Technologies Benefit from £600m in Government Funding as highlighted by The Guardian.

Android / iOS Tip: Adding a 3G network to a low-cost Android tablet always seems a little excessive. Indeed many models don’t even offer that as an option. Our Google Nexus 7 has no such facility for sure: but wait! Most smartphone users already have the ability to transfer their 3G capability from phone to tablet. If you are an iPhone user, check out the Personal Hotspot facility (under Settings). Basically, it will switch you to 3G mode and allow that 3G capability to be ported to another device. This can be done wirelessly: once you have switched the feature on at the phone, check your tablets list of wi-fi availability – you should find an iPhone option there. Your iPhone will advise you of the password. Key that in to get your link going. We have achieved a slightly better signal on the Nexus 7 by connecting the standard cable from the iPhone with the USB end hooked into an OTG cable that clips into the tablets mini-USB port. OK, this form of tethering only transfers the 3G signal from one device to the other, but this can be a significant benefit. Small phone screens can be hard to use for extended period of time. Seeing the bigger picture on a seven-inch screen is easier on the eye.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND131

Missed Issue 130, including our first Android Tips item? Then simply click here!

Issue 129: Educational publishing
Issue 128: RSS news readers
Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.130, January 19, 2013

2013-01-19T19:23:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 130, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Montgomery Litho goes, but McAllister Litho Glasgow rises from the ashes. Is this a good time to be investing in a printing business? Former Montgomery production director Janette McAllister certainly thinks so, saving 76 jobs at the same time. Industry opinion split.

Meanwhile Digital Print Zone has invested in finishing kit from Morgana following a shift in demand from its customer base, according to Print Monthly magazine.

Blocked print-heads? Fear not: a European solution is at hand. A scientist claims to have invented a new process that allows for the recovery of blocked print-heads that would previously have been disposed of.

According to the Cision Media Update this week, Guardian News & Media is to launch a digital edition in Australia. It suggests that Katharine Viner is leaving her role as UK deputy editor and relocating to Australia to head up the venture.

The team at Lifehacker have come up with a collection of free or low cost alternatives to the vast expense of the Adobe Creative Suite. Certainly some of these packages are great for occasional use, and are undoubtedly a whole chunk of change less than the Adobe versions.

A new set of browser speed test results have been published on Lifehacker. Whilst the authors are loathed to declare a winner, Chrome 24 seems to hit most of the high points through the various tests. Interestingly Explorer is certainly making a comeback in these latest results too.

Bargain bin? We find it hard to resist a very special offer – especially when it involves good looking tech! A nameless seven-inch tablet running Android 4.0.4 for just £36.50 was just too much of a deal for us to say no to. In the interests of research we had to purchase. No Bluetooth fitted, but it has a micro-USB port, a TF card slot, 4Gb of internal memory, and wi-fi as standard. Not a Google Nexus 7 for sure, but we will report back on how useful it is for the price!

Android Tip: How about having quick access app buttons for each of your Gmail addresses, and even each of your Google Drive accounts? Press and hold on a vacant area of screen. The “Add to Home Screen” box comes up and offers a “Shortcuts” option. Press that and select “Gmail label” from the subsequent list. Select an account (assuming you have already made the software aware of your various Google accounts!), and select which item you want on screen. Inbox has been used here in our example, but it could just as easily be a specifically tagged email box within the account. The result is a very quick way to check your mail across several accounts. In the image you can also see shortcuts to folders from Dropbox and Box accounts (left side of picture) – an nice simple way to dig into your files whilst on the move.

Mac Tip: Mac grandees will be very aware of this one we are sure, but if you are new to the Mac platform, you will probably enjoy CopyLess. This small but useful app means it is no longer necessary to switch constantly between different windows just to copy and paste a few items. Everything can now be copied once and pasted when and wherever it is required. Unlike the system clipboard CopyLess can store up to 100 items to which you have instant access at any time. For the average user, the free of charge CopyLess Lite is probably even more appropriate – this can store the ten last “command-C’s” and your three favourite elements. To use any one element, simply drag it into your current document, or use the “direct paste” button.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND130

Missed Issue 129, including educational publishing? Then simply click here!

Issue 128: RSS news readers
Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen
Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.129, January 12, 2013

2013-01-13T20:14:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 129, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Publishing has grabbed our attention this week: educational publishing has been put into focus by McGraw-Hill and its digital partner Kno: the future of textbooks is all about being dynamic – a flexible learning tool that develops with the student. Sounds good – unless you are a printer maybe!

The publishing focus continues with the news that printed book sales fell in 2012, but some suggest that they fell more slowly than in previous years. One in twenty printed books sold was by E L James! Is this good? We guess so.

Newspaper and internet publishing has also been in the news in Ireland, with ownership and rights issues being in focus. Should a newspaper charge a site for linking to it? Doesn't sound like good business to us!

Interesting development on the Kodak front as they license the name to JK Imaging for camera and projector production, following on from last years decision to quit the digital camera market.

CES news: Nice little wifi drive from HP – 32Gb and able to send video or audio files to multiple recipients. Also great USB device to turn your old laptop into a touchscreen device with Windows 8. The Nexus 7 dock snuck in the back door too!

Deserving of a mention for sure is this really cool Android Mini PC product. With a reported price tag of just $45 (less than £30) is has to be well worth a play. OK, it needs everything plugged in (monitor, keyboard, mouse), but you probably have a few of these about, especially as Bluetooth is now included on the latest version. Android with a mouse is just fine in our experience!

One thing that has intrigued us for a while is the not so humble watch. Latest variants have popped their heads above the parapet at CES. There is Pebble, which has had plenty of coverage; but also Toshiba; the latest update to I’m Watch doing an iPod Nano impression; and the Martian Passport Watch (?!) now in the fray. Interesting times!

It’s a new year – of course there will be tech predictions . . . ! More focused predictions re Microsoft and 2013 too [do read this one! it really is worth it!]. Mashable adds in five Chinese brands that we will hear more of in 2013. Of course, if you want to know the next big thing, the Guardian says ask a teenager!

On the general software front, Fetchnotes happened our way, and certainly appears to be a good multi-platform, well designed note-taking tool. We will give it a run out and see how it performs, but the question as always with such apps is can they do the job any better than the more general approach of Evernote. We do like the use of hash-tags in Fetchnotes and the nice and simple attach facility: worth a look we think!

Some 1 million Raspberry Pi sales have now been chalked up!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND129

Missed Issue 128, a focus on RSS news readers? Then simply click here!

Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen
Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress
Issue 125: Death of The Daily

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.128, January 5, 2013

2013-01-06T21:49:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 128, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

A Happy New Year to all of our readers! For this first edition of 2013 we will keep things light but hopefully useful with a view of some of our favourite news feed apps. Whilst we at PIND blindly promote our own RSS feeds on a regular basis, we give little insight to how you might use such data on your own desktop. Today we aim to change all of that! An RSS reader now offers much more than just a plain text based list of entries for you to interrogate: if this change has passed you by allow us to show you five of our favourite feed readers, along with images to show you how different a feed reader can be. You might want to offer your own preferred bit of software: give us a shout at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Our first example focuses on a web-based solution that we have been using for some years here at PIND / Genesis: Netvibes provides a personalised dashboard on your desktop computer (Mac or PC). Our first screenshot (above) of Netvibes shows an example of how our own Tech & Comms News feed can be viewed in a variety of formats via this software. Top left we have what is described by Netvibes as its “Normal” view of a feed, showing pictures where available, the headline (which acts as the link), and the opening words of text. The marching display version (bottom, left) passes through the headlines of each story. Top middle shows the Netvibes “Magazine” view of the same feed, featuring one main story and six sub stories: an attractive option. Middle bottom is the more basic text only version of the feed. Right are two “Slideshow” views of the same feed. Netvibes can be configured with a range of pre-formatted news feeds, Twitter feeds, weather info, and more, as shown in our second image. Several pages can be configured if required, and can, of course, focus on different subject areas.

A more portable reading tool can be found in Pocket. Previously known as Read It Later, the software was created in order for users to send links through to the web-based host for later display and reading. That is certainly something that can easily be achieved, and our photo shows a few links that we have right clicked on in the Tech & Comms blog site, sending these stories through to our Pocket account. Once registered a user can then download Pocket on virtually any item: iPhone, Android phone, Apple or Android tablet, or desktop machine. Once stories have been updated on any device they can then be read offline: a great tool for people whose journeys take them off-network (ie, many train journeys in UK).

Pocket, however, can be used in even more exciting ways. The basic data for Tech & Comms News actually begins life in Google Reader. We have a set of regular RSS feeds that we glance through each morning and evening, clicking the star next to items that we think will be of interest to Tech & Comms News subscribers. Via an algorithm set up in IFTTT starred items in our Google Reader account are then delivered to our blog site, our Twitter feed, and the Pocket program (for us to read later!).

A third option worthy of mention is Feedly. Available as an add-on in popular browsers such as Firefox or stand-alone software, Feedly integrates with your Google Reader. It can take feeds that you may already have, or it enables the addition of new feeds, displaying the information in a more magazine like way. An easy and swift to set-up option, Feedly can be tweaked and fine-tuned to display your important feeds first.

Another great tablet focused option is Pulse. News feeds can be added in one or multiple sections to provide a swift, pictorial overview of the latest information. Easy to configure and easy to read-at-a-glance, Pulse works with both iOS and Android tablets.

Finally, and perhaps most simply of all, we have a Mac-base marching display style of reader that can comfortably sit at the top of you main computer screen, keeping you up to date on one or several RSS feeds. RSS Ticker is available for a very low price from the Mac App Store [note: all of the other recommendations above are free].

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND128

Missed Issue 127, including manroland to close Plauen? Then simply click here!

Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress
Issue 125: Death of The Daily
Issue 124: Océ inkjet

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.127, December 22, 2012

2012-12-23T13:55:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 127, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

It seems staggeringly hard to keep the manroland name out of our headlines: similar to 12 months ago! Late this week we heard that the Plauen site was to be closed by the administrator following the breakdown of negotiations with potential investors. Earlier in the week the Print Business had told us of the departure of the CEO for the sheetfed business, though his role was always of a temporary nature. The web systems business, however, continues to go from strength-to-strength.

The Kodak patent sale went ahead, with a group of 12 involved: a veritable who’s-who of the tech world, including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe Systems, and FujiFilm. In what might be termed the sale of the century, the group managed to purchase the intellectual property rights for a reported $525 million; one “very special price” from an initial valuation of $2.6 billion.

Digital Twin: a potential boost for the printed magazine page? US-based Netpage is hoping that its augmented reality software can provide a connection between the mobile device and the printed page.

Sales of Morgana’s PUR binding kit are beginning to take off: the latest install is at leading Xeikon digital printer The Digital Press, where a DigiBook 150 has been selected to replace hot-melt perfect binding kit.

One or two end of year software snippets that you might enjoy, or find vaguely useful: we made mention recently of Archy, a great Mac way of displaying your Google Drive contents. You should find that you can use Archy as well as a Google Drive that you already have loaded on your system: access to two different Google accounts from one Mac! You will find a use for it! Don't forget to check out third-party apps for Google Drive too . . .

Tripped over a useful function in Simplenote this last couple of days too: to simply share a note with others, add their email address as a “tag”. They will not only be copied, but their adjustments (from within Simplenote) will be incorporated into your document as they make changes, and your updates into their document too! Care should be taken of course, but this could be a great way of getting a number of opinions gathered quickly. Give it a try.

Only just in time for Christmas: Raspberry Pi fans can spend their festive cash in the Pi Store! Perhaps that’s a post-Christmas place for any Xmas monies received?

Right. It’s that festive thing again. Getting short of wrapping paper at the last minute? PIND to the rescue! Print some out!

Then it will be time for New Year plans and resolutions. As a starting point I loved this great quote: “Being Realistic is the Most Commonly Travelled Road to Mediocrity”. Perhaps we could all use this thought as a springboard to creating some exciting New Year’s resolutions that will really empower us all.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND127

Missed Issue 126, including Fuji’s JetPress? Then simply click here!

Issue 125: Death of The Daily
Issue 124: Océ inkjet
Issue 123: manroland web systems

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.126, December 15, 2012

2012-12-17T11:15:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 126, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline. Click the pics too! Extra links are hidden behind the images below.

Short-run packaging is the focus for the first European orders for Fuji’s JetPress 720. Installs are expected in France and Austria. Look out for the most expensive packages on the market, as this unit lists at $1.5 million, and trundles along at 2,700 sheets per hour.

Following recent news re the addition of Kodak Prosper inkjet technology to its manroland web systems presses, rumour is rife that Axel Springer could be close to a tie up with Daily Mail publisher DMGT. The Print Business provides the detail.

The CEO at manroland sheetfed has decided that it’s job done: Alfred Rothlaender, tempted from retirement by business owner Tony Langley, has completed the “heavy lifting”, as Langley describes it, and leaves the business in best shape following the sale of the Mannheim factory site for housing development.

We know you’ve been wondering for a long time: “What are the Top 10 stories on GenesisNews this year?” Wonder no more: the answers are here!

Need more portable storage for your iOS or Android product? The good folk of Kingston have an answer for you: well, at least a 128Gb answer. That should be enough for most folk do you think?

$800 bucks for a 3D printer makes it sound like this technology is coming within the reach of small to medium sized businesses, or even home enthusiasts: Solidoodle 3 has the answer it would seem.

The festive period might well see a glut of tablets and new computer systems arriving at the foot of your bed. Whilst feeling sorry for poor Santa having lug all of that lot around, you might also ponder on what to do with your old kit. Lifehacker offers some suggestions.

The annual Richard Dimbleby lecture is to given this year by Mr Bill Gates: put it in your diary as exciting UK Christmas TV time if you like!

Still not sure what present to buy for your wife, daughter, girlfriend, etc, etc? Why not buy them an app? Yes, by right clicking in iTunes you can now gift an app to your (iPhone owning) loves one’s without even leaving the comfort of your own office.

What about Raspberry Pi you ask: well, how about building a streaming jukebox for Christmas? Whilst Pandora is the suggested vehicle, you might want to change the source for European readers. Mind you, one of the comments following this article suggests that you would probably be better off just converting an ageing iPod to the task. Easier, but perhaps not quite so much fun! OK, maybe use Pi for a solar-powered FTP server instead?

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND126

Missed Issue 125, including death of The Daily? Then simply click here!

Issue 124: Océ inkjet
Issue 123: manroland web systems
Issue 122: manroland sheetfed update

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Greatest Hits 2012: The Year’s Top 10 Stories on GenesisNews

2012-12-14T12:55:00.000+00:00

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and we are more than delighted to present to you, dear reader, the top ten postings for 2012 as created by total visitor numbers! These are the ten individual stories from 2012 that gained the highest viewing figures as recorded by our hosts at WordPress. As a postscript, we will also acknowledge the success and interest in the weekly newsletter Printing Industry News Digest, which has itself set new records regarding reader numbers. As with all of the very best “top ten’s” we feel the need to announce these in reverse order!

10. Our dear friends at CCDotmeter are back in the dotmeter market and back in our top ten! The microDot product is their new high-powered microscope product for checking plate and print detail. New of a Harlequin RIP interface got you interested.

9. Benson Group’s first purchase of a Heidelberg Diana folder gluer for their Bardon plant received a fair few visits just last month.

8. Packaging production is in the spotlight at Benson Group with details of the Copperpot confectionary cartons getting everybody salivating for more. The product was successfully used as a very tasty sampler at the Packaging Innovations event in London.

7. Digital printing is the real growth area in communications hardware, and Stirland Paterson recognised this earlier in the year with the installation of a Xeikon 6000 press.

6. You will of course have noted that 2012 was a Drupa year, and UK post-press equipment manufacturer Morgana Systems used the event to launch a range of short-run PUR binders.

5. Digital was the topic at Drupa 2012, and a clutch of B2-format digital developments were on show, including a partnership between Ryobi and Miyakoshi.

4. Morgana are also featured in the top ten with the release of the AeroCut multi-function finishing device.

3. Litho presses are far from dead, and Ryobi appears at number three in our list with the introduction of its latest B2-format offering the 760E.

2. Drupa has to figure large in the list of course, and the release that highlighted both the start of the event, and pointed folk towards our special Drupa blog got a lot of attention.

1. Top of the listing for this year is a Drupa story that detailed the links between old and new, with Ryobi combining its litho know-how with Kodak’s inkjet knowledge: the hybrid press has received much attention this year!

Printing Industry News Digest

As promised in our opening paragraph, we couldn’t list out top ten without also offering a focus on our weekly news digest release. Editions in the January, February, March timeframe received the most attention from you, our readers, with the re-building of the manroland company and Kodak’s move into Chapter 11 being the obvious headlines around that time. Top scoring editions of the weekly are as follows:

PIND No.84: January 21
PIND No.87: February 11
PIND No.89: February 25
PIND No.90: March 3
PIND No.92: March 17

ENDS

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.125, December 8, 2012

2012-12-09T11:27:00.001+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 125, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline. Click the pics too! Extra links are hidden behind the images below.

The Daily dies: the digital newspaper solution from News Corp has shut its doors after some 19 months. Whilst the US iPad subscription only publication was highly regarded by commentators, and briefly topped the paid-for iPad app charts, the numbers just didn’t add up.

Elsewhere in newspaper land, the New York Times is to downsize its newsroom as ad revenues fall; Trinity Mirror has unveiled its tablet strategy causing an increase in the share price; the Washington Post is now considering the paywall as the appropriate solution to its woes; and The Times, meanwhile, is offering up cheap Nexus tablets to new subscribers. Perhaps 2013 will shed new light for newspapers and a realistic monetising solution.

We hope The Dandy fares better than The Daily in digital land. The final printed edition of Britain’s favourite comic rolled off the press this week. The 75-year-old publications print run had dropped to 8,000 copies per week from a peak of 2 million.

The current hot topic of adding bespoke data via inkjet to a standard litho print is in focus at German publisher / printer Axel Springer as it integrates Kodak’s Prosper technology with manroland web systems equipment. A Colorman press was the first, providing unique lottery number information. The rest of the group will now be equipped, according to PrintWeek.

Meanwhile, it appears that the patent sale is back on at Kodak. Bloomberg advises us that the Apple and Google are teaming up for a $500 million-plus bid. Should provide some aid to Kodak’s bank account!

Are printers bad at marketing and weak at selling by anything other than price? Print Monthly offers some thoughts on both topics that are well worth a read – especially if you run a printing business!

With a focus on 3D printing, Gigaom introduces us to a PDF from the guys at Frog Design that offers 20 Tech Trends for 2013. Is 3D printing going to take over for regular printing companies?

Our friends at Mashable ask can e-books and libraries co-exist. Thoughts from others on this topic, including the Guardian and Surrey County Council.

Three new Surface tablets from Microsoft are set to arrive next year. The BBC’s Click programme [UK readers only] provides some comparisons of the latest tablet offerings from Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

What should you do to a computer before you sell or dispose of it? Lifehacker’s article this week is supported by the thoughts of others regarding cleaning or even completely destroying the hard drive.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND125

Missed Issue 124, including Océ inkjet? Then simply click here!

Issue 123: manroland web systems
Issue 122: manroland sheetfed update
Issue 121: Useful packaging

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.124, December 1, 2012

2012-12-02T19:18:00.001+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 124, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Océ has teamed up with manroland web systems to provide a digital solution for newspaper and book production. The JetStream 5500 full-colour inkjet press combines manroland web systems post-printing know-how with an Océ engine. Output is on 762mm wide material, with up to 254 meters per minute (mpm) of print being produced at 600 x 480dpi. “Quality mode”, which images at a perceived 1200dpi, can produce up to 200mpm.

Kodak claims improved lending terms, but still paying a chunky rate of interest. Conditions include a resolution re the company’s UK pension obligations.

John Dickinson envelopes has detailed its end-of-days for Washington, Tyne and Wear, factory: will close by the end of this year.

Messe Dusseldorf, the German exhibition centre, has pulled the plug on the digi:media 2013 trade show. It blames cancellations and a lack of commitment from potential exhibitors.

Ever needed to scan in a hard copy book to create a digital version? This robot will do so at up to 250 pages a minute! Should make digitising the Bodleian Library a swift job then . . .

So 3D printing is coming to a Staples (US for now!) near you? Is this the future of “printing”? Mashable and others look at the potential for this technology.

Window 8 reception still unclear! This week we are told that US consumers are not excited, whilst Surface is still suffering from weak demand. Not sure that the prices for the Windows 8 Pro version of the tablet are going to get things moving either.

The mysterious Nexus 7 dock has reappeared in Japan: release to the rest of the world likely to happen soon!

What’s all the fuss about Evernote: Lifehacker pools usual answers. Could shout louder about the excellent syncing across devices: we use it over iPhone, iMac, PC, Nexus 7, and other Android tablets. Sync is swift and reliable.

Using Google Drive as a cloud service? If you are a Mac user, you might like to try the interface offered by ArchyApp.com – it offers a cleaner, easier to use way of working with Google Drive. You will need to create a new Gmail account to use the service, but it does seem quite a friendly way to work with the cloud. A new account means of course another 5Gb of Google Drive storage space.

Mashable offers us its top 25 tech happenings of 2012. Surprised not to see mention of the Google Nexus tablets, yet Kindle Paperwhite comes in at 5? On the subject of important tech, a happy 20^th birthday to text messaging! If that was of interest, then you might also like to know that some 144.8 billion emails are sent each day!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND124

Missed Issue 123, including manroland web systems? Then simply click here!

Issue 122: manroland sheetfed update
Issue 121: Useful packaging
Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.123, November 24, 2012

2012-11-25T19:20:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 123, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

We mentioned manroland sheetfed at the top of last weeks news, but manroland web systems (now an entirely separate company) is selling hardware, and continues to develop new and imaginative solutions for both newspaper and commercial web press users. The latest news features the integration of tablet-based controllers with web press hardware.

Press installations are few these days, and Japanese manufactured press installations even fewer due to the exchange rate at this time, but packaging specialist Glossop Cartons found the need to install a second Mitsubishi press at its Derbyshire HQ due to the knowledge and expertise of the supplier M Partners. Litho press experts at the UK distributor for Mitsubishi products provided a solution to a problem posed by the packaging company.

Cloud hosting heads for consolidation in Europe as Claranet absorbs competitor Star, but TechCrunch suggests that SaaS could be on its way out.

AutoTrader, meanwhile, is talking of record viewing numbers at its web site, where 11 million unique visitors popped by in October.

The Hewlett-Packard / Autonomy gig is has been getting plenty of web space this last week. The Guardian provides a summary of where we are now.

Further suggestions, this time from the Guardian, that Windows 8 is taking off fairly slowly. Perhaps no surprises given people’s experiences with previous operating systems, which have often required significant updates just a few months down the line.

Nice posting from the guys at Lifehacker detailing what calls 50 free apps we’re most thankful for. Can’t disagree with the majority: if you are not making the most of some of these excellent offerings, have a quick read through!

In response to a question re keeping notes in sync, Lifehacker offers in interesting post with a wide range of solutions, many of which we have tried, and most of which we have liked. To us, however, it takes too long to reach the obvious answer: Evernote.

In Tablet-Talk, it will come as no surprise following the recent rash of affordable product introductions, that this festive period is already being tagged as the Tablet Christmas. Future Publishing is suggesting that this will result in growth of e-editions of magazines.
Our friends at Mashable suggest that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is good but no iPad killer.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day!

For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND123

Missed Issue 122, including manroland sheetfed update? Then simply click here!

Issue 121: Useful packaging
Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing
Issue 119: iPad Mini and Windows 8

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.122, November 17, 2012

2012-11-18T10:16:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 122, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Whilst delighted to hear that some 2,000 jobs have been preserved in the reorganisation of the manroland sheetfed business, we are still mystified as to where the approximate £40 million of wages will come from. This sum equates to the profitable sale of several hundred, or more likely thousands, printing presses in a highly competitive market. Even the market leader is struggling to shift enough metal, and is loosing money big time!

Having highlighted that little problem, we must not forget, Print is Big! We were delighted to be reminded this week of the Print is Big infographic-based web site: a US focused salute to one of the largest industries in the world. By $$$ size print eclipses most sectors; it produces 45 trillion pages annually, to emphasise the “big”; and is still growing, despite what you might read on the internet!

With that in mind, it is well worth reading this excellent news article from “The Atlantic”. It focuses on the turbulent times endured by a printer and his 1940’s Heidelberg press in Mogadishu, Somalia. So, Mr Printer in the UK or USA, do you still think you have it tough?!

Is this the next big thing in publishing? A camera integrated with a Sony PlayStation reads code from a printed book and turns it into an animated augmented reality, with the player interacting with the storyline via the game controller. A sprinkling of Harry Potter magic dust could certainly aid its success!

Mac based fans of Evernote will probably already know that version 5 of the free software is now available on the app store. They tell us that it contains some 100-plus new features. It certainly has a sharper, clearer new interface, and an improved search facility. If you are not a convert yet, take a closer look!

Interesting little summary from the guys at Lifehacker about common problems associated with the cloud storage systems. Also in cloud world, Microsoft has released info for SkyDrive SDK’s, allowing programers to integrate the product into apps. SkyDrive is also a welcome addition to IFTTT (If This Then That), the customisable action/trigger cloud based software program that we have spoken of often. Lifehacker also asks, is the cloud good enough for back-up?

UK 4G moving forward in the New Year: bidding to start in January 2013 on 4G spectrum.

Tablet talk begins with an Android update for those working with a Nexus 7: you will have noted I am sure that you can now upload Android 4.2 for your pleasure. Phone users with Android 4.2 will have a number of camera enhancements to enjoy, including a new panoramic picture capability, but with Nexus 7 the two best enhancements that I have come across in this general tidy-up are the stop-watch feature, and, best of all, the gesture typing capability. It really works well and is faster than trying to “type” on a miniature keyboard.

On the subject of Android tablets, the smart Xmas investment might be the new 32Gb Nexus 7 with 3G. Unlocked with a SIM slot and Jelly Bean 4.2 the US price of $299 has to be the bargain of the year!

Tablets are being blamed for Dell’s latest unhealthy figures, with both revenues and profits on the slide at the once great box shifter.

Least surprising news of the week: Microsoft Surface isn’t an instant hit as sales start modestly.
Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND122

Missed Issue 121, including useful packaging? Then simply click here!

Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing
Issue 119: iPad Mini and Windows 8
Issue 118: A bad week for print

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.121, November 10, 2012

2012-11-11T14:07:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 121, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

Nice to see in this high-tech world that product packaging can still be put to good use – even by the wealthy Apple company! What would appear to be iPhone or iPod packaging seems destined to morph into a stand for the product. Amazing what they can do nowadays!

On which subject, Mastercard has released a bank-card with screen and keyboard included. The touch sensitive buttons provide the ability the create a one-time password for online banking.

Returning briefly to packaging, it was good to see the digital press people at Xeikon are still keeping busy in the label sector: a Xeikon 3030 installation at PeterLynn Ltd in Corby has become that company’s first venture into digital label production.

The Guardian has been reminding us of the transformation of publishing. A readable brief history lesson if nothing else!

Meanwhile, we are advised that the UK contains millions of people lacking a basic online knowledge. We see a chunk of folk in the over 60-bracket who are likely to fall into this collective, more worrying is the 60% of small to medium sized businesses with little or no digital presence.

Dropbox fans, as well as users of other cloud storage solutions, might well be interested to compare their favourite solution with the service being offered by Cubby. The new entrant suggests some different ways of working: well worth a look we think.

Still not convinced or ready for Twitter? Take note: the 85-year-old leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics is getting himself sorted with a different type of “follower”. Pope Benedict is adding to the existing tech focus of www.pope2you.ne with the Twitter focus. The papal handle appears to be @PopeBenedictXVI - bet he gets more followers than us.
Tablet focus this week begins with TechRadar’s opinion on the top 10 devices. It rates the iPad Mini and iPad 4 as one and two, but perhaps surprisingly these are followed by the Google Nexus brace in seven and ten inch formats. Reviews of the Nexus 10 also abound. Your thoughts welcomed to PIND.editor@gmail.com

One interesting angle brought into focus by the growth of tablets is offered by the Mashable team: portrait mode and the way we use computers. The portrait way of working – as often employed by those with a slate – is something seldom replicated on a computer screen.

We have mentioned the super cheap Raspberry Pi computer before, and a list of 12 suggested uses was posted only recently to inspire geeky enthusiasts, however, Texas Instruments has even managed to reduce further the entry point for mini computing. Its single circuit board product will set you back a pocket-money price of $13.00 (£8.15) at your local Walmart!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND121

Missed Issue 120, including Random Penguin? Then simply click here!

Issue 119: iPad Mini and Windows 8
Issue 118: A bad week for print
Issue 117: Seven-inch tablets

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.120, November 3, 2012

2012-11-04T11:55:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 120, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

The world of publishing this week saw the creation of Random Penguin following the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. The Guardian views the move from various perspectives. It ends up questioning the innovative capabilities of British publishers, with a German company, once just a quarter of its size, now owns Penguin.

Further to the recent problems at contract printer Newsfax, PrintWeek suggests that this is unlikely to be the last casualty in the newspaper sector. Meanwhile, manroland web systems has announced a new MD to take over the reins of the premier newspaper press provider.

Something that I think we might have missed from earlier October: the Guardian offered ten ways to save the publishing industry. Remiss of us not to pass on these oh-so-valuable tips . . . Nothing thunder and lightening here, but actually a good collection that summarises the current situation well.

In the world of printing kit, the owners of Presstek managed to offload the business at last – just two days before it was to be de-listed on the Nasdaq. The $0.50 cents per share was not pleasing to some, but objections, we are told, have been overcome and agreements reached. Oddly, the new owners appear to cite their current ownership of Mark Andy label presses as an area of potential synergies? We can see few!

Further to previous Kodak news, latest results provide an increase in net loss to $312m (£193m) in the third quarter, moving to $977m for the nine months to 30 September, with net sales falling 19% over the same periods, to $1bn and $3bn respectively. Pre-tax losses from continuing operations continue to rise. Pretty pictures are getting harder to paint.

GMail users might well have noted an updated user interface that now provides a floating window in which to create you new mail.

Following on from last week’s in-depth tablet talk, there is both iPad Mini and Nexus 10 reviews to take a peek at this week. Oprah Winfrey, in the meantime, comes out in favour of Surface!

Nice message from Dropbox received on Friday: they wanted to illustrate the further potential of the cloud by promoting six third-party iOS apps that interface with Dropbox as a document repository. The apps include CloudOn, which enables Office document editing on the go, and Paperless, a list-based solution. Meanwhile, future gazing says that we will be wearing our computers more and more!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND120

Missed Issue 119, including iPad Mini and Windows 8? Then simply click here!

Issue 118: A bad week for print
Issue 117: Seven-inch tablets
Issue 116: August shows

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.119, October 27, 2012

2012-10-28T14:57:00.000+00:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 119, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

There simply had to be a tablet focus this week with both the iPad Mini and the Microsoft Surface hitting the headlines in the last few days. Early verdicts seem to vote in favour of the Mini, whilst many questions remain re the Windows 8 gang.

Early thoughts on Windows 8, Surface, and iPad Mini are certainly worth reading; are you backing Windows 8 early, and are you sticking your hard-earned in the Surface direction?: let us know at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Early leaks also point to a new Nexus 10 product on the horizon, whilst the Nexus 7 with 8Gb looks as if it could be disappearing from the shelves far too quickly (IOHO).

Interesting numbers on tablet shipments for Q3 2012 illustrate that the latest crop of Android product really did make a difference in real numbers. A direct comparison with last year shows some 10.2 million worldwide shipments compared to just 5 million for the same quarter last year. Apple continues to dominate of course.

Well worth noting in the how-big-is-your-business stakes: Apple now has $121.3 million in cash, which, by comparison, is more than Amazon’s current market capitalisation ($100.77 billion).

Further to last week’s worrying headlines re publications that are migrating from print to digital, The Big Issue in the North is now launching a digital edition! Your street vendor will be able to sell you a QR code and one-time access code in order for readers to be able to download the edition to their smartphone or tablet.

Pocket is now available as an app for the Mac. Fans of the product once-known-as “Read It Later” might find the dedicated product a little more convenient than the browser based version.

Just one of those really handy postings: 10 things you didn’t know Dropbox could do. As can often be the case, Mashable’s claim is excessive, but there could certainly be three or four things to excite you.

And finally, Just for us older print lovers that remember the term letterpress: it now appears as a word game! Letterpress is a free multi-player game for iPhone and iPad via the Game Center: a perfect blend of fun and strategy (says its inventor!).

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND119

Missed Issue 118, including a bad week for print? Then simply click here!

Issue 117: Seven-inch tablets
Issue 116: August shows
Issue 115: newspaper turmoil

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.118, October 20, 2012

2012-10-21T12:57:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 118, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

A bad week for print? Certainly it had an unpleasant shape to it with Newsweek, the US weekly news magazine, confirming that it would be switching to an all-digital output from the very start of 2013. The last piece of print will be published December 31: a collectors’ edition? TechCrunch questions the paywall ambitions of any magazine, including those of Newsweek.
In newspaper world, the Telegraph broke news re the possibility that the Guardian was seriously contemplating an all-digital approach. With reported losses in excess of £40 million a year, a digital only version would certainly reduce the outgoings considerably.

Those with sufficient spare cash might even want to follow up on these two stories with a visit to Mashable’s forthcoming Media Summit taking place in New York, November 2. We will report back on the details.

The big show debate has started to take shape, with Drupa announcing a proposal to move to a three-year schedule from 2015, changing the Düsseldorf events current four-year, which currently links with a similar gap for Ipex. The suggestion, in our opinion, cannot be good for the industry, and, according to reports and private discussions, is not winning many friends. Final decision expected November 2.

Moving slightly sideways, and possibly upwards, just how big is cloud storage? Latest reports suggest that 375 million users of paid-for and free products are sticking their precious files up there somewhere! Swift and continual expansion expected to take that number up to 500 million before year-end (over 60 million new users a month!).

In Tablet Talk: further to our in-depth review of two leading 7-inchers last week, more have jumped on that mini bandwagon. Acer reported this week that its Android 4.1 was to arrive in US and Canada before month end, and at $230 or £145 or so, it is in the same ballpark as those units reviewed. Sharp also has entered this sector in Japan, whilst, as rumoured last week, a 32Gb version of Google Nexus 7 has indeed arrived according to Engadget.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, whilst suffering a 24% drop in profits, marches on towards the tablet market fight with Windows 8 and Surface. Pricing for the Microsoft tablet surfaced this week, with a basic 32Gb entry point of £310 / $499. Adding a cover / keyboard / more memory moves the pricing up through the ranks to £435 / $699 for the full 64Gb with keyboard / cover included. Shipment dates have apparently moved to early November for now. Check back for first real user reports.

For an even picture of things, the latest iPad Mini rumours are also here, including a pricing suggestion!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day!

For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND118

Missed Issue 117, including seven-inch tablets? Then simply click here!

Issue 116: August shows
Issue 115: newspaper turmoil
Issue 114: Digital packaging printing

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.117, October 13, 2012

2012-10-15T08:38:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 117, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

This week we break away from the normal format of PIND and offer an extended version of Tablet Talk which has been created to offer a comparison of two leading seven-inch tablets: the Google Nexus 7 (right in picture) and the Ainol Novo 7 Fire (left of shot). The low-cost Chinese product from Ainol arrived during this last couple of weeks and, with an £8.45 export tax bill paid, we were able to slice open the box to see what had arrived for our £100 investment (plus £7.50 for extra-fast postage).

The stats: The Ainol impressed us with its numbers. Running Android 4.0.4 (or Ice Cream Sandwich / ICS, as its more commonly referred to), the machine runs a nippy dual core 1.5GHz processor backed by 1Gb of DDR3 RAM and a spacious 16Gb flash memory as standard. The 1280 x 800 resolution screen is the same as the Nexus, and is considerably better than Amazon’s similarly named Fire unit. The Ainol is well equipped camera-wise, sporting a 2.0 mega pixel front and 5.0 mega pixel rear camera. The Chinese unit really whacks the opposition though when it comes to ports: an HDMI port; a mini USB port, which is both useable as an interface port and a charging socket; and a slot for a micro SD card, which therefore means a ready made memory expansion slot giving an extra 64Gb of space. Both products are equipped with Bluetooth allowing for the addition of a wireless keyboard, wireless headphones, or any other Bluetooth enabled kit. Both, of course, have the standard wired headphone hole.

Google’s Nexus 7 currently comes in two flavours, as has previously been mentioned here: 8Gb and 16Gb. The processor is a quad core 1.4GHz engine with 1Gb of RAM to get things moving. It runs Android 4.1.2 software (or Jelly Bean), which does give some added smoothness above and beyond ICS. Camera kit is limited to a 1.2 mega pixel front snapper, adequate for Skype. A little jiggery-pokery is needed, but the mini-USB port can be tweaked to become a useable port, as well as a charging point: this means that it can therefore interface, via an adaptor, to any USB stick for an effective memory expansion. No other specific ports are provided, though a special dock facility is incorporated in the build to facilitate connection with hardware specifically made to interface with the Nexus. Battery life on the Nexus is supposed to extend to some 8 hours v. only 4 to 5 hours for the Ainol. In reality, I have found little difference in actual usable time, which I am estimating at about 6 to 6.5 for both units [very dependant on what you use it for of course!].

Real world usability: If I had to choose between these two machines for real world use, the Nexus would win every time. Build quality and Android interface just seem better quality and more professional. Don’t get me wrong, the Ainol is good, but despite both units having the same screen resolution, everything on the Chinese unit is just that bit smaller on screen, making it just that bit more fiddly to operate. Whilst both units interface very successfully with the Google Play store, both also exhibit strange problems. The Nexus had issues with the BBC iPlayer for some reason (which can be overcome), whilst the Ainol refused point blank to work with Google’s Chrome browser (quite simply the best browser for Android IMHO). Both issues can be overcome by downloading the APK file for the software, but that is not the sort of task for every would-be user.

Set-up: for the purposes of comparison we have aimed to set up the two units in a similar way. Both sport the Nova Launcher, as we believe that this provides a beneficial extension to standard ICS functionality, including better icon layout and screen management. Our home screen set-up incorporates 8 icons in the dock bar, which will stay the same for every screen, and our choice of 12 regularly used apps in the lower two rows of screen real-estate. A clock widget provides a clear time indication and, working up the screen, we include a set of 6 browser short-cuts for Chrome that will take us immediately to our chosen web page with one touch of the screen. At the top of the page we use an easy to navigate interface to Evernote, our preferred notes, to-do-list, reminder, do-anything app (for those unfamiliar with this software, it syncs with every other bit of hardware that we use: iMac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Galaxy tab, etc, etc). To the right of the Evernote widget is a battery charge indicatory to clearly show the amount of power left.

Additional screens on each machine offer a number of apps, including Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and SkyDrive, all of which offer a wealth of access to files from other areas of the Genesis system. Then there are the usual personal preferences, which in my case include Skype, Twitter, sports results services, OfficeSuite, TV, books and radio apps. On the subject of books, we must make mention of the Kindle app, providing the Amazon reading resource on all platforms. Other important syncing apps for us include both Pocket and Instapaper for referencing web pages for future reading.

Value for money: Both the 8Gb Nexus, at £159 (including £15 of Play store vouchers when we bought the machine), and the 16Gb Ainol at what totalled up to be £116, have to represent excellent value for money. Both are very slick, very useable, and very stable seven-inch tablet products running very recent and high-quality versions of the Android operating system. Both, out of the box, are limited to wi-fi. Using BT’s wi-fi product and associated app enables this to be extended beyond the normal office environment, but it certainly is not as flexible as a 3G connection. The use of a 3G dongle would aid less inhibited use of the product perhaps. To compare apples with apples, the Nexus 16Gb typically retails at £199 – almost twice the price of the Ainol. But wait: Nexus pricing will shift again shortly (before Christmas probably), a 32Gb version is coming, and then there is the Apple iPad Mini . . . oh it all gets horribly complicated again!

Keeping it simple: one simple but very real winner for us comes down to physical size. The Nexus measures 120mm. It will slip comfortably into a standard inside chest pocket of a standard British suit jacket. The Ainol, at 126mm, will squeeze into the space as well with a jiggle. The Apple is likely to ship with a 7.85 inch screen, meaning that it cannot possibly fit in a standard jacket pocket. We think that makes a big difference . . . do you?

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND117

Missed Issue 116, including August shows? Then simply click here!

Issue 115: newspaper turmoil
Issue 114: Digital packaging printing
Issue 113: Alderson Brothers admin

Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Click for more detail on Print Efficiently 2012 and the floor plan for the event. Keep in touch via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.116, October 6, 2012

2012-10-07T19:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 116, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline.

The UK Autumn show collection has kicked off in fine style with an excellent attendance at Packaging Innovations in London, and moves forward this coming week with the first three days of Print Efficiently, the collective of 11 suppliers demonstrating latest technologies in action throughout the print production process. In the US, of course, Graph Expo kicks off too (or has finished, depending on what day of the week you are reading this!).

With shows still in focus, Kodak’s Antonio Perez has been speaking to PrintWeek magazine on the eve of Graph Expo 2012. He details the company’s attempts to move from a B2C to a B2B operation.

Talking of the big boys, HP laid out a five-year recovery plan this week. Shares dropped 10% on the day. I guess Wall Street doesn’t like long-term plans too much.
Kindle Paperwhite appears to have been well received – so well in fact that the Sold Out signs have been posted. News from Kobo this week suggests that it doesn’t want to be left behind either. In the meantime, book printer Clays says that the paper version is not dead yet, but margins are not great.

Meanwhile, the Guardian looks at how electronic publishing steals a march on its printed competitor. In the US, Google has struck a deal with the Association of American Publishers.

Moving off into the world of tablet talk, iPad Mini (a still unconfirmed name) would appear to be getting ever closer: what should we expect and when asks TechCrunch.

UK is now claiming to have overtaken much of the global competition with its most recent moves to push forward a 4G network. Time will tell if this is a successful agreement! EE to start rollout very soon: the end of October to be precise! The Guardian, meanwhile, looks at how 4G will change the digital horizon.

Lifehacker has released data on its latest browser speed tests: always worth keeping an eye on to see the latest developments in your window on the web.

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PIND116

Missed Issue 115, including newspaper turmoil? Then simply click here!

Issue 114: Digital packaging printing
Issue 113: Alderson Brothers admin
Issue 112: New Amazon Kindle product

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Click for more detail on Print Efficiently 2012, the Hybrid Printing discussion to be chaired by Gareth Ward, and the floor plan for the event. Keep in touch via Twitter.