Monday, March 25, 2013

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

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.

Excel to host IPEX 2014, but without the big H?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.

Digital or offset?“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.

GoogleReaderThe 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!]

Google Drive: get two!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.

MonochromeThe 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.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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

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.

PielFollowing 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.

Google for geeks?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.

Evernote: cross-platform notesIf 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.

Note2Android 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.

Note2_DualWeb copyMajor 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.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

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

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.

GeeringsLowFurther 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.

Newspapers and linksWant 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.

Stick it in the cloud!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.

NexusDockFrontAndroid 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.

Nexus 7 from Carphone Warehouse?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.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

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

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.

KBA price increaseI 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.

Digital innovationAugmented 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!

LogitechKeysWe 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!].

Tablet timeOn 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?

bowieOh 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.