Printing Industry News Digest December 17, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 35, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

2D barcodes have been something that has intrigued us here at PIND for some little time. Unfortunately we had some bad experiences that put us off for a while, but we do now believe that the time is right for printers to take a closer look at this technology. Since we last visited the subject, the increase in both the available models and the take-up by consumers of smart phones has increased significantly, and this is, of course, the cornerstone of the technology. Brand owners are now beginning to take the topic seriously, and as QR codes specifically appear to be growing as the standard variant of the 2D barcode, we believe that printers need to look closer.

There are two main reader links that we believe you should follow: firstly, this connection to Neo Media’s web site points you (in an overly complex way, I should add) to a white paper on the topic that will provide you with a wealth of data on 2D barcodes. As a more “hand-on” example, you can also click here to download a PDF document from PIND that offers six different QR code examples that will link you to a variety of URL’s, demonstrating the flexibility of the 2D barcode system, and offering you examples of how it might fit into your own promotional plans. For both of these tools you will need access to a smart phone and an application on the phone that will read QR codes, such as QR Reader on the iPhone (instead of downloading the PDF right now, you could point your QR-code apped phone at the two codes on screen here! It will work from screen as well as from paper).

Printers might well be able to profit from gaining a good working knowledge of 2D barcodes, as they are then able to promote such a tool effectively to their customers, and create a point of difference between them and their competitor. One fine example (with some apologies for the American “exuberance”) of how this simple addition can make a difference can be seen in this video. The important thing to recognise is that standard static print can be brought right up to date by incorporating a QR code in the printed item. By scanning this code the reader can link the suppliers very latest information, gain access to a discount voucher or similar, or see the newest product in action. A huge range of possibilities can be created.

The next stage is for you to create your own QR codes, and to do this you will need some additional software. Here is a review of a whole range of code creation options, or you can just use the same one that we did! Let us know what you have done with QR codes: PIND.Editor@gmail.com


Whilst we are not looking to create an annual review here, Apple should certainly be saluted for its launch of the iPad product during 2010, and CNN has produced this tribute piece. Mashable also tells how the iPad is influencing the creation of web apps.

In other general communications news, Google Mail users can now easily maintain an access to multiple accounts. See here for details, and we can confirm that it works well; Opera 11.0 is now live featuring a range of downloadable extensions; whilst Dropbox is now out of Beta, and is a real 1.0 product! Microsoft is trying to stake its claim in the internet newspaper stakes with the release of Montage, a magazine-like, topic based application. Also, you might like to take a look at iTwin, a neat file sharing tool that comes in two parts. Have a read, it’s interesting.

A timely reminder has been posted by the team at Imprint, as they tell us 10 reasons to rethink your web site. We believe that “rethink” might be a touch heavy for some, but it certainly is a timely reminder for companies to think again about their web sites: how up to date are they, is there a strategy to keep things changing and to keep the very latest company news on the front page? A Twitter widget might be a help, announcing latest postings, but new stories and information on your site will certainly upgrade your site in the eyes of the Google rankings!

Social networking has undoubtedly grown by staggering proportions over the last year. The folk at The Wall give us a worldwide view of which products are shaping our lives. In Western Europe, the US, and indeed many other countries, Facebook leads the charge, of course. However, the “1,2,3” table at the bottom of the page makes for interesting reading, with LinkedIn showing up third in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Nice translation app available for the iPhone: point the camera and the Word Lens app at a Spanish sign and the app will translate the text for you, and vice-versa (English to Spanish!). The added beauty of this is that you don’t need network connection for the translation to work. Other languages please?! Need yet another news app for your iPad? Actually the new CNN app is good and works well; worth a look.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 36. Details of new stories will be added at this text link as the Christmas holiday progresses, with publication scheduled for December 31!

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Printing Industry News Digest December 10, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 34, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

So the value of print is higher than we might have thought! The world’s most expensive printed book was sold at Southeby’s this week; The Birds of America went for a-touch-out-of-our-reach £7.3 million. I hope that the buyer realised that it had been hand coloured!

Talking of cash, stories emerged this week of currency and specialist security printer De La Rue being pursued by the French. Perhaps it’s because they sound French anyway?!

CS Labels, the Willenhall based label printer, announced the installation of its fourth Xeikon digital label press, a Xeikon 3030. The unit represents the company’s fourth Xeikon purchase in four years. Check out the detail to see how Xeikon equipment is helping this company to win work back from China!

Further to last week’s news regarding Wave2 and Newsquest (London) and a self-service advertisement product, plenty of media coverage has been forthcoming, including: IFRA, News Media (Production Journal’s web site), PrintSpeak.co.uk, and InPublishing.

Printers should certainly take a look at this highly amusing video regarding colour issues. You will have been there at some point I am sure! However, as ink prices from two of the big players continue to rise, you might have to be ever more careful in getting the colour right!

Good news: KPMG came up with some survey results this week saying that four out of five consumers preferred to be reading the real printed thing rather than reading a screen.

It’s December and so it must be time for the “Top 10” list to be unleashed. Whilst GenesisNews dusted off the first of its “Best of” releases this week, we were not alone! The chaps at Lifehacker were looking for votes this week for their best “Top 10”. These are released weekly and consist of tips and tricks on a variety of topics. The listing for you to vote from consisted of 20 of their favourite “Top 10’s”, equally some 200 top tips! One “Top 10” that wouldn’t have existed last year is that for iPad apps. Both that and iPhone apps were posted by the team at Mashable this week.

On the subject of apps, readers might like to be aware of an interesting iPad newspaper based product entitled Extra! Extra! The currently free application (well, it was last weekend!) allows users to view and read the actual front pages of a huge number of newspaper from across the world. There are a lot of American papers; not many UK one’s; but a reasonable sprinkling of product from across the world. Images can be zoomed for easier reading, but new papers don’t seem to arrive until about mid-day UK time.

In more app talk, Future publishing is set to launch no less than eleven titles in iPad format, whilst Mr Murdoch is slowing down a bit, with the launch of The Daily iPad newspaper now being put back to “first quarter, 2011”. End of March then.

Tablet talk this week focuses on the predications for this fledging market, which have begun to appear across the internet media this week. Mashable picks up the forecast that sales will quadruple by 2012, whilst a slightly more focused report on US sales suggests that the country will see a 70% overall increase in tablet sales by that year. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a lot of tablets!

And talking about a lot of tablets, Samsung is back again with the Gloria, a 10-inch tablet with slide out keyboard. Still only at the rumour stage, the product could be equipped with a Windows 7 operating system. It’s a very unconfirmed rumour at this stage, but we think that the format could have something going for it!

The long awaited Google Chrome OS has finally arrived this week. Not had enough time to check it out, so take a look at what these folk say, and do get back to us if you have given it a try! In a busy week, the big G also managed to get its E-bookstore going in the US, Google Docs all working nicely on the iPad, and it announced the launch of its Nexus S Android-based smart phone!

This week we have got a whole bunch of little “go see” links, without loads of intro. Take a look and let us know what you think at PIND.editor@gmail.com Firstly, there is a new method of film distribution, via kiosk and thumb drive (USB drive); Apple is rumoured to be launching in Mac App store on Monday, December 13^th; iPad 2 is coming with two camera’s allegedly; Mashable offers you nine web tools to keep businesses running over the holidays;  real time Facebook newspaper PostPost launches.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in next week’s PIND 35. Details of new stories will be added here as the week progresses!

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Printing Industry News Digest December 3, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 33, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

Lean manufacturing is a term often used in print production over recent years, but at leading carton supplier Benson Group they have gone one step further. The combination of Lean manufacturing with the Six Sigma approach creates Lean Sigma, and Benson Group is now some 12 months into a four year programme of implementation of Lean Sigma. The obvious highlight in the first year has been a double digit percentage growth in print production at the company’s flagship site in Bardon, Leicestershire.

Another UK success for software supplier Wave2 with Newsquest (London) having implemented a self-service advertisement product across a number of its production sites, including the Bucks Free Press. The company’s AdMaker solution is based on Wave2’s AdPortal software.

As mentioned last week, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin has launched edition one of its Project magazine for the iPad. PIND has, in the interest of the readership, stepped right in there and purchased the publication, and I have to say it is well worth the experience if you have an iPad. From the active front cover through to the excellent Kronenberg 1664 “ad” featuring no less than three video versions of Lemmy’s slow and easy Ace of Spades as heard on the TV ad, it’s an exciting digital experience. Room for improvement? Yes, sure, but this only issue one.

Not sampled by PIND as yet, but Thursday also saw the launch of an app for Marie Claire magazine. The December edition is the first to get a bit of a digital “upgrade”, and whilst some older editions are available (July to November), they are basically just PDF’s, according to our friends at Mashable. The link offers a number of images of the new publication.

Providing a summary of the whole publishing situation right now, PPA has launched its own Future of Publishing web feature, offering a wide range of opinions. Both printers and publishers should read through these pages for further thoughts and insights into the world of publishing, and where digital devices might take the market.

Closely allied to the above, InPublishing provides us with a take on the newspaper world. You might think you know the answer to the question posed in the title: “Why are Newspapers Disappearing?” The question of marketing is brought into the mix, making this piece a very worthwhile read.

Should book printers think we are ignoring their plight, fear not: we now focus on Google’s imminent on-line bookstore launch. Whilst the company has fiddled with free e-books in the past, Google Editions will be a far more focused attempt at winning some business from the likes of Amazon as well as creating new Christmas customers you suspect!

We’ve been skirting around the tablet market with much of the above, so now let us focus squarely on the latest from that sector: Samsung is claiming that it has chalked up one million sales of its Galaxy Tab. It really is not that clear whether this means end user sales or sales to the distribution chain. My take is it’s the later. Don’t chalk me up as an “Apple fan-boy” but I am still of the opinion that the iPad is still way ahead of the Galaxy in terms of both value for money and sheer physical size!

Of general interest, a link to the BBC web site will give you an excellent insight into the growth of the internet across the world over the past 11 years. Some of the numbers are quite staggering, and I was particularly surprised to see that the UK has a higher percentage of the population online that the United States! The UK’s 83.5%, whilst extremely impressive, is still behind many of the Scandinavian countries, with Iceland, Norway and Sweden all boasting 90%+ broadband access.

To close, just a reminder that you can link to a Printing Industry News Digest RSS feed to help you keep up with the latest news each week. This link can be used to add to your Google Reader list of feeds, or works well with the Pulse News Reader, which is now free to download for iPad. The PIND feed includes images.

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Printing Industry News Digest November 26, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 32, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

The story regarding e-paper using real paper really caught our eye this week, as it not only talks of great technology but potentially provides a nice piece of business for the print community too! The University of Cincinnati is being credited with all of the hard work on this one, and it makes for an interesting read.

Will e-paper products still need to go through a rigorous proofing cycle? Surely they will. Whatever serious publication you are putting together, proofing is a vital ingredient, and a new entry in the soft proofing market has surfaced under the name of Proofstream. The product name might be new, but the software has history; an important ingredient when you are looking for a stable and reliable proofing solution.

New media has been very much in the news this week, with Messrs Murdoch and Branson looking to introduce new tablet based publications; one in the newspaper sector and one in the magazine world. Full details are still to be released, and I am sure that we will add more on these publications in the coming weeks.

For history buffs, we noted a story detailing “Linotype: The Film”. One suspects that it will not be rivalling Harry Potter in the box-office-takings stakes, but for lovers of print it could be equally enthralling.

More importantly for print lovers, the latest Technical Tutorial from the good people of PrintWeek focuses on the importance of selecting inks that focus on the right pigments. Blended pigments in base colours can provide problems when mixed. Check out Van Son’s take on how to avoid such troubles.

In the mobile and tablet world, the big news was that Apple released iOS4.2. Not too many surprises for iPhone users, but the free update certainly does bring the iPad up to date, particularly with regard to multitasking and folders. The new release also includes AirPrint capabilities, if you really feel a great need to print things out all of the time! Talk of iOS 4.3 is already in the air, with subscription apparently top of the agenda (see previous Murdoch and Branson section!).

Tablet talk has certainly been very focused on the real world arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the PIND editor saw one in the flesh at a local Staples store. It actually looks even smaller than you might imagine!

In other tablet news, Acer appears to be particularly busy right now. Both 7-inch and 10.1-inch tablet products are to be joined by a 4.8-inch smartphone. The Telegraph also tells us of a dual screen laptop product from the same stable.

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Printing Industry News Digest November 19, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 31, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

Recyling issues have been very much in focus this week, with keen debate and hot story on PrintWeek.com featuring de-inking problems with liquid toner waste. This has been billed as PrintWeek.com “most read” for the last couple of days, so you really should have a read!

With an even greener focus, our friends at Marlowe Graphic Services have announced details of an environmentally friendly upgrade for existing HighWater Platinum users. The “Platinum Green” replaces the original laser in the device to allow the CtP unit to expose the current crop of low-chemistry plates from the likes of Fujifilm, Agfa and Kodak.

Also in the pre-media world, we understand that Mitsubishi – now under the UK guidance of M Partners – has added new B1 format Agfa CtP kit to its Leeds showroom, and European HQ. Seems a reasonable guess then that a B1 press will follow shortly: PrintWeek confirms this thought.

Self-service advertising continues to grow for UK software house Wave2, with details released this week of further activity in the US, where the company has added another deals with Hearst Newspapers. This latest addition serves the real estate market for the Houston area.

In the world of digital print we see that MGI has found itself a new and hopefully more suitable distribution channel for the UK. The French manufacturer has many fans throughout the world for both its digital print and finishing products, and the UK does appear to have missed out a bit to date.

In the tab world, are we allowed to crow the “we already told you that” line re the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab? It seems that somebody has realised it’s overpriced anyway; news this week that both Amazon and Dixons have reduced the cost of this device to make it more competitive with iPad pricing. We still say it’s too small . . . anybody listening to that?

More positive tablet talk comes from those nice chaps at the Financial Times, where it appears that staff are being given financial support to get themselves kitted out with an iPad in order that they can easily stay in touch with the latest news and views. Now there is an employer with vision . . .
On the subject of iPad, we are told that iOS4.2 will be with us November 24.

Meanwhile, US web site What They Think is telling us all about a publication that details the impact that the iPad will have on the printing industry. It certainly sounds an interesting read, but the only problem is that this market is just so dynamic. Such a publication is surely already out of date! At $195 it’s also a touch pricey to my mind (compared with the weekly PIND update, which is also guiding along a similar path for $000!!).

Interestingly, however, The Wall has posted an article detailing how a survey says that UK consumers will not pay £400 for an iPad, and that magazine apps are a low priority for them. Some 80% of respondents considered the unit poor value. In addition, up to 95% of surveys phrased their questions to achieve specific objectives!

The good people of Engadget tell us that the HP 500 slate certainly is in demand, and that’s comfortably over £400 worth, even before tax. They did only originally decide to manufacture 5,000 units, it would seem, so it’s not likely just yet to impinge on Apple’s market share.

Google Voice is back in the app store says Lifehacker, so that’s probably worth investigating and having a fiddle with, whilst Engadget reviews the iPod Nano as a watch! Looks good on the face of it, but still needs that Bluetooth enhancement to make it appealing we think. Having a headphone string from your wrist is not going to look great is it.

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Printing Industry News Digest November 12, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 30, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up the detail.

Further to our mention last week of the Ryobi 920 SRA1 press in video action on PrintSpeak.co.uk, this week’s news concerning that very same press series has been the official announcement of the convertible perfecting version, the Ryobi 920P.

Hot news also from the HighWater CTP team, where it has been confirmed that the latest version of its Torrent RIP, which is being recommended as the package with which to drive the Cron computer-to-plate products it distributes throughout Europe, will be based on the popular StudioRIP core.

The recent PrintWeek Buyers Guide to sheetfed offset inks has now been posted on-line, and includes in the “What’s New” section details of Van Son’s latest addition to the market.
Meanwhile at The Times the paywall issue just won’t go away. The chaps at The Wall take another close look at the numbers and this week’s departure of digital director Gurtej Sandhu. The Telegraph too takes another examination of the figures.

Less trouble with numbers in the world of e-books though it would seem: one billion dollars worth of e-books will have been purchased before the end of the year say our chums at Mashable. But what to read them on, you might ask? Well, colour is coming. Colour e-books from Hanvon for 2011: an early new year prediction!

In Apple world, iOS4.2 should be available today (later today in the UK) which will hopefully provide a good few things that iPad owners have been waiting a few months for! Multi-tasking will be more than handy that’s for sure. Steve says that AirPrint will be one of them; it’s not been pulled!

The Guardian takes a view on Apple and where it is going, with a particular focus on the recent news that an app store for the basic Mac computing platform will be the next offering.

On the tablet side of life, TechCrunch has gone to task over RIM’s PlayBook, seemingly branding it a failure before its even gone on sale. Some of the points raised, however, are extremely valid. It’s hard to see this product as a serious threat to the likes of Apple. Mashable does reveal to us today that it will have pricing on its side, however, with a highly competitive start point of less than $500 (about £310 in real money). That will be a help if it stays relative to that price in the various world markets. As per an earlier PIND theme though, you can’t help but wonder if there is sufficient profit in that kind of price.

Samsung meanwhile expects to be going some both this year and next. It is predicting sales of its Galaxy Tab to his 10 million units by the end of next year, and one million of these will happen before the end of 2010. Any bets? Your wager invited at PIND.editor@GMail.com

Also, just on the subject of Gmail: ever wondered whether you could log onto two Gmail accounts at once? Sometimes such trickery comes in handy. Wonder now more: the answer lies here! Yes, it can be done.

The internet world is now old enough to have known names falling by the wayside; this week’s notable casualty was Ask Jeeves! or Ask.com as it later became.

Without Jeeves to ask, you might want to fall back on good old e-mail to provide you with some reminders of things that you need to be doing. Mashable this week told us about a neat little add on called NudgeMail which offers you dated and timed reminders that you can set within your mail. Neat. Alternatively you could try a diary.

As I should hate to be branded an Apple-lover through and through, I am pleased to post Lifehacker’s guide to the best writing apps available for Android phones. There I did it!

In the interests of fairness I guess I must also mention a new note taker / writing app for iOS too. Whilst I have offered a couple of very nice suggestions in recent weeks, this one is just a little better I think. Nebulous Notes Lite is a free offering. There is a pay-for version too, but I have not yet seen any reason to shell out real money. Good for iPhone and iPad, and Nebulous ties neatly into your Dropbox account for file transfer.

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Printing Industry News Digest November 5, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 29, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories.

We started last week’s newspaper focused round-up with the news that the Independent’s “i” newspaper had been born. Some interesting opinion this week from the folk at Marketing Week, with a view that the release of “i” is completely the wrong strategy for such a publisher. Have a read; it might make you think deeper about how you develop a brand of your own!

Apex has recently added to its Ryobi video stock via the pages of PrintSpeak.co.uk, and the latest images on the Ryobi 920 SRA1-format press can now be viewed, along with footage of the Ryobi 785E compact B2 press. Full details of both can be found on GenesisNews.

Often the question is asked, “What is a print ready PDF?” The guys at PrintQuote offered some thoughts on the subject this week, as I thought this link might be very beneficial to some PIND readers.

In a similar vein, the same blog also offered some great suggestions / advice for graphic designers to take note of when undertaking their latest and greatest creation. To most in the print trade the need to avoid reversing out 5 point serif text within a four-colour solid might seem obvious, but often the design community is criticised for not knowing such intricacies!

I was taken with a walk down the memory lane of forgotten media, delivered courtesy of the Mashable team, and you too might like to know what accompanies the laserdisc and the minidisc in their top five. Further suggestions (I think we can build a whole top 10 here) to PIND.editor@gmail.com

Bringing the tone of discussion right up to date, the chaps at Lifehacker offered us a post this week detailing why your smartphone is a better PC than your PC ever was or ever will be! Perhaps a touch strong, but you can see where they are coming from. The poinr is that your smartphone is capable of a whole bunch of good stuff while you are on the move, which is better than most PC's will ever achieve.

We were particularly impressed with this posting detailing a six inch flexible display. The text mentions the development of an e-reader, and it doesn’t take much imagination to visualise one great lightweight product that could come from such a development.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is now available in the UK we are told. Pricing would appear to sit somewhere between £529.99 for the unit, to just £99.99 for the unit plus £40 per month for a two year contract, which would appear to total something like £1,059.99 for the entire contract life. Something similar to a phone I guess!

HP have been very helpful this week with the release of a video showing us why we might want a tablet PC. The short film illustrates that the device would be good for viewing x-rays on, making business presentations, planning tables in a busy restaurant, ordering the right wine, and taking pictures of your car after some clown had reversed into it. Brilliant. Must get one.

ViewSonic on the other hand is far more excited about a wide range of tablet devices, especially seven and ten inch devices, though one of these seems still to be blessed with Android 1.6, which can’t be good.
A very competitively priced Toshiba tablet seems to be making waves, and with an entry level price of £329 you have to say it seems a lot more affordable than the Samsung mentioned above.

One thing I meant to include a few weeks ago, but needed to test out first before posting, is this simple and straightforward guide to making your own iPhone ringtone! Yes, my iPhone 4.0 now rocks out a bit of Genesis (the intro to Squonk from “A Trick of the Tail” for Genesis enthusiasts) when you call! The guide is simple to follow and works. Give it a try if you are in need of a new noise that differentiates your mobile.

Finally, some more food for thought on the sheer size of the internet – something that I am sure we mentioned fairly recently. This posting, however, from The Wall, provides a few breathtaking stats for you to enjoy. Go and enjoy!

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Printing Industry News Digest October 29, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 28, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every week, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories.

Newspapers are making the headlines this week, if that’s an acceptable phrase! The Independent’s “i” newspaper was born, and PrintWeek informs us that it was the first new paper to hit the UK streets since 1986. Priced at 20p the publication is all about bringing bite sized news items to the younger reader in a tabloid format. Seems to focus on many of the issues raised in a link in last week’s PIND under the “Designing World Class Media” heading.

It was also an interesting week for those publications that have already bitten the online bullet, especially The Times. The Wall dissects the Neilson research which suggests that 360,000 punters are behind the pay wall. Its conclusion The Wall suggests that this number could actually be more like 100,000 good folk actually parting with an online subscription and real £££’s, but the article does suggest that there are a lot of smoke and mirrors in this market still at the moment! Marketing Week says that The Times is keen to get advertisers to look at new innovative digital solutions.

Meanwhile, what The Wall describes as the tabloid pay wall wars are set to take place between the Sun and the Daily Mirror. It suggests that the Mirror is likely to be giving away more elements for free in its efforts to entice readers into the subscription service. Should be an interesting battle.

In the magazine world, Mashable takes a look at how iPad magazine sales are stacking up, with some six months of data to examine.

One item that I was especially excited to take a detailed look at is a publication from the US entitled “Disrupting the Future”, a set of suggested strategies for the print-based business of the future. It really is a worthwhile read for any print business that thinks that it might want to be around five to ten years from now! The best bit of news is that the publication is available as a free PDF right now! You can read it this weekend and then start your new business come next Monday morning!

As a suitable postscript to the above entry, “What They Think?” Is also hitting the nail on its head with its review of the Graph Expo show, which it sees as the watershed for the world of digital. If you don’t get where digital sits in the world of print production now, you might never get it, is the gist of what they are saying!

Another way perhaps of bringing both of those last two items into the clearest focus possible is provided by Kindle, with further advancements in the sales of digital books according to Amazon.  Further emphasis on growth of this market is also provided by the introduction of a two-week loan period facility. You buy the book, I can borrow it for two weeks to read, you then get it back! Just like the real paper version!

Need help with your colours? Pantone is providing a digital colour reader; a neat bit of kit. It will cost you some $649 in the US, translating to a substantial £408 or so, which is not over the top if colour is critical to your world.

Two tablet tales top our look at this week’s slates, with BlackBerry taking the number one slot when Mike Lazaridis did what might be described as an impromptu demo (not sure that it was really). Note how he skilfully avoids the release date question! At two, Asus gives us not too distant promises of PC tablets, with a November 23 launch date, and some rather tempting looking prices.

Last week Apple got plenty of exposure for its new MacBook Air launch; PC fans might prefer one of CrunchGear’s top five alternatives; mostly not significantly cheaper, just a different take on light.

Last week also I brought to your attention an app called Jot Agent. No sooner had I proclaimed this a great bit of work, than something comes along to trump it. Forget what I said last week, and turn your thoughts instead to Textforce. Again this app interfaces well with Dropbox, but it also offers an editing capability, which was something noticeably missing from Jot Agent. Again it works across both iPad and iPhone, and then, because it sync’s with Dropbox, its effectively sync’d across any other platforms where your Dropbox account is installed (or via the Dropbox public folder of course for work colleagues or whoever to get the info too!).

Finally, I thought it might be fun to add Marketing Week’s article on what the board room thinks of marketing. It’s a fun read for folk on both sides of the fence!

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Printing Industry News Digest October 22, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 27, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every Friday, PIND incorporates lots of links to the week’s key news stories.

As we published PIND 26 last week the latest edition of PrintWeek was popping through UK letterboxes, and what a lot of similarities there were between the two publications, with the PrintWeek team putting focus on iOS products. iPad and iPhone products were very much to the fore, with TimeHarvest taking the “Me & My” page, and iPad the “Product of the Week” slot. The lead feature, “Taking the Tablets” focused on how such products could interface with the world of print. All in all, a good read, especially for those used to this focus from PIND.

Our friends in the finishing world have been having a less exciting time of late, and this was highlighted during a week when more closures and company purchases were announced, along with poor financials from other players.

In the US, Print Production Professional has told us this week about an excellent new suite of labels on a beer bottle brand. An exciting new literary release will soon be appearing on a beer bottle near you, with a “who-dunnit” being serialised over a set of 12 different labels. I would wager that if you moved too swiftly through the bottles to read the whole story you might be a little too pickled to solve the mystery!

On the look-out already for that unusual print-related Christmas present? Saltwatersongs Tweeted this week about the delights of a bespoke letterpress print. Take a look: it’s a novlty!

Karen Charlesworth’s editorial for PrintSpeak.co.uk this week begins with a bit of a survey bash, as Ipsos came out with a result that most readers prefer a printed paper over the online equivalent. Karen suggests that the sample might have been a little skewed, and I too see such surveys as almost Canute-like in their findings. As was recently highlighted in PIND, the New York Times even recognises that the printed edition of its publication will disappear; it’s just a matter of working out when that will be!

On a more positive note, The Wall delivered an exciting summary featuring 13 ideas which could help print survive. One of its conclusions, however, is that “news” is not the future for print, which makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it. Our friends at Mashable then pose the question: “Is the iPad Really the Saviour of the Newspaper Industry?” Plenty to think about and consider here!

As one interesting note to the above question, News Corporation announced this week that it has been forced to abandon plans for its eagerly anticipated digital news platform, part of the company’s so called “Project Alesia” initiative, citing runaway costs. It is reported that they have currently "run away" to the tune of £20 million by the way!

All of this coming in the same week that we are told that the number of Internet users will surpass 2 billion before the end of 2010.

Apple was back on its soap box this week with announcements about a new MacBook Air, which some have suggested is like an iPad with a keyboard. Mmm, not too sure about that one! Meanwhile, the tablet news itself kicks-off with an excellent executive summary of the situation to date courtesy of The Telegraph, the technology section of which continues to improve almost by the day. The same team are responsible for giving another accurate insight into the tablet format, with the seven inch format (as has been mentioned in several posts here before) still taking a bit of a battering.


On the apps front, just a quick shout for the new Jot Agent. This neat little app allows you to make a quick typed note on your iPhone or iPad which is then immediately sync’d with your DropBox account, making it available to any platform that you have installed DropBox on. Neat. Nothing fancy, but something that you always wanted! I do love apps that work across different products; they are what I call “real world”.

The new Kindle gets a favourable review as it nears UK release, where it will be available for a keen £109.

Browser news is headed by Opera, whose version 11 (currently Beta) is going to follow the trend of adding extensions into the mix; a must really! You can’t keep up with the likes of Firefox and Chrome without them.

Phone news of the week is all neatly charted in this excellent piece of graphics work detailing how Android phones are set to dominate the market. No arguments on that one from PIND; it probably will. Apple has always led the segments of a market that it works in with technology, without seeking to dominate over time. There will always be cheaper product that is more suited to the mass market; for PC read Android phone. There will be a cheap mass market equivalent for the tablet market too eventually.

The most staggering statistic to PIND staff from the above chart is the uptake on smart phones by country: currently the USA totally dominates with some 66% of units; China represents 13% of the sector; whilst dear old UK actually represents only 4% (but is still third in the world!).

Other news: Microsoft unveiled a cloud based Office suite.

Interesting piece to finish on: a great little video suggesting how we make connections to come up with great ideas. Have a look; it’s entertaining.

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