Printing Industry News Digest September 24, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 23, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every Friday, PIND incorporates links to the week’s key news stories: every piece of bold, maroon text below can be clicked on to take you to more detail on that particular topic, which will open in a new window.

The Autumn exhibition season is beginning to get into full swing, with Labelexpo already have completed its run in Chicago with notable UK news from Bradford-based The Label Makers with an order for a Xeikon 3030 digital label press. Coming up in the near future we will have the European newspaper focused IFRA show taking place in Hamburg, with the UK software specialist Wave2 exhibiting two new products. In the same week easyFairs opens the doors to its Packaging Innovations event to London. Benson Group will be exhibiting its cartonboard expertise there. Also in that first full week of October, Apex Digital Graphics hosts its own open house event in Hemel Hempstead, with pre-press, press and finishing kit on show.

Elsewhere in the print industry, manroland continues to shed jobs, with news this week of 500 more job losses at the German press manufacturer. Odd news also from that stable regarding questionable payments being made in Switzerland.

In the wider world of publishing talk has focused this week on Apple’s next move and its desire to put together an iBooks style stable of newspaper and magazine products. The aim is to provide a focal point for users of publications, rather than publishers create their own individual apps. Almost in the same breath, the News of the World does launch its own pay for app!

Tablet talk follows on quite naturally, and a recent piece from the guys at TechCrunch forewarns of the tablet wars that are on their way! Indeed, it might even be argued that they are already here, and early skirmishes have started, with Samsung and its Galaxy Tab and Android interface putting its head about the parapet this week with a neat ad, whilst HP and Windows 7 is showing as well with a demo piece from Engadget.

Tabs don’t stop there though, as both Dell and Blackberry are also keen to get their names heard, though it is mainly talk at this stage, and no real hands on product.

My questions still remain as more and more tabs are talked about. Whilst companies are keen to talk features and operating systems, there is still very little info on price. Apple might have put itself in its usual premium price position, but actually does its £420 starting point leaves that much room for anybody else to make much money from the products. Maybe the glut of seven inch products is key; smaller screen must mean cheaper to make, but there are still a few mark-ups to add to any device once it’s been manufactured. That surely means a starting point of £250 to £300, and that is for what is, to my mind, an inferior product. Your thoughts on where tablet pricing will sit are welcomed: tell us at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Returning to the world of apps, the BBC has told us about a European project that aims to make apps a central web based resource. The idea is that one software product will then suit a variety of operating systems and devices by accessing the application through a web browser. It would mean that apps are not just limited to phones and tablets, but could be accessed by other devices: TV’s for example, or from within your car. “One app for all” certainly sounds like a good idea, but will participants (currently excluding Apple) be willing to share information and allow their best apps to migrate to the competition freely? Don’t forget, proprietary systems provide profits!

One quick note on the app front: Awesome Note is a new notes tool for iOS. One of many, it is true, but the good folk of Lifehacker tell us about how well this syncs with both Google Docs and Evernote. Might well be worth a look. We will investigate further and report back!

A couple of new keyboard options for friends of Apple: firstly, for the iPad, I do like the look and sound of a fold-away Bluetooth keyboard (as mentioned in a previous edition of PIND!). Also something that might appeal to some for adding text to their iPhone is this case with keyboard; not too sure myself, but it will have an appeal to some I am sure!

For those with a need to carry a bit more info around with them, Kingston has released a new series of flash drives including a 64Gb capacity USB 3.0 beast. Legit Reviews take you through the details.

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Printing Industry News Digest September 17, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 22, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every Friday, PIND incorporates links to the week’s key news stories: every piece of bold, maroon text below can be clicked on to take you to more detail on that particular topic, which will open in a new window.

Moneys too tight to mention? Perhaps one story that will have caused much concern within the print world this week focuses on the availability of loans, with banking chiefs warning of the end of the era of “cheap money”. Printing doesn’t have a good profile in banking circles at the moment, and this news looks as if it’s just going to make it that little bit harder to get finance in place to expand a business.

It seemed quite strange to me that the same day also saw details posted of a very splendid ultra-large format perfecting press from manroland. Undoubtedly a fine example of technology, but I suspect this might be one of those Rolls Royce type products: if you have to ask the price you probably can’t afford it. I wonder where the finance for such a beast might come from?

On a more cost effective topic, Inks and Printing Technologies (IPT) has announced the UK availability of Metalstar 06 7500 Pantone Premium Silver inks from Eckart. The new ink offers a bright silver with optimised blended colour effects. The new product gives offset printers the ability to print cleaner and more vibrant metallic colours that are much more consistent and stable throughout the press run.

It was also good last week to see the same supplier, IPT, featured in PrintWeek with its Van Son Quickson Perfect range of offset litho inks. It is claimed that the inks offer printers the best match to ISO12647-2 colour standards yet. The company featured in this Me & My feature certainly agree.
The world of packaging still keeps throwing up problems, with the news this week that Clowes Printers (Manchester) has gone into administration. The company was only bought out of admin some nine months ago. Our friends at Packaging News tell us that the Stockport-based business is currently still trading.

Sony has been highlighting the wonders of digital paper this week with a new product. The sheet employs a plastic substrate, and it is claimed that the prototype is capable of being rolled up like a regular old newspaper! Our thanks to Engadget for the latest news on this one.

Internet Explorer 9 beta has arrived with promises of speed. IE9 claims to harness a PC’s hardware to accelerate graphics, videos and text. The result, they tell us, is that IE9 is able to render heavy graphic interfaces far better than competitive browsers. At PIND we have long since migrated to a mix of Firefox and Chrome, but we are easily tempted by such talk of speed and might go have a look at IE9 if time allows. What about you? What’s your browser of choice: tell us more at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Talking of beta releases, Apple has a iOS 4.2 beta build for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch developers. Particularly interested in this from an iPad perspective, with the hope that multi-tasking will be included for the product. Current talk is more about printing, which I find a very unexciting option for iPad; why do I need to commit things to paper all of the time?

For those that like to view their Apple work big and bold, the company has finally got its latest 27 inch display onto the online store. The IPS-based glossy Cinema Display monitor utilised LED backlighting, a 1000:1 contract ratio, and a 178 degree viewing angle.

For something a bit more oddball, how about wearing your new iPod Nano on your wrist? Great little conversion product that turns the music machine into a wrist watch. Just a great idea! Should the strap makers have called their product iOn-the-Time?

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Printing Industry News Digest September 10, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 21, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every Friday, PIND incorporates links to the week’s key news stories: every piece of bold, maroon text below can be clicked on to take you to more detail on that particular topic, which will open in a new window.

I want to start off with a couple of interesting stories that indicate that publishers are “waking up and smelling the coffee”, as it were. A statement this week from the publisher and chairman of The New York Times,  Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., comes top of the list: “We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD,” [read TBA in UK!] he told attendees of the International Newsroom Summit. Just to recognise publicly that the printed edition of one of the world’s most recognised newspaper titles has to disappear is a significant and thought provoking statement. One might hope that all companies involved heavily in such a process would already have discussed the potential of newspapers gradually declining and eventually disappearing, but somehow having it spelt out in public makes a difference! Our thanks go to the good folk of Mashable for bringing us this news.

Print CEO brings us another interesting take on the same topic comes from Australia, where publishers are looking at the potential of what I might describe as a mobile phone style model of business: heavily subsidised e-reader hardware in exchange for a long term subscription.

Meanwhile actually in the current world of print, the good money making chaps at De La Rue appear to have introduced error into their work where there should be none! It’s reportedly going to cost them a good £35 million, which is possibly slightly larger than an error from most printers foul ups!

How about 70,000 fonts in your library? FontPark is a searchable database of free fonts so that you can find just the fancy characters that you need!

A Yorkshire print consortium has announced that it has made great strides towards the commercially viable production of printed electronics. We believe that this is a truly exciting opportunity for print, and illustrates and printing still has a realistic and viable future, even if it moving the business off into a whole different area. For more on this topic see the Printed Electronics web site.

Another area where print has to win over digital media is in the world of packaging, but bad news for the board printers of the world this week with another price hike announced by Iggesund Paperboard. Cost increases and shortages in supply are making life tough for the packaging printers. For the brighter side of packaging life, take a look at what is in store for visitors to the easyFairs Packaging Innovations, London, event taking place on October 7 and 8 at the Design Centre, Islington.

Shifting over to “new media”, an interesting set of thoughts from the good people of Mashable are on offer re the next five years in social media; good reading if you are in social media, essential reading if you think you should be more involved with social media!

More from the world of soon to arrive tablets as Engadget brings news of new product from the monitor people ViewSonic; one from a possible four models that will be coming. Trouble is this doesn’t seem to be bringing that much to the party: another seven inch Android based product is unlikely to set the world aflame me thinks! Mind you, the ViewPad7 and its ilk might just create a huge wave of product that drives the price down, putting a tablet in everyone’s hands . . . !

Then, this very morning, we get even more news from the ViewSonic stable: under the slightly less catchy title MB-P702, the company steams in with a combined e-reader and movie player. Wow, something for everyone!

Google, meanwhile, as you will surely have heard already (it even made the financial slot on BBC News this very morning) has given us search fiends an instant capability. Our chums at Lifehacker have even given us some short cuts to make search even quicker! Just how quick to you want it to be? Answers to PIND.editor@gmail.com

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Printing Industry News Digest September 3, 2010

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 20, the weekly summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging and communication sectors. Published every Friday, PIND incorporates links to the week’s key news stories: every piece of bold, maroon text below can be clicked on to take you to more detail on that particular topic, which will open in a new window.

Industry stalwart Derek Sizer is back in the news this week with his appointment as Managing Director at HighWater CTP. Derek, best known for his UK and European roles at imagesetter and CtP manufacturer ECRM, takes over the reins of the worldwide CRON CtP distributor. The company is busy appointing a raft of distributors for the Chinese manufactured product.

Publishing Haymarket announced news this week that its specialist packaging publication, Packaging News, had been sold to the Metropolis International Group, based in Croydon. Editor Josh Brooks and the team will transfer with the publication, and were looking forward to the new challenges offered by the move. We hope that the newsy and highly informative web site and magazine keep offering the same high quality stories on the world of packaging.

We were delighted to see this week that the Ripware video of the Centurfax EasyDot had passed 100 viewings on YouTube, which (in print circles at least) makes it pretty popular.
The guys at Lifehacker have offered you 10 things to do with an external hard drive, which might provide some exciting reading for the pre-press department!

Along similar lines, the same team also offer you some thoughts of what you might be able to do with your old computer. Certainly most pre-press departments must have a few old bits of kit floating about, so here is the chance to put some of it to good use!

News abounds this week on the release of the Samsung Galaxy tablet. The seven inch tablet utilises an Android OS, and can act as a phone as well as a slate. Does it, however, sit too much in the middle of the two? A big phone, making it awkward to “pocket”, and a small tablet making it not much easier than a phone to read? PIND is not too keen on the seven inch format when compared directly to the wonders of the Apple iPad. Our chums at Engadget have come up with the photo that makes the very direct comparison, so you can easily see for yourself how big the difference really is! Latest news, as we write, offers some unofficial comment on pricing: I will just stick to the reported UK pricing for now: £680. No, that wasn't a typo, you really did read £680 for a 16Gb small tablet (or big phone). I already feel strongly comforted about my recent iPad purchase! Still, our immediate guess is that as the machine is a phone it will soon get discounted down with contract rates. Still, don't let all of that put you off! If you are still keen to spend quite a bit of your hard earned on one you will have a wait for a bit just yet: October 11th is the date slated for deliveries. Mmm . . . plenty of thinking time between now and then at least!

Finally, for those that get excited by such things, the guys at Mashable offered you some thoughts on how to make your own free iPhone ringtones this week. Now you can get something really cool and personnel (and forget that you've changed your ring, so not answer the call!).

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