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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