Printing Industry News Digest March 25, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 45, the summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging, digital and communication sectors. Welcome to the latest edition of PIND, incorporating brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail.

GenesisNews goes iPad! Those clever chaps at WordPress have delivered unto us a theme especially designed to display your blog on the iPad in a similar form to popular tablet software such as Flipboard. The enhanced theme is simple to use and delivers a great iPad look! Unfortunately whilst we can show you a picture (see left; click to enlarge!) you can't really see the output otherwise unless you are viewing on an iPad!

3D printing hits the news-stands with Wired magazine, whilst for a more historic look at print, this rather interesting infographic charts the life of print from China in 618 through to the wonders of the iPad in 2010!

In the current world of print, it was interesting to see how Mitsubishi in the UK is having to follow a number of other suppliers in removing its dedicated demonstration facilities. In a market where sales have reduced by some 75% since the year 2000, costs do have to be trimmed, it’s as simple as that.

Google has been busy putting together a data based publication, Think Quarterly. The newsletter is sent to Google partner companies in printed form, but is now available in digital form for those that are interested in having a read.

Last weekend the BBC’s Click came up with an interesting topic: libraries in the digital age. How is the library going to survive the onslaught of the e-book. Some interesting comment here for all parties: publisher; library; printer; and reader!

However, on the subject of digital books, the Guardian offered us a printed alternative with the new “flipback” book. Is this going to be the next big thing in publishing? It’s compact, lightweight, and doesn’t need charging. Printers might like the idea too!

Samsung’s 9 Series laptop is getting a lot of coverage this week. The 11.6 inch version has been announced with a list price of some $1199 (less than £750 as a direct conversion), which is pretty reasonable for something that is reported to be as thin as the MacBook Air, and almost as pretty! The 64Gb solid state drive is seen as below spec by many, but then that does depend on what you want to carry around on your laptop I guess; it’s a price v. weight v. availability thing that the individual needs to calculate.

Samsung has also been doing some good and competitive things with its Galaxy tablets and their pricing, with details of the 8.9 and 10.1 inch models. A 16Gb version of the 10 inch product is coming in at just $499. A direct conversion of that equates to £311. That has to make it a serious option for the new tablet investor.

Mind you, the market leader has not given up by any means! The iPad2 went on sale in the UK on Friday, and prices are reported to be £399 and up – certainly making them less expensive than the original iPad.

As promised last week, we wanted to revisit QR codes to catch up on some of the latest coverage of this impactful marketing tool, which has the potential to connect the worlds of print and the internet. US site AdAge Digital recently told us about some big names now using QR such as Macy’s, Target and Best Buy. There is also a new Top 10 (in US) link for QR activity, and,  very importantly, some links to tracking solutions for QR codes; this is one of the most important benefits of the codes for marketing folk – you can check the numbers! Kodak has also started to use the QR code on a worldwide basis: not a bad endorsement I guess!

Another follow up on recent weeks’ postings: Firefox 4 is not just out and about, its being downloaded in huge numbers (bigger numbers than the latest Internet Explorer, you might have noted). For all that, there are a few changes in FF4 that have been deemed “annoying” by some, so the chaps at Lifehacker have come up with some fixes.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 46. Details of new stories will be added to this text page during the course of the week.

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Want to read issue 44? Click Here!

Printing Industry News Digest March 18, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 44, the summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging, digital and communication sectors. Welcome to the latest edition of PIND, incorporating brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail.

For starters this week we head off into the world of newspapers, where an interesting set of figures have been posted detailing which UK papers are “winning” the digital revenue race. The link to paidContent:UK summarises some pretty impressive numbers on the whole, with FT Publishing listed as leading the way with a revenue of £130 million from its digital activities, which is no small beer for sure. The numbers do start to tail off pretty rapidly after the first two players, but there are still some handy revenues being listed in the regional sector.

Such activity has been drawn into focus this week largely due to the launch of another major world title going behind a paywall. You probably won’t have escaped the news that the New York Times has created a “pay for it” system, though some computer experts think that there is a work round.

The other newspaper news that should be highlighted from this week is that a US survey has discovered that more of us now seek our instant news from the internet rather than a printed product. Probably no great surprise here, but it’s always a shock moment when a survey tells you that it has actually happened.

A similar shock moment may have been felt when reading that 80% of under 5’s now hit the net at least once a week. Maybe the two US surveys combined will give those newspaper moguls with vision something more to consider.

In the real world of printed newspapers, just another sign of change as in the US Erie Times-News lays-off 40 full and part time employees and outsources print production.

In the wider publishing world, some more major magazine shift into the iPad world, with such well-known names as Better Homes and Gardens, Condé Nast’s Self, and Hearst’s Cosmopolitan getting all digital.

The biggest headline for the UK’s print industry this week has to be St Ives decision to sell off three magazine printing plants to Walstead for £20 million. The Peterborough, Roche and Plymouth factories had sales of £70.5 million last year, but failed to turn in a profit. Some 670 employees are involved.

In the same breath, considerable speculation is being aired regarding Northern & Shell’s magazine portfolio, which includes the popular OK! title.

I mention this purely on the basis that I was impressed by it: HP detailed to a waiting audience of journalists its latest strategy for 2011 and beyond. Yes, there were still a lot of American buzz words flying around, but what I liked was the way that a big business like HP was able to look beyond bean counting at take on board some concepts that you expect small business to get excited about – cloud-based software for example. Hats off to HP (one of those sentences that I never quite imagined saying!).

Back to a story mentioned last week: the delivery of the “release candidate” version of Firefox 4. As promised we downloaded it and tried it out. It scores pretty big here at PIND, though we are Firefox fans. Top loading tabs and pinned tabs are all very Chrome, and there is an air of imitation about the new Firefox 4, but the extensions are still what makes FF tick, and they are still there, with the major one’s already updated for the new release.

Tablet talk should also make a reference to last week with the release of iPad2: the follow up can be guessed at, with initial deliveries of iPad2 now just about sold out!
Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 45. Details of new stories will be added to this text page during the course of the week.

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Printing Industry News Digest March 11, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 43, the summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging, digital and communication sectors. Welcome to the latest edition of PIND, incorporating brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail.

Many thanks for welcoming PIND back so wholeheartedly during this last week; viewing figures were back to where they belong! Top of the shop this week has to be today’s launch of the iPad2, and in its honour we will dwell on the tablet topic a little longer this week. Firstly, if you are seeking a bargain, it has been mentioned on several sites this week that the original iPad – iPad1 I guess we could call it now – is likely to be found on sale at some “£100 off”. To my mind this is going to be something of a bargain. I’m not convinced that iPad2 really offers that much more in terms of hardware. OK, it’s got camera’s front and back – but when you look like me that’s no great benefit! However, if you feel a strong urge to trade back your original iPad for the new version, do seek the best trade-in deal.

Actually, rather than give you my opinions, let’s see what the experts say about iPad2. Also it is worth looking at another of those competitive analysis offerings – this one is from Mashable. Certainly iOS4.3 is already out and available, and indeed already downloaded here at PIND towers. Yes, it’s a bit faster, which is nice, but not mind-blowing; and the dreaded slide-switch on the right of the iPad can now act as either the orientation lock or a mute button (I’ve gone back to orientation lock – much more useful!).

Worth waiting in line for? Well American student Amanda Foote thought so, but then decided to trade-in her position at the head of the iPad queue for $900!

One more essential bit of reading if you are thinking of investing in a tablet device: how to convince your partner that you need one!

On the whole tablet thing in general, our chums at Lifehacker have just this week posted an interesting feature on how you might start to integrate a tablet into your computing life. There is little doubt in my mind that tablet technology hasn’t brought us anything radically new in terms of what you can do with a computer; what I mean is that everything you can do on a tablet you can also do on one or more other devices. What the tablet has done is to enable us to do those tasks either more easily, in different environments, or in different ways. The Lifehacker piece takes a closer look at what you can use your tablet for, and how you might adjust your computing life to accommodate the capabilities of a tablet.

With regard to app news, Zite is the new iPad “personalised magazine” on the block. Definitely a challenger to “app of the year” Flipboard, and first impressions definitely give it the edge in my opinion. It seems to be able to accommodate a broader summary of what the reader wants to have in his personal magazine, with additional, easily connected links to typical magazine/newspaper topics, rather than just news feeds. Both products have their merits, and both are free to download, so get them both!

With regard to other newly released tablet devices, Viewsonic has sallied forth with its dual booting offering. The Viewpad 10 allows you to load up either Windows 7 or Android, but only 1.6 according to the specs, which is the “oh” moment I do think! However, it is 10.1 inch and pricing from a straightforward Dollar conversion would appear in the right ballpark at £370 to £420 – not a cheapo though.

Rumours have it that sales of the Motorola Zoom are not exactly making Apple quake in its boots. A few technical issues seem to be spoiling the party, and the price point is still a bit sticky.

Under the “at last” heading, PIND has been searching and asking for some little while for a folding, Bluetooth keyboard suitable for working with both iPhone and iPad, and by its very folding nature suitable for my pocket. Well, good news fellow small keyboard fans. It’s here! The good people of Verbatim have come up with a solution, and we are looking to make a purchase ASAP!

Also on the computing side of life, there has been a couple of interesting browser announcements this week. Firstly, Firefox is getting ever closer to a final version of its Firefox 4.0 product. It has now reached “Release Candidate” stage after no fewer than 10 beta releases, so Firefox fans are urged to try it out. We expect to be loading up early next week when we can find a little time to play! Already running it? Tell us more at PIND.editor@gmail.com On the subject of browsers, an annual browser “hacking” competition, Pwn2Own, took place this week with IE8 and Safari falling early on day one. Firefox and Chrome have yet to be hacked at the time of writing, but Google did launch a late update closing at least 24 security flaws, which might have put off some would be participants!

Taking a sideways step towards digital print, we should make mention of M Partners recent announcement in which it detailed a partnership with MGI Technology, the UK operation working hand-in-hand with the French digital press and post-press equipment manufacturer. MGI will be M Partners first digital offering, and the product line-up will sit alongside the company’s Mitsubishi litho presses, GUK folding and inserting equipment, and Steinemann laminating equipment.

In closing, have you ever sought inspiration regarding that new logo design? Here are 50 fantastically clever logo designs that will get you thinking.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 44. Details of new stories will be added to this text page during the course of the week.

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Want to read issue 42? Click Here!