Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 75, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, 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. Do also take a look at our automated Twitter-based GenesisNews Print Daily publication; why not take out a free subscription for a daily digital delivery!
Our recent examination of the iOS5 and mention of the new iPhone 4S did include comment on Siri, but we didn’t check through this latest addition in much detail. We now have had time to view a few product video’s – some more useful than others – and gather some interesting comment. The Guardian, for example, includes quite a positive, upbeat video on the topic, but then also adds in its most recent Pass Notes section an opinion that Siri is more of a gimmick right now, and is not that useful. I think to be that dismissive is to miss the point. Siri is a significant step forward in voice recognition technology – key commentators have already suggested that it puts Google about two years behind Apple. It can only improve and move forwards. Apple is already talking about this becoming the interface for your next Smart TV. One strange thing: we are told that in UK we get a male voice for Siri, whilst the US gets a female voice!
On the subject of Smart TV – although it is somewhat outside our usual areas of focus – Google TV is getting an update, and the whole sector looks ready for a major take off over the coming year.
Worth adding, of course, that if you are not ready to up to a 4S, your iPhone 4 can still give you some basic feel for Siri via its Voice Control capability. OK, its only music playing [from iTunes] and phone calls, but its a start! You can always utilise spoken search via Google. For those treading the the jailbroken line there has already been success in porting to Siri to both iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.
Think smart in technology terms and you first response will be smartphones, and latest news in this sector is that Samsung has now overtaken Apple in terms of product shipments in the last quarter. The guys at Wired tell us that the South Korean’s whizzed out some 27.8 million smartphones, compared to “just” 17.1 million Apple devices.
Talking technology with a slightly more publishing bias, the latest developments in e-paper have been detailed by the Tech-On web site, where the integration of battery power appear to have taken some significant steps forward.
Going back to last week’s publishing focused edition of PIND, we update you on some of the issues raised: Amazon, for starters, were in the news again with regard to its uptake of authors, effectively closing the loop in the world of book publishing – write the book, publish it, release it on Kindle, sell it through the web site! We also examined the potential benefits of Apple’s new Newsstand app. Wired is already happy to describe the product as a huge success for digital publishers.
On the subject of newspapers, WAN-IFRA is promoting a forthcoming tour of European publishers that have found lucrative markets for niche products. The tour will encompass publishing businesses in Sweden, Austria, Germany and the UK.
Whilst we are talking newspapers, it is also worth including mention of the latest study to conclude that tablet users don’t want to pay real money for news content – no surprises. There is also a good summary of the issues that newspapers have to address on a blog post from M Partners.
Switching focus to print and packaging, we noted this week an interesting post on the topic of ink migration issues for food packaging from Danielle Jerschefske, including details of a number of recent product introductions.
A small clutch of mini-items starts with a neat little bit of software for Mac users that enjoy Sticky Notes – this turns any selected text into a note. Fans of QR codes will like this little collection of creative work, whilst a UK focus on property signs made the pages of PrintWeek in its most recent edition.
Almost finally, returning to iOS5: you may have tried the new Reminders app – a standard issue app that has been largely ignored in many of the reviews that we have seen as just another to-do list. Well, we think there are one or two nice tweaks in there that you might enjoy: the Reminders app can do the basics of an alarm at a given day/time, but there is also a neat variant on this that responds to location. For example, you can set it to remind you of an item when you arrive home, or when you leave a specific venue. Postcode details need to be entered for the various locations. Priorities can also be assigned to reminders and also more detailed notes can be entered when needed. OK, it’s not rocket science, but there is more depth to this app than first appears!
Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 76. We aim to add details of our next edition this link during the course of the week. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and click here for the GenesisNews Print Daily – you can even take out a free subscription for this daily news update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology!
PIND075
Missed Issue 74, including newspaper latest and Newsstand? Then simply click here!
Issue 73: iOS5 and the iPhone 4S
Issue 72: Steve Jobs obits; India
Issue 71: Kindle Fire; LabelExpo
Get Your Print News Every Day!
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
Our recent examination of the iOS5 and mention of the new iPhone 4S did include comment on Siri, but we didn’t check through this latest addition in much detail. We now have had time to view a few product video’s – some more useful than others – and gather some interesting comment. The Guardian, for example, includes quite a positive, upbeat video on the topic, but then also adds in its most recent Pass Notes section an opinion that Siri is more of a gimmick right now, and is not that useful. I think to be that dismissive is to miss the point. Siri is a significant step forward in voice recognition technology – key commentators have already suggested that it puts Google about two years behind Apple. It can only improve and move forwards. Apple is already talking about this becoming the interface for your next Smart TV. One strange thing: we are told that in UK we get a male voice for Siri, whilst the US gets a female voice!On the subject of Smart TV – although it is somewhat outside our usual areas of focus – Google TV is getting an update, and the whole sector looks ready for a major take off over the coming year.
Worth adding, of course, that if you are not ready to up to a 4S, your iPhone 4 can still give you some basic feel for Siri via its Voice Control capability. OK, its only music playing [from iTunes] and phone calls, but its a start! You can always utilise spoken search via Google. For those treading the the jailbroken line there has already been success in porting to Siri to both iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.
Think smart in technology terms and you first response will be smartphones, and latest news in this sector is that Samsung has now overtaken Apple in terms of product shipments in the last quarter. The guys at Wired tell us that the South Korean’s whizzed out some 27.8 million smartphones, compared to “just” 17.1 million Apple devices.Talking technology with a slightly more publishing bias, the latest developments in e-paper have been detailed by the Tech-On web site, where the integration of battery power appear to have taken some significant steps forward.
Going back to last week’s publishing focused edition of PIND, we update you on some of the issues raised: Amazon, for starters, were in the news again with regard to its uptake of authors, effectively closing the loop in the world of book publishing – write the book, publish it, release it on Kindle, sell it through the web site! We also examined the potential benefits of Apple’s new Newsstand app. Wired is already happy to describe the product as a huge success for digital publishers.On the subject of newspapers, WAN-IFRA is promoting a forthcoming tour of European publishers that have found lucrative markets for niche products. The tour will encompass publishing businesses in Sweden, Austria, Germany and the UK.
Whilst we are talking newspapers, it is also worth including mention of the latest study to conclude that tablet users don’t want to pay real money for news content – no surprises. There is also a good summary of the issues that newspapers have to address on a blog post from M Partners.Switching focus to print and packaging, we noted this week an interesting post on the topic of ink migration issues for food packaging from Danielle Jerschefske, including details of a number of recent product introductions.
A small clutch of mini-items starts with a neat little bit of software for Mac users that enjoy Sticky Notes – this turns any selected text into a note. Fans of QR codes will like this little collection of creative work, whilst a UK focus on property signs made the pages of PrintWeek in its most recent edition.Almost finally, returning to iOS5: you may have tried the new Reminders app – a standard issue app that has been largely ignored in many of the reviews that we have seen as just another to-do list. Well, we think there are one or two nice tweaks in there that you might enjoy: the Reminders app can do the basics of an alarm at a given day/time, but there is also a neat variant on this that responds to location. For example, you can set it to remind you of an item when you arrive home, or when you leave a specific venue. Postcode details need to be entered for the various locations. Priorities can also be assigned to reminders and also more detailed notes can be entered when needed. OK, it’s not rocket science, but there is more depth to this app than first appears!
Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 76. We aim to add details of our next edition this link during the course of the week. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and click here for the GenesisNews Print Daily – you can even take out a free subscription for this daily news update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology!
PIND075
Missed Issue 74, including newspaper latest and Newsstand? Then simply click here!
Issue 73: iOS5 and the iPhone 4S
Issue 72: Steve Jobs obits; India
Issue 71: Kindle Fire; LabelExpo
Get Your Print News Every Day!
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
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