Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 102, providing a
summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, 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.
We have to start this week with British banks.
Not as focused as our normal subject matter I know, but no business,
and virtually no individual can function without a bank account. How
have we allowed British banks, therefore, to become so apparently
morally corrupt and incompetent? Even the leader of the Labour party
has criticised them! This has been one crazy week. I say one: for two
weeks now one major organisation has not been able to sort out an upgrade to its computer systems! Barclays, we are now told, has been making up its own inter-bank interest rates, and yet another mis-selling issue
has now come to the fore as well, regarding complex packages for small
businesses that have led to excessive interest rate charges. Something
has to be done and quickly!
I am glad not to be banking with Barclays I have to say, and no, I don’t fancy taking on their PR business either! This year alone we have seen the bank paying a £500 million chunk of tax that it had tried to avoid; an increase in the PPI mis-selling bill to £1.3 billion; this week’s £290 million fine for fixing Libor rates; and all of the flack re Mr Diamond’s reported £17 million annual salary. If the Barclays boss does end up leaving – and that, at time of writing, is only an “if” – he is unlikely to be signing on at the job centre me thinks. He will surely be able to struggle through with his multi-million pound fortune! Are you a Barclay banker like Bob?
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, Forbes is posing the question regarding the death of print:
not yet is says. There: one bit of good news for the week! One item
brushed on by Forbes is the ability of QR codes to link print in with
the internet. Mobile Marketing Watch tells us more about making QR codes work for you.
Printed books are certainly still alive and kicking according the Daily Telegraph. It advises that the “Mommy Porn” book Fifty Shades of Grey has become one of the fastest selling adult paperbacks as it moved swiftly past one million printed copies. In the same breath, it has also whacked up a million sales on Kindle too, illustrating that such publications are not chained to one specific format!
Whilst bankers have been fiddling, Google has been busy with a host of announcements at its own I/O event. Headline act: the 7-inch Google Nexus tablet, which will hit the stores very swiftly. UK launch of two products during the next month! It sounds like a good competitor for the Kindle Fire, which of course we still can’t get on this side of the pond. Basics: 8Gb mid-July £159; 16Gb July 27, £199.
In response, Amazon is strongly rumoured to be launching a 10-inch quad-core tablet, with a late-July release date. PR puff? Could be. Watch this space, or even better, watch Tech&Comms for a daily update on this sort of stuff!
Other Google talk: offline editing for Docs and Drive Apps for iOS and Chrome OS; Chrome browser for iOS; Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Mr Murdoch is splitting the New Corp empire into two businesses: entertainment and media in one pot, and print and publishing in a second. Looks like a smart move, say some, in order to keep the modern, future focused business away from the old print and publishing stuff. “This could not be further from the truth,” says Murdoch. He says that the paywalls for his newspapers are working, and that they are going to be pushed even harder.
Manage a
digital print business and have the golf bug? Good news, especially if you
are in the Bristol area of the UK! Morgana is launching its Pro Series roadshows
with an event in this neck of the woods. Morgana Pro finishing products
coupled with a bit of tuition from the golf pro at the Bristol Golf
Club, July 24 and 25. Sounding good! Sign up now.
Finally, 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 update on print, publishing, packaging news and associated technology!
PIND102
Missed Issue 101, Including Microsoft Surface launch? Then simply click here!
Issue 100: latest newspaper news?
Issue 99: PIND Drupa 2012 wrap-up
Issue 98: Cloud space offerings compared
Updated daily, get Tech News as it relates to print and publishing.
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
We have to start this week with British banks.
Not as focused as our normal subject matter I know, but no business,
and virtually no individual can function without a bank account. How
have we allowed British banks, therefore, to become so apparently
morally corrupt and incompetent? Even the leader of the Labour party
has criticised them! This has been one crazy week. I say one: for two
weeks now one major organisation has not been able to sort out an upgrade to its computer systems! Barclays, we are now told, has been making up its own inter-bank interest rates, and yet another mis-selling issue
has now come to the fore as well, regarding complex packages for small
businesses that have led to excessive interest rate charges. Something
has to be done and quickly!I am glad not to be banking with Barclays I have to say, and no, I don’t fancy taking on their PR business either! This year alone we have seen the bank paying a £500 million chunk of tax that it had tried to avoid; an increase in the PPI mis-selling bill to £1.3 billion; this week’s £290 million fine for fixing Libor rates; and all of the flack re Mr Diamond’s reported £17 million annual salary. If the Barclays boss does end up leaving – and that, at time of writing, is only an “if” – he is unlikely to be signing on at the job centre me thinks. He will surely be able to struggle through with his multi-million pound fortune! Are you a Barclay banker like Bob?
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, Forbes is posing the question regarding the death of print:
not yet is says. There: one bit of good news for the week! One item
brushed on by Forbes is the ability of QR codes to link print in with
the internet. Mobile Marketing Watch tells us more about making QR codes work for you.Printed books are certainly still alive and kicking according the Daily Telegraph. It advises that the “Mommy Porn” book Fifty Shades of Grey has become one of the fastest selling adult paperbacks as it moved swiftly past one million printed copies. In the same breath, it has also whacked up a million sales on Kindle too, illustrating that such publications are not chained to one specific format!
Whilst bankers have been fiddling, Google has been busy with a host of announcements at its own I/O event. Headline act: the 7-inch Google Nexus tablet, which will hit the stores very swiftly. UK launch of two products during the next month! It sounds like a good competitor for the Kindle Fire, which of course we still can’t get on this side of the pond. Basics: 8Gb mid-July £159; 16Gb July 27, £199.In response, Amazon is strongly rumoured to be launching a 10-inch quad-core tablet, with a late-July release date. PR puff? Could be. Watch this space, or even better, watch Tech&Comms for a daily update on this sort of stuff!
Other Google talk: offline editing for Docs and Drive Apps for iOS and Chrome OS; Chrome browser for iOS; Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.Mr Murdoch is splitting the New Corp empire into two businesses: entertainment and media in one pot, and print and publishing in a second. Looks like a smart move, say some, in order to keep the modern, future focused business away from the old print and publishing stuff. “This could not be further from the truth,” says Murdoch. He says that the paywalls for his newspapers are working, and that they are going to be pushed even harder.
Manage a
digital print business and have the golf bug? Good news, especially if you
are in the Bristol area of the UK! Morgana is launching its Pro Series roadshows
with an event in this neck of the woods. Morgana Pro finishing products
coupled with a bit of tuition from the golf pro at the Bristol Golf
Club, July 24 and 25. Sounding good! Sign up now.Finally, 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 update on print, publishing, packaging news and associated technology!
PIND102
Missed Issue 101, Including Microsoft Surface launch? Then simply click here!
Issue 100: latest newspaper news?
Issue 99: PIND Drupa 2012 wrap-up
Issue 98: Cloud space offerings compared
Updated daily, get Tech News as it relates to print and publishing.
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
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