Printing Industry News Digest No.131, January 26, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 131, 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.

After a relatively quiet start to 2013 big stories have started to break this week. Just yesterday, Kodak announced that it was not going to be showing at next year’s IPEX event in London. Not the first big name to withdraw, questions might well be asked about the exhibition format. More news expected in the coming weeks.

Two heads are better than one? That might be the thinking behind news announced earlier this week regarding a possible agreement between Japanese offset-press manufacturers Ryobi and Mitsubishi. Discussions are taking place between the two, with a deadline set of June 30 for a final agreement.

Jobs cuts have been announced at the Financial Times. Some 25 jobs are at risk as the paper seeks to shift its focus and resources to online from the printed paper edition.

An optimistic post from Mashable on the wonders of print! “Why Printed Books will Never Die” sounds like a good read!

You have probably realised most of these, but here are eight ways in which 3D printing is different from printing (One: its in three dimensions . . . !). Printing a phone case is certainly something that your average print engine might struggle with.

Two articles that caught our attention last weekend: Don’t Mourn HMV says that there are better ways of finding music, and that small, specialist music shops will still survive; Every Company is up for Disruption focuses on keeping a focus on simple products, entering a market at the bottom. The two articles actually do connect rather well in our opinion, and might set some thoughts in motion.

There is a lot of guidance coming forth from some of our regular feed reads this week: you might like to scan through a few. How about 10 Good Tech Habits for starters; Fix the Internet’s Biggest Annoyances for a second; Four Social Media Lessons; and Six Blogging Mistakes as highlighted by Mashable. It might also be worth having a look at Eight Great Technologies Benefit from £600m in Government Funding as highlighted by The Guardian.

Android / iOS Tip: Adding a 3G network to a low-cost Android tablet always seems a little excessive. Indeed many models don’t even offer that as an option. Our Google Nexus 7 has no such facility for sure: but wait! Most smartphone users already have the ability to transfer their 3G capability from phone to tablet. If you are an iPhone user, check out the Personal Hotspot facility (under Settings). Basically, it will switch you to 3G mode and allow that 3G capability to be ported to another device. This can be done wirelessly: once you have switched the feature on at the phone, check your tablets list of wi-fi availability – you should find an iPhone option there. Your iPhone will advise you of the password. Key that in to get your link going. We have achieved a slightly better signal on the Nexus 7 by connecting the standard cable from the iPhone with the USB end hooked into an OTG cable that clips into the tablets mini-USB port. OK, this form of tethering only transfers the 3G signal from one device to the other, but this can be a significant benefit. Small phone screens can be hard to use for extended period of time. Seeing the bigger picture on a seven-inch screen is easier on the eye.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND131    

Missed Issue 130, including our first Android Tips item? Then simply click here!

Issue 129: Educational publishing
Issue 128: RSS news readers
Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen



Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.130, January 19, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 130, 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.

Montgomery Litho goes, but McAllister Litho Glasgow rises from the ashes. Is this a good time to be investing in a printing business? Former Montgomery production director Janette McAllister certainly thinks so, saving 76 jobs at the same time. Industry opinion split.

Meanwhile Digital Print Zone has invested in finishing kit from Morgana following a shift in demand from its customer base, according to Print Monthly magazine.

Blocked print-heads? Fear not: a European solution is at hand. A scientist claims to have invented a new process that allows for the recovery of blocked print-heads that would previously have been disposed of.

According to the Cision Media Update this week, Guardian News & Media is to launch a digital edition in Australia. It suggests that Katharine Viner is leaving her role as UK deputy editor and relocating to Australia to head up the venture.

The team at Lifehacker have come up with a collection of free or low cost alternatives to the vast expense of the Adobe Creative Suite. Certainly some of these packages are great for occasional use, and are undoubtedly a whole chunk of change less than the Adobe versions.

A new set of browser speed test results have been published on Lifehacker. Whilst the authors are loathed to declare a winner, Chrome 24 seems to hit most of the high points through the various tests. Interestingly Explorer is certainly making a comeback in these latest results too.

Bargain bin? We find it hard to resist a very special offer – especially when it involves good looking tech! A nameless seven-inch tablet running Android 4.0.4 for just £36.50 was just too much of a deal for us to say no to. In the interests of research we had to purchase. No Bluetooth fitted, but it has a micro-USB port, a TF card slot, 4Gb of internal memory, and wi-fi as standard. Not a Google Nexus 7 for sure, but we will report back on how useful it is for the price!


Android Tip: How about having quick access app buttons for each of your Gmail addresses, and even each of your Google Drive accounts? Press and hold on a vacant area of screen. The “Add to Home Screen” box comes up and offers a “Shortcuts” option. Press that and select “Gmail label” from the subsequent list. Select an account (assuming you have already made the software aware of your various Google accounts!), and select which item you want on screen. Inbox has been used here in our example, but it could just as easily be a specifically tagged email box within the account. The result is a very quick way to check your mail across several accounts. In the image you can also see shortcuts to folders from Dropbox and Box accounts (left side of picture) – an nice simple way to dig into your files whilst on the move.

Mac Tip: Mac grandees will be very aware of this one we are sure, but if you are new to the Mac platform, you will probably enjoy CopyLess. This small but useful app means it is no longer necessary to switch constantly between different windows just to copy and paste a few items. Everything can now be copied once and pasted when and wherever it is required. Unlike the system clipboard CopyLess can store up to 100 items to which you have instant access at any time. For the average user, the free of charge CopyLess Lite is probably even more appropriate – this can store the ten last “command-C’s” and your three favourite elements. To use any one element, simply drag it into your current document, or use the “direct paste” button.

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND130    

Missed Issue 129, including educational publishing? Then simply click here!

Issue 128: RSS news readers
Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen
Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress



Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.129, January 12, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 129, 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.

Publishing has grabbed our attention this week: educational publishing has been put into focus by McGraw-Hill and its digital partner Kno: the future of textbooks is all about being dynamic – a flexible learning tool that develops with the student. Sounds good – unless you are a printer maybe!

The publishing focus continues with the news that printed book sales fell in 2012, but some suggest that they fell more slowly than in previous years. One in twenty printed books sold was by E L James! Is this good? We guess so.

Newspaper and internet publishing has also been in the news in Ireland, with ownership and rights issues being in focus. Should a newspaper charge a site for linking to it? Doesn't sound like good business to us!

Interesting development on the Kodak front as they license the name to JK Imaging for camera and projector production, following on from last years decision to quit the digital camera market.

CES news: Nice little wifi drive from HP – 32Gb and able to send video or audio files to multiple recipients. Also great USB device to turn your old laptop into a touchscreen device with Windows 8. The Nexus 7 dock snuck in the back door too!

Deserving of a mention for sure is this really cool Android Mini PC product. With a reported price tag of just $45 (less than £30) is has to be well worth a play. OK, it needs everything plugged in (monitor, keyboard, mouse), but you probably have a few of these about, especially as Bluetooth is now included on the latest version. Android with a mouse is just fine in our experience!

One thing that has intrigued us for a while is the not so humble watch. Latest variants have popped their heads above the parapet at CES. There is Pebble, which has had plenty of coverage; but also Toshiba; the latest update to I’m Watch doing an iPod Nano impression; and the Martian Passport Watch (?!) now in the fray. Interesting times!

It’s a new year – of course there will be tech predictions . . . ! More focused predictions re Microsoft and 2013 too [do read this one! it really is worth it!]. Mashable adds in five Chinese brands that we will hear more of in 2013. Of course, if you want to know the next big thing, the Guardian says ask a teenager!

On the general software front, Fetchnotes happened our way, and certainly appears to be a good multi-platform, well designed note-taking tool. We will give it a run out and see how it performs, but the question as always with such apps is can they do the job any better than the more general approach of Evernote. We do like the use of hash-tags in Fetchnotes and the nice and simple attach facility: worth a look we think!

Some 1 million Raspberry Pi sales have now been chalked up!

Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND129    

Missed Issue 128, a focus on RSS news readers? Then simply click here!

Issue 127: manroland to close Plauen
Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress
Issue 125: Death of The Daily



Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.

Printing Industry News Digest No.128, January 5, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 128, 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.



A Happy New Year to all of our readers! For this first edition of 2013 we will keep things light but hopefully useful with a view of some of our favourite news feed apps. Whilst we at PIND blindly promote our own RSS feeds on a regular basis, we give little insight to how you might use such data on your own desktop. Today we aim to change all of that! An RSS reader now offers much more than just a plain text based list of entries for you to interrogate: if this change has passed you by allow us to show you five of our favourite feed readers, along with images to show you how different a feed reader can be. You might want to offer your own preferred bit of software: give us a shout at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Our first example focuses on a web-based solution that we have been using for some years here at PIND / Genesis: Netvibes provides a personalised dashboard on your desktop computer (Mac or PC). Our first screenshot (above) of Netvibes shows an example of how our own Tech & Comms News feed can be viewed in a variety of formats via this software. Top left we have what is described by Netvibes as its “Normal” view of a feed, showing pictures where available, the headline (which acts as the link), and the opening words of text. The marching display version (bottom, left) passes through the headlines of each story. Top middle shows the Netvibes “Magazine” view of the same feed, featuring one main story and six sub stories: an attractive option. Middle bottom is the more basic text only version of the feed. Right are two “Slideshow” views of the same feed. Netvibes can be configured with a range of pre-formatted news feeds, Twitter feeds, weather info, and more, as shown in our second image. Several pages can be configured if required, and can, of course, focus on different subject areas.

A more portable reading tool can be found in Pocket. Previously known as Read It Later, the software was created in order for users to send links through to the web-based host for later display and reading. That is certainly something that can easily be achieved, and our photo shows a few links that we have right clicked on in the Tech & Comms blog site, sending these stories through to our Pocket account. Once registered a user can then download Pocket on virtually any item: iPhone, Android phone, Apple or Android tablet, or desktop machine. Once stories have been updated on any device they can then be read offline: a great tool for people whose journeys take them off-network (ie, many train journeys in UK).

Pocket, however, can be used in even more exciting ways. The basic data for Tech & Comms News actually begins life in Google Reader. We have a set of regular RSS feeds that we glance through each morning and evening, clicking the star next to items that we think will be of interest to Tech & Comms News subscribers. Via an algorithm set up in IFTTT starred items in our Google Reader account are then delivered to our blog site, our Twitter feed, and the Pocket program (for us to read later!).

A third option worthy of mention is Feedly. Available as an add-on in popular browsers such as Firefox or stand-alone software, Feedly integrates with your Google Reader. It can take feeds that you may already have, or it enables the addition of new feeds, displaying the information in a more magazine like way. An easy and swift to set-up option, Feedly can be tweaked and fine-tuned to display your important feeds first.

Another great tablet focused option is Pulse. News feeds can be added in one or multiple sections to provide a swift, pictorial overview of the latest information. Easy to configure and easy to read-at-a-glance, Pulse works with both iOS and Android tablets.

Finally, and perhaps most simply of all, we have a Mac-base marching display style of reader that can comfortably sit at the top of you main computer screen, keeping you up to date on one or several RSS feeds. RSS Ticker is available for a very low price from the Mac App Store [note: all of the other recommendations above are free].


Keep your finger on the pulse: grab an RSS feed of PIND (copy this link into your feed reader); click here for the GenesisNews #Print Daily to get the latest daily stories; or click here for regular Tech & Comms updates in blog or RSS form. You can also connect to a free subscription of the Print Daily for an update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology delivered straight to your in-box every day! For details on Genesis Marketing – publishers of PIND – click here.

PIND128    

Missed Issue 127, including manroland to close Plauen? Then simply click here!

Issue 126: Fuji’s JetPress
Issue 125: Death of The Daily
Issue 124: Océ inkjet



Get your Tech & Comms updates direct from the blog, use the RSS feed, or keep updated via Twitter.