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.
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.
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