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.

Printing Industry News Digest No.114, September 22, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 114, 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.

Whilst we firmly believe that printed packaging is likely to remain one of the stronger fortresses for traditional print production, it was illuminating to see this last week’s article from Packaging News detailing how Waitrose are to utilise digital production methods for flexible packaging for a number of ready-meal items. Speed to market and reduced costs are cited as potential reasons for this to replace cartonboard: wonder how the green footprint measures up?

Cover art for books is given an interesting focus by the Guardian in an article that suggests that it is going out of fashion. The argument is based on the indisputable fact that the role of the cover is changing: less likely to be blown up into billboard sized posters, and more likely to appear as a miniature icon on a web page.

“Early October,” is as precise as Amazon is prepared to be regarding the release of Kindle products in Japan.

A little mystified regarding what Lifehacker describes as the top 10 secret features of iOS 6. Of the items listed, none appears to be what we would have considered a secret. None of them were able to hold great fascination for us either. Mashable meanwhile gives us both the ten best and eight worse things about iOS 6.

Added to the list should be the non-compatibility of the upgrade to the original iPad. Just over two-years-old and seemingly now out-of-date and unsupported. We have found one nice additional use for our’s however at PIND HQ: iDisplay turns your iPad into a monitor extension for your Mac or PC. The Mac version certainly works just fine and can be a great help.

Just in case you were in any doubt, London agrees that Apple’s new maps are terrible! Apple, meanwhile, dabbles in long-lasting batteries.

In the meantime, whether you are an Apple or Android user, mobile keyboards are becoming ever more usable and more affordable. Do take a look at Jorno – a unique folding Bluetooth keyboard that works with iPhone and iPad, as well as Android devices, such as the Google Nexus. Go mobile and get productive with a pocket sized Jorno keyboard, and get in early as a project backer. Pledge just $79 bucks to help get the project off the ground and you already have bought yourself a $119 keyboard, plus self-esteem oozing from every pore!

What would you use a Raspberry Pi for? Following our occasional visits to the odd-ball cheapo computer package? Here are some suggestions! Also turbo boost the machine for 50% performance improvements.

Perhaps of more significance even that the Raspberry Pi, a new $35 seven-inch slate from Aakash is promising basic internet browsing to India’s masses. Whilst many budget based computing solutions have been touted for the huge Indian market, this one does appear to have strong government support. Be interesting to see how it progresses.

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.

PIND114    

Missed Issue 113, including Alderson Brothers admin? Then simply click here!

Issue 112: New Amazon Kindle product
Issue 111: More printed electronics
Issue 110: Kodak film exit?



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.113, September 15, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 113, 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.

Following recent news items regarding its web printing business, Friday offered up even worse news for the Alderson Brothers Print Group with all trading divisions being placed into administration, including its digital, sheetfed and post-press operations. A grim day for the brothers, and another major signpost erected for print businesses of all shapes and sizes.

On a more positive note for print, news of the BPIF Excellence Award winners was also announced at the end of the week. Benson Box were acclaimed winners of the Lean Manufacturing award, illustrating that print can still be at the heart of a profitable business.

Further to recent stories in PIND, it has been suggested that Kodak may even scrap its patent auction due to the low bids that have been received to date.

Just in case you spent this last week in another galaxy, Apple launched the iPhone 5. Do you need one? Some are suggesting that this might be the last of the big iPhone “show” launches. Perhaps just as importantly, a new iPhone means a new version of iOS – iOS6 as it happens – and a new version of iTunes.

Of equal importance – and there is an important link – the UK’s first 4G network is expected to be up and running before Christmas. Everything Everywhere (or EE as you may hear it refered to) is a T-Mobile / Orange company that is stealing a march on other industry players, and (hopefully) the combination of this new network and the above iPhone 5 will give the company is right royal lead over other industry players in the festive run-up.

More digital newspapers: the Observer is now available as part of the latest iPad edition of the Guardian app. A glimpse at US newspaper advertising revenues will illustrate the essential need for newspapers to migrate to online editions. It suggest also, however, that this alone will not be a saviour.

The Alphagraphics franchise business has taken a long hard look at itself and the way it does its business. Amazingly the re-modeled business is now leading the way again, whilst moving away from its traditional quick-print and copying business.

A frightening thought: according to Microsoft, malware has been appearing on computers even prior to sale! Factory installed viruses have led to Microsoft lawsuits being issued.

Raspberry Pi as a supercomputer? Yes, you read that right! Raspberry Pi and Lego to be precise . . . !

Nudge, nudge; wink, wink: topless iPad Mini pics chief? Go on, take a look. You know you want to! Prefer more real world? Amazon Fire HD review will do for you then Sir.

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.

PIND113 
  
Missed Issue 112, including the new Kindle’s? Then simply click here!

Issue 111: more printed electronics
Issue 110: Kodak film exit?
Issue 109: Heidelberg IPEX



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.100, June 9, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 100, 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.

With our Royal hat on, it seemed only polite and honorable to give last week a miss, with the UK knee deep in Diamond Jubilee celebrations (and rain!), and a large chunk of our readership taking days away from the coal-face in order to join in the festivities. It seemed wrong for us to divert attention away from Her Majesty in order to celebrate our own major event: 100 editions of PIND! Yes, we have clocked up a century of digital news summaries, and probably deserve a medal for so doing (hint, hint to Queenie!). We thought it only right and proper to revisit some of the topics that have been regulars for us over the two-and-a-bit-years of news coverage.

One topic that certainly isn’t going away any time soon is that of newspapers in the digital age. A number of items have again focused on this issue in the last week. Regular contributor Roy Greenslade, writing for the Guardian, debates the “magic of print” as digital continues its inexorable march as the dominant delivery method.

Money man Warren Buffet is still pumping cash into the traditional arena: he still sees potential in a localised hard copy publication. A digital local news variant is discussed by Roy Greenslade again. Johnston Press, meanwhile, as been busy with its first wave of redesigned product.

The topic of paywalls gets some interesting feedback from journalism students. They are certainly not convinced, and bearing in mind we are talking their future pay packets, this is comment to take note of!

Worth noting, if you are an IFRA Expo fan, that the 2012 show has moved! It was to be held in the financially stricken Spanish capital of Madrid, but the October 29 to 31 dates have been moved over to the cash rich Frankfurt exhibition centre instread!

I guess also under that broad umbrella of companies trying to come to terms with the digital age, camera maker Olympus has hit the headlines in the last few days with savage cuts to its workforce in order to re-shape itself for today’s market. This follows a £10m settlement for its British ex-Chief Exec Michael Woodford, whose sacking led to an 80% fall in share value.

The huge development in the e-book market since our launch ensures that sectors place in our 100^th edition. The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch provided an excellent summary recently, in which the five years of the Kindle is the starting point.

Our Antipodean friends at Print 21 takes a more print friendly view of things, citing the lower lending levels by students in schools that have gone all digital.

On the hardware front, touchscreen Ultrabook’s running Windows 8 seem to have stolen the show at this year’s Computex event, suggesting that this is going to be the hardware form for laptop’s over this coming 12 months.

Memory prices have almost fallen through the floor in the last couple of years, and with so much cloud storage space now being given away for zilch (see our recent Issue 98 for more details), even memory sticks are now almost being given away. For those who want to keep their portable data “physical”, grab a 32Gb thumb drive for a £10 note: yes, £1 now buys you 3.2Gb of space!

Tablets of course have to feature here. Our tablet talk started right from day one of PIND, as edition one carried news of the US and UK release of the iPad: yes, that is just over two years ago, nothing more! How the media space has changed in that time, and how rapidly the tablet as a product has developed in such a short space of time (and how rapidly the market for tablets has mushroomed!). The third iteration of the iPad is now on a lot of people’s wish list, and Android variants by the dozen have been tossed into the market (and out of the market again in quite a few cases).

The iPad is still dominant in the tablet world, both in terms of sales and sophistication (in our opinion). Yes, we have dabbled with both products: iPad is still a superior piece of hardware, and is backed by equally superior software. Android tablets have come on a long way. The software, however, still has much catching up to do. We have highlighted in PIND the wide variety of OS versions still in the market. This makes it difficult for developers.

Microsoft might muddy the waters a little with Windows 8 on tablets. Price wars continue with Android products, with the Kindle Fire a key product that has caused major 7-inch ripples around Cupertino. This exciting market has some way to go, and developments will continue at some pace. It will be good to review the tablet world in another 12 months. We think that Apple will have a 7-inch (or so!) product, and will still dominate the high-end of the sector; we think that the Kindle Fire will have further eaten into the smaller format end of the market; we think that other Android products will still be floundering around, but will be even cheaper (to compete with Amazon); and we think that Windows tablets will still be struggling to gain traction due to high pricing (compared with Amazon and Android kit). PIND will report back in 2013!

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!

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Missed Issue 99, including our Drupa 2012 wrap-up? Then simply click here!
Issue 98: Cloud space offerings compared
Issue 97: PrintWeek’s Drupa app
Issue 96: The role of print in communications



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