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.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.127, December 22, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 127, 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.

It seems staggeringly hard to keep the manroland name out of our headlines: similar to 12 months ago! Late this week we heard that the Plauen site was to be closed by the administrator following the breakdown of negotiations with potential investors. Earlier in the week the Print Business had told us of the departure of the CEO for the sheetfed business, though his role was always of a temporary nature. The web systems business, however, continues to go from strength-to-strength.

The Kodak patent sale went ahead, with a group of 12 involved: a veritable who’s-who of the tech world, including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe Systems, and FujiFilm. In what might be termed the sale of the century, the group managed to purchase the intellectual property rights for a reported $525 million; one “very special price” from an initial valuation of $2.6 billion.

Digital Twin: a potential boost for the printed magazine page? US-based Netpage is hoping that its augmented reality software can provide a connection between the mobile device and the printed page.

Sales of Morgana’s PUR binding kit are beginning to take off: the latest install is at leading Xeikon digital printer The Digital Press, where a DigiBook 150 has been selected to replace hot-melt perfect binding kit.

One or two end of year software snippets that you might enjoy, or find vaguely useful: we made mention recently of Archy, a great Mac way of displaying your Google Drive contents. You should find that you can use Archy as well as a Google Drive that you already have loaded on your system: access to two different Google accounts from one Mac! You will find a use for it! Don't forget to check out third-party apps for Google Drive too . . .

Tripped over a useful function in Simplenote this last couple of days too: to simply share a note with others, add their email address as a “tag”. They will not only be copied, but their adjustments (from within Simplenote) will be incorporated into your document as they make changes, and your updates into their document too! Care should be taken of course, but this could be a great way of getting a number of opinions gathered quickly. Give it a try.

Only just in time for Christmas: Raspberry Pi fans can spend their festive cash in the Pi Store! Perhaps that’s a post-Christmas place for any Xmas monies received?

Right. It’s that festive thing again. Getting short of wrapping paper at the last minute? PIND to the rescue! Print some out!

Then it will be time for New Year plans and resolutions. As a starting point I loved this great quote: “Being Realistic is the Most Commonly Travelled Road to Mediocrity”. Perhaps we could all use this thought as a springboard to creating some exciting New Year’s resolutions that will really empower us all.

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.

PIND127    

Missed Issue 126, including Fuji’s JetPress? Then simply click here!

Issue 125: Death of The Daily
Issue 124: Océ inkjet
Issue 123: manroland web systems



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.126, December 15, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 126, 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. Click the pics too! Extra links are hidden behind the images below.

Short-run packaging is the focus for the first European orders for Fuji’s JetPress 720. Installs are expected in France and Austria. Look out for the most expensive packages on the market, as this unit lists at $1.5 million, and trundles along at 2,700 sheets per hour.

Following recent news re the addition of Kodak Prosper inkjet technology to its manroland web systems presses, rumour is rife that Axel Springer could be close to a tie up with Daily Mail publisher DMGT. The Print Business provides the detail.

The CEO at manroland sheetfed has decided that it’s job done: Alfred Rothlaender, tempted from retirement by business owner Tony Langley, has completed the “heavy lifting”, as Langley describes it, and leaves the business in best shape following the sale of the Mannheim factory site for housing development.

We know you’ve been wondering for a long time: “What are the Top 10 stories on GenesisNews this year?” Wonder no more: the answers are here!

Need more portable storage for your iOS or Android product? The good folk of Kingston have an answer for you: well, at least a 128Gb answer. That should be enough for most folk do you think?

$800 bucks for a 3D printer makes it sound like this technology is coming within the reach of small to medium sized businesses, or even home enthusiasts: Solidoodle 3 has the answer it would seem.

The festive period might well see a glut of tablets and new computer systems arriving at the foot of your bed. Whilst feeling sorry for poor Santa having lug all of that lot around, you might also ponder on what to do with your old kit. Lifehacker offers some suggestions.

The annual Richard Dimbleby lecture is to given this year by Mr Bill Gates: put it in your diary as exciting UK Christmas TV time if you like!

Still not sure what present to buy for your wife, daughter, girlfriend, etc, etc? Why not buy them an app? Yes, by right clicking in iTunes you can now gift an app to your (iPhone owning) loves one’s without even leaving the comfort of your own office.

What about Raspberry Pi you ask: well, how about building a streaming jukebox for Christmas? Whilst Pandora is the suggested vehicle, you might want to change the source for European readers. Mind you, one of the comments following this article suggests that you would probably be better off just converting an ageing iPod to the task. Easier, but perhaps not quite so much fun! OK, maybe use Pi for a solar-powered FTP server instead?

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.

PIND126  
 
Missed Issue 125, including death of The Daily? Then simply click here!

Issue 124: Océ inkjet
Issue 123: manroland web systems
Issue 122: manroland sheetfed update



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