Printing Industry News Digest No.135, February 23, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 135, 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.

PUR perfect binding is in focus with Morgana Systems. Links to three short videos on the products are well worth a look as PUR moves to short-run digital work. The affordable DigiBook 150 is an entry-level hand-fed machine suited to very small quantities.

Meanwhile many companies expressed joy and delight at the recent Hunkeler Innovation days staged in Switzerland. Many are asking if this is this the new way forward for exhibitions. One voice against might come from Packaging Innovations at the NEC, Birmingham, this coming week.

Publishing, meanwhile, takes centre stage in London where the Publishing & Media Expo happens on Tuesday and Wednesday, at Earls Court.

Such a show is more than likely to have a focus somewhere within on self-publishing. The Guardian offers some sharp thoughts on this revolution for writers. Meanwhile, in the US, a David v. Goliath case is launching with three bookstores taking on the might of Amazon and six of the biggest publishers in America. Where’s your $5 on the outcome?! Restraint of trade is the basic point of focus.

What is next for books, asks the Guardian. A good question to go to the above show with perhaps. How about a talking book alongside the readable version? Gigaom imagines this to be a working product via your Kindle.

The 4G mobile network has been much in the news this last week, with the UK government and its wildly optimistic valuation taking centre stage. The guys quickest out of the 4G blocks in UK, now known as EE, do not appear to have taken the country by storm with their offering, which may well have influenced the bidding process. 4G should succeed in the long-run, but try giving us a decent network first and then asking for a hike in monthly subs – otherwise its very much like the kings new clothes!

For those at the techie sharp end it will surely come as no surprise to hear talk of double digit growth in the tablet computer market during this last year. Expectations from Forrester are for that to continue in the coming years with a figure of 55% online adult ownership in Western Europe by 2017. That equates to a whopping 147 million units in case you were wondering!

Some of those should certainly be Google Nexus products by our reckoning. With Google retail stores widely tipped to be on the way in the US, it would be good to see a better promotional push of these most excellent tablets. If a seven-inch form factor (or thereabouts) is on your shopping list, why would you buy anything else? Well, HP is now posing an option that might be worth looking at if you can wait until April . . . a $169 price tag (straight UK conversion: £111.44) is a very reasoned argument for the spec.

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.

PIND135    

Missed Issue 134, with latest on digital publishing? Then simply click here!

Issue 133: Hard times for heavy metal
Issue 132: Morgana turns Swedish
Issue 131: Kodak out of IPEX



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.132, February 2, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 132, 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.

Morgana Systems, a leading UK-based manufacturer of post-press equipment, has been acquired by Plockmatic International. The Swedish-based company is also well know as a developer and manufacturer of document finishing technology, with a strong focus on inline booklet making systems.

The IPEX 2014 team came out fighting this week with some revised plans for next year’s event, including a reduction in the length of the event from eight days to six, and a white paper which summarises the state of the printing industry extremely well, in our humble opinion. If you haven’t read the Explore PDF yet, download it here and read it today. It might help crystallise your thoughts on your business as well as on IPEX.

Earlier in the week UK Ryobi press distributor Apex Digital Graphics announced that it would also be in a position to provide the range of Konica Minolta digital printing machinery to print businesses.

Money still outstanding from Goodhead Group? Looks like you are in good company. Unsecured creditors are owed a total of some £9 million, and are unlikely to see anything but pennies it would seem. Consumables suppliers to take the biggest hit, you will not be surprised to learn.

After doing the sums a total of 40 regional journalist jobs look likely to go as Trinity Mirror seeks to share more share more news stories across its 100-plus titles. The new strategy? You guessed: digital first. Mind you, this is a drop in the ocean compared to Time Inc. where about 500 lay-offs are looking likely at the 21-title publishing house.

So just why is the Guardian not going for paywalls? Interesting look at the various monetising strategies for news publishers from Mashable.

French government sorts out Google on behalf of publishing sector to the tune of £52 million. Germany liking the sound of this.

So, eager to get your 3D printing business up and running? What products are in the market you might ask: well, Engadget offers its consumers guide to 3D printer products. Once you get one, you can print your own robot!

Least surprising stat: tablets show year-on-year growth of 75% as Q4 2012 numbers reveal a whopping 52.5 million tablet devices were shipped. The detail is more interesting, revealing that Apple is still way out in front in Q4 2012 with 43% of the market, but that shows a decline from 51.7% in 2011, though a leap in actual numbers from 15.1 million to 22.9 million units in Q4 2012.

We all like a bit of crystal ball gazing don’t we? Our chums at Mashable certainly do: you might like to gaze curiously through their 38 predictions for the future. Meanwhile you might also like this software – it makes predictions for tomorrow’s news by analysing today’s headlines!

Android Tips: Nova Launcher is a must for Android tablets in our humble opinion. It's a highly customisable launcher / home-screen replacement software for Android 4.0 and above. Key features include infinite screen scroll (loop of screens); the ability to define how many user screens you have and what order they appear in;

increase number of apps in dock – we use eight on the Nexus 7 for example; and have scrolling dock. Basic Nova Launcher is free, but we suggest you spend just a few pennies to upgrade to the Prime version – install the free software first and add Prime after. This adds a very good gestures capability for app launching, and unread counts for email apps. It's not just us! Some 32,000 five star ratings on Google Play suggest that others like this launcher too!

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.

PIND132    

Missed Issue 131, including Kodak out of IPEX? Then simply click here!

Issue 130: Start of Android Tip Series
Issue 129: Educational publishing
Issue 128: RSS news readers



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.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.