Printing Industry News Digest No.122, November 17, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 122, 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 delighted to hear that some 2,000 jobs have been preserved in the reorganisation of the manroland sheetfed business, we are still mystified as to where the approximate £40 million of wages will come from. This sum equates to the profitable sale of several hundred, or more likely thousands, printing presses in a highly competitive market. Even the market leader is struggling to shift enough metal, and is loosing money big time!

Having highlighted that little problem, we must not forget, Print is Big! We were delighted to be reminded this week of the Print is Big infographic-based web site: a US focused salute to one of the largest industries in the world. By $$$ size print eclipses most sectors; it produces 45 trillion pages annually, to emphasise the “big”; and is still growing, despite what you might read on the internet!

With that in mind, it is well worth reading this excellent news article from “The Atlantic”. It focuses on the turbulent times endured by a printer and his 1940’s Heidelberg press in Mogadishu, Somalia. So, Mr Printer in the UK or USA, do you still think you have it tough?!

Is this the next big thing in publishing? A camera integrated with a Sony PlayStation reads code from a printed book and turns it into an animated augmented reality, with the player interacting with the storyline via the game controller. A sprinkling of Harry Potter magic dust could certainly aid its success!

Mac based fans of Evernote will probably already know that version 5 of the free software is now available on the app store. They tell us that it contains some 100-plus new features. It certainly has a sharper, clearer new interface, and an improved search facility. If you are not a convert yet, take a closer look!

Interesting little summary from the guys at Lifehacker about common problems associated with the cloud storage systems. Also in cloud world, Microsoft has released info for SkyDrive SDK’s, allowing programers to integrate the product into apps. SkyDrive is also a welcome addition to IFTTT (If This Then That), the customisable action/trigger cloud based software program that we have spoken of often. Lifehacker also asks, is the cloud good enough for back-up?

UK 4G moving forward in the New Year: bidding to start in January 2013 on 4G spectrum.

Tablet talk begins with an Android update for those working with a Nexus 7: you will have noted I am sure that you can now upload Android 4.2 for your pleasure. Phone users with Android 4.2 will have a number of camera enhancements to enjoy, including a new panoramic picture capability, but with Nexus 7 the two best enhancements that I have come across in this general tidy-up are the stop-watch feature, and, best of all, the gesture typing capability. It really works well and is faster than trying to “type” on a miniature keyboard.

On the subject of Android tablets, the smart Xmas investment might be the new 32Gb Nexus 7 with 3G. Unlocked with a SIM slot and Jelly Bean 4.2 the US price of $299 has to be the bargain of the year!

Tablets are being blamed for Dell’s latest unhealthy figures, with both revenues and profits on the slide at the once great box shifter.

Least surprising news of the week: Microsoft Surface isn’t an instant hit as sales start modestly.
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.

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Missed Issue 121, including useful packaging? Then simply click here!

Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing
Issue 119: iPad Mini and Windows 8
Issue 118: A bad week for print



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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.

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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.94, March 31, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 94, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, packaging, digital, and communications technology sectors.

For a charitable kick-off, Andrew Webster, co-founder and director of Morgana Systems, has announced details of a bike ride that he will be undertaking in July of this year. The ride, from London to Paris, is aiming to raise money for Willen Hospice – a facility for the terminally ill where former Morgana employee Frank Lewis recently spent his last days. Please sponsor!

In the world of print, colour specialist The Missing Horse Consultancy tells us all about the wonders of DM or “beautiful screening”.

Does the recent postal increase in the UK put a question mark over the future of greetings card printing? Hallmark has certainly made further digital moves recently with the acquisition of SpiritClips, a photo and video e-card specialist.

Workforce relations go from bad to worse at packaging producer MMP, with the decision to close the strike affected Bootle plant.

Roy Greenslade in the Guardian points us towards a poem-cum-rap entitled “They tell me print is dead – but . . .” However, the same publication warns newspapers of creating link-ups with digital brands.

The role of the writer is very much in focus in a feature on e-publishing in the Guardian this week, whilst a US site asks if advertising can survive the move into the digital world. Meanwhile, if you want to learn how to publish a book on Amazon Kindle, look here!

Is your jury still out on the benefits of Twitter? In “The Power of Twitter” one recent convert explains what won him over.

Elsewhere in tech, RIM and Blackberry have been stealing the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Is the company right to exit the consumer market? Plenty of thoughts here and here.

In the tablet world, Google has decided to take slate sales into its own hands with the creation of an online store. It needs to make some money out of Android somewhere. Suggestions are that it actually makes more money from iOS right now!

With QR codes in focus, Gigaom tells us about an ink that can be read by your touchscreen, whilst the screen itself is in focus at LG with the unveiling of the latest in e-paper.

With the aim of providing a clearer focus on technology issues affecting both print and publishing, GenesisNews has created a sister site entitled Tech&Comms News. Available as a stand-alone site, postings are also shown as an RSS news feed on the GenesisNews home page.

One other e-newsletter worth keeping an eye on was spotted this week: Dispatch, from The Seybold Report, is certainly worth a bookmark. It reminds us older chaps of the power wielded by The Seybold Report back in the 1980’s when pre-press and publishing were undergoing such radical change.

The second anniversary edition of PIND will be upon us next weekend (well, near as makes no difference I guess!): edition one of our weekly publication appeared on April 9, 2010. Believe it or not, it celebrated as a lead article the launch of a product called the Apple iPad. Do check back for PIND 95 next week!

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 95 (our 2^nd Anniversary edition!). 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 news update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology!

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Missed Issue 93, including more digital for Drupa? Then simply click here!

Issue 92: HP’s B2 digital press
Issue 91: print v. e-books debate
Issue 90: UK exhibition focus, publishing news



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Printing Industry News Digest No.86, February 4, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 86, 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. Do also take a look at our automated Twitter-based GenesisNews Print Daily publication; why not take out a free subscription for a daily digital delivery!

The big news this week in print has to be Manroland's sheetfed business being purchased by a UK company. The news came the day after the sale of the Manroland web business to German company Possehl - a deal that had been previously reported and therefore came as no surprise to anybody. Thursday February 2 however delivered news of the sheetfed operation very much from left-field. Langley Holdings, Retford, Nottinghamshire, were the surprise name behind the early morning PrintWeek headline. Along with the Offenbach factory the Langley deal reportedly includes the press suppliers 40 international sales operations. A new UK business, Manroland Sheetfed Holdings, has been registered at Companies House.

The news as officially delivered in a joint press release from the Langley Holdings web site is here, and a take on the story from What They Think? is also included.

In the world of print finishing Morgana Systems detailed a deal with Vivid Laminating Technologies to sell its Matrix single-sided, mid-range laminating kit in the UK.

The the world of tech, the long held belief that netbook sales were taking a dive in favour of tablets and smartphones has been very much confirmed with numbers being released on the state of all tech hardware sectors.


By way of confirmation of the stats, Tablet Crunch offers a view on the huge surge of tablet sales in 2011, which it calculates as a 260% increase. No surprises that Apple continues to top the chart with shipments of 15.4 million units, calculated as 57.6% of the market.

One major competitor in 2012 is surely going to be the Kindle Fire. Best estimates suggest that some 6 million of these Amazon devices were shipped in Q4 of 2011. One to keep a close eye on in 2012 for sure!

Aiding these sales tablet figures are ever cheaper products, though Lifehacker agrees with our own PIND findings that sub-$100 hardware generally isn’t up to the standard required for those that really want to work! Cheaper but significantly less responsive resistive screen technology is the main dividing line in our opinion, along with early Android variants that were never up to the demands of a tablet.

Almost finally, one great piece of tech that all male iPhone users will want to get their hands on came to our attention this week: Hot Wheels radio-controlled vehicles that you can control from your phone! Go on then: all rush out and buy one today!

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 87. 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 news update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology!

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Missed Issue 85, including Kodak update; used presses; and ultrabooks? Then simply click here!

Issue 84: Manroland break-up; Kodak Chapter 11
Issue 83: tech snippets and software
Issue 82: Kodak news and publishing topics



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