Printing Industry News Digest No.124, December 1, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 124, 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.

Océ has teamed up with manroland web systems to provide a digital solution for newspaper and book production. The JetStream 5500 full-colour inkjet press combines manroland web systems post-printing know-how with an Océ engine. Output is on 762mm wide material, with up to 254 meters per minute (mpm) of print being produced at 600 x 480dpi. “Quality mode”, which images at a perceived 1200dpi, can produce up to 200mpm.

Kodak claims improved lending terms, but still paying a chunky rate of interest. Conditions include a resolution re the company’s UK pension obligations.

John Dickinson envelopes has detailed its end-of-days for Washington, Tyne and Wear, factory: will close by the end of this year.

Messe Dusseldorf, the German exhibition centre, has pulled the plug on the digi:media 2013 trade show. It blames cancellations and a lack of commitment from potential exhibitors.

Ever needed to scan in a hard copy book to create a digital version? This robot will do so at up to 250 pages a minute! Should make digitising the Bodleian Library a swift job then . . .

So 3D printing is coming to a Staples (US for now!) near you? Is this the future of “printing”? Mashable and others look at the potential for this technology.

Window 8 reception still unclear! This week we are told that US consumers are not excited, whilst Surface is still suffering from weak demand. Not sure that the prices for the Windows 8 Pro version of the tablet are going to get things moving either.

The mysterious Nexus 7 dock has reappeared in Japan: release to the rest of the world likely to happen soon!

What’s all the fuss about Evernote: Lifehacker pools usual answers. Could shout louder about the excellent syncing across devices: we use it over iPhone, iMac, PC, Nexus 7, and other Android tablets. Sync is swift and reliable.

Using Google Drive as a cloud service? If you are a Mac user, you might like to try the interface offered by ArchyApp.com – it offers a cleaner, easier to use way of working with Google Drive. You will need to create a new Gmail account to use the service, but it does seem quite a friendly way to work with the cloud. A new account means of course another 5Gb of Google Drive storage space.

Mashable offers us its top 25 tech happenings of 2012. Surprised not to see mention of the Google Nexus tablets, yet Kindle Paperwhite comes in at 5? On the subject of important tech, a happy 20^th birthday to text messaging! If that was of interest, then you might also like to know that some 144.8 billion emails are sent each day!

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.

PIND124    

Missed Issue 123, including manroland web systems? Then simply click here!

Issue 122: manroland sheetfed update
Issue 121: Useful packaging
Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.123, November 24, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 123, 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.

We mentioned manroland sheetfed at the top of last weeks news, but manroland web systems (now an entirely separate company) is selling hardware, and continues to develop new and imaginative solutions for both newspaper and commercial web press users. The latest news features the integration of tablet-based controllers with web press hardware.

Press installations are few these days, and Japanese manufactured press installations even fewer due to the exchange rate at this time, but packaging specialist Glossop Cartons found the need to install a second Mitsubishi press at its Derbyshire HQ due to the knowledge and expertise of the supplier M Partners. Litho press experts at the UK distributor for Mitsubishi products provided a solution to a problem posed by the packaging company.

Cloud hosting heads for consolidation in Europe as Claranet absorbs competitor Star, but TechCrunch suggests that SaaS could be on its way out.

AutoTrader, meanwhile, is talking of record viewing numbers at its web site, where 11 million unique visitors popped by in October.

The Hewlett-Packard / Autonomy gig is has been getting plenty of web space this last week. The Guardian provides a summary of where we are now.

Further suggestions, this time from the Guardian, that Windows 8 is taking off fairly slowly. Perhaps no surprises given people’s experiences with previous operating systems, which have often required significant updates just a few months down the line.

Nice posting from the guys at Lifehacker detailing what calls 50 free apps we’re most thankful for. Can’t disagree with the majority: if you are not making the most of some of these excellent offerings, have a quick read through!

In response to a question re keeping notes in sync, Lifehacker offers in interesting post with a wide range of solutions, many of which we have tried, and most of which we have liked. To us, however, it takes too long to reach the obvious answer: Evernote.

In Tablet-Talk, it will come as no surprise following the recent rash of affordable product introductions, that this festive period is already being tagged as the Tablet Christmas. Future Publishing is suggesting that this will result in growth of e-editions of magazines.
Our friends at Mashable suggest that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is good but no iPad killer.

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.

PIND123    

Missed Issue 122, including manroland sheetfed update? Then simply click here!

Issue 121: Useful packaging
Issue 120: Random Penguin publishing
Issue 119: iPad Mini and Windows 8



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

Printing Industry News Digest No.119, October 27, 2012

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 119, 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.

There simply had to be a tablet focus this week with both the iPad Mini and the Microsoft Surface hitting the headlines in the last few days. Early verdicts seem to vote in favour of the Mini, whilst many questions remain re the Windows 8 gang.

Early thoughts on Windows 8, Surface, and iPad Mini are certainly worth reading; are you backing Windows 8 early, and are you sticking your hard-earned in the Surface direction?: let us know at PIND.editor@gmail.com

Early leaks also point to a new Nexus 10 product on the horizon, whilst the Nexus 7 with 8Gb looks as if it could be disappearing from the shelves far too quickly (IOHO).

Interesting numbers on tablet shipments for Q3 2012 illustrate that the latest crop of Android product really did make a difference in real numbers. A direct comparison with last year shows some 10.2 million worldwide shipments compared to just 5 million for the same quarter last year. Apple continues to dominate of course.

Well worth noting in the how-big-is-your-business stakes: Apple now has $121.3 million in cash, which, by comparison, is more than Amazon’s current market capitalisation ($100.77 billion).

Further to last week’s worrying headlines re publications that are migrating from print to digital, The Big Issue in the North is now launching a digital edition! Your street vendor will be able to sell you a QR code and one-time access code in order for readers to be able to download the edition to their smartphone or tablet.

Pocket is now available as an app for the Mac. Fans of the product once-known-as “Read It Later” might find the dedicated product a little more convenient than the browser based version.

Just one of those really handy postings: 10 things you didn’t know Dropbox could do. As can often be the case, Mashable’s claim is excessive, but there could certainly be three or four things to excite you.

And finally, Just for us older print lovers that remember the term letterpress: it now appears as a word game! Letterpress is a free multi-player game for iPhone and iPad via the Game Center: a perfect blend of fun and strategy (says its inventor!).

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.

PIND119    

Missed Issue 118, including a bad week for print? Then simply click here!

Issue 117: Seven-inch tablets
Issue 116: August shows
Issue 115: newspaper turmoil



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