Printing Industry News Digest No.136, March 2, 2013

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 136, 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.

I guess the best news of the week for many associated with the printing industry is that presses are still being installed, and they are coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes! A compact B2 machine from Ryobi, right the way through to a 17-unit B1 Heidelberg for Chesapeake.

With all of that press on their minds perhaps it was less surprising not to see them at this weeks Packaging Innovations event at the NEC, Birmingham. They might have been the only one’s not there! A busy show is a statement we are not using often in this day and age: this event was very hectic! Benson Group officially launched its new web site at the show.

Augmented reality has been a topic of discussion for some time now, and has proved a great novelty for many. It is suggested, however, that we are only just scratching the surface of AR, and that there is still much more to come: the glasses might change all of that! It is certainly one ideal bridge between print and the internet: an ideal tool for those in the printing world therefore!

AR is one way, perhaps, of helping print to create further smart anti-counterfeit devices for packaging, tickets, legal documentation, and other pieces of critical print. According to the guys at TechCrunch counterfeit is the new real!

We have been a fan of Bluetooth keyboard’s for various bits of phone and tablet kit for ages, but this Logitech product has a nice twist to it: a button to switch between two or three different products, meaning that you don’t need to re-configure your Bluetooth for each bit of kit every time you work with a new platform. Neat but a bit pricey right now.

Handy kit, however, if you are working from home and using a variety of platforms to get your tasks completed. Working from home is the future, suggests this article from the Guardian. If you are one of those home workers, you might well want to note the latest stats re tablet purchases, pointing to the popularity of the smaller format units. You might also be keen to read this article from Lifehacker on those small things that matter when buying a PC [the info is in the answers!].

On the subject of tablets, what do you use yours for? Some interesting answers here! Couch surfing is a major use, but then having a second internet screen whilst at a main workstation is a great plus too. We also find the seven-inch form great for traveling with in order to read (replacing the Kindle), whilst still being handy for typing notes into [see previous PIND discussion!]

Want to de-Apple your iPhone or iPad? No, not jailbreaking – just replacing some of those annoying iOS only apps. The Guardian offers a great little article with some interesting alternatives. Interesting if you are thinking Android in the near future! How about this e-ink based Android that will run for a week on one charge?!

One of our favourite bits of software, Evernote, got itself hacked yesterday. If you are a user, you will need to comply with a mandatory password change. Your data, it would appear, is all fine though, so don’t panic! NB: any IFTTT recipes that you use with Evernote in the mix will need adjusting with your new pass too. If you are not an Evernote user, why not?

Oh and by the way typeface lovers: it would appear that David Bowie inspired plenty of exciting letter forms, as well as some good tunes! I never did realise that you know.

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 135, with news on PUR binding? Then simply click here!

Issue 134: Digital publishing

Issue 133: Hard times for heavy metal

Issue 132: Morgana turns Swedish

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

Printing Industry News Digest No.59, July 2, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 59, the summary of major news stories from the printing, packaging, digital and communication sectors. Welcome to the latest edition of PIND incorporating brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail. Do also take a look at our automated GenesisNews Print Daily publication; why not take out a free subscription for a daily delivery!

Half-way through 2011, and many pundits are suggesting that we still haven’t seen a real rival to the iPad in tablet world. This week has seen the build up to the official launch of HP’s TouchPad, but it appears to have raised more doubts in the minds of most reviewers. Do also see #TouchPad on Twitter for early adopter experiences.

Harsh reality has hit RIM too this week with one despondent employee encouraging the business to take a closer look at Apple and how they do things. It’s a good read, but a little worrying if you happen to be a BlackBerry fan.

As if to rub salt in the wounds, Apple is rejoicing at hitting the 100,000 iPad specific apps. If you are running the main competition, which has to be Android Honeycomb, some are suggesting that you are looking at just 100 dedicated apps specifically created for that latest variant of the OS. Not good.

In the meantime, Windows users might be getting their own app store – except of course that you can’t call it an app store: this latest variant is called Avenue.

Still battering the competition, Apple then celebrated four years of the iPhone this week too. The guys at Gigaom have given us an overview of just how the iPhone changed everything for both Apple and for smartphones.

Hard drive suppliers are still fighting to create a niche for themselves while the world goes off to the cloud: Hitachi is the latest to come up with some neat wireless storage. The 500Gb G-Technology incorporates portable wi-fi and is envisaged as being of great use for those that like to watch videos on their phone or tablet whilst out and about.

As the latest of our occasional business card round-up: this link detailing the cards of the Squalette clothing company might give you some real fancy ideas of how to create cards with a difference!

On the subject of different: if a desktop wallpaper calendar tickles your pickle, there are some very inventive ideas at this link. At PIND we just don’t get to see our desktop that often these days, so we will pass.

We’ve been following fortunes at Guardian News & Media over recent weeks. The latest turn of events sees the international print editions of both The Guardian and The Observer becoming some of the earliest casualties.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 60. Details of our next edition will be added to this link during the course of the week. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and for the GenesisNews Print Daily, take a look at the link and take out a free subscription!

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Printing Industry News Digest June 4, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 55, the summary of this week’s major news stories from the printing, packaging, digital and communication sectors. This latest edition of PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail. Do also take a look at our automated GenesisNews Print Daily publication for more regular updates; you can take out a free subscription for daily delivery to your desktop.

We stick our techie hat on firmly this week as we take a look at what Computex had to say for itself. Why? Tablets are king right now, and possibly for ever more, and this show was bound to see a whole load of new introductions in that market sector. Some 50 of the latest slates turned up for the show. Publishers, printers and techies should all know the score.

As per last week’s rumours, ASUS announced the Padfone – an integrated smartphone and tablet. An interesting idea that seemed to have some fans, namely TransPhone who claimed to have produced their variant before ASUS. To complete a hat-trick of phone burying tablet cases, Taiwan-based ICE Computer are working on the same idea too, claiming to have been working on the project for some time. All three had one thing in common: no real working prototype, just mock-ups. We look forward to seeing something more concrete one day!

For Viewsonic though it was about how many operating systems they could cram into one tablet device. The ViewPad 10Pro offers both Windows 7 Pro and Android 2.2 in a supposed dual-boot situation with 32Gb of on board storage. The 4.5 hours of battery life is not staggering however.

Shuttle were keen to show their trio of Android-based tablets: a 10 inch, 9 inch, and an 8 inch “ruggedized” for the education sector. Meanwhile Gigabyte offered up a Windows 7 tablet with USB 3.0 and an optical drive dock.

Toshiba have made their entry into the US tablet market with the Thrive, something that would appear to be very well speced and very competitively priced. A 10.1 inch product running Android 3.1, with two camera’s, USB and HDMI ports, an SD slot, Bluetooth, and wi-fi, shipping mid-July, priced from just $429. We reckon that equates to less than £265 at current exchange rates, which would have to be a pretty good buy. If those prices stay it could be v.popular!

On the subject of bargain buys, MSI showed off some inexpensive tablets, including a 10 inch product for just $299 (£182). No Android Market right now though.

Although not new-new the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer has been getting a few real life UK reviews recently, and it does sound as if this is going to become something of a true iPad competitor, once the latest Android software is smoothed out.

ASUS were also in the frame at Computex with something in the ultramobile sector – the UX21 went down well. The LG P220 also stirred interest in this category; and  Compal too added something good in this sector. Tough competition in a shrinking market?

No surprises to hear plenty of 3D talk at Computex. LG showcased an all-in-one PC with both 3D and multi-touch capabilities in the monitor.

One final Computex offering: Windows 8 was previewed. Take a look at how the world’s most populous OS is transforming to adapt to tablet formats.

Away from the wonders of Computex, publisher Bloomsbury says that its sales of e-books has soared. Pre-tax profits for 14 months to the end of February hit £4.2 million, with e-book sales taking a sizeable £1.5 million of that, up from just £79,000 the previous year. That’s one heck of a jump! We also saw details of a start-up publisher giving readers the control over what should be printed: what a radical idea!

The number of publications that have now jumped on board the iPad Subscription train continues to increase, but the idea of shared demographic info is still causing many to shy away. The Daily, the Murdoch funded e-mewspaper for the iPad, is currently losing some $10 million a month. Ouch!

Any readers of The Daily reading PIND? It is only you guys over in the US of course – we can’t buy it over this side of the pond even if we wanted too. If you do read it, tell us all: PINDeditor@gmail.com

One more link for QR code fans: this Ohio newspaper has really got the hang of using the QR concept, adding a code to main stories and features so that smartphone users can get an update throughout they day. We feel sure that all newspapers need to adopt something like this in order to compete with TV and web based news sites. No reason why the QR code couldn’t link to a video of the story to marry all media together.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 56. Details of our next edition will be added to this link during the course of the week. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and for the GenesisNews Print Daily, take a look at the link and take out a free subscription!

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