Digital deal sealed

As exclusively reported by PJ last October, the deal has finally been done that will equip west London digital newspaper printer Stroma with a full colour inkjet press.

Océ announces today that Stroma, the long-term partner in its Digital Newspaper Network, will produce colour copies of international newspaper editions for the first time. No official timescale has been given, but PJ believes that the colour press is being installed this month and will be running live in March.

Stroma, which has been at the forefront of digital printing since its launch a decade ago, will be upgraded from a toner-based web-fed press to the Jetstream 1000. Océ says the press will provide a quality level comparable to offset, and enable Stroma to expand to longer runs of digitally produced newspapers as well as expand further into book publication.

Océ says that advances based on its Jetstream technology inkjet presses in terms of speed and quality, plus huge flexibility. means that digital newspapers will become an even more acceptable product for the newspaper industry.

The Jetstream 1000 system is capable of printing up to 1,000 36-page tabloid newspapers per hour or 9,000 copies per eight-hour shift. Each copy is potentially an individual product., printed digitally with no loss of speed or quality compared to more traditional printing methods.

See January printed PJ, out today, for more information on the deal.

Supplying digital printing services across London and the Home Counties, in terms of newspapers, Stroma prints and distributes international newspaper titles from across the globe to readers in London. These titles include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Moscow Times and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Steve Brown, managing director of Stroma, said: “In these testing times for newspapers, digital colour is a real expansion opportunity for the industry. This is something the publishers have been wanting for a long time, and will now be realised. With the Océ JetStream 1000 production press, we have the solution for the future growth of Stroma. I know Océ extremely well and trust totally. This is a true partnership on a long but mutually beneficial journey.”

Océ pioneered the digital newspaper market a decade ago with its Digital Newspaper Network. More than 25 million newspaper copies have been produced globally through this network since 2001, making Océ the world market leader in digital newspaper production. The introduction of the JetStream series of digital full colour inkjet presses extended Océ production capabilities into higher run lengths, unprecedented productivity and full colour quality on par with traditional newspapers produced on offset presses. Now digital production speeds are within the scope of those required for smaller metropolitan, suburban and country newspapers.

A new era in digital newspaper production

Sebastian Landesberger, Océ executive vice president for production printing, said: “Ensuring immediate delivery in international markets of newspapers printed digitally in colour with a print quality comparable to litho provides a steady revenue stream and potential growth opportunity for newspaper publishers. We are fully committed to the digital newspaper market, and with the Océ JetStream at Stroma, we move into a new era of digital newspaper production with the Océ Digital Newspaper Network.”

In the UK, Océ has established a solid Océ JetStream customer base. “Stroma is one more reference point for our customers who are recognising the positive benefits to their business of using our inkjet technology,” said Craig Nethercott, Océ UK’s Director of Production Printing.

Obama at dinner with Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg

A photo released by the White House on Friday shows Apple CEO Steve Jobs, along with other tech luminaries, raising a toast with President Barack Obama at a dinner Thursday night in San Francisco.

The photo, of a private dinner during the President's visit to California, comes as tabloid reports, some featuring alleged photos of Jobs, have questioned the Apple leader's health.

In the photo, Jobs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg flank Obama during the toast. Wearing his trademark black mock turtleneck shirt, Jobs is photographed from behind.

Jobs was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. He took a six-month leave of absence in 2009, during which he was reported to have had a liver transplant.

He began an indefinite medical leave of absence on January 17.

This week, a supermarket tabloid and a gossip website ran unconfirmed reports suggesting that his health was declining.

Neither Apple nor Jobs, or anyone directly familiar with his health care, have commented publicly on the reason for his leave or the most recent rumors.

Jobs had kept a low profile since unveiling a new line of MacBook laptops in October.

Obama's meeting with the tech luminaries was intended to discuss innovation and spurring job growth.

Also worth noting: Zuckerberg appears to have shed his go-to hooded sweatshirt look for his dinner with the leader of the free world.

Others attending the dinner included Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

Also, Stanford University President John Hennessy, Genentech CEO Art Levinson, Steve Westly, founder of The Westly Group and John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Microsoft Kinect to PC apps

Software developers will be able to tap into the Kinect gaming system thanks to an application builder that Microsoft plans to release this spring, the company announced Monday.

With this new development kit, Microsoft is hoping its innovative, controller-free camera system will woo more developers to Windows. Many developers have shifted their focus from desktops toward mobile platforms like Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Unlike current Kinect games, which can be played only on an Xbox 360 game console, these apps would run on Windows computers connected to the device.

Enterprising app makers hoping to get in early on some kind of Kinect app gold rush will have to wait, however.

This first version, slated to release by late June, is being offered only to volunteers willing to give their programs away for free. Microsoft has a name for this target audience: "enthusiasts and academic researchers."

Microsoft says it plans to release a version later for people who want to sell their apps but declined to provide a time frame. Company spokespeople also declined to make executives available for interviews.

Developers have been attracted to the Kinect technology because unlike normal webcams, Microsoft's gadget has a depth sensor, making it more useful as a controller.

Shortly after the Kinect's debut in November, developers quickly hacked the device to create unusual demonstrations of its power. Developers have created body-controlled versions of "Super Mario Bros.," a realistic "Star Wars" light saber simulator and an app that turns your digital reflection into a ghost.

Consumers have taken to Kinect as well. Microsoft sold 8 million units in its first two months on the market, which coincided with the crucial holiday shopping season.

At first, Microsoft was hot and cold about the swelling community of Kinect hackers. At the same time some spokespeople were discouraging tampering, executives were expressing excitement about bringing Kinect to computers.

With an official development kit, engineers will be able to build standardized apps that can be distributed and run more easily than unofficial ones. Currently, someone would have to hook up a Kinect unit to a PC and run code to unlock the device before being able to play hacked games.

Microsoft's research arm held an event Monday to discuss recent initiatives including Kinect development, a company spokesman said.

These apps will apply to Kinect units running on Windows PCs and won't work on Xbox 360 systems, the spokesman said. Console makers, including Microsoft, work out royalty deals with game developers that want to build on their platforms.

But Microsoft has used its popular camera-powered device to bridge gaps between the company's various platforms. CEO Steve Ballmer's "one more thing" during a recent presentation described an initiative to make Kinect and Windows Phone devices interoperable.

Copia – social media meets the eReader

If we need evidence of the central role the digital world is taking in our modern lives, we need look no further than social networking. In a very short time, updating Facebook profiles and Tweet streams have become a pivotal part of everyday life for many millions of people. Even our literary preferences are beginning to lean more towards the digital, with Amazon recently announcing that the sale of digitized books had overtaken the sale of printed versions. The Copia platform brings both of these activities together in one place, offering members a new way discover, share and purchase books, newspapers and magazines.In addition to providing an online bookstore, the Copia platform allows members to annotate, highlight, make notes or otherwise draw attention to passages of particular relevance or importance in books they are reading. Those can then be shared with friends, family and colleagues via linked social networking profiles – like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – or to the wider Copia Community.

Users can comment on entries made by other users, making books that can then exist as both an original work and as an annotated, highlighted and commented shared experience. Unlike other collaborative e-Reading approaches, the Copia platform also allows anyone who prefers to read paper versions of books to join in with community discussions.
The Copia tailors the search for content towards providing a real-world experience, with members being able to search for content based on user ratings, tags, popularity, price, genre and so on. Results are displayed on a dynamic content page, which is said to offer users the chance to compare lots of titles in one place.

The layout offers toggling between list and expanded views, with the latter showing reader ratings and reviews to help users make a more informed reading choice. Members can also join or create virtual book clubs to further discuss content with those who share common interests.

Students might find the collaborative note-sharing particularly useful, giving them the chance to remotely work on a project with others, or allowing tutors to add notes and highlight relevant passages for all the class to see. The Copia also allows authors to interact directly with their readers through community discussions or by making their notes and thoughts available.

Developers can benefit from the Copia platform via an integrated software application engine which allows them to deliver content across the numerous digital media readers currently available.

The Copia device agnostic, social media and content delivery platform is available now.