OK Computer

Print Action, May 2004 by Robinson, Jon

Wireless technology is an incredible platform. Sometimes, when I see its application in use, or read about it, I am truly amazed about what an incredible feat it is to pass such complex information without the use of wires - even with wires, for that matter. The first time I was really struck by the idea of wireless was in a passage from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, written in 1979 by Douglas Adams.

The Babel fish is small, yellow and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on the brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them.

The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

I once asked someone if they thought printers would be interested in reading about wireless. I was easily talked out of writing such an article, but I still hold that it is important for printers to learn about this emerging platform. Research from In-Stat/MDR suggests that the wireless internet market, better know as WiFi, is expected to benefit from the 74-million wireless subscribers in 2001 growing into more than 320 million by the end of 2006. This represents an incredible 432 per cent growth rate. It also represents a huge marketing opportunity for print and media buyers. Even if WiFi sputters like the internet first did, as a businessperson, you should take some time to find out how this technology might affect your market.

In this issue there is a little sidebar about WiFi, only because the platform fits so well into Kinko's future commercial strategy. There still seems to be a huge Kinko's backlash in the printing industry. While I would agree that Kinko's doesn't know enough about commercial printing, I also suggest that the company is more interested in a pretty impressive print-on-demand business model.

This month's issue is built around trying to understand how a new technology transition is affecting the graphic communications industry. Zac Bolan writes about Apple's G5 and what its 64-bit processing means to the prepress department. Bolan will become a regular columnist in PrintAction, largely to help you understand this technological transition from a software and hardware perspective. I also spoke with Adobe's Sebastian Distefano because there is little doubt of that company's role in technology change. There is also an interesting feature story from Rick Littrell about data-centric printing, a story about XML and papiNet, and also the advances of mailing. Our Fine Print department looks at an incredible variable-data campaign by Central Reproductions.

Jon Robinson - Editor