by Dave Cryer
Quark Inc. today announced that the National Printing Skills Centre (NPSC), the business division of Leicester College and the leading provider of unique professional training for the print and graphic communications industries in the UK, has upgraded to QuarkXPress 7 across its entire organisation. The NPSC, which has been awarded the highest training accolade achievable as a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in Print Skills, prides itself in keeping pace with technological advances within the industry, and its decision to upgrade so rapidly to QuarkXPress 7 reflects its approach to education.
The NSPC offers an extensive portfolio of training courses in digital media, multi-media, and prepress, press, and post-press that equip students with the necessary skills to thrive in today’s dynamic and competitive industry. It is vital that students are trained in the latest technology and industry trends, and the NPSC and Quark have collaborated to ensure this goal is achieved. At the beginning of the current academic year, QuarkXPress 7 was implemented across the entire network and was also integrated into all of the relevant courses at both the NPSC and Leicester College.
“The NPSC aims to deliver effective training courses that are relevant to the ever-changing marketplace environment. The feedback we are getting from our students is that QuarkXPress 7 is a very positive step forward for Quark. They feel that it is easy to use and are impressed with all the new features – in particular with Job Jackets, as it makes it easier for them to work together, optimise design, and minimise production errors,” said Damian Breen, education officer at Leicester College. “It is important that we work with the key industry players, and our relationship with Quark is instrumental in providing the latest technology to our students.”
Ed Ewing, Quark sales director, Northern Europe, said, “We are delighted that such a respected and well-known educational institution as Leicester College has chosen to strengthen its relationship with Quark. The NPSC is committed to nurturing the next generation of designers and press and prepress professionals, and Quark welcomes the opportunity to support the NPSC as much as possible to achieve this goal.”
Leicester College (of which NPSC is a business division) is the seventh-largest further education college in the UK and annually provides training and education to more than 41,000 students. Send an e-mail message to print@leicestercollege.ac.uk for more information.
Apple Store, Regent Street London have announced that on Thursday December 14th at 7.00 pm they will host a free seminar for architects. Showcasing the new range of Intel-based Macs, coupled with a clutch of innovative third-party software packages, the event will help you work more effectively and more efficiently. Their page introducing the event emphasises the fact that the Mac Pro costs around £600 less than comparable PC systems. Check out the full details here.
by Dave Cryer
Watch out for all those suspicious ebay auctions, you know, the sort where a seller has piles of boxes, but no product, selling the latest MacBook Pros for a knockdown price. Take a look at this, clearly marked as a ‘MacBook Pro BOX’ with a very clear description, it sold for over $190… now, where can did I put all my old iPod boxes ?
by Dave Cryer
SubRosaSoft have today announced MusicRenamer. The application allows you to quickly and easily rename large numbers of music files. MusicRenamer helps to avoid spending hours of manually editing of mp3 filenames. The renamer converts easily any rare and strange filename to a simple format containing the album name, track number, artist and title. The files will be renamed based on the ID3 tags contained within them. If no ID3 tags are found the filename will be left unaltered. You can purchase the application on CD for $10 or download it for free.
by Dave Cryer
Everki have launched a new backpack for the Apple MacBook. The Fling Light offers a cushioned compartment for your MacBook, an accessory pocket, space for pens and keys, plus a compartment for your MP3 player. It is priced at $39.99 in blue, brown or grey at Everki.
by Dave Cryer
As 2006 is drawing to a close, Time Magazine have revealed their nominations for Gadget of the Year 2006.
Amongst the eight contenders is the Apple MacBook Pro and the iPod + Nike kit.
You can view the other entries and place your vote online here.
by Dave Cryer
We all have so many battery powered devices nowadays, many of which have USB ports for charging them. Gadget-Home have the USB Battery Box available on their website for just £2.79. This little device takes 4x AAA batteries and then supplies power to the USB device that you connect to it. Great for if your iPod runs out at short notice.
Link to product.
by Dave Cryer
Apple are getting into the holiday spirit by offering a gift wrapping service for any iPod orders that you are purchasing for Christmas gifts. For a small fee you can have you item delivered in a really unique box. They will even make sure the price you paid is nowhere to be found, so the recipient won’t know just how generous you have been.
Full details can be found on the Apple website here.
The BBC News technology website in the UK reports that “If a website takes longer than four seconds to load, shoppers are likely to abandon it…” The research showed that web users are growing more and more impatient with websites that take a long time to load. They are unlikely to return for a second visit. The Akamai report “found that one-third of those questioned abandon sites that take time to load, are hard to navigate or take too long to handle the checkout process.”
You can check out the full article on the BBC website.
by Dave Cryer
Voxred International has just announced the iTurbo, a tiny device for charging your iPod using a standard AA battery. It will be priced between $29.99 – $34.99 with availability starting mid-November.
The iTurbo is just a little bigger in size than a standard AA alkaline battery. The blue light on top of the iTurbo lights up to indicate that it is charging your iPod. Voxred says that with the iTurbo you could extend the battery life of your iPod Nano by upto 9 hours.
Not available for order yet, point your browser here for more details.
