A rushed trip to Frankfurt for the IfraExpo and the UK – where I caught up with my first grandchild – brought me back bubbling with ideas, some of which are in this issue.
One is a recurring theme for GXpress… indeed, what we’re all about: How emerging technology is enabling publishing growth, in this case the use of streaming video on the London Daily Telegraph.
The backpack that splits data across multiple phone cards to overcome sending bottlenecks is a great one, and has already been used in Singapore and at the London Olympics. And there are times when I feel it could be useful for simpler tasks, here in Australia!

Speaking at the World Editors Forum in Kiev, and again in Kuala Lumpur, international newspaper designer Mario Garcia canvassed the idea that some newspapers should abandon daily publication in favour of a robust weekend product, “a total leanback experience”.
“In my view, that newspaper will do a sort of tango of the serious and silly,” he says. Garcia, who is to head the team redesigning The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald as tabloids, might bring that idea to Fairfax Media.
Or here’s a thought (although chief executive Greg Hywood would doubtless hate it)… how about a low-cost paid-and-free SMH-lite print edition during the week? The paid-and-pickup concept isn’t original, and may be reinforced by the success of Alexander Lebedev’s i, which retails in the UK for 20 pence… about enough to cover distribution costs. Last month’s sales figures showed it as the country’s best performer by a substantial margin, with circulation increasing almost eight per cent in October to 304,691 daily including almost 65,000 ‘bulk copies’.
By comparison, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph put on 1.89 per cent and 0,01 per cent respectively, the FT with a 15 per cent year-on-year decline.

I spent time with the new Zeebox app recently, following its release in Australia – third in the world after the UK and USA – and found it a mixed experience. Maybe I should get into the Facebook thing more!
It will presumably improve with time and support. Interesting is its ability to tell you what people are Tweeting about TV programmes which are happening in a different time zone. Except for the night of the X-Factor grand final, where there seemed to be a commercial conspiracy to keep the result from Queenslanders, even though it had been on free-to-air TV in Victoria and NSW an hour before. Wikipedia gave the (predictable) result away.

Seems there’s no limit to what you can do with an apt app. We’ve had fun in the office with Blippar and some of the recent campaign examples. the vuvuzela horn seems to delight everyone I’ve shown it to.
Apps will now chase images online – including those of yourself or those you own copyright to. Less attractive is one which goes through Facebook photos and finds all the pictures of friends in bikinis. But it is at least a warning on what’s possible...
 
A card from Fujifilm Australia’s Warren Hinder announced the launch of his latest ‘out of hours’ venture, a website of walks from the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney.
It’s an apt metaphor for a man whose passion is a quality image – whether it is of landscape and nature or on a printing plate. Hinder says the site – www.bluemountainswalks.com.au – is not meant to be a definitive guide or reference source: “It is however, designed to share with you my vision and photographic adventures,” he says.
Either way, it’s a visual feast.