Sophie Charalambous asked:


A lot of files go through our pre-press department on a daily basis and we have a lot of experience and stories to share in order to assist you to get your images prepared correctly to maximize the print quality. Look for the April newsletter where we cover tips and techniques to help you work with color while maximizing print quality.

For now, we bring you an example of a recent customer. With their consent, we share some before and after shots of their files, and how a few tips helped their designer prepare files that resulted in a top quality mailing piece.

The Anonymous Showroom is a multi-line fashion showroom in New York. As their business grows so does their need for top quality images that reflect the fashion lines they represent. The showroom receives daily shipments and sends our direct mail pieces to their clients around the country on a weekly basis. Digital photography is their only choice when it comes to a fast paced environment like Fashion.

The images were originally shot with a personal digital camera, where settings were not properly adjusted. The designer ended up with low resolution images of 72 dpi ? good for web but not for offset printing.

Image 1 portrays the file the designer originally prepared. She changed the image settings from 72 dpi to 300dpi, not realizing that my simply changing the dpi number of a low resolution image does not make it any better.

Following the guidelines and tips by the BargainPrinting.com pre-press and art department, the Anonymous Showroom team was able to manage and edit the images in-house maximizing the quality of their images and consequently the quality of their print material. The designer was advised to minimize the size to get better resolution rather than simply editing the large image settings.

For example, as a first step she decreased the size in half and ended up with a 144dpi image. She then decreased that to half the size and ended up with a 288 dpi image. This resulted in higher resolution images that were too small to use as stand alone so we recommended instead of a new photo shoot, that thay use more than one image. Image 2 below portrays the final piece.

http://www.bargainprinting.com/newsletter/fashion.png

These before and after images illustrate the quality of the images used with the wrong formatting and after some basic formatting and optimization for offset printing.

Pre Press Tip: If you are looking to improve the quality of an image, do not change the settings to a highter resolution. Instead, decrease the size in half and the resolution will double.

Michael Lemm asked:


I asked this question of a large business networking community recently….. “What features/factors do you consider most important when choosing a business cell phone….and why?”

Here’s more of their answers for your education and enjoyment:

* “It’s going to sound dull, but…business benefit and value for money.

Assuming you’ve got a corporate tarriff sorted, then I’d be looking for ….

* economy

* connectivity – e.g. quad band so we can standardise on a couple of

handsets globally

* functionality – e.g. sync to work PC for Outlook etc.

* decent vendor support.

Pretty low down on the list are things like eye candy and mp3 playback – no iPhone for us unfortunately!”

* “When it comes to a “business cell phone” a lot depends upon what you will use it for, where you will use it and how often you will use it.

If you just need email access and your HQ is in North America then RIM is still King….even when roaming abroad.  If you need more than simple email access then the world gets more complicated. Bottom line is to look at the TCO of any solution you choose and make a platform choice not a cell phone choice.”

* “My preference list:

- Good data connectivity. EDGE or HSDPA.

- Very good EMail client.

- Good PC-Sync capability.

- Able to view and edit MS-OFFICE, Acrobat files

- BLUETOOTH connectivity. supporting boardroom presentations from mobile.

- QWERTY keypad is must. will be helpful if a foldable keypad with mobile cradle attached is provided. notes can be directly created using original keypad.

- Wireless connectivity and seamless switching between GSM/UMTS and WLAN.”

* “The following features are a must for my business cell phone:

- Qwerty keyboard

- Office suite/editable

- Adobe support

- Sharp organiser

- Effective email support

- VPN connectivity

- 3G enabled

I think IPhone is defintely a good bet for this category though currently I am on a Motorola PDA.”

* “Simplicity. I hate it when mobiles have so many gimmicks that making telephone call almost becomes an option.  I don’t want a camera, don’t need to text, I don’t send emails, I don’t need a colour display.  I just want a simple phone, with large buttons and a simple menu.

* “First off I look for a phone that has a good battery, excellent radio and lots of storage.

Next I look for something that works with Office, since I need to be able to synchronise with Outlook and view documents. In the messaging suite it needs to be able to effectively do email. For example, I want it to have some form of keyboard device rather than just touch.

In the past I have also looked at the ability for the device to run a number of enterprise applications such as SAP, Oracle, etc.so that I can access CRM and Financial Data Systems.

At present I have a Sony Ericsson P1i as my main handset and have replaced a Blackberry with an HTC Touch Plus as my data device. However, I also have a Sony Vaio SZ61XP which runs with embedded HSDPA so my Laptop has become my smartphone.

What I would say is that despite the effort of .dot mobi to get better ….. the most effective way to squeeze the web onto a phone has been to run the Opera browser which I do on all three devices.”

* “ok.. I’m not sure how the iPhone can qualify as a business cell phone. Like most Mac products it hinders business more than helps it.

In a phone, it must MUST be able to work with and exchange in “always up to date” / real time email. It also must be able to support email encryption and be remotely managable. Such as Blackberry, or Windows Mobile 6 devices.

Someone steals my phone, and it’s already locked, so no use to them, as soon as I call the office, bam.. now it is also erased and deactivated. Instant paperweight.

My current Favorites ….. Moto Q Global, Blackjack with the WM6 update, or Black Jack II.

I am a bit of a cell phone addict, and have owned practically every type of phone that has existed, the rest are all lacking in some way.

Cingular/ATT 3125 (aka HTC Star Trek) was actually really cool. Full Windows smartphone features, but eventually I decided that I could no longer live without a full qwerty keyboard.”

*  “I would choose the Nokia E61 for businesses. The best feature about this phone is that you do not need a SIM Card to access internet or your IPLC in the office premises if your wireless is activated. It supports an email client and that enables you to access your personal and official mail. The phone has all the features of a desktop and supports most of the files types.”

* “First and foremost, as I travel internationally quite often, I need an unlocked gsm phone so that I can easily swap SIMs, and it should be quadband (world) compatible.

Wifi and VoIP (“real” VoIP — ie SIP, not Skype –both over GPRS and Wifi) is a must.

Easy syncing with Microsoft Outlook. Full QWERTY keyboard. IMAP email client, full web browser.

The obvious choice for my needs is the Nokia E61i… absolute best phone I have ever found for the international business user that has to stay completely connected from remote locales.

Also should add that bluetooth is a must and the ability to expand (with FlashSD or whatnot) the memory to at least 2GB. Should also have full media player capability (both video and audio) for watching movies or listening to some tunes on those long-haul flights. Also needs to support ACCD2 or

whatever it’s called for stereo bluetooth audio (I love my Motorola S9 headset!)…. again, the Nokia E61 or E61i (same as E61 but with camera) wins hands down..only cell(smart) phone I’ve found that meets all of my demands.”

* “Business means that you’ll probably have to deal with many people, many calls and many tasks.

Important things are:

1. how call history works. If somebody calls you several times it is good if the phone can store EVERY call instance, not only the last one with a given person. My TREO was storing histories of all incoming and outgoing calls for months and months (i was having at least 50 calls a day). So call history must be full and long.

2. big memory for contacts – for obvious reasons. And many fields for contacts – also helps put more information about people so that when you have 3 persons with name John Smith you’ll be able to find out which one you need.

3. Fully functional keyboard. When you know somebody is on the meeting and you can not speak to him it might help sending him/her a message – it will be seen even if person is in the meeting. If you have QWERTY keyboard then composing a message will take you 70-80% less time than doing it on a

traditional mobile.

4. Phone must be reliable. The last thing you want is your phone to fail killing all your contacts when you are for a business trip out of your country. You also do not want to lose tons of calls because phone has hanged up for a couple of hours and you did not know it.

5. GPS sometimes is helpful for people who travel much. But not for every business person.

The model of the phone does not really matter, but I think that NOKIA is a reliable brand, PALM Treo is also a good thing.”

* “A phone which you can answer , find the contact, and call them without spilling the coffee on your suit.”

More real life comments on the question will be shared in Part III of this series.

For anyone looking for a business cell phone……drop by Broadband Nation for information and resources.

Michael Lemm asked:


What features/factors do you consider most important when choosing a business cell phone….and why?

I asked this question of a rather large business networking group …. and you can guess the answers were all over the board. There were some similarities and some interesting differences too.

Here’s a few for your education and enjoyment:

* “When I had to choose one, I looked one with full qwerty, touchscreen, windows mobile so I could run word, excel and one that was easy to sync with my outlook and has a full browser.

I chose the HP 6945 communicator that has, above the mentioned features, GPS and built in camera.

I use it a lot, and I mean A LOT, and I´m completely satisfied with it.”

* “How well does it receive signal, how do I sound to callers as well as how do they sound to me. Does it sync with exchange wirelessly – email, contacts, calendar. Size and speed. Can I use my voice to dial by contact name or number. Lastly – what is the monthly service bill?”

* “It depends on your business requirements. In the past, our requirements has been good service, good connectivity, less drops, good value for money, and good service. Yes, service is important.

We also have no need for picture phones, music players, video players, and a lot of the other bells and whistles. Our business has multiple phones, only one of which requires use of txt messaging. We turn off all the others.

We have been doing well with these. We have a simple LG vx3300 or LG vx3200, which has been an incredible phone for us.

We are currently researching an upgrade to a smart phone, which supports pda like features. We are a systems admin firm, we need support for secure shell access to remote servers. We are looking at the blackberry. We currently use a palm device for some remote access. We are looking for full qwerty

keyboard.”

* “First of all, globally, I look at:

- Battery Autonomy: don’t want to be disconnected during an important conversation

- Is there any kind of calendar, tasks and contact sync/management within a PC with an USB connection..?

- If travelling: triband or quadband phone (US, EUR, Asia…)

- Connexion options: bluetooth to connect accessories or use mobile as a modem, 3G or UMTS to connect to useful sites (directories, maps, email…)

- And if needed: a push email solution (treo, blackberry..)

So, you can find good phones in this list: Apple iPhone (not UMTS for the moment), Nokia N95 or any smartphones.”

* “I have a fetish about people trying to claim that they are unable to get a hold of me, which I find more often than not, a cop-out. To combat this, in a business phone, I tend to gravitate toward smartphones with software upgradability, Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM, some sort of broadband capability

(EDGE, HSDPA, etc.) and a QWERTY keyboard interface.

For now, I am using a Nokia E90. Although the phone is on the bulky side, it allows me to receive e-mail, surf the web, access enterprise mail, tether to my laptop, edit MS Office files, as well as, Skype (to keep my phone bill under control when overseas), and basic GPS functions. In emergencies, I

even use it to sub for a laptop.

Its not perfect by any means, particularly in size and form factor, but its probably one of the better phones I have had in a while.”

*  “It would be the Apple logo.  Because the iPhone reaches further into my workflow than others can, that workflow being mac and online services based. There is no better alternative.

Perhaps for corporate research purposes you could swing buying both a Mac mini and an iPhone, for the cost of another high end business phone.

Just as a heads up (my having read some of the later entries now) the next release of iPhone software includes Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology, including push email, push contacts/directories, push dates/calendar, and remote wipe/erase functionality and all that other good networking, VPN and centralised policies stuff.”

* “I like the BlackBerry 8320.  Mainly because the calendar syncs up with exchange/outlook.  Not to mention its keys are easy enough to be used with one hand. The battery life is good as long as you dont go installing GoogleTalk or Gmail as a third party software that continually goes out to the web. The only thing this needs to be a perfect device is the tethering capability. There are ways around it but its not designed to be an easy thing.”

* “I’m still looking for the Holy Grail of cell phones!

It naturally has to function well as a cell phone. But if it could also function as my laptop, GPS, and media player for travels, it would then become invaluable.

The iPhone is very close. It has the phone, VM, messaging, media and usability down quite well. But, it’s not 3G (yet), so connection throughput can be improved dramatically. The GPS is done through triangulating cell towers instead of a satellites (not nearly as quick or accurate).

On the very positive side, browsing with an iPhone has taken the device to the lead for business users. You get a real browser in Safari that blows IE mobile away.

Our MarketShare stats are showing that over 1 in every 1000 page views browsed today is coming from an iPhone. That’s incredible!

Anyway, can’t wait till the 3G / GPS version comes out – rumors are that it will be soon.

Side note – I have an HTC on the AT&T network, and am browsing quite successfully with Opera Mobile currently. Great solution as well!”

More real life comments on the question will be shared in Part II of this series. So stay tuned.

For anyone currently looking for a business cell phone……drop by Broadband Nation and we’ll give you a hand.

Michael Lemm asked:


Here’s the 3rd and final installment of answers to the question I asked of a large business networking community recently….. “What features/factors do you consider most important when choosing a business cell phone….and why?”

Read on for last shot at enlightenment ( and maybe a smile or 2).

* “In my case I would put the features in the following order:

- full keyboard (sometimes soft-one is ok)

- UMTS (for roaming)

- good email client

- battery

- touch screen

- GPS (when renting a car)

- USB charger “

* “Here’s my simple list:

1) easy to call

2) sync with outlook …. and remember the milk

2) wlan”

* “First and foremost, the phone features must be good (calling, receiving calls, listening to messages..). For me, all other features are just an add-on.

If a phone cannot phone, then it is just a bad mini computer.”

* “Ability to run software that can connect to my company’s email client server. Our Nokia E-Series phones can run various client, including Blackberry Client and other common company email client servers.”

* “For me and my business, first and foremost, I need to have:

- Reliability of signal

- Clear calls

- Strong battery

When I’m on the go, having the following allows me to stay in touch with clients:

- Well-organized contact application

- Easily accessible calendar application

- Good email function

- Good connectivity with the web

- QWERTY keyboard for easy access for my emails

Honestly, the rest is bells & whistles, and while they are fun, it’s not essential.

I see the phone is first and foremost a phone. “

* “For me it has been the Nokia E series T111, majorly because of the data access speed. Currently I am looking at HTC.  Another to a look out for is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. “

* “Will it look like a calculator on the side of my head when I am using it.”

* “I use the 8525 and I find it to be a very effective tool in my everyday working life. I can check and write emails, edit excell spreads, and Telnet in and work on the system as need be from my phone. The big display with easy to use Windows functionality makes this phone one of the best for business.”

* “We utilize a Sprint BlackBerry 8830 World Edition phone. It is invaluable as we use BlackBerry instant messaging daily, especially for communicating during events. The plan package also includes tethering to your computer (PC or mac!), for use as a data card. We use Rackspace to provide Exchange and BlackBerry Exchange Server functions. It has flawless synchronization with email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes. Once you add additional (free) applications such as Vigo (mobile RSS reader), Google Maps, Beyond 411, the ‘Berry becomes an addiction. Did I mention that it has

a SIM card slot for use internationally?”

* ” I use the Samsung SCH-i760 on Verizon because it runs Windows and has a full keyboard (slider). I think Blackberry and Palm leave a lot to be desired from a software standpoint. I used a xV6700 for 2 years and it was good for the same reasons as the Samsung. But the Samsung is much smaller/sleeker and has better performance. I did try a Treo running Windows and the keyboard was too small for me to use comfortably.”

* “We are real estate brokers. We have to be mobile… and the phone is one of our very most important tools.

July 1, 2008 in California ….. if you don’t have a phone with voice activated dialing you will be breaking the law dialing by hand while you are driving. So I went into my local Verizon store and bought a top of the line Bluetooth headset. I asked them to hook it up to my Treo 750 … only 3 months old … and to my surprise … my phone does not support Voice Activated Dialing.

So now I’m getting ready to trade up to a Blackberry Pearl 8130.

My list would be:

1. Voice Activated Dialing with Bluetooth

2. Stable operating platform compatible with any 3rd party software you

need.

3. Ease of use… ergonomic keyboard and good visibility in all lighting

4. Excellent customer service for when it fails… they all do. “

* “The most important features for me are:

- A large screen for web browsing.

- Office and PDF documents viewing.

- Bluetooth file transfer to send and receive documents, contacts, and large files like videos (I find this to be the iPhones main limitation).

- GPS receiver to save time when finding directions.

- E-mail, SMS, MMS (the lack of MMS is an other big iPhone limitation)

- Good battery life.

- 3G or Edge to browse the web and download e-mails quickly.

- SyncML capability to synchronize the address book, calendar and tasks with an online organizer automatically.

Finally, I think its very important to have good user-friendly software that lets you access every phone function without having to go through too many menus.”

* “I really like my AT&T Tilt. It has a qwerty keyboard. Runs Windows. It has the 3G high speed Internet. So I can do email and browse the web very quickly. It also has pocket versions of word, excel, etc…

It has a pretty good camera built in but I rarely use it.

I’m always on it doing email, or on the phone. It’s a very smart device. I really don’t use my notebook much anymore. “

* “Besides PDA-type functionality like integration with email & calendar applications, I prefer a top-flight phone without a camera. Many companies prohibit visitors from bringing in cameras, which could mean leaving your phone at the front desk as you head in for a meeting. A business phone is no good if you can’t take it with you.”

* “In my opinion, the single most important factor in choosing a business cell phone is understanding your business objectives. If your business is not reliant on email then a PDA with real time email access will not benefit you one iota. If your business requires instant communication, you will need

push to talk and SMS. One must know what One seeks when looking into any business purchase but particularly its computing devices. In the mobile industry, it is easy to get distracted by the bells and whistles of unnecessary features.

The device which meets my needs is the Palm Treo because I need ease of use, voice quality, instant email and reliable battery. It is also a very useful device for 3rd party applications and has a great support team behind it.

That’s it folks … the end of our 3 part series on what to look for in business cell phones (smart phones and PDAs). Hopefully you saw something that turned a light on for your next business phone…and maybe made you chuckle a bit too.

Remember, for anyone looking for a business phone…drop by Broadband Nation for information and resources.