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PMA News PMA North Central Division will host annual meeting Oct. 3-4 The PMA North Central Division will be hosting the its annual meeting Oct. 3-4 at the Riverwood Inn and Conference Center, Otsego, Minn. The meeting will feature several photo marketing experts and useful topics to help increase sales, including:
Business Cord Camera reaches accord with Huntington Bank Cord Camera Centers Inc., Columbus, Ohio, has cleared up its judgement with Huntington Bancshares Inc. and is moving forward, says Steve Cordle, president, Cord Camera. The company is pursuing new lines of credit and is committed to expanding in Ohio and in Indiana. The dispute began earlier this year when unexpectedly Huntington called Cord Camera's $8.7 million loan and was taken to court. Cordle maintains the move was more of an indication of the bank's health than Cord Camera's: "We never missed a payment. I was what I consider a great customer." According to Huntington's website, the bank's stock declined 50 percent in the year (March 2007 to March 2008) prior to the loan dispute with Cord Camera. Today, the stock price lingers at less than $9 a share. As for Cord Camera, Cordle says the 29-store firm will continue its expansion plans as a regional power in the photo, custom framing, and scrapbook markets. In July, the company opened a store in Cleveland, Ohio, he said. In some cities, Cord closed smaller stores and replaced them with a single large location. "We are continually evaluating locations for profitability," Cordle explains. -- By Gary Pageau PMA Publisher Current U.S. corporate bankruptcy filings surpass 2007, three months still left in 2008 With more than three months still remaining in 2008, this year has exceeded the total number of corporate public Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings seen in all of 2007, reports BankruptcyData.com. The company states that the total count for last year reached just 78 public bankruptcies, and this year has already seen 81 such filings in the United States. In terms of the number of public companies filing a Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, BankruptcyData.com reveals a consistent reduction since the 2001 high of 263. The 2007 figure rose slightly from the 2006 low of 66, and 2008 numbers continue to climb further. Numbers are still far removed from the filing levels seen earlier this decade. BankruptcyData.com -- published by New Generation Research Inc. -- provides news, financial history, creditor information, reorganization details, and more for more than 2,500 publicly-traded companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection since 1980. Retail Markets Sears.com launches 3-D visual search Sears Holding, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, Ill., unveiled a first-of-its-kind 3-D visual search and e-commerce capability for Sears.com that will significantly improve and enhance a consumer's online shopping experience, says the company. Sears says it is the first retailer to apply both a visual search and virtual model to an entire catalog online. The updated Sears site, powered by IBM WebSphere Commerce and My Virtual Model, will allow consumers to search for merchandise using 3-D images versus words, and to virtually "try on" selected items using a personalized model of themselves, with matching height, weight, body shape, and even a headshot photo, to ensure that the style, color, pattern, and fit are right before purchasing. The 3-D angle allows users to view garments on themselves from the front, side, and back. Shoppers can also email images of their looks to friends and family to help them make final purchasing decisions. Longs Drug declines Walgreen interest, may follow through with CVS offer Longs Drug Stores Corp., Walnut Creek, Calif., rejected interest from Walgreen Co. to buy the company for $2.7 billion, saying Walgreen didn't adequately address antitrust concerns, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Longs board still recommends that shareholders accept CVS Caremark Corp.'s lower bid of $2.6 billion, while two major shareholders disagree, favoring a deal with Walgreen Co. Walgreen Chief Executive Jeffrey A. Rein said in a letter to the Longs board that Walgreen was willing to take its bid directly to Longs shareholders, says the article. Two major shareholders, investment firms Advisory Research Inc. of Chicago and Pershing Square Capital Management LP of New York, won't tender their shares to the CVS offer. Critics have been upset that Longs didn't hold an open bidding process and have argued that the $1 billion value CVS Caremark placed on Longs's real-estate holdings undervalued those assets, says the article. CtW Investment Group research director Richard Clayton, said earlier this week he was "very disappointed with the response from Longs today, which we view as being intransigent. It certainly doesn't indicate a willingness to recognize how badly flawed the process was in approving the CVS merger." In a recent statement, CVS Caremark said it was pleased with the Longs board's decision. "We look forward to completing the transaction," the company said. Professional Markets ZBE updates software for large-format Chromira 5x ProLab printer ZBE Inc., Carpinteria, Calif., releases the Chromira 5x ProLab software upgrade further enhancing the Chromira 5x ProLab's usability and job order preparation time. The Chromira ProLab software now includes more features allowing lab owners to dictate the printing and production capacities of the machine. The option has been added to "free nest," meaning that owners can now nest various sized prints, instead of all same sized prints, together. This allows users to print smaller jobs with even less paper waste. Other updates include new motor firmware for improved motor operation and lifespan, added crop marks, increased PCC cutting accuracy, and improved self-diagnostics. The Chromira 5x ProLab is a model large-format digital RA-4 printer/processor lab system, designed to deliver continuous high resolution digital print production and order management for professional photo labs. Additional Chromira ProLab benefits and features include: daylight loading and operation, fully integrated printer/processor, high production Chromira 5x imaging engine, cut print sizes from 4-by-5-inches to 30-by-160 feet, 300 ppi standard imaging resolution, auto-nesting, auto sorting and collation of nested package orders, back printing of image and order information, distributed front-end network image submission, and image processing workflow. ExpressDigital releases new hardware support for printers and cameras ExpressDigital Graphics Inc., Englewood, Colo., provider of workflow solutions for professional photographers, released Darkroom v8.9 with hardware support for printers and cameras from Evolis, Fujifilm, Sony, ZBE and Nikon. The new software provides support for the Sony UPDR200 printer, ZBE Chromira ProLab, Fujifilm ASK-2000, and ASK 4000 thermal photo printers, Nikon D60 DSLR, Evolis DUALYS 3, and Pebble 4 ID card printing ExpressDigital Darkroom v8.9 is immediately available for purchase. The retail prices are as follows: Darkroom Core Edition -- $495, Darkroom Professional Edition -- $1,395, Darkroom Assembly Edition (Plus 6 hours phone training) - $2,995, Darkroom Assembly Edition (Plus 2 days on-site training) -- $4,395. Upgrade pricing is also available. Darkroom is offered for sale in the United Kingdom at Photomart as well as other authorized dealers and labs in the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, Australia, and South Africa. Software is also available for sale at www.expressdigital.com. Technology Lexar announces 2GB wireless memory card, uses Eye-Fi software
Lexar Media Inc., introduces the Shoot-n-Sync Wi-Fi memory card.The 2GB memory card, compatible with SD-compatible digital cameras, records and stores digital photos in a camera just like a standard memory card, but adds wireless uploading from camera to computer and directly to the Internet. As an Eye-Fi connected product, the Shoot-n-Sync Wi-Fi memory card features Eye-Fi technology and connects to Eye-Fi's web service to wirelessly and automatically upload photos from a digital camera to the web and to a computer. After the initial installation of Eye-Fi Manager software on a PC, the card is ready to wirelessly download copies of any photos stored on it, automatically to a computer, as soon as it comes within range of your home computer's wireless network. Without removing the card from the camera, users can back up photos to a computer or transfer them to photo-sharing, social networking, or blog sites, says Lexar. After the digital photo copies are sent, a user has to approve the transfers and they can be instantly shared. Compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems, the 2GB Lexar Shoot-n-Sync Wi-Fi memory card will ship in October. Memeo Share enables friends and family to automatically share high-resolution photos and videos Friends and family can now share high-resolution photos and videos directly to each other via PC, iPhone, and Mac with the launch of Memeo Share v1.0, MemeoPhoto and Mac Memeo Share Public Preview from Memeo Inc., Aliso Viejo, Calif. Memeo added several new features since the Public Preview version of Share, including community sharing, improved filtering capabilities, and social networking components. After software installation, users set up Sharing Circles consisting of different people to share media with, such as friends, family, and co-workers. Once created, Memeo Share runs in the background and automatically sends and receives photos and videos between everyone in a Sharing Circle, and also posts them to a private web gallery. In addition, Memeo launched MemeoPhoto today, enabling iPhone owners to instantly share pictures and videos through Memeo Share while on the go. After installing the product, a user's Sharing Circles are automatically uploaded to the device. Whenever individuals want to share a photo taken with their iPhone, they drag and drop the desired Sharing Circle onto the picture they would like to share. Memeo also introduced the Public Preview of Mac Memeo Share, and has opened enrollment to the general public to test the product. Individuals can visit www.memeo.com/memeoshare.php to register. On2 Technologies unveils new advanced video compression format On2 Technologies Inc., Clifton Park, N.Y., announces its latest video compression format, On2 VP8. This eighth generation of On2 video is a solution for web TV, IPTV, and video conferencing companies looking to differentiate their product and service offerings by delivering higher quality video using less data and requiring less system resource for playback, says the company. Downloading and streaming HD movies and TV shows has become commonplace, and with affordable HD web cams, digital cameras, and camcorders rapid growth in high-resolution user-generated content as well as the wide-scale adoption of high-quality video communication solutions will continue. With the introduction of On2 VP8, On2 Video says it now surpasses the compression performance of all other commercially available formats. Imaging News FotoTV, online archive of films about photography of its kind, launches English site
FotoTV.de, a website showing films about all facets of photography from the technical to the artistic, is launching its English site www.FotoTV.com. The unique WebTV site, catering to both knowledgeable professionals and photo enthusiasts, presents a broad range of filmed material via an interesting mixture of web-based workshops, tutorials, and interviews. Acclaimed photographers Nobuyoshi Araki, Elliot Erwitt, and Ed Ruscha are some of the personalities presented in the filmed material. FotoTV.com's launch opens up its archives and future productions to the international English speaking community following the success demonstrated by the German website. "FotoTV's unique and qualified online archive offers every enthusiast direct access to a host of artists, photographers, and knowledge. What is unique about FotoTV is that viewers have access to a large number of films from just one site," explains Marc Ludwig, FotoTV founder. "Furthermore, the quality of the films are assured by the experts featured in them as well as the editorial work of the FotoTV staff. Our well established parent site, FotoTV.de with its 300 films gives viewers a taste of what to expect from FotoTV.com in the future." Nikon Instruments features online image game, offers sneak peek of microscopic contest winning images Nikon Instruments Inc., Melville, N.Y., is giving the public the chance to test its skills and interact with microscopic images typically only viewed by scientists with its new online game, "Identify the Image." The game gives players a series of five 2008 Nikon Small World finalist images and asks them to correctly identify each photomicrograph. Players are then graded based on their performance, says Nikon. The series of images, which will be updated with a new set of five images daily, is a sneak sampling of winning images from the 2008 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. The game is available on the Nikon Small World website at www.nikonsmallworld.com. Nikon Small World celebrates the world's best photomicrographers who create imagery while showing an understanding of advanced scientific disciplines. The Nikon Small World Competition winners will be announced Oct. 15. |
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