Kyocera Corporation (President: Tetsuo Kuba) today announced that it has successfully developed the new KLE Series thermal printhead for desktop card printers used to print onto rigid materials such as ID cards and credit cards. The new printhead is capable of 300-dpi, full-color, high-resolution printing at 50mm per second — the industry’s highest speed^*1 for this type of printhead. The company will begin mass production March 1, 2010.

Enhancements to the KLE Series printhead structure using Kyocera’s design technology have increased the print speed beyond that of its predecessor — which was already the industry’s front-runner in print speed. The new printhead employs Kyocera’s proprietary double partial glaze (DPG) structure in the real edge head^*2. The DPG structure uses the convex shape of the heat-storage glaze layer to increase thermal efficiency for printing, thus achieving a speed about 1.5 times that of the company’s conventional real-edge printhead. This series also achieves a high-resolution print quality by using a split structure for the heater.

Kyocera, which holds the top market share in the printhead industry, expands its lineup with this new product to meet customers’ wide range of needs and to realize the high-speed and high-resolution print quality required in the desktop card printer market.

A reverse engineering expert has disclosed a way to make his Motorola Droid host USB-enabled devices, a hack that allows the smartphone for the first time to directly connect to printers, video cameras, TV tuners, and a wide variety of other peripherals.

The modification was devised by Mike Kershaw from Kismet and Mike Baker of OpenWRT and shared with the world by Chris Paget, a new Droid owner and chief hacker for reverse engineering firm H4RDW4RE.

Using a charging cable that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter, a micro-USB cable, and a USB extender cable, he devised an improvised micro-dongle and connector cable. Getting the Droid to work with a Linux-enabled USB device is as simple as turning the smartphone off, connecting the cable to the host and peripheral and turning the Droid on. As soon as the Motorola logo disappears, you’ll need to unplug the micro-dongle.

Once your Droid is booted – voila -it should now work with the device. You can even pull up a terminal and look at dmesg to see the usual kernel notifications that appear when new USB devices are connected.

To be sure, the Droid isn’t the most robust of USB hosts. To change peripherals, you’ll need to reboot the smartphone. What’s more, leaving the micro-dongle plugged in too long causes the port to get stuck supplying power to devices but not actually recognizing them.

Or as Paget put it in an email: “The capability is now there but it’ll take a while to realise it – I haven’t even managed to mount a USB key yet.”

But the simple mod opens a whole new world to the Droid, since the smartphone will be able to work with hundreds of devices that up to now have been off limits. And besides, the hack is likely to get better over time.

“Hopefully the drivers are sufficiently open-source that these are easy bugs to squash, and that dynamically switching between host mode and peripheral mode won’t be too hard to add either,” Paget writes.

Konica Minolta has formalised its relationship with Avanquest Solutions with a partnership agreement, which adds desktop network fax capability to Konica Minolta’s Multi Function Printers (MFPs).

Gartner – Predicts 2009: Print Technologies Enable Cost Savings and Revenue Growth, stated that by 2012, 80% of organisations will have an enterprise fax solution.

The partnership offers new business opportunities for both organisations to leverage the power and flexibility of network fax – to automate the flow of faxes, paper, electronic documents and data – with Konica Minolta’s MFP technologies.

Organisations are looking closely at ways of getting more out of their existing investment. They also want to cut waste and reduce their carbon footprint.

The energy guzzling fax machine has therefore come under scrutiny!

Integrating network faxing and document delivery capabilities with the MFPs used daily for printing, scanning and copying makes the most of existing investments and improves operational efficiencies.

Stand-alone fax machines and MFP Fax cards that allow MFPs to fax can be removed throughout the organisation. Fax consumable costs are reduced – electricity, paper, postage. Security is enhanced – no peeping at the photocopier! Time is saved – no need to walk to the fax machine and faster delivery speeds. The fax line can be disconnected.

Mike Rae, Sales Director, Avanquest Solutions said “We are delighted to be working with a leading industry vendor like Konica Minolta. There are huge benefits for customers when they (fax over IP enable the Bizhub devices), including lower costs, reduced paper, improved security and better control of documents and processes. OpenText Fax Server also compliments the range of other solutions that Konica Minolta offers as part of its managed print solutions offering.”

Mat Stanley, Head of PSSG, Konica Minolta explains, “We are very excited about the new partnership between Konica Minolta and Avanquest. This partnership will not only enhance our solutions portfolio, but will also allow our salespeople to educate our customers in the vast benefits of network fax alongside our bizhub multifunctional range”.

Avanquest customer, Bernard Matthews Farms, has integrated fax technology with its Konica Minolta MFPs so that all faxing, copying and printing is initiated from the desktop. Edwin Pearson, Information Systems Director, Bernard Matthews said, “Integrating network fax has not only simplified our infrastructure and improved productivity but it has also allowed us to continue with our on-going commitment to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure that all our company processes have the minimum impact on the environment.”

Epson has announced a buy-back scheme for customers, which will take back old equipment from Epson, as well as other manufacturers, and recycle it in accordance with the European WEEE regulations.

The company’s scheme applies to business customers buying new Epson kit, including its wide-format and proofing machines. The buy-back price is calculated on a case-by-case basis.

Included in the initiative is the de-installation and removal of the old equipment, as well as the installation of new models.

The WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) was introduced in January 2007. It aims to reduce the amount of electrical and electronic equipment being produced and to encourage companies to reuse, recycle and recover it.

During Cairo ICT 2010, HP Middle East underlined its commitment to local authorities and business partners in the fight against fake merchandise in Egypt. HP Middle East partnered with local authorities to battle with the growing social and economic issue around counterfeit inks and cartridges in Egypt.

Many studies indicate that often small and medium size businesses in Egypt are tempted to save costs by sourcing cheaper goods, which contributes to the $200bn in annual global trade of counterfeit merchandise. The allure of imitation goods, especially now with the global economic downturn, is seductive.

While counterfeiting of print cartridges for HP’s LaserJet and Inkjet printers is a global issue, the Middle East and Africa are areas where organised counterfeit activity is especially rampant.

HP cooperates with law enforcement authorities to identify and seize counterfeit products, cut off distribution routes and prosecute fraudsters. In HP’s fiscal year 2009 (1 November 2008 through 31 October 2009) in EMEA, HP can report the seizure of nearly 2 million counterfeits and components intended for illegal reuse is more than twice the number of items confiscated during the previous year. In addition, HP noted more than 140 raids, 460 leads and 200 investigations.

In 2009, Ministry of Commerce in Egypt conducted raids in Alexandria where local authorities seized more than 27,000 finished fake laser and inkjet print cartridges and over 3000 empty print cartridges at five companies. The goods had been imported from China and Saudi Arabia. In addition, some shops were found to be running their own refilling activities.

HP Officials advised consumers to purchase cartridges from authorized HP resellers to ensure they are not counterfeit. HP also highlighted the fact that counterfeit products can damage printers, decrease printers’ performance, cause reliability issues and that the print quality produced by these fake goods will not be up to the standards expected of genuine HP products.

HP has also joined the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) Global Leadership Group as part of the company’s commitment to fight counterfeiting worldwide.

Formed by the International Chamber of Commerce, BASCAP unites the global business community to more effectively identify and address intellectual property rights issues and petition for greater commitments by local, national and international officials in the enforcement and protection of these rights.

As a group member, HP will support BASCAP’s efforts to connect and mobilize businesses across industries, sectors and national borders, as well as pool resources and expertise, to combat counterfeiting and create a greater critical mass than any single company or sector could do alone.