New Postal Rates Announced

USPS ADJUSTS MAILING SERVICES PRICES FOR 2012

PENNY INCREASE IN PRICE OF FOREVER STAMPS

Beginning early next year, customers will spend a penny more to mail letters to any location in the United States, the first price change for First-Class Mail stamps (Forever stamps) since May 2009. The new 45-cent price for Forever stamps is among price changes filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) yesterday.

Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 22, 2012, include:

• Letters (1 oz.) – 1-cent increase to 45 cents
• Letters additional ounces – unchanged at 20 cents
• Postcards – 3-cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) – 5-cent increase to 85 cents.
• Letters to other international destinations – 7-cent increase to $1.05

Learn More.

Solar Paper?

Imagine the possibilities of solar paper!

One more acronym to learn: NFC

I thought it stood for National Football Conference, but you can tell where my mind is these days! NFC can also stand for Near Field Communication, which is a way to smart phones to interact with a variety of things, people and information. One of the most interesting is instant payments. Learn More.

Of football and LEGOs...two of my favorite things

It started innocently with a conversation with a friend about football. We were talking about the virtual line on the field that shows where the first down is. Was there some sort of machine on the sideline that shot a laser beam (unseen by the human eye) across the field? No, it's something much more fun than that: Augmented Reality (AR). AR is adding (or augmenting) what the human eye sees with computer-generated inputs. Not to be confused with virtual reality, AR takes an everyday view and adds something to it. In football, you see the play just as someone in the stadium would, but with the addition of the yellow line. It's uses are becoming more common. In the print world, you can "hide" a code in an image and with an AR reader, generate something new. Think about it as a QR code of the next level. Check out what LEGO does in it's stores. An AR code is hidden in the box and when you take it to a kiosk, you get to see the finished product.

The 2012 stamps are coming!

The post office has announced it's 2012 stamps at this link. Keep checking back as they will periodically release designs. I really like the Cherry Blossom one, what's your favorite?

Ikea Uses Every Inch of Space

Ikea "gets it" when it comes to printing. There is just something special about a catalog that you can touch, feel, steal (from a co-worker) and...measure. Check out the spine of this book, it incorporates a handy ruler. You can use it at home to do a quick measurement of a space and then head to the store to find something to fit it. Handy, indeed!

3D Printing. Yes, 3D!

Here's a fascinating article on 3-D "printing". It is a rare thing for me to be speechless, but this is something just mind-blowing!