Operation Shout Out

Today, Operation Homefront, Office Depot and Lexmark are launching a cool way to show appreciation for our troops this Memorial Day. Starting today and running through June 5 we're encouraging everyone to give a 'shout out' to their favorite military or military members!

Anyone can do this via any of our social media channels: Tweet the military members name and rank along with the hashtag #OperationShoutOut or comment on our YouTube video www.youtube.com/lexmarknews. By doing so, even once, you will be entered to win one of ten Lexmark printers at the close of the contest on June 5!

This contest is a simple way for us all to share our gratitude for our military family and friends working to keep us safe. In addition, Lexmark is donating one printer to Operation Homefront for every $199 or above Lexmark printer sold at Office Depot between May 30 and June 5. Those printers (up to 4,000 of them) will then be distributed to military families and veterans by Operation Homefront.

Help us spread the word this Memorial Day. What a great way to say thanks to our troops for all they do.

For official contest rules click here.

SmartSolutions Go Vertical

We're committed to helping SMB's streamline everyday office tasks. Since this week is National Small Business Week, we thought it was the perfect time to announce the expansion of our SmartSolutions line-up to now include industry specific 'vertical' solutions.

So, what exactly do we mean?

We have created several new customized SmartSolutions designed specifically to help SMB's in the Real Estate, Food Services, Legal and Healthcare industries streamline repetitive tasks.

For example, Real Estate agents can use our customized solutions to 'Scan Document to Attorney' or 'Print Listing Agreement' on demand with the touch of a button. Healthcare providers can have instant access to their new patient forms or 'Print HIPAA Forms' simply and easily. Law offices can save time with 'Fax to Court' and 'Print Service Contract'. And restaurant owners can be more efficient with solutions that include 'Print Menu' and 'Print Work Schedule'.

These are just examples of the many ways that our SmartSolutions can be customized to fit virtually any need. So take a look at these great new SmartSolutions designed for SMB's and then let me know how you've customized SmartSolutions for your business.

Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest information on Lexmark news and new announcements.

'MSNBC Headlines' SmartSolution Issue

Over the weekend, we released an updated version on our popular 'MSNBC Headlines' SmartSolution due to a usability issue identified by my development team last week. The issue is that the MSNBC RSS feed, used to power the SmartSolution, contained a corrupt image file which was causing some printers to reboot when the image was displayed on the touchscreen. This reboot action did not pose any danger to our customers or devices but was a poor customer experience and not in line with Lexmark expectations for our products.

In the short term, this new version of the solution will display the same up-to-date news that you expect from MSNBC Headlines, but will no longer display the images previously found attached to the news feeds. My developers are working to fix the issue with the data feed and expect to have an updated version available soon. This upcoming version is designed to allow for image viewing without the risk of a printer reboot.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience some of you may have experienced with the original version of the solution.