I don’t believe magazines/periodicals belong in the new iBook store for the iPad. This store uses the ePub format, which is what the Kindle uses as well, yet periodicals subscriptions on the Amazon reader haven’t really kicked off mainly because of the lack of graphics.
Also, ePub is not easy to update, unlike a website. If news breaks, how will the book-like format be updated? Comments, ratings, etc aren’t available either. All-in-all, not a very convenient solution, and not far from the static print versions.
Now, if you make an app, like the NYT (which is basically a ported version of the Times Reader), and offer it for download, you can update the stories any time, get push notifications, richer multimedia, etc. We also have to keep in mind the vast majority of magazines have websites which are updated daily, despite monthly/weekly print editions.
The only problem (for publishers) is monetizing these apps. The NYT app is free on the iPhone (I understand it will sync with the iPad one) and serves ads. Others, like the Guardian, are charging for it, but don’t serve ads.
But the resemblance between the NYT iPad app and the Times Reader desktop software leads me into thinking that NYT will try to charge for access to sections of the iPad app, like it does in Times Reader (front page stories are free). They already said they are planning another walled garden.
Nevertheless, I believe the App Store, paired with the iPad, offers more possibilities to periodicals publishers than the iBook store does.
Nexus One Price Drops for Some T-Mobile Upgrades
Google and T-Mobile have changed the Nexus One pricing policy, slashing $100 off the price of the handset for certain existing customers. Eligible upgraders should now be able to get the Nexus One for $279 instead of $379, and Google will give refunds to those who paid the old price.
iPhone 4G Rumors Heat Up
It’s been less than a year since the iPhone 3GS launched, and the rumor mill is already churning out speculation about an upcoming iPhone 4G, expected as early as May.
Google Nexus One’s First Week of Sales Were Weak
Report: Poor First Week Sales for Google Nexus OneBig hype didn’t equal big sales for Google’s Nexus One. According to reports only 20,000 Google Nexus One phones were sold in its first week of sales, according to sales estimates from market research firm Flurry. In comparison to its Android sibling the numbers are 12 times lower than for the Motorola Droid and 80 times lower than for the iPhone 3GS.
Netflix Streaming Coming to the Wii
Nintendo Wii users will be able to stream Netflix movies and TV episodes on their consoles, Netflix announced on Wednesday. The feature will be enabled this spring, at no additional charge for Netflix subscribers.
Windows Mobile 7 Delayed Until 2011?
Google’s Android mobile operating system is stealing the spotlight from Windows Mobile 7, so much so that reports say Microsoft’s latest OS is delayed (again) due to Google’s success.
Google Nexus One Loses to iPhone In Touchscreen Accuracy Tests
The Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and the iPhone have been put to the test to find out which smartphone has a better touchscreen. But despite overall more capable hardware, the iPhone still has a better display, it has been revealed in a recent test.
This year has started in force, with a great bunch of posts for PC World, some more controversial than others. Here’s a recap of the first ten days of 2010 (newest at the top).
Google Nexus Two Phone to Focus on Business
The Nexus One smartphone might be a delight for consumers, but Google plans to approach the business-minded customers as well in a future iteration of the product, says Google’s Andy Rubin, quoted by Reuters.
The new Pre Plus (left) and Pixi Plus (right) from Palm.
Palm On the Right Path With Pre Plus, Pixi Plus
Competition in the smartphone market continues to heat up, with Google’s Nexus One ready to take on Apple’s iPhone. But Palm is not sitting idly by. At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, Palm announced upgraded versions of its Pre and Pixi smartphones, and announced that its devices would be coming to more carriers.
Apple Puts Lala Music Service to Work
Apple has put to use its acquisition of the Lala service from late last year, now allowing 30-second song previews in the Web-based version of the iTunes Charts. The quietly-launched feature completes the experience of the iTunes Web preview, initially launched in November 2009.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introducing the HP tablet with Windows 7.
Why the Microsoft-HP Tablet Is a Big Disappointment
Apple must be patting themselves on the back, as the Hewlett-Packard (HP) tablet unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday night failed to wow those expecting a true competitor to the mythical Apple tablet.
Microsoft Tablet to Beat Apple to the Punch?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is ready to introduce on Wednesday night a slate form-factor computer to rival the yet-unannounced Apple Tablet, according to reports. It’s not the first time Microsoft has delved into tablets, but the Redmond company hopes it will be luckier the second time running.
Why the Nexus One Makes Other Android Phones Obsolete
The Google Nexus One, unveiled on Tuesday, has all the bells and whistles to challenge Apple’s ever-popular iPhone — thanks in large part to the slick new version of the Android OS that it runs. But if you use an earlier Google Android phone, don’t hold your breath waiting for the latest version of Android to make its way to your handset. It will likely be a while before you get to taste the entire Nexus bonanza.
An Affordable $199 Tablet for Everyone — And It’s Not From Apple
Just as the rumors of a pricey Apple tablet computer have reached a high-water mark, Freescale Semiconductor on Monday showcased reference designs of an affordable, lightweight tablet computer, set to hit the market later this year.
Shane Croucher wrote an excellent critique on how (local) newspapers can easily fix their business and adapt to the changing media landscape. Here’s a quick review:
Over the last few days, a couple of my posts have been quite controversial. Readers have been flooding in, voting (using the thumbs up/down system on PC World) and commenting. The two posts in question are:
Some of the comments have been less than congratulatory at my address, but I’m not complaining. I’m just wondering why some have to disagree in a less polite way. Calling me “biased”, “idiot” or “fanboy” is not going to change my opinion on the matter, especially as the arguments are on my side.
However, the best one I’ve read so far was claiming that I am on Apple’s PR payroll. Well, as good as that might sound, I’m afraid it’s not the case. I’m just giving Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
It finally here: the Guardian has launched its long-overdue iPhone app (iTunes link). As expected, it’s not free, but it’s not cheap either — £2.39 ($3.88). To put into perspective, CNN’s iPhone app is $1.99 (unavailable in the UK) and the New York Times’ app is free.
I had a quick wander through the app, and I was quite impressed: it single-handedly puts to shame the counterparts from the Independent or Telegraph — though credit goes to the latter two for putting their apps out there months before the Guardian.
The Guardian app keeps the same graphic identity with the website, including colour codes and I like how you can customise the front page (similar to Thomson Reuters’ News Pro app). You can choose which categories and how many items from each category appear on the home tab, and the image gallery section is quite sleek. You can also easily browse through articles by the same author and through tags (keywords) at the end of articles.
There are a few issues with the Guardian iPhone app though. I find the trending tab on the home page a bit confusing, and the podcast integration is nice, but when you actually listen to the file, there is no cover art. The most notable downside is the lack of landscape reading mode (they could learn a lesson from the Financial Times’ app here). Also, the only way I got around for updating the content was to close and reopen the app .
Overall though, I’m impressed with the Guardian iPhone app, especially as this the the first version. The lack of advertising is welcome, but you pay a premium for that. Perhaps there should be a free, ad-supported version alongside. Landscape reading should be a must for the next update.
If you’re not willing to pay £2.39 for the Guardian iPhone app, you can still read all the content for free from Safari.
– Later edit: I used the app a bit more and I also noticed the lack of video content and comment facilities. And here’s a little video from the Guardian introducing their app (the voice over in the video sounds like the Guardian’s Head of Audio, Matt Wells).
While researching for my dissertation, I stumbled across this great analysis. Below is an excerpt.
“Most managers in the [newspaper] industry have reacted to the collapse of their business model with a spiral of budget cuts, bureau closings, buyouts, layoffs, and reductions in page size and column inches. Since 1990, a quarter of all American newspaper jobs have disappeared.
The columnist Molly Ivins complained, shortly before her death, that the newspaper companies’ solution to their problem was to make “our product smaller and less helpful and less interesting.” That may help explain why the dwindling number of Americans who buy and read a daily paper are spending less time with it; the average is down to less than fifteen hours a month.
Only nineteen per cent of Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four claim even to look at a daily newspaper. The average age of the American newspaper reader is fifty-five and rising.”
“What journalism and the public most need right now is serious, continuing coverage of matters of public importance: city halls, school systems, statehouses. Journalism schools are not fully equipped to provide that now, but the logistical and financial difficulty of equipping them to do so would be far less than the difficulty of creating and sustaining new news organizations built from scratch. Like teaching hospitals, journalism schools can provide essential services to their communities while they are educating their students.“
The week in tech with my posts in the Today@PC World section:
YouTube Goes High Definition with 1080p Videos
YouTube says it will start supporting 1080p high-definition video in full resolution starting next week. The Google-owned video-sharing site will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p resolutions, depending on the resolution of the original source.
Microsoft Bans Up to One Million Users From Xbox Live
Microsoft has banned as many as one million users who hacked their Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated games from the company’s Xbox Live service in a bid to counter piracy. The move triggered an avalanche of cheap “chipped” Xbox 360 consoles for sale on Craigslist and a public outcry from users is expected.
Samsung Intros Bada Mobile OS: Do We Need It?
Samsung today introduced Bada, which the company calls a mobile platform for a new breed of its smartphones. But is there really a need for yet another mobile OS, next to the likes of Apple, Microsoft, or Google?
Not anymore: a Hackintosh Dell Mini from Gizmodo.
Apple’s Snow Leopard Update Zaps Bugs, Kills Hackintosh Netbooks
On Monday Apple released an update to its Snow Leopard operating system (10.6.2 ) that fixes flaws, including one that wipes out a users’ personal data. But along with fixes, Apple’s update also kills support for Intel Atom processors, in a bid to stop users from hacking their netbooks and creating “hackintosh” systems.
iPhone ‘Rickroll’ Worm Is No Threat To Most Users
The first worm to infect the iPhone will not affect most users of Apple’s smartphone, despite worrying reports. The ikee worm only affects jailbroken iPhones, representing a minority percentage of iPhones on the market.
Verizon’s Motorola Droid kept on making headlines this week, but Apple might just have found a way to maintain the iPhone’s lead. Here are my stories this week on Today@PCWorld:
iPhone as an eBook Reader Threatens Kindle, Says Report
Apple’s iPhone is quickly becoming the ebook reader of choice for many, and could steal market share from Amazon’s Kindle, according to a report from market research firm Flurry.
Best Buy, CinemaNow Partner on Movie Download Service
Best Buy will partner with Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow to offer a movie download service that will pipe movies to a range of electronic gear from televisions, DVD players, computers and phones sold at the retail giant’s stores. The move is seen as a sign of the times for the leading retail seller of DVD movies, Best Buy, who is seeing its retail sales of DVD discs shrink as more people opt to rent movies via digital distribution.
Beatles Due Soon on USB — But Not From Apple
EMI will release next month a collection of remastered Beatles albums on a special edition USB drive, to the joy of fans and geeks alike. The apple-shaped 16GB USB drive will be loaded with the remastered audio tracks from the Beatles’ 14 albums, and will set you back a cool $330 (£200).
Motorola Droid Steals BlackBerry’s Limelight
Motorola’s upcoming Droid smartphone is grabbing plenty of attention — so much attention, in fact, that news of two new BlackBerry devices is getting lost in the shuffle. In recent weeks, Research In Motion announced two new smartphones, the revamped BlackBerry Storm 2, and the Bold 9700. Both are impressive phones in their own right, but neither is garnering the buzz that surrounds the Motorola Droid.
A $99 8GB iPhone 3GS to Kill the Motorola Droid?
AT&T and Apple are preparing a cheaper iPhone 3GS just in time for the holidays to distract from the popularity of the Motorola Droid, according to sources quoted by a BoyGenius report. A cheaper version of the iPhone 3GS would come with only 8GB of storage and $100 off the original price tag, replacing the current $99 8GB iPhone 3G.
My local newspaper, The Lincolnshire Echo, whose online practices I criticised before, is pitching tomorrow’s newspaper today, with news from yesterday. Let me explain:
In an article on their website on Wednesday, November 4 2009, sensationally headlined ‘City’s binge drinking crisis‘, there are only (exactly) 50 words of text, which are trying to sell me the printed version of the paper for Thursday, November 5. Here they are:
“New alcohol profiles for England have revealed Lincoln has the second worst rate for binge drinking in the East Midlands.
The statistics reveal that the city came second out of 40 local authorities in the region.
It also came fourth for alcohol related crimes and fifth alcohol related sexual offences.”
The article continues with one last paragraph:
“See Thursday’s Echo for more on the statistics, plus reaction from alcohol prevention groups and city MP Gillian Merron.”
So they are basically telling me that they sourced news yesterday (or possibly today), but they are only going to tell me more about it tomorrow. Well, here’s why I won’t buy your newspaper tomorrow:
1. I use Google search
I will type in “alcohol profiles for England” and (2.) click on the first result (see image below)
3. On that website I am going to look after some press release or spreadsheet with the numbers and I going to look for myself (approximately 45 seconds). You can download the spreadsheets with the data I believe they used, which looks like it was last updated on October 22, almost two weeks before the Echo report was written (corrections for this fact welcomed).
4. So I already learnt about the “more statistics” pitched to me in the article, and I can pretty much guess what alcohol prevention groups will say about binge drinking and the local MP will probably say that she’s working on it.
My point: If I can find and pretty much guess the news that you are pitching to me for tomorrow in about 5 minutes, what makes you think I will buy your paper the next day?
–Later edit: One commentator (Martin, Lincoln) on the article rightly points out: “Let’s hope the source of the figures is revealed, so that we can check them out for ourselves minus the sensationalist, scaremongering tripe that they’ll inevitably served up with…”
Is Motorola back in the game? Looking at the upcoming Droid smartphone (above), one might say it is. I’m just not convinced whether it is really the Droid creating all the hype or the 2.0 version of the Google Android mobile operating system powering it. Best wishes go to Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry Storm 2 launch got overshadowed this week by the Droid — here are my PC World posts for this week.
Palm Lost the iTunes Sync Battle (Again)
The release of the iTunes 9.0.2 update on Thursday yet again disables Palm’s workaround to sync with Apple’s popular jukebox software. Perhaps it’s high time Palm moved on and created its own software.
Twitter Warns of New Phishing Scam
Twitter is warning users of a new phishing scam spreading through direct messages on the network, which redirect users to a fake log-in page to steal their passwords.
Apple Set to Pass 100K Available iPhone Apps Milestone
Apple has approved more than 100,000 applications in its App Store, according to latest figures from App Shopper, an industry tracking firm. That number of approved apps dwarfs the number of apps offered by mobile app store competitors Android Marketplace, Windows Mobile Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and Nokia’s Ovi Store. Apple’s next closest competitor, Google’s Android Marketplace, offers a relative pittance of 10,000 mobile apps. BlackBerry App World hosts 3040 apps.
Verizon Unveils Motorola’s Droid, Sets High Hopes For Android
Verizon will start selling the Motorola Droid, its first Google Android handset, on November 6, the carrier announced on Wednesday. The Motorola Droid will cost $200 with a two-year contract with Verizon, after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Motorola Droid sets high hopes for the future of the Google Android OS, and features powerful hardware: 3.7-inch high-resolution capacitive touchscreen display, 5-megapixel camera, and WiFi and Bluetooth, among other features.
BlackBerry Storm 2 Arrives
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Storm 2, the long-anticipated follow-up to the original BlackBerry Storm, will arrive on Verizon’s network tomorrow. The Storm 2 will go on sale on Wednesday, October 28 for $280 when you sign a two-year service contract with Verizon Wireless. Verizon is offering a $100 mail-in rebate, which knocks the price down to $180, but that rebate comes in the form of a Visa debit card, not an actual check.
Netflix Movie Streaming Comes To PlayStation 3
Starting November, you will be able to stream Netflix movies and TV shows on to your PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console. The deal, announced on Monday, will put Sony’s console in line with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which had this functionality for over a year now.
The Evolution of the MP3 Player
My special slideshow this week, featuring the new PCW slides layout, which is pretty cool. Portable digital music players have evolved through the years, from hulking $800 devices to tiny $60 iPod Shuffles. Here’s a look at how MP3 players have changed over the past decade.
Quite a few big announcements this week, such as the Nook e-reader, new Macs, a cool Google Android phone from Motorola and Windows 7 launch jazz. Here are my articles from the Today@PCWorld section this week.
Shot from Apple's new 'PC News' ad, mocking the switch to Windows 7.
Apple slams Windows 7 in ads
Not only Microsoft is celebrating the launch of Windows 7 with some new ads, but Apple is also taking a stab at the introduction of the new OS, in its usual deprecating manner.
Windows 7: what the reviews say
Microsoft unleashed Windows 7 to the masses on Thursday, and momentum for the new operating system has even put it ahead of Harry Potter pre-orders on Amazon UK this week, set to break retail records.
Google to launch ‘Google Audio’ music service and phone
Is Google gunning to become the next Apple? Google is reportedly set to unveil its own music service and is also working with a smartphone manufacturer on an own-brand Android phone.
Can Verizon’s Motorola ‘Droid’ live up to the hype?
Verizon cranked up its hype machine, preparing the launch of the Droid, Motorola’s Android-powered competitor to the iPhone. But will it be good enough to trump the iPhone?
I had to change my Wordpress theme again today, as the About and Contact pages wre not displaying any content with my new theme (thanks for those who mentioned it to me). I couldn’t really figure out why, so I decided to change the theme.
I found this other minimal theme called Cleanr, which is in use now. Check out this link if you are on the look for some other cool minimal themes. I particularly like on my new theme the typography, which is large and crisp — and it even has Helvetica on it, if you are reading this from a Mac.
In related news, “Safe mode is used on your server. It’s time to change hosts if yours doesn’t want to upgrade.” was the message that I noticed in my WP Dashboard today. After a quick chat with One.com (my hosting company), it’s official that I will have to change hosting companies if I want to install WP plugins that need this function off. Not happy.
– Later edit: The safe mode problem mentioned above also stops me from using the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin, given the fact that my connections is playing up today, so the built-in upgrade mechanism won’t work. Anyway, if you are using Wordpress on your own domain, 2.8.5 went up today and has the “the best available protection”. The changes include:
A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.
Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated.
Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins.
Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins.
Apple introduced on Tuesday new 21.5″ and 27″ iMacs (pictured below), a new multitouch mouse — the Magic Mouse, new Mac Minis, new Apple Remote, and a unibody MacBook (white). They all look pretty crave- worthy.
– I intended to post this as a comment on Shane Croucher’s post on hyper-local journalism in Lincoln, part of the discussion theme going on at LSJ Bloggers. But it ended up a bit too long for the purpose, so I decided to make it a post on its own.
In his post, Shane makes a couple of good points:
Lincolnshire Echo, BBC Lincolnshire and Lincs FM (bigest media outlets in the county) do not have enough manpower to cover every city council meeting or residents’ association forum
The most beneficial of hyper-local coverage in Lincoln would be the West End of the city
However, my vision of hyper-local journalism in Lincoln is not particularly focused on a certain area of the city (though this is the whole idea of the concept) but on the whole city itself.
Apologies for not updating my blog in a couple of months. It has been a very busy time, and among the highlights I need to note The Linc’s nomination for the best student website at the Guardian Student Media Awards 09.
I have been also continuing my work over at PC World, but I’m going to spare you a 40+ articles list accumulated over the weeks and below I listed only my posts for this week:
