Five reasons publishers are getting ahead of themselves with the iPad

http://econsultancy.com/blog/5502-five-reasons-publishers-are-getting-ahead-of-themselves-with-the-ipad

Revenue starved publishers are getting excited about the iPad. Even before Apple's latest product had a name, magazine conglomerates were discussing their plans to deploy tablet-friendly versions of their publications on the device. This week, we're learning some of the details of Condé Nast's plans for the iPad.

And while it's great to see traditional publishers taking some initiative in a burgeoning digital space, there are more than a few reasons to think that many of them are jumping the gun at the chance to charge for content on a new device. Here are five.

1. Apple and Adobe do not play well together.

Condé Nast developed an ambitious iPad friendly version of Wired magazine (complete with integrated videos, interactive ads and special iPad only features). But it won't be implemented on other properties because it was developed with Adobe Flash and Apple still isn't supporting Flash on its mobile products. Similar integration problems are likely to arise again, and Apple has made no indication that it is willing to bury the hatchet with Adobe to help publishers deliver a great product on the iPad.

2. Consumers don't want to pay for content on different screens. They want new content. 

Due to the Adobe problem, Condé will have “two parallel development tracks going until the relationship between Apple and Adobe is clear,” according to MediaMemo. That means that unlike the Wired prototype, the publishers' magazines will have simpler iPad specific apps that are pretty similar to what Condé already offers iPhone users. While Condé has seen a lot of success with that model — the publisher sold 15,000 copies of the January issue of GQ and almost 7,000 of the December issue on the iPhone — consumers aren't likely to pay for the same product on a different screen.

3. Apple holds onto consumer data for all applications sold through the iTunes store.

Aside from the additional revenue stream they're hoping to get from iPad-friendly apps, Condé Nast has the most to gain from culling consumer data from its mobile offerings to better serve advertising to its audience (and charge more money for that advertising). But Apple does not share consumer data for products sold through the iTunes store. Meaning that publishers are still in a pretty weak position with Apple partnerships. Condé Nast is hoping to get around this by asking consumers to register for content on the iPad and communicating with them directly. That's after already registering and purchasing these media products in the iTunes store. Which could easily leave consumers feeling like marketing guineau pigs.

4. Being first to market doesn't matter.

The iPhone may have transformed the mobile market, creating a revenue stream for many companies that had previously had trouble charging for digital content. But it's not clear where the iPad will fit in the current marketplace. One of the many concerns involving the product is that it does not replace a digital device, but rather adds another device for people to use to connect to the internet. If that is the case, it will be a long time before the iPad sees the sort of adoption rates that have made the iPhone so popular, making it a much less impressive revenue stream than many publishers are expecting. Condé Nast CEO Charles H. Townsend tells The New York Times his company wants to “take a leadership position” in regards to the iPad, but they could be setting themselves up as a case study for other publishers to learn from. Many publishers sat back and watched as smaller, more nimble companies launched iPhone apps in their area of expertise, but getting on the iPad first isn't as important as getting the delivery right.

5. First generation Apple products never work.

Granted, magazine publishers are in dire straights right now. But there are too many unknown variables involving the iPad. Sinking large quantities of money into iPad product development could be premature. Townsend tells The Times, “We feel confident enough that consumers will want our content in this new format that we are committing the resources necessary to be there. How large a revenue stream digitized content represents is an answer we hope to learn through this process.”

 

But while Townsend is confident, the iPad isn't shipping until April, and production delays are rumored to push that date back even further. Consumers haven't yet had a chance to prove that they want to own an iPad, let alone purchase new products for the device. Especially when the interface is similar enough to make sharing apps between the iPhone and the iPad seem like the easiest thing to do, iPad specific products are going to be a hard sell.

Image: Condé Nast

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U.S. Department of Defense Goes Social...Yes, Really!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/Y9XLh17rVHw/us_department_of_defense_goes_social.php

military facebookOn Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new policy which allows all users of unclassified computers in the .mil domain access to popular social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube among others. This change in policy effectively reverses the previous ban on accessing these types of sites - a ban that had been in place for nearly three years. In embracing the new policy, the department also launched its own social media hub, a blog-like site complete with live Twitter feeds, Tweetmeme buttons and "share on Facebook" links. And in case you thought they weren't serious, it's also worth noting (as spotted by the New York Times) that news of this announcement broke on the Twitter feed of Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and not via a traditional press release.

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Reversing the Ban

In May 2007, the Pentagon blocked access to 12 popular social media sites from .mil computers citing "bandwidth concerns," reports the Navy Times. In August 2009, the Marine Corps banned the same sites, this time citing security issues. Other services also began blocking social media sites at the direction of various commanders in certain locations. Sometimes those bans even led to the shutdown of personal blogs.

Unfortunately for military personnel, these blocking measures forced troops to use their own personal computers in order to communicate with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and other social media services while stationed in the U.S. When deployed, they had to visit Internet cafes in order to gain access to these sites.

New Policy States: No More Blacklist

The new policy, announced Friday, seeks to balance the needs of troops to connect with their loved ones via social media while also maintaining an appropriate level of security. As the policy goes into effect, the DoD will require all military units to remove the social sites from their internal "blacklist." According to the Times, Lindy Kyzer, an advisor to the Army's Chief of Public Affairs on social media issues, said that all the units will be now be required to open access to social networking sites initially. Afterwards, if any commander does need to block sites for security purposes, those blocks can only be temporary. She continues, saying that the "DoD is moving away from the silly notion of having 'blacklisted' social media sites and saying, 'We're not going to lay down the hammer and tell you where you can and cannot go, we're going to mitigate risk as it comes."

In the blog post on the DoD's social media hub, service members are reminded that while the new policy opens up access to Facebook and the like, other sites like those containing gambling, pornography and hate-crime, are still banned. Also, personnel are advised that "everyone has a responsibility to protect themselves and their information online, and existing regulations on ethics, operational security, and privacy still apply."

dod_social_hub.jpg

The Social Sites of the DoD

Elsewhere on the DoD Social Media Hub, are links to other DoD social media sites including Twitter feeds for Price Floyd and the department itself, its Facebook page, Flickr account, YouTube account, uStream account and more. Blog posts on the site focus on how the department uses new media and one even points to a free iPhone app that combines Army technology news, social media and job postings in one location.

Those interested in reading the new policy in its entirety can do so here. In addition, the Department of Defense has also launched a SlideShare channel where they've posted several presentations about the new policy.

Update: Facebook just emailed us with the complete list of official DoD pages on their site:

Discuss


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How Much It Actually Costs to Publish an Ebook vs. a Real Book [Ebooks]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AVHjWiiG6VU/how-much-it-actually-costs-to-publish-an-ebook-vs-a-real-book

Ebooks negate the most obvious costs of hardcover books: No dead trees, ink, warehouse or shelf storage, so of course they're cheaper. In fact, isn't $12.99 for an ebook just a little bit pricey? Wellll, the NYT breaks it down.


Here's a chart using the data Motoko Rich has dug up, reflecting the average cost and revenue model for a hardcover book and its ebook counterpart.

Right now, publishers do make a little bit more on ebooks, but there are a few things to consider before you bring out the pitchforks demanding $5 ebooks: 1) Ebooks are currently less than 5 percent of book sales. 2) Paper booksellers can't compete at these prices, especially indie booksellers. 3) There is no equivalent paperback market with lower costs to eke out more money later in a book's life (especially if the hardcover flops). 4) All of the publishers' other costs, like editorial and office space, came out of that $4 or so a book. 5) Most books don't make that much money.

The bottom line is, don't expect publishers to give up ground on pricing or digital rights management—they want to avoid the music industry's sad fate, since they already skate by on thin margins, and the last few years have been chaotic enough already, to say the least. [NYT]

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They Are Remaking Twitter.com? Who Else Wants To Bet That It’s A Little Weak?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/Y7BWJ4VjnOU/

They Are Remaking Twitter.com? Who Else Wants To Bet That Its A Little Weak?Oh my, what a few tweets can do. Twitter API developer and all around nice guy Alex Payne (@Al3x) raised all hell in the blogosphere this weekend just talking out loud.

His crime? He said this: “If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)” You know what this means of course, it’s time to collectively spazz about Twitter doing something (anything) again.

Of course, this time Twitter is actually defending their own darn house, attempting to get the masses of TweetDeck and Seesmic users back into the Twitter.com fold. Given their complete abdication of innovation to third parties in the last year and a half or so, it’s going to be a hard sell.

Mr. Payne then went on to clarify that everything that Twitter is building is using the same APIs that are open to all developers using the various Twitter APIs, ensuring fair competition for developers of all stripes (in-house and not). Think over that one for a second, Twitter has to compete for its own users.

Anyway, Alex manged to put some of the hype back in the bottle saying: “Uh, everything I like that’s on the employees-only beta site is actually *built* on public API methods we’ve already given developers.”

Now what does all this mean? It seems that Twitter is actually going to attempt to match the innovation creation that is already present in the market. They are in effect taking on Seesmic Web. Think about the Twitter UI and web interface execution that you can recall and ask yourself what you think of their track record.

Of course, Twitter was brilliant in letting everyone use their APIs; Twitter would be 10% of what it is today if they had not done that. But for Twitter to begin to smack talk (gently, and politely), other developers that have literally built Twitter into something usable is a little much.

Ask yourself, if you had only have the Twitter.com interface, how much less (if at all) would you have used Twitter over these last few years. I thought as much. Twitter’s history in this area is akin to their pre-2009 ability to make money.

As a short final thought, they are introducing nothing new. That is, all the data is the same as it is today, just with a different wrapper. No offense to the lovely (and handsome!) Twitter team, but I am putting my money where 10,000 of my tweets are, in Tweetdeck.

I do hope that they do make the web interface less backwards, it is after all what new users utilize. But for us power users, I really doubt that Twitter will be able to beat what we already love.

Prove me wrong Twitter, wow me with something that $150 million in funding can create.

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Google Challenges Bing's Photosynth; Adds User Photos to Street View

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/Ns2lBIbRf5I/google_challenges_bings_photosynth_adds_user_photo.php

google street viewGoogle Street View has made a few headlines at RWW lately - once for getting itself into hot water in Europe and once, notably, for bringing Street View's photo-tour features into retail outlets.

Now, we've learned that Street View will also begin to feature user-submitted photographs. According to a recent Google Lat Long blog post, "We began integrating user photos into Street View last year. User photos allow you to view locations from entirely new perspectives, whether through the eyes of a talented photographer with a knack for capturing architectural detail, or simply taken from locations we couldn't get to... We're making it easier to navigate through these images in a way that should feel similar to how you're used to exploring within Street View."

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Users can submit pictures from Picasa, Panoramio and Flickr that show different views, times of day or pedestrian-only areas. Here's an example of what the interface looks like; the square in the top right corner indicates there are user-submitted images for that area.

street view UGC

And here is the photo navigation interface. Users can also navigate through photos using new click-and-drag controls to see images from nearby areas, or different angles or crops of the same area.

street view UGC

Some have speculated that Google has chosen to highlight and integrate this feature because of competition with Bing. The Next Web recently called Microsoft's Photosynth, a similar product launched in 2008 and integrated into Bing Maps, "the killer app of the Bing suite" that differentiates Bing from Google in a positive way.

"The feature," wrote Jacob Friedman , "displays collections of photos stitched together into a panorama[...] The results, to put it bluntly, can be spectacular."

While Google's offering may not have the 3D-esque quality of Photosynth, allowing for more creative images and photos from a larger geographical area to be shared in Street View is a smart move for the company. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Discuss

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First Glimpse of Nokia’s Symbian 4 Operating System [VIDEO]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/hBvgKMv7fsU/

Besides being the most awkwardly named mobile operating system ever, Symbian^4 (that’s the official name) is also a very important step for Nokia, who (although Symbian still dominates the worldwide smartphone market) has been struggling to make Symbian competitive with touch-friendly Android and iPhone OS.

Now, Fierce Wireless has managed to briefly try out the upcoming iteration of Symbian, as well as a couple of videos and yes, it really does look like Android and iPhone OS UI. Two short videos (embedded below) show some Android-style widgets, sliding screens, a scrolling photo app – in a nutshell, it’s nothing that’ll make your heart skip a beat. But in terms of Symbian catching up with its younger competitors, it seems good enough.

Bear in mind that Symbian 4 is expected to be released in the second half of 2010, with actual devices shipping in 2011, so we can probably expect many changes before the final version comes out.


Reviews: Android

Tags: Nokia, Symbian, video

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EU Tells Google to Delete Street View Pics After 6 Months

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/zAAfmt3PfJg/

The European Union’s Data Protection Working Party has given an express order to Google: Ditch Street View images taken in the UK after six months.

Computerworld reports that the working party found Google’s current 12-month retention time for the images to be a “disproportionate” length of time.

The party reported being “concerned that Street View continues to give rise to data-protection issues,” despite Google’s compliance with the initially laid-out requirements. It also ordered Google to give UK citizens more information and lead time surrounding when its Street View cars would be in particular areas to take photographs.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said of the decision, “Google needs to raise much more awareness of Street View cars going though people’s streets as there is an option to opt out of appearing in them but no one knows about it.”

As Nokia’s Henry Tirri recently told us, the EU is known for being more outspoken about privacy issues than other regions, particularly where Street View is concerned.

For its part, Google is defending its stance on keeping the images for the year-long period. A lawyer for the company, Peter Fleischer, responded, “The need to retain the unblurred images is legitimate and justified — to ensure the quality and accuracy of our maps, to improve our ability to rectify mistakes in blurring, as well as to use the data we have collected to build better maps products for our users. We have publicly committed to a retention period of 12 months from the date on which images are published on Street View, and this is the period which we will continue to meet globally.”

In other words, we’re not quite sure yet how this one will turn out. We’ll keep an eye on this space, which we’re tempted to refer to as “Google Street Fight.” Do you think the EU is making a reasonable request in the service of data protection and privacy, or should Google continue to hold its ground?


Reviews: Google

Tags: eu, Google, google street view, privacy, street view, uk

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HTML5 Knocks Out Adobe Flash in Reader Vote

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/1OnoIr3u5KU/

A few weeks ago, tensions between Adobe and Apple rose to all-time highs after Apple prominently left Flash off of the iPad. A lashing by Steve Jobs, calling Adobe lazy and Flash buggy didn’t help matters at all.

The problem: Apple believes that Flash shouldn’t be part of the web’s future. Instead, the company believes that HTML5 is what will define the web and would love to see more developers adopt it instead of Flash. Now that big video sites such as YouTube are testing support for HTML5, Steve could be getting his wish.

That’s why we asked you, the readers, to tell us where you stand on the issue. Adobe Flash vs. HTML5: which is better for the future of the web? After over 6000 votes…

HTML5 handily knocked out Adobe Flash. With 3,891 votes, HTML5 garnered 61% of the polls. Adobe Flash was able to muster 1,779 votes (28%), while 660 said it was a tie (10%).

Next week, we’ll do it all over again with another web faceoff. Be sure to tune in and vote!

Who would win in a fight: Adobe Flash or HTML5?(polls)


Faceoff Series: Overall Results


Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
- WordPress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
- AT&T vs. Verizon
- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
- Google vs. Bing
- WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
- iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
- WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
- Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
- WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
- Old versus new Twitter retweets
- WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
- Gmail vs. Outlook
- WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
- Boxee vs. Hulu
- WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:
- Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS
- WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Week 18:
- Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla
- WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)

Week 19:
- AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat
- WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)

Week 20:
- Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription
- WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)

Week 21:
- Match.com vs. PlentyofFish
- WINNER: Plenty of Fish, 430 votes (Match.com: 334 votes, Tie: 187 votes)

Week 21:
- Google Buzz vs. Facebook Vs. Twitter
- WINNER: Facebook, 3353 votes (Twitter: 1828 votes, Google Buzz: 1298 votes, Tie: 651 votes)

[HTML5 image courtesy of justinsomnia on Flickr]


Reviews: Bing, Boxee, Chrome, Digg, Facebook, Firefox, Flickr, Foursquare, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Docs, Gowalla, Gtalk, Hulu, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, Windows, WordPress, Yelp, YouTube, aim

Tags: adobe, adobe flash, Flash, HTML5, poll, web faceoff

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The Frightening Future of Augmented Shopping [Retail]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4j3nCmW6tjg/the-frightening-future-of-augmented-shopping

Online retail is nothing new, but now brick and mortar stores want to get in on the high-tech action. The New York Times has a disquieting look at new technologies that will make you shop 'til your signal drops.

Take, for example, Norma Kamali's boutique in Manhattan, which recently implemented a system called ScanLife that allows shoppers to find more information on products from their smart phones. So far, so good. But ScanLife also lets shoppers buy those products from their phones, even when seen in passing in a display window, even when the store is closed. Impulse buying just got a whole lot more impulsive.

Sure, ScanLife will certainly make physical shopping more convenient, but you have to wonder if it's going to make shopping too convenient.

Whereas ScanLife could make it dangerously easy for you to spend your money, another system called Presence, developed by IBM, could make it downright annoying to do so. Presence tracks you as you walk through the store and reminds you of things you might have forgotten you wanted to buy. By way of example, the Times article describes a trip to the supermarket in which Presence beams coupons to your phone in real time as you walk through the aisles and suggests items that would go well with the one you just put in your cart.

Of course, shoppers will have the option of using these new systems; no one is going to force you to augment your shopping. But at the same time, the internet age has a way of sweeping people up into using new technologies, even when the headaches equal the benefits. Presence could let you pinpoint an item's location in an unfamiliar grocery store, but would this capability be worth it if it came at the price of shopping with an overbearing digital assistant?

The article mentions Crate & Barrel and Walmart specifically as companies who are interested in these types of systems, but you can be sure that all major retailers are considering software that let you use your gadgets to spend more money on their products. Still, I imagine that many people will be content keep on window shopping the old-school way, without their phones and without their credit cards. [New York Times]

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Haleron iLet Mini HAL Is a Modest Tablet With a Modest Price [Tablets]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/e7uaFB0v9jA/haleron-ilet-mini-hal-is-a-modest-tablet-with-a-modest-price

If the iPad seems a bit extravagant and the JooJoo's sordid past turns you off, the 7" iLet Mini HAL might be up your alley. It's no powerhouse, but at least you'll be able to say you own a tablet.

The 600MHz VIA CPU isn't blazing fast and the 7" touch screen isn't luxuriously wide. The 2GB of flash memory isn't great. The Android 1.6 OS isn't ideal.

But if you just want a tablet without all the bells and whistles for doing some surfing from the couch or reading some documents in bed, the HAL seems like a fine option, especially considering the $199 price tag.

And anyway, the storage is expandable via SD card and the OS is upgradable. It has Wi-Fi, 128MB of RAM, a USB port, and claims a 16 hour battery life. Best of all, Haleron says it's shipping the HAL on March 1st. So, if only for a few weeks, you can be the first of your friends to be officially on the tablet bandwagon. [Haleron via Ubergizmo]

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