In a world that has a distinct absence of flying cars, hover-boards and replicators it’s reassuring to know somethings are being improved. In the last week I have seen and heard about a few changes coming soon that will make things a little more exciting for us eMag makers.
Ceros Media have given me a sneak peak at their modified “self serve” system which is looking really good. Can’t give any specific details away (they’d string me up by the balls) but it’s a massive improvement and makes for a really user friendly publishing tool that will make 2 of my jobs a load easier and more efficient.
eDition have told me what they have in store for the upcoming Publishing Expo and to say I’m excited about it would be an understatement of epic proportions. Very fucking cool indeed.
Adobe have been working very hard on Creative Suite 5 with InDesign and Flash looking sexier than Jessica Alba dipped in a chocolate rice crispy mix (that may just be a personal thing.) The interactive elements offered from InDesign have been expanded massively and work in conjunction with Flash a lot better than before. It also helps put more power into the hands of magazine designers rather than Flash programmers, something very important for the continued success of eMags.
And finally MagDesigner itself is undergoing a top secret, if I told you I’d have to kill you type re-design. Hopefully to be launched in the spring it will be expanded massively with a lot more articles, video, features and reviews of all the big eMag publishers.
So the next few months are going to see some nice upgrades. And maybe, just maybe someone will make a break through in flying car technology.
Panelfly have announced an iPad version of their recent and popular iPhone comic book reading application.
Check out the iPhone video above then go and download it, not just because the cute girl tells you to, but because it’s really good.
If the iPad version is like this then it could really make a difference to the comic industry. Comics have had a bit of a decline in the last few years despite the occasional movie inspired resurgence. The iPad and other tablets could help tun that around. Publishers can release titles through the free Panelfly App, which acts like a reader and portal to the vast library of titles available. The App offers zoom functionality, bookmarking and a contents view but most excitingly it can zoom in on comic panels and scroll along in sequence, making it the ultimate portable comic book reader. Except for a comic book obviously. !BANG!
Once again, as with Pixel Mags this could not only help existing publishers but also create opportunities with smaller more independent companies. The only drawback so far is that the damn thing isn’t available in the UK, no doubt down to pubslishing logistics, but it sucks anyway. English people like comic books too! !KABOOOOM!
I love comics; they’re the perfect blend of art and story telling. The protagonist always excels in the face of adversity so it’s great to see Panelfly succeed, it’s a really nice App and the panel reader capability is a perfect solution to the iPhones size. I love this App and can’t wait to see it on the iPad, it’s gonna rock! POW!
Whilst we’re on the subject of comics check out Mal Tokyo, an awesome online comic combining photos, text and videos. As far as I’m aware only one issue was done, and that was a couple of years back. But it is a sneak peak to what could be achieved… Mal Tokyo
(Please note: I make no apologies for writing one of the worst headlines ever.)
In a bold move that should be saluted, Imagine Publishing have decided to release all their current print titles on the iPhone, using an App made by those rather interesting folk at Pixel Mags.
In the last few days it seems Pixel Mags have gone from little known magazine publisher to the most promising way of getting magazines onto the upcoming iPad.
In a process that can only be described as a piece of piss, print ready PDFs are uploaded and published in a page flip App. Customers download the magazine branded Pixel Mags viewer then download subsequent issues either on a subscription basis or individually. Once downloaded it’s a simple affair of tap to zoom, pinch to get a closer look and swiping to turn a page. Yo can search, send recommendations to friends and add bookmarks to your favourite pages.
It works well despite the App itself crashing on me a couple of times. I do however find it too much of a pain in the arse to read, these magazines just aren’t designed to be read on a screen the size of a squirrels skateboard (official scale of measure). If you can get your head around that iPhone mags are here.
Where Pixel Mags come up trumps though is that it already works on the iPad. Because Mr Jobs built in a pixel-doubling feature it will take up nearly all the iPad screen making it much, much more suitable and no doubt easier to read. My only concern would be how well the PDF pages (especially text) renders at double the size. We’ll soon see.
Imagine publish iCreate, Linux User, Digital Photographer and a whole host of other tech related titles, they are the fastest growing specialist publisher in the UK. It’s great to see people jumping on the iPad bandwagon, the more people that do so, the more likely it is to reach its final destination.
Pixel Mags offer a quick and effective way of getting magazines onto iPhones and subsequently iPads. Zinio offer similar services with more bespoke content like video, but to be honest it’s nice to see a smaller company making good software. In this interesting time for publishing I see a lot more independent companies in a good position to compete with the big corporations, and hopefully that will lead to a resurgance in creativity and better products.
According to Twitter posts Pixel Mags are also working on something top secret. Hopefully I may get a sneaky bit of info about this to share with you all, but I’d put money on it being an improved magazine App specifically for the iPad.
Silicon Alley Insider has an interesting little piece up about Mr Jobs visiting the new York Times newsroom and dropping some heavy hints about an online magazine store being geared up.
Apparently a book store was at the top of his priorities, presumably because the Amazon Kindle and similar products are already out and about and selling like (expensive and crap) hot cakes.
Why Apple couldn’t release an iBook store and an iMagazine store at the same time is beyond me, hopefully it’s because they are working with publishers like Next Issue Media in order to produce and industry wide standard, like .ePubs are for books.
So you wanna be first to get a magazine on the iPad? Well you can’t because it’s already been done. Not only will many magazines and papers (like the New York Times) be launching iPad specific Apps but existent iPhone Apps now pose a serious threat to those that have not embraced the iPhone’s huge success.
Pixel Mags are a London, New York and LA based electronic publishing company that specialise in turning print ready PDFs into iPhone Apps. They currently publish Mac User, Dirt, iCreate, Total911 and Impora amongst others. As we know the iPad can run existing iPhone Apps at double the size making PDF based digital editions much more readable, desirable and most importantly; available.
Pixel Mags also offer a lot of in-App features like search functionality, interactive content, in-App purchasing and good old page turning effects. It’s still a little way off the likes of Sports International’s glitzy demo, but what Pixel Mags are doing is bridging an important gap and making the transition for publishers as minimal as possible.
Until publishers acknowledge they need to bring stuff like this in house, Pixel Mags are a damn safe bet with a really good product that should hopefully work great on an iPad. They also have a sweeeet website, so click on the pic above and go give them the time of day…
Pixel Mags aren’t the only dudes making iPhone Apps though, Zinio have also released their own App:
Zinio have a whole host of titles already available on the iPhone, which means they are will be available for the iPad upon it’s release day. It’s unclear how either of these companies plan to adapt to the new iPad and what they have planned for future Apps. But in the meantime they are both the most viable way of getting a half decent, interactive magazine onto either of Apple’s glorious devices.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a little article about what the iMag store could have done for the iPad. A mock up, courtesy of Bjørn Rybakken, creative director at Tangram Design in Oslo (seen above) adopts the same form as the iBook store. Simple and obvious it may be, but it also pisses me off that this just didn’t happen. An iMag store supported by iPad Apps as a platform could have helped make digital magazines as popular as eBooks.
Click the picture above to read the full story.
The most interesting part for print publishers to come out of Apple’s iPad announcement is the above demo of the New York Times iPad Application. Considering the team had 3 weeks to design and build the App, I’m very impressed.
Synching to the iPhone seems like a very good idea, as does the text resize option and even the amount of columns per page. It’s also nice to see some video in there and updatable content. It will be very interesting to see their pricing structure for such a cool ‘ting. I haven’t bought a newspaper for a long time, but I’d subscribe to that.
Finally something has arrived to piss all over the Kindle and the eReader. The iPad is almost perfect for electronic book publishing. The high resolution screen, long battery life (10 hours) and one month standby time make it a perfect coffee table layabout (if not a little expensive).
The most interesting thing though is the iBook store. It’s so obvious and simple it will undoubtedly work like a charm and within the next 6 months easily become the premier distribution facility for eBooks. Apple are also wise enough to use the eBook standard, ePub, then take it one step further by making it colour (shock horror) and even add video content.
The iBook Store basically does everything magazine publishers wanted an imaginary iMagazine Store to do. But this should not be overlooked by magazine publishers. It’s not just for use by book publishers, it is simply another means in which to channel your content.
So it’s here. The Apple iPad has been unveiled and it is… well… a big iPhone really. But without the phone.
To sum it up in nice little bullet points:
16, 32 and 64GB versions
3G connectivity at an extra cost, but unrestricted.
9.7 inch LED screen
Built in speaker plus headphone socket
Microphone
0.5 inches thick
1Ghz A4 processor
Accelerometer
10 hour battery life
PDF viewer
Weigh 1.5 pounds
The WiFi only models will go on sale in 60 days, the 3G models around 90 days. Possible UK release date of June / July.
Now the important stuff for publishers:
No Flash support
Apple launch iBook Store for book publishers only using the ePub standard format
A new version of the iPhone software development allows development of iPad apps (available now)
…which basically means if you want to publish a magazine on the iPad it needs to be done through the production and distribution of an Application available through the Apple App Store only. HTML 5 compatibility is unclear at this point.
Unfortunately because Apple don’t stream the keynote anymore you have to rely on other people accounts… Steve Jobs did demo an example of New York Times which, as far as I can tell works as an App but includes embedded video and is as interactive as your gonna get. As soon as the Keynote video goes up, we’ll know for sure.
The New York Times newspaper App for Apple’s iPad
So where does this leave Sports illustrated, Adobe Air and Next Issue Media’s standardised eMag format? Well, Adobe Air Apps won’t work on the iPad. It will work on the HP, Archos and Dell tablets. So do Next Issue Media ignore the iPad and concentrate on Adobe Air style eMags for PC based tablets. Do they change course and concentrate on iPad Apps only and ignore PC’s? Simply they now have to do both.
Apple haven’t really bought calm to the confusion of modern publishing. We were hoping for some swanky new standard, cross platform eMag wonder. What we got is the realisation that it won’t be that easy, at least not for a while yet. Instead we need to go back to last years motto “content is King”. What publishers need to do now is find a way of distributing content across multiple platforms; print, web, Flash based eMag, Adobe Air eMag, Podcasts, iPhone App and now iPad App, maybe even ePub books.
New York Times best sellers list on the iBook Store
And Adobe? Flash has been snubbed once again, whether it’s because it drains processor speed or because it makes an App store redundant remains uncertain. What it does mean though is that Flash will still be integral for other mediums such as tablet PCs. But also that Adobe need to cater for Apple Apps and CS5 Flash does exactly that. You can basically export directly to iPhone App and to Air and to SWF within seconds. Flash will still be an indispensable tool for publishers.
So over the next few days we’ll gauge reaction of industry folk, consumers and publishers. We’ll see the tablet in action once Apple release the keynote speech for viewing and hopefully we’ll get UK release details soon.
So today is the day many off us media types and computer geeks have been speculating about for some time now. Apple should unveil, in some capacity, a new tablet computer. The Keynote takes place at 6pm good-old-English time and can be followed on practically any news or gadget site out there.
To say this product launch is important would be a massive understatement. The Apple Tablet has the potential to “rescue” the publishing industry and give it purpose and focus, much like Apple have done with the music industry through iTunes. It could be a major step forward in interactive magazine enjoyment and distribution.
It could also have a negative effect on current eMag publishers like Ceros or eDition. Since it is unlikely that the Apple Tablet will support Flash content where will these publishers stand and how will they adapt? Are mobile Apps the only way forward? Will HTML 5 be the answer? Can Adobe Air become the new platform of choice. Or will someone finally give us multiple publishing options in one handy package?
It’s also worth noting that even if Apple do announce a Tablet today it won’t be on sale for another month at least, analysts (posh word for “estimators”) suggest a March 1st release. Because of this there will be little word on pricing structures or 3G network providers.
As soon as Apple announce something tonight, you’ll be able to read about it right here. And of course everywhere else on the internet. And the papers. And TV of course, and maybe the radio, possibly also through usage of smoke signals and morse code. Basically it’s going to be hard to not hear about it.
Posted by magdesigner 
New York Times best sellers list on the iBook Store
