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Time to clear some apps off my iPad: here is a quick round-up of recently released, non-U.S.-based media apps – a few are native apps, a few are replicas. All are free to download, though one will require an in-app purchase to read the content.
LeMatin HD is a free app from the Swiss news site of about the same name. The app is the fourth app to be released by Edipresse Publications, all having been released since March: 24Heures HD, Tribune de Genève HD, and Femina HD.
The app is well done, though one wonders about the business plan this long term – selling advertising? Since the market penetration of the iPad is probably still small in Switzerland, the publishers have some time to figure this out, though the app description makes no mention of a future subscription requirement.
The Jakarta Globe for iPad is a free app for the relatively new daily newspaper from Indonesia. The English language paper was launched near the end of 2008.
The app takes a bit of a different approach to tablet publishing in that single articles dominate the page. The app works in both portrait and landscape, though I have it shown here in portrait just to make the photos fit!
Two replica edition apps are for Suedostschweiz ePaper and B.T. digital avis.
Suedostschweiz ePaper, or "The South-Eastern Switzerland Press", is a free app that gives you access to a whole portfolio of PDF based publications from the publisher, most or all of which will cost you $1.99 per issue to read.
B.T. digital avis from Berlingske Media is the sixth iPad released by the Danish company, they also have ten apps available on the iPhone side of things, as well. This new one may actually be one of the least interesting of the bunch, being simply a replica edition of the colorful tabloid.
Berlingske Business til iPad, on the other hand, appears to be a more ambitious attempt at tablet publishing, assuming your Norwegian is up to snuff.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Round-up: Native and replica media apps from Europe
HTML 5 compliant browsers, tablet sales, and the market
Keeping with the theme of HTML 5 alternatives to app development, here are a few thoughts about browser compliance and tablet sales.
Developers of media apps are always asking about the size of the market they are developing for, hinting that there is this sinking feeling that the market is still way too premature to generate the kinds of results they would like. Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, has projected that Apple has sold about 25 million iPad units, a very impressive number considering the tablet has only been on the market for 14 months, but still not much of a market compared to print or online.
So the solution du jour is creating HTML5 web app publications. The solution seems so obvious and natural – that is until you look at what browsers online readers are using, it's not a pretty picture.
Although there is some dispute online about which browsers are the most compliant with the HTML5 standards, as well as how important it is to be, in fact, very compliant, the fact of the matter is that only a relatively small portion of web surfers are using up-to-date, recently released web browsers.
According to Net Applications, nearly half of all users are still using old versions of Internet Explorer, only 4.19 percent having upgraded to IE9. Further, while the users of both Chrome and Firefox tend to instantly upgrade when a new version is released, their market share for their latest browsers is still under 20 percent – and adding in Safari doesn't even get you to one quarter of the market.
Of course, many publishers are considering HTML 5 developing as simply an alternative to the iPad, or as a way of reaching all tablet owners through their browsers, and there is some value in thinking this way, in my opinion. But the market is still defined by the number of tablets sold by Apple as we continue to wait for "soon-to-be-launched" tablets from the usual suspects.
All these facts might be kept in mind when considering throwing your app development efforts away in pursuit of glory through the web alone.
Financial Times web app: HTML5 based app proves a usable alternative, though not a great user experience
Efforts to access the Financial Times website in order to retrieve its HTML5 web app finally proved successful. Here is a look at the results:
The war appears to be on: some publishers have decided that they don't like Apple's sandbox so they are going off on their own. The question is whether their readers will go with them, or whether readers will end prefer the 'walled garden, as some critics have called Apple's iOS platform.
The Financial Times today launched an HTML5 web app version of their previously popular iPad app.
Accessing the website and the page that allows you access to the app is a chore, you can read about that here, but once you do the experience is acceptable, if not totally satisfying.
To be sure, the FT iPad app was not revolutionary: it was essentially of the same design as the NYT app, but it's simple design and functionality worked well enough that the FT bragged about its download numbers. Last fall, for instance, the FT reported that it had brought in a £1 million in new revenue through 400,000 subscribers.
But the attitude of the FT, and indeed many publishers, especially in Europe, soured when it became apparent that Apple would not instantly hand over customer data to publishers without the consumer agreeing to do so, some publishers began to rebel.
"It is unclear how their proposal is going to work, we are still talking to them," FT chief executive Marjorie Scardino said, according to The Guardian. "The important thing to remember is there are many, many tablets coming out and multiple devices ... [from] Kindle to mobiles. If indeed Apple are not happy to give us customer data then maybe we will get it somewhere else."
So what was a huge benefit for consumers, secure data, was a point of contention for some publishers. (It should be said that many publishers have simply begun asking their readers for this data themselves. Image that.)
So in a move very much timed to coincide with Apple's own slew of announcements, the FT has launched a web-based app version of its iPad app – the design is identical to the iOS version.
Readers familiar with the iPad app will certainly feel right at home on the HTML5 version. Once a reader has accessed the entry page (iPad link) they are instructed to add an icon to their home screen as one does with the aside mag magazine web app.
"This is our best app yet, and it is an important step in our strategy of providing multi-channel access to our global journalism quickly and simply,” John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times said in the company's announcement. “The FT Web App offers our customers flexibility and freedom of choice with access to our global journalism anytime, anywhere, with a single login or subscription. In a world of increasingly digital complexity we want to keep our service simple, easy to use and efficient to offer our customers the best possible experience of FT journalism.”
Unlike aside, however, which attempts to duplicate so many of the features of native iOS apps in its HTML5 alternative, the FT here is only trying to duplicate a much more modest iPad app – and it does so fairly well.
The HTML5 version here is almost the same experience as the iPad app. Readers will notice some glitches as the home page loads. The slow load times, combined with the pages elements flashing on and off are about the only signs one is dealing with a non-native app.
The irony here, of course, is incredible: newspaper publishers who have not found a winning formula online are returning to an online solution in order to avoid the App Store, and when doing so are trying to duplicate the native app experience – Apple, in their minds, is both the enemy and the prophet of future media ventures.
Media analysts would be making a huge mistake by looking to the FT or the WSJ as models for newspaper strategy. The financial category is the exception to the rule, in my opinion: business information is very valuable, readers will pay for it as witnessed by the success both papers have had with both paid app subscriptions and paid online access. The value of a story about, say, Kraft Foods, to someone in the grocery business, is far higher than the value of a story about Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan.
This is the mistake many small to mid-sized newspaper publishers are making, assuming that their local news has a value so high that consumers will be happy to jump pay walls in order to access it. Good luck with that.
But if you can make me money by giving me good business news, or if I can write off that expense with my employer or the IRS, then I will be willing to pay. (Ironic, isn't it, that the biggest critics of government interference in the free market, the WSJs and FTs of the media world, are the ones being subsidized by the government through the tax code.)
Update: added quote from company release.
The Financial Times launches web based app to bypass Apple's App Store, but strategy is a comedy of errors
This post was written before being able to reach the FT website page in order to access its new web-based app. For a look at the actual web app go here.
I see the Financial Times, which has says it has done well with Apple's App Store, has decided to launch a web version which seeks to bypass the App Store altogether. The problem appears that in their rush to regain that 30 percent commission back from Apple the publisher appears to have forgotten a few things.
In a rather bold move, the FT is telling its readers to stop using its native app and to move over immediately to the new web-app version:
We have launched a new, faster, more complete app for the iPad and iPhone which is available via your browser rather than from an app store.
We're encouraging our readers to switch immediately to the new FT web app, as many new features and sections will be added over the coming weeks. Make sure you don't miss out on these updates.
The move, and its attitude, is sure to anger Apple – and clearly this is a violation of the developer agreement that requires that one not launch apps that are more expensive than other solutions, and further it violates the rule that one can not charge for content when one is offering the same product for free online. So Apple would be well within its rights to pull the FT app from the app store.
But the real problem here is that the Financial Times has launched a web-app then not made sure the page used to install it can be accessed. All morning the page readers are directed to has been unresponsive.
Worse, when one uses their browser on their iPad to try and reach the page through the website one is immediately rebuffed by the FT themselves who require you to register with the paper before accessing the story about the app. It's Catch 22, they don't want you to use the native app anymore, but are making it impossible to use their new solution.
For me, all this was inevitable: when you have media writers and critics telling publishers to avoid working with Apple you end up with a situation where conflict is inevitable. No surprise then that many independent publishers believe the App Store offers them the best chance to beat their old media competitors: when it comes to New Media traditional publishers have shown they haven't a clue.
Well, assuming the FT finally gets their web page to begin working again you might be able to get access this new version of the Financial Times. For now, this video will be the only someone will be to see what the publisher is trying to do here:
A few thoughts on apps and browsers, cloud computing and storage, security and the like
Here are just a few thoughts still bouncing around my brain this morning after a late night of watching the Giants win after one thousand innings, or whatever it was ...
With the Mac OS now geared towards full screen apps, everything computing (at least on the Mac side) will begin to resemble the tablet experience, rather than the other way around. But at the same time we are heading towards full screen apps along side full screen app publications, there is a counter move towards browser based solutions such as HTML5 magazines.
In the end, publishers need to ask themselves if they want their publications trapped inside the browser window, or trapped inside an app. The advantage to the browser is that it cuts across platforms – all PCs and tablets will come with browsers, of course. The advantage of apps is at least two fold: they utilize the entire canvas (even if that canvas sometimes is one size on one device and another on a different device) and that they can more quickly add features as Apple and Google add them to the platform's OS (an example being AirPlay).
It used to be said that online retailing would suffer because older consumers would be hesitant to buy online, handing over their credit card information to an online entity. Consumers, despite their ages, seem to have jumped that hurdle and now share far too much information online, including silly pictures of themselves in their underwear (oh, maybe that is only politicians).
Discussing some of the new features to be found in the new Mac OS, iOS and iCloud with some people yesterday I was struck by those who simply thought the whole thing irrelevant to them. Features like Versions, which automatically save and then recall past versions of documents, didn't really appeal to them, they already save multiple versions of their documents. The same was true of cloud storage, everything they need, they would say, is already on their laptops – they saw no need for constant access to their documents, they felt they already had that.
One part of me says that there is merit to this point of view, do we really need cloud storage options in this day of 2 TB hard drives, flash drives, etc. But at the same time it is clear that Apple, Amazon, Google, and a large number of consumers feel that this is the direction to go in.
But how will corporations feel about their employees using iCloud and similar services?
Apple is already starting to roll out some of the features to be found in their new vision of computing such as instant and simultaneous downloading and installing of apps (screenshot above).
In my case I download and install lots and lots of apps, then delete them almost as quickly. For me, having an app that I have downloaded for my iPad automatically installed on my iPhone means that I have to go back and uninstall it later on.
But, of course, my situation is unique. I think most users will find the service convenient – and, of course, like all things Mac, Apple will allow the user to turn this feature off (which is what I will do).
Monday, June 6, 2011
Apple posts iOS 5 Beta; developer site a bit overwhelmed
Apple posted its first beta version of its new iOS 5 software for developers to work with. Unfortunately, the developer site has been overwhelmed and is not performing as it should.
Developers would probably be wise to wait a few hours before trying to access the site.
Once you get there, however, you will be required to sign a new agreement (assuming you haven't done so already) before downloading the beta. Needless to say, only developers who are registered with Apple and have paid the $99 per year fee will be able to access the beta.
In addition to the ten new features highlighted in the keynote presentation this morning the beta will also reveal more new features, some of which were hinted at in the keynote: AirPlay mirroring, a new iPad music app, a personal dictionary, endless prosperity (OK, we made up that last one).
As an Apple developer I had no luck making it all the way through the Apple developer site due to the glitchy performance so I can not update media app developers about the beta at this time, so best of luck downloading the beta.
Will 'Newsstand' only include media apps that use Apple's in-app subscription service? new feature part of iOS 5
One of the new features inside iOS 5 that was announced today by Apple was Newsstand, a bookshelf-like place within the App Store where readers can get find their favorite publications – assuming they are part of the App Store.
Newsstand is a beautiful, easy-to-organize bookshelf displaying the covers of all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one place. A new section of the App Store™ features just subscription titles, and allows users to quickly find the most popular newspapers and magazines in the world. If subscribed to, new issues appear in the Newsstand and are updated automatically in the background so you always have the latest issue and the most recent cover art. – Apple Press Release
Based on this description, it would appear that those apps that don't take advantage of the in-app subscription process might be excluded. But Apple has not announced much about the new features and it is possible that this might simply be an extension of the App Store itself, simply another way to feature newspapers and magazines.TNM has been consistent in calling Apple out for not curating its news app portfolio in a more logical way – both to help readers find periodicals and to assist media companies get their apps in front of readers. In the past the App Store has had a promotional area called Newsstand, but no real formal, permanent place for daily newspapers and monthly magazines.
The new beta of iOS 5 is being released today, so it is only a matter of time before developers get a handle on all the new features inside the latest version of Apple's mobile OS, and with the public release not until the fall, there is still time for rules for Newsstand to be worked out.
"iOS 5 has some great new features, such as Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand and we can’t wait to see what our developers do with its 1,500 new APIs,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in one of the company's rare press releases. “Perhaps iOS 5’s paramount feature is that it’s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post PC revolution that Apple is leading.”
Note: this post on the WSJ website is a rather snarky take on the new Newsstand feature, while this one from Peter Kafka dismisses Apple's new iCloud Match service. Maybe Apple should pull the app for The Daily and tell News Corp. call RIM the next time they want to launch an app.
Apple lays outs its new software offerings for developers at WWDC opening event; free iCloud service introduced
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, along with key Apple executives today introduced major new software updates for Mac operating system, as well as its mobile iOS. In addition, Apple took the wraps off its new iCloud system.
Received like the rock star he has become, Steve Jobs kicked off Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference at Moscone Center by letting participants know that today's event would be all about software. Phil Schiller, SVP WW Product Marketing, and Craig Federighi, VP OS X Software, kicked things off with a tour of Lion, Apple's latest version of the Mac OS.
1) multitouch gestures available through your Mac's trackpad, or track pad accessory; 2) Full screen apps; 3) Mission Control, retake on Expose; 4) updates to the Mac App Store bringing it right into Lion; 5) Launchpad, a way of allowing users to quickly access and launch apps; 6) Resume, a way from programs to relaunch where the user left off before quitting; 7) Auto Save controls; 8) Versions, a sort of Time Machine for documents where users can retrieve previous versions of their work; 9) Air Drop, a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi-based network, essentially Dropbox built into the Mac OS; 10) and finally, a new version of Mail, Apple's email management app that adds a "Conversations" view.
(The "Versions" feature could be very useful for reporters and editors who need to write drafts of stories on the fly and will need to archive past versions.)
The new OS will only costs users $29.99 and will be available exclusively through the Mac App Store, eliminating the ol' CD way of installing upgraded OS's. The launch dates for Lion is sometime in July.
During the preview of iOS 5, Steve Jobs mentioned that so far the company has sold more than 25 million iPads. Though this number is impressive, it may be below many sales estimates, including my own.
Steve Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone Software, walked developers through ten of the more than 200 updates to the Apple mobile operating system:
1) Notifications will be getting an updates UI through Notification Center that will let users access their notifications instantly and from any place without being disruptive; 2) Newsstand, a single place in the App Store that combines newspapers and magazines that allows for background loading of content; 3) Twitter integration into apps, though this may depth of integration may prove less than what many anticipated; 4) a new version of mobile Safari (sorry, still no Flash) that includes Safari Reader, a sort of built-in Instapaper/Read It Later, as well as a tabbed experience similar to the desktop version; 5) Reminders, a list generation feature for such things as grocery lists; 6) Camera updates that will now allow users to use volume up button to take pictures, as well as other in-app enhancements like grid lines for composing shots, built-in editing, and photo enhancements; 7) Mail will get an update that includes search and composition aid features, as well as a built-in dictionary that all apps will now be able to access; 8) PC Free, freeing up iOS devices from having to sync through their computers, a much requested features from those who are using their mobile devices in lieu of a home PC; 9) Game Center, which now has 50 million users, will get an update; and 10) iMessage, a new messaging system between iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) which works on both 3G and WiFi and which will include deliver and read receipts – essentially BlackBerry Messenger for iOS devices.
Other features mentioned by not demoed include wireless AirPlay mirroring and WiFi syncing through iTunes. The developer "seed" will be available immediately and the ship dates is the fall, probably in line with the newest version of the iPhone.
One recurrent theme of the presentation was that Apple is adding features to its iOS that many developers have created apps for in the past – such as reading features, Reminders or the new camera features. Many developers won't happy that they are being edged out by Apple, but it is inevitable that Apple would want to incorporate popular features directly into its iOS platform.
Steve Jobs reserved the introduction of iCloud for himself. As Jobs described it, the problem solved by iCloud is syncing media such as music and photos between devices.
Collectrium releases separate English and Dutch language apps for Amstel Gallery
Part two of two: dealing with multiple language requirements in tablet publishing. Here the developer has created separate apps.
While embedding different content for different audiences, such as English for the U.S. market and French for the French market, is an option for some publishers and developers, the other option is simply to launch separate apps for each market. This is the approach Collectrium has taken with its apps for the Amstel Gallery.
Collectrium is a New York-based company founded in 2009 by Boris Pevzner. The company has over a dozen mobile apps in the App Store, many of them universal apps that can be used on the iPad, as well.
Each is for a different gallery or art fair, such as SF Fine Art, or Olympia LIAF for the London International Fine Art Fair.
This weekend a couple of new apps launched for the Amstel Gallery:
Amstel Gallery Features established and emerging artists from The Netherlands, Belgium, UK and USA. We participate in international art fairs and in addition to our regular exhibition schedule, we host and organize special exhibitions in combination with the fashion world.One app is called aandeamstel (Aan de Amstel), and is the Dutch language equivalent of the English language app Amstel Gallery – both apps can be found in the U.S. Apple App Store.
Amstel Gallery offers high-end contemporary art, that is accessible, affordable to all and defined by a great versatility. – from the app description.
Both apps are identical other than their languages. Both require you to create or sign into an account – a mechanism that would work very well for B2B apps, as well.
If there is a problem with the apps it is simply with the content itself. The artwork is presented in such a low resolution that it is difficult to actually judge the work presented. It appears that the artwork was probably scanned or photographed for presentation on mobile phone displays, but this simply doesn't work on the iPad's display.
None of Collectrium's other apps takes the approach of separate apps for separate languages. It is rather strange that the first one would be for an Amsterdam-based gallery since the Dutch are known as excellent speakers of English (one of the joys of visiting The Netherlands).
AA Mag tries to tackle the issue of languages with separate apps for different App Stores with mixed results
Part one of two: dealing with multiple language requirements in tablet publishing. Here the developer created one app with two languages.
It's a difficult question for a developer to answer: how do you deal with reaching readers using different languages? with different content within the same app, or with separate apps?
AA Mag, the digital magazine for the animation business in France does it with one app with the option to have delivered the English or French content. Designed by Alter Ego Medias, and developed by Onde M, both from Annecy, France, the app is free to download, and the content is free, as well.
(Annecy is in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France, and is the home of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market, which is the subject of the digital magazine app.)
The language choice is to be found on the opening page of the app, but is, unfortunately, hidden from view unless one taps the screen. This design flaw is somewhat mitigated by the screenshot shown in the app description. Nonetheless, this should be visible right up from, otherwise readers may find themselves at a loss. (English is the default setting, so it is the French who are at a disadvantage.)
Of course, while the content can change to deliver the right language experience, the app's internal navigation commands should, as well. This is where this particular app falls down a bit. Navigating the library, or kiosk as it is called here, can be a bit difficult if you encounter the wrong language.
The digital magazine itself is delivered in small doses, 36 pages an issue, and the first issue was around 50MB, if I recall.
The navigation between pages is interesting: one swipes between pages but rather than seeing the pages move across the screen the pages instead pop in and out. It a bit of a different approach which I found a bit disconcerting, but I guess one could get used to this way of doing it.
Morning Brief: US accused by Canadian court of being enforcer for tech giant; Apple's WWDC kicks off today
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge accused Cisco and U.S. prosecutors of deceiving Canadian authorities in actions that led to the arrest of a whistleblower.
Justice Ronald McKinnon ruled that Peter Adekeye, a British computer entrepreneur and former for Cisco Systems employee will not be extradited following his arrest in Vancouver. According to the Vancouver Sun, Adekeye was arrested while testifying on May 20, 2010 before an American court hearing at the Wedgewood Hotel. He was arrested for supposedly not testifying, leading the Canadian judge to equate Adekeye's ordeal as something out of Jeosph Heller's novel Catch 22.
Adekeye was arrested after Canadian officials received information from U.S. authorities. Almost nothing in the U.S. attorney's letter was true," Adekeye's lawyer Marilyn Sandford said last week. But Canadian Justice Department lawyers argued that U.S. actions in the case were irrelevant, but in the end the judge disagreed stating that Adekeye's arrest was "shocking" and that "it is simply not done in a civilized jurisdiction that is bound by the rule of law."
Adekeye is suing Cisco over the issue of forced software updates and maintenance contracts, according to the Sun article.
Apple CEO will be kicking off the Worldwide Developer Conference at 1pm EDT today by introducing the newest Mac OS, named Lion, as well a new version of its mobile and tablet operating system, iOS 5, and iCloud.
Meanwhile, Apple opened its seventh retail outlet in France, this one in Lyon located in the Lyon Part-Dieu shopping center. As usual large crowds gathered prior to the opening and press showed up to cover the event.
Videos uploaded to YouTube show long lines of customers in line waiting for the opening. In fact, lines extended from inside the shopping center clear out side into the rain that fell on the summer morning.
Apple employees were shown being applauded like rock stars as they showed up for work before the opening.
The new store follows the same design as all Apple Stores and uses iPads to provide information on products displayed in the store.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Methow Valley News gets its first iPad app thanks to the work of a local developer and duct tape wallet maker
If Google Maps is to be believed, Twisp, Washington has to be a fairly isolated, though idyllic. Population 938, according to Wikipedia, it is located in the Methow Valley, which looks like the kind of place where you horse back ride in the summer, and cross-country ski in the winter.
The weekly newspaper, the Methow Valley News is published by Paul Butler and staff, and now it has its own tablet edition thanks to Brian Drye, who lives in nearby Wintrop.
Drye, 40, has just released his first iPad app, Methow Valley News, and is charging $2.99 for access to the latest local news. In addition to this first tablet app which is an offshoot of his original iPhone version, released in 2009, the developer has a dozen other mobile apps for such things as Tennis String Tension, a cross-country skiiing app called MVSTA Grooming Report, and others.
I tracked Drye down and asked him about his app. It turns out that Drye does his development all from scratch, no do-it-yourself website vendor help – "just for fun, mainly," Drye told me.
"I have Xcode, and write it in Cocoa, and then test it locally – and then use a simulator, and then an attached iPod to try it out," Drye said.
If you click on the app support page, you'll see pictures of his mobile app shown on an original first generation iPhone. The page is part of MethowTime.com, the site Drye uses to sell his other wares: Duct Tape Wallets – "that's my other sort of weekend activity."
"I used to live in Seattle with my wife and we moved to a smaller town, Wintrop," Drye said. "They have a nice farmer's market so it's a good place to meet people."
The move was made at the beginning of 2007 and he clearly likes it there. "It's a great place," Drye told me. "We're on the other side of the Cascades, so its pretty dry and sunny – and we're kind of up in the mountains, so you have all hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing and all that stuff going on. It's a great place to live."
I wondered if Twisp was the kind of place David Lynch used to shoot Twin Peaks, his television series. But that turns out to have been North Bend, Washington, much closer to Seattle than the Methow Valley.
Judging by the photos of the staff of the Methow Valley News, Twisp is definitely not anything like the folks in Twin Peaks – which may be good or bad depending on your perspective, I suppose.
In any case, Twisp now has both iPhone and iPad news apps, something a lot of towns can't claim including Chicago, one should be reminded.
Now I wonder if the Antlers Saloon (real place) has good WiFi so you can use these apps to catch up on events in the valley?
Assouline Publishing released tablet app version of its soon to be published luxury book 'Coca-Cola'
You are about to experience a visual journey of Coca-Cola imagery from around the globe, that spans 125 years of people refreshing and connecting with Coca-Cola. – Assouline Inc.'s introduction to its Coca-Cola iPad book app.
Luxury illustrated book publisher Assouline has released an iPad app that is sort of a companion piece to its coffee table book Coca-Cola, which has not yet been released (although the company's website says it was supposed to be available in May).
In many ways, the iPad app, Coca-Cola, which costs $4.99 is a smart promotional piece for the printed book which the publisher has priced at $65 (it can be pre-ordered at a discount on Amazon.com). But in keeping with the publisher's luxury theme, a special limited edition of the book is available of $650, seriously. (Maybe they could have done a special limited edition of the iPad that ran Flash.)
The app, of course, has the multimedia material including video ads, animation, you won't find in the 208 page printed version, though you won't get "a complimentary ASSOULINE canvas tote bag" like you would if you paid $650 for the limited printed edition. Oh well.
The book and its tablet edition are meant to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Coca-Cola's founding. Unfortunately, the tablet edition is geared towards the fun side of things rather than a serious look at the company's history. In this way, it truly is a coffee table app (and in this regard, it's a good one).
(It's history is pretty interesting, having started as a coca wine drink, then as a medicinal drink, before finally becoming a national iconic drink associated with all things American. For a historical look at Coca-Cola you might try the book by Mark Pendergrast: For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It.)
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For Assouline Publishing, this is their first iPad book app, so their developers may getting the hang of things. As for the company itself, the company that was founded in Paris, and is now headquartered in NYC, usually is associated with all things upper crusty. The new effort seems like a step in a more populist direction.
Here is the company's promotional video for their Coca-Cola iPad book app:
Morning Brief: Dr. Death dead at 83; Apple ponies up some cash to ease iCloud's introduction
The man known as Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, has died at the age of 83 after suffering from kidney and heart problems.
As a former Detroiter, Kevorkian was often in the news as he was from Pontiac, Michigan. Kevorkian was a trained pathologist, and was a right-to-die activist who was also a hog for publicity, advertising in Detroit newspapers his services in "death counseling."
His first assisted suicide occurred in 1990, an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease. Kevorkian was charged with murder but those charges were later dropped. The incident, however, lead to his license to practice medicine being revoked. Eventually the authorities got some charges to stick and he served eight years for second-degree murder. He was released in 2007 on condition that he would no longer offer assisted suicide services.
The New York Post is reporting that Apple will pay four major music labels between $100 and $150 million in advance payments to grease the wheels for their new iCloud music storage service. And why not, with $40 billion in cash reserves this amount is little more than chump change.
Rumors have floated about Apple charging a $25 a year fee for the service, but these types of rumors are often wrong as witnessed by rumors that Apple's iPad would be introduced at $1000 or more.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to introduce iCloud, along with Lion and iOS5 in his keynote address that kicks off its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday in San Francisco at 10 AM PDT.
The media, which is a self-absorbed industry at most times, really became unglued with the news that Jill Abramson would become next excutive editor of The New York Times, apparently the media discovered her gender.
Jill Abramson is 57 years old, has been managing editor of the NYT since 2003, and has worked as a reporter for The American Lawyer, editor of Legal Times, senior reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and was made the NYT's Washington bureau chief in 1997. She has also been the heir apparent to Bill Keller for quite some time.
But, of course, the big news is that she is a woman. (I would have thought her marriage to "Henry" and her two children would have given them a clue about all this.)
Jay Rosen tweeted a link to this story by Tom McGeveran, to be fair, that actually talks about Abramson in a meaningful way. It's worth a read.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Groupon says it looks to raise $750 million in an IPO; company lost $413 million last year
An SEC filing is not where you will find modesty: "I started The Point to empower the little guy and solve the world's unsolvable problems. A year later, I started Groupon to get Eric to stop bugging me to find a business model. Groupon, which started as a side project in November 2008, applied The Point's technology to group buying. By January 2009, its popularity soaring, we had fully shifted our attention to Groupon."
So reads the letter from Andrew D. Mason contained in the Form S-1 filed today with the SEC by Groupon, which now hopes to raise $750 million in an initial public offering (IPO). The filing also shows that the social buying service has seen its revenue explode from $94K its first year in 2008, to $30 million in 2009, to $713 million last year. It has already generated $644 million in revenue in the first three months of 2011.
But Groupon is still bleeding money, losing $413 million last year, and is on a similar pace in 2011.
Groupon, which said "no" to Google's $6 billion bid, will rely on Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters for their IPO.
The time seems right for tech IPOs, if LinkedIn's IPO is any reflection of the market (LNKD is currently trading at around $80 a share today, lower than their first week performance, but still much higher than original expectations).
My bet is still that saying "no" to Google was foolish, but one can never discount that the feeding frenzy will continue to the advantage of Groupon.
Update: TechCrunch reminds us that Groupon isn't the only new media company looking to IPO. Music streaming service wants to raise a little over $140 million, pricing its shares at around $7 to $9 per.
Revenue at Pandora are not anywhere near Groupon levels, however, but then again they sell advertising around its content, whereas at Groupon it is the content.
A second look at aside magazine and the issue of HTML5 programming as an alternative to iOS app publishing
For the past two weeks, since posting this first story about aside magazine, the German HTML5 based online 'magazine', I have been haunted by a question concerning the poor user experience I reported: was it the result of using a first generation iPad?
I can report that it was most definitely inherent in the product itself and the performance I experience was in no one influenced by my broadband connection or my first generation iPad.
Using both a new generation iPad, at different locations, with different connections I experienced the same stuttering and jerkiness that I reported in the video demonstration I made two weeks ago (which you can see in my amateurish video below):
To recap: aside magazine "works", that is you can read it, and the in-magazine animation and content is viewable. It is just not a great user experience when compared to natively designed iOS tablet editions.
This raises the question that we hope will be answered soon: will Onswipe's digital publishing solution see similar results, or is there something that can be done on the programming side to make the reading experience better? We'll probably find out on June 21 when Onswipe holds their launch event – unless we get those canned videos that some companies like to use to avoid showing a live demonstration. There will be a lot riding on that launch event, no doubt.
But I think publishers who are dreaming of HTML5 publishing should sit back a bit and ask themselves a couple of questions: first, how are their online products doing now compared to print? and how will they monetize an HTML5 magazine any differently than they would a natively designed app magazine?
The advocates of web-based publishing often forget that most print publishers are not exactly raking it in online right now. That is why a tablet magazine, with its closed environment, is actually more like print because print publishers are generally better at selling products than they are access.
Is Verizon the new Best Buy?
Years ago, when Best Buy first started selling Macs, the buying experience was so poor that it was all but certain that Best Buy was simply using the presence of Macs to sell higher end PCs. The sales staffs were uneducated on the Mac OS, gave potential buyers truly bad information, and did they best to turn people off to anything Apple.
Today I believe the situation seems better at most Best Buy locations I visit. While sales people still tend to gather around the PC area to draw in customers, most sales staff I encounter don't intentional try and stir people away.
(Though they still don't properly answer the question posed by many customers properly: Question: what programs can you run on a PC that you won't be able to on a Mac? Answer: none, after all, you can always install Windows on your Mac if you want.)
Today I once again encountered a Verizon sales rep who intentional tried to stir me away from an iPad. This has, as you can tell, happened before. This time the person launched into a speech about how I should buy a Motorola XOOM because it can be upgraded to 4G at some point.
I played along: OK, I said, what about apps? The Verizon staffer said that the apps will come eventually.
So I should buy a tablet that one day will be able to upgraded to 4G and that one day will have more tablet apps instead of an iPad which will run on the same 3G network as the XOOM but already has access to natively developed tablet apps?
The sales person then admitted that they were just "doing their job" directing me to the XOOM.
Interesting. If Verizon is intentionally trying to move XOOMs at the expense of iPads, then the sales numbers that already are skewing heavily for the iPad would be even more lopsided if one of Apple's partners weren't intentionally trying to support a competitor (at least in the Chicago area).
Pennsylvania paper is the latest to go behind metered paywall, the latest to hear it from their online readers
Are newspaper executives the most arrogant folk in the world? I personally think they would have a tough time beating out B2B executives for the title of most arrogant media executives, but that is just a personal opinion. The folks in and around Pottsville, Pennsylvania would probably claim that the publishers of their daily newspaper, the Republican Herald, win hands down.
Yesterday the newspaper announced that it would put its website behind a metered paywall, pointing to such papers as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to justify the move.
"For pennies a day, Web readers will be able to access the most complete news report in Northeast Pennsylvania, with all the investigative energy and in-depth coverage that no one else provides. Web readers can still get the gist of the news with free access to our home page, obituaries, classified ads and blogs, as well as any 12 articles a month they choose to read," publisher Henry H. Nyce said in the newspaper's own online announcement.
Readers, allowed to comment online on the announcement, were not thrilled.
"Nobody is going to pay a penny for an online subscription. The Republican Herald is not the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. I'm shocked that you would be so arrogant to make the comparison," wrote one commenter.
One commenter used a bit of snark to write "What, you mean people aren't going to pay to read articles like 'Local Housewives Raise $35 at Ghost Mall Bakesale'?"
With The Republican Herald's flavor of paywall will require even print subscribers to pay, though only $1.99 per month, or $14.99 annually. It is hard to figure why the paper would want to risk losing that traffic for so little revenue gain.
For non-print subscribers, the cost will be $7.99 per month, or $74.99 per year.
The paper also announced an e-edition, but here again the digital publishing solution is a bit lacking: a flipbook from Newspaperdirect.com which will cost the same price as the website.
Like most newspaper announcements regarding metered paywalls, the paper's own story plays up the amount of content that will remain free – "he home page, section fronts, obituaries, blogs, classified ads, photo galleries and paid Lifestyle announcements like engagements, weddings and anniversaries will continue to be free – while pointing to other papers who are launching similar paywalls to justify their actions. It is a measure of the weakness of the industry as a whole that no one seems to think these moves are collusion within the industry, such is the desire to see the industry find some sort of solution to its revenue woes.
But the moves are also a sign of the seriously conservative nature of the newspaper industry, rather than try to find inventive digital publishing solutions, the industry generally concentrates on trying to protect print, while trying to get readers to pay for online access (and let's not forget these incredibly weak efforts at e-editions).
Although many of the comments on the story announcing the move, which were universally negative, tried to use logic to talk the paper out of its decision, the one that probably points to the future simply said "See Ya."
Major editorial changes at the NYT: Bill Keller to step down as executive editor, Jill Abramson named to post
The New York Times announced major changes to its editorial team this morning, announcing that Bill Keller will step down as executive editor to become a full time writer, to be replaced by Jill Abramson.
Abramson is a former investigative reporter and was the Washington bureau chief for the Times.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher and the chairman of The New York Times Company also announced that Dean Baquet, the current Times Washington bureau chief, will become the new managing editor.
Both appointments will become effective September 6.
“He’s been my partner for the last eight years,” Mr. Sulzberger said in the NYT's own story on the moves. “He’s been an excellent partner. And we’ve grown together. If that’s where his heart is and his head is, then you have to embrace that.”
Abramson will become the first female editor of the Times in its 160-year history, and could bring new energy at a time of rapid changes to the newspaper publishing industry. While the NYT has been able to remain the nation's leading newspaper, at least as far as prestige is concerned, it has often acted as if it was fighting the changing world of digital publishing. The Times, for instance, was one of the first newspapers to launch an app for Apple's iPad, but that same app was widely criticized for being a half-effort, almost an obligatory effort simply to remain seen as a leader in the space.
While much of the comments about the moves will center on Abramson becoming the paper's first female editor (and that makes sense) further conversations will no doubt center on whether these moves will change the perception of the paper as one beholding to authority, or whether the changes at the top will bring a more independent, aggressive tone to the paper. The promotion of the Washington bureau chief, no matter who that would be, is not a good sign in this regard.
Build a native app, get some promotion from Apple: Chronicle finds its new app features in the App Store
So much talk from media writers about why publishers should avoid Apple's App Store has centered on the percentage of any transaction Apple takes. As a result, many have been hesitant to launch apps, while others have made the doubly poor choice of then launching replica editions, choosing to pay vendors to produce app no one will read rather than risk giving Apple 30 percent of a decent product.
Of course, by not being inside the App Store – or the Android Market, for that matter – you are just not in the ballgame, which is an OK decision as long as you have made a logical choice not to be there. TNM, for instance, has not launched an iPad app simply because it would be just an extension of this site. But you can be sure that we're thinking very hard about other iOS launches right now.
So I have been especially hard on major newspaper publishers who have been late to the App Store with tablet offerings. Where, I wondered, has The San Francisco Chronicle been, for instance?
But the Chron released its first tablet edition this week and guess what? Apple has it prominently displayed on its first page, as you can see above.
Call it positive reinforcement from the owner of the store. Publishers may not like it, but then again with publishers outsourcing their circulation services and so much else of their businesses I continue to find it strange that they should be concerned with the tech giants role in their New Media world.
Windows 8 gets previewed at AllThingsD
The post-event conversation reminds me of the post-debate spin of a Presidential campaign, with Windows supporters talking about how the giant software company has been able to incorporate touch into its main OS product, while critics accuse Microsoft of simply putting lipstick on a pig, layering new features on its Windows 7 system.
Both sides have a point, of course. But it should be remember that Microsoft is not promising to launch Windows 8 anytime soon. In fact, we really won't have a good idea of a launch date until Microsoft holds its developer conference in mid-September.
Charles Arthur of The Guardian has a fairly unbiased look at the preview given yesterday by Steve Sinofsky, the head of the Windows and Windows Live division, and if you have the time you can watch the entire on-stage conversation on the WSJ site.
Perhaps not surprisingly, John Gruber lays into Microsoft a bit on his Daring Fireball site. The all-things-Apple writer calls what he has seen so far "a fundamentally flawed idea" because Microsoft appears to have simply layered the new features on top of the older operating system. He does, however, praise several features showcased in the AllThingsD conference presentation.
I'm actually surprised that he didn't go a little farther. For me, one of the most revolutionary things Apple did with Snow Leopard was make the OS leaner. Mac users who upgraded to Snow Leopard were thrilled to find that their OS now took up less space on their Macs than the older system, something that is usual to say the least.
Layering touch features onto Windows 7, then, is simply Microsoft being Microsoft.
But then again, why was this presentation even made? To me it like those tablet previews so many companies have conducted where the product is "shown", demoed in video only, and then a future launch date is promised, though rarely delivered. With Apple's WWDC right around the corner, there may have been a need to show Windows users something, anything, in order to protect market share once again.
This may explain the rather poorly produced video Microsoft released in support of the Windows 8 preview:
Morning Brief: Mac owner yells "stop, thief!"; Argentina yells "stop, thieves!"; stocks fall, confidence wanes, while the media remains obsessed with Weiner's wiener
You'd be smart to leave Joshua Kaufman's stuff alone, the Mac owner is quite prepared to get his stuff back.
"I came home late on a Monday night in March, and someone had broken into my apartment through my window," Oakland, California resident Kaufman told the New York Daily News yesterday.
But the police weren't very interested in pursuing the case – it's Oakland, after all. So using a program called Hidden, Kaufman pursued the thief. The program, which costs $15 per year for an individual computer to protect, or up to $395 per year to protect 100 company computers, can use the computer's camera to take pictures of the thief and track his location.
"The following Thursday I started getting images and location information," Kaufman told the Daily News. "I was amazed. I was like, this thing actually works!" But still the police weren't interested in helping Kaufman get his MacBook back (maybe they are Windows people), so Kaufman posted the pictures to a the Tumblr blog "This Guy Has My Macbook" and . . .
"ARRESTED! An Oakland police officer just called me to let me know that they arrested the guy in my photos! BOOYA!" Kaufman tweeted yesterday.
The Daily News story includes several pictures of the alleged criminal – I thought it better to not post those in case there is more to this story.
OK, so that's one less thief in the Bay Area, but what do you do when the thieves are some of the biggest corporations in the world? In the U.S. the answer is, of course, nothing. We Americans are fully aware that while we have the right to vote, the right to rule is strictly limited to corporations.
Argentina, however, thinks that if you make record profits you should pay taxes. Silly Argentines.
Nonetheless, the Argentinian government has decided to bring a case against four large grain trading companies, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus, accusing the companies of tax evasion.
"These companies have gone into criminality," Ricardo Echegaray, the head of Afip, Argentina's revenue and customs service, said according to The Guardian. "2008 was when agricultural commodities prices spiked and was the best year for them in prices, yet we could see that the companies with the biggest sales showed very little profit in this country."
Cargill and ADM both denied the charges. However, while it is standard operating procedure to record record profits and pay no U.S. taxes, other countries, apparently, may feel differently about the matter.
Back in the U.S., stocks suffered their worst day of the year with the Dow falling almost 280 points, while the Nasdaq fell a little over 66 points – both over two percent declines.
"There isn't a lot of confidence to begin with, so it doesn't take much to push people away from the table," Ted Weisberg, a trader with Seaport Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.
The problem, of course, is that jobs are not being created, people's homes are falling in value, resulting in no growth. The White House and the Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are arguing about how much money to pull out of the economy in order to make matter worse. It is, after all, all too logical that in a recession you step on the brakes.
Of course, as Rome burned the U.S. media continued to talk about Rep. Weiner who apparently can not be sure the picture of a man in bulging boxer briefs is really him. "It certainly doesn't look familiar to me, but I don't want to say with certitude to you something that I don't know to be the certain truth," Rep. Weiner told CNN, according to Reuters.
So Weiner's inability to recognize his own wiener remains the story du jour.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Apple's big surprise at WWDC may simply be that it is finally getting the importance of social networking
For large tech firms like Microsoft, Google and Apple, the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have caught them a bit by surprise. Apple's Ping, for instance, was an almost desperate attempt to get in the ballgame, if only on a limited basis. I'm still searching for someone who utilizes the feature (I'm there, somewhere).
Now various sites are talking about what we might expect at WWDC with the roll out of Lion and iOS5. 9to5Mac has posted several stories that take the musings of other sources and tried to bring them together. The gest of it is that it looks like Apple will be integrating Twitter in "a system-level service" (to use the words of John Gruber) which would allow users to Tweet from any app.
This video, below, was posted on Twitter's YouTube Channel, and as one commenter said "a lot of iPhones in here...mmm..this looks like a partnership for iOS5 to me." Me, too.
Onswipe announced launch date: June 21
Sorry, guys, but "The Summer of Onswipe" doesn't have the same ring to it as "The Summer of Love", but for a lot of publishers interested in what the start-up may have to offer it will do.
More importantly Onswipe has announced a launch date: June 21, the first day of summer:
There are a lot of you, tens of thousands to be exact, that are eagerly anticipating the launch of Onswipe. Up until now, everyone has been asking one question: When? Now we finally have the answer… June 21st at 3:00 pm EST, the same exact day summer kicks off across the world. If this is the year of the tablet, then this is the summer of Onswipe. – Onswipe blog.
What Onswipe promises publishers is "insanely easy tablet publishing". Whether that will translate into insanely good tablet publishing is the million dollar question. We'll soon see.
In case you've forgotten what Onswipe is about, here is their promotional video posted about a month ago (hot pink appears to be their color):
Audi UK creates universal app for Le Mans 2011
Serious auto racing fans have a soft spot in their hearts for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race that has been taking place outside the small French town since 1923.
I, on the other hand, have a soft spot in my heart for tablet app made by car companies. Why? Because their huge marketing budgets mean that their developers can spend a fortune coming up with a state-of-the-art app.
One of the first such apps was Volkswagen Das, created by Readershouse Brand Media which this site looked at one year ago when it was first released. Coincidentally, a newly updated app has been released just yesterday.
In November the Audi A8 got its own app from Factory Design Labs. Using all the tools at its disposal, the developer created an app that weighed in at 611 MB. The last update, made in April, brings it up to 629 MB.
Many other auto maker apps have followed, many from the regional divisions. Today Volkswagen Group United Kingdom Limited has released a new app called Audi UK's guide to Le Mans 2011, and like many of the apps this one has a lot of interesting things going for it – and, since it is free, it can be downloaded by publishers and designers looking for inspiration.
The free app for the race which takes place June 11-12, offers video content, car photos, an interactive map of the course, and the use of augmented reality which I found to be a bit underwhelming. (The augmented reality works on iOS devices with cameras, meaning no AR on an original iPad.)
This app is a bit large, as well, though 298 MB is not too bad. Nonetheless I quickly deleted the app from my iPhone after testing out the augmented reality feature. This app is definitely better on the larger display of the iPad.
B2B: BNP Media moves its media kits into an iPad app; Penton uses mobile developer to create tablet editions
The B2B media industry remains miles behind its consumer cousins in both mobile and tablet publishing. Part of the reason for this, no doubt, is the sad financial shape of so many of the companies – either burdened with debt by their private equity owners, or simply mismanaged, in general.
As a result, very few mobile or tablet apps have been launched by US B2B companies. To be fair, some of the better B2B tablet editions, such as Publisher from Digipress, have not been followed up with new editions. My guess is that the media firms involved were disappointed in the number of downloads, finding the market simply to immature to pursue. That's my guess, anyway.
Two B2B recently released new tablet apps: BNP Media, the Troy, Michigan based B2B publisher, and Penton Media, the Wasserstein & Co. owned B2B firm that once claimed Cleveland as its home, but now lists NYC as its headquarters.
The NEWS HD was BNP's first attempt at a tablet edition. The app was released in January and contained a preview issue (or as the editor told me, a "dummy" issue) – sort of a newsletter for the HVACR industry. A February edition was published inside this library app, with a new issue expected in either June or July, according to Mike Murphy, editor of The NEWS.
The product is about what you would expect: pretty much a PDF with embedded content. Although I am not a fan of these flipbook products, I think they work better on the iPad simply because readers have a chance to browse them. Online, the reading experience is poor, as backed up by research data from such companies as Zinio prove.
BNP Media's second app, released today, is even a more modest effort. The app, Manufacturing & Safety - BNP Media, is a library app where media kits for the B2B magazines that are part of this group will be collected. Along with the media kits comes a corporate brochure complete with an embedded video of Tagg Henderson, co-CEO.
The app is supposed to include information on the following magazines: Adhesives & Sealants Industry, Appliance Design, Assembly, Ceramic Industry, FORGE, Industrial Heating, Industrial Safety & Hygiene News, Paint & Coatings Industry, Pollution Engineering, Process Cooling, Process Heating, Quality, and World Trade 100. Unfortunately, only one media kit can be found in the app now, the one for World Trade 100 – again, a PDF-type approach with an embedded video from the publisher Sarah Harding.
BNP Media is apparently one of those companies that does not like to share information very openly as the one media kit found in this app does not even contain ad rates, let alone BPA audit information (World Trade's circulation has fallen from a high of 76,283 in 2002, to 42,006 today).
(World Trade 100 is the rebranded name for World Trade, the name found with BPA. Unfortunately, BNP's websites are currently down so getting more information about their properties is impossible. Also, a disclosure is in order: for a year I was the publisher of Pollution Engineering, then owned by RBI. At that time the circulation was 68K, today it is less than half that.)
Penton Media last week released six new apps into the App Store, one iPhone and one iPad app each for three B2B properties: Home Care, American School & University, and Gov Pro.
All six apps were created by the mobile app developer Handmark. Unfortunately, while Handmark has been producing perfectly suitable iPhone apps for quite some time, they continue to be late to the tablet platform.
Back in March of last year, after Steve Jobs had demoed the first iPad, but before its April launch, Jon Maroney, Senior Vice President of Mobile Publishing told me that the company was eager to develop for the iPad.
"One of the things that is most interesting and most exciting about the iPad, from my standpoint, is how people are going to interact with this device isn't know. We are going to find out so much the week of April 5th," Maroney said at the time.
Unfortunately, what continues to come out of Handmark are these RSS feed driven apps that are far better suited for mobile devices than tablets.
Penton Media, because of its size, should be in the forefront of creating B2B media applications, but . . .
A final point needs to be repeated: because most B2B media properties depend on "qualified" readership, their products are given away for free. So in order for the business model to work on tablets a registration mechanism is essential so that the publisher can tell potential advertisers how many qualified readers they are reaching through their app.
Without a qualification mechanism, the business model falls apart. If one goes to the American School & University magazine website, for instance, and clicks on the "subscribe" link one is directed to a multi-page form that one must fill out to get the magazine.
In contrast, since anyone can download an app from the App Store, the B2B model is hard to reinforce – one needs to build into the app a mechanism that encourages registration. Conversely, one could charge for access to the content while offering print subscribers free access by signing into their accounts through the app, something that Apple is now allowing.
But, and here is the big exception, if your B2B app is simply another form of your website, that is, it is driven by the RSS feeds from your free site, then you can not restrict access to the app's content without running into trouble from Apple's app review team.
So why create free RSS driven apps like these from Penton? The answer I would give would be to sell more advertising, but as far as I can see these apps are completely ad free, making them even more of a mystery. But then again that modern B2B publishing for you.
Morning Brief: Lodsys files lawsuits against seven small developers, including Iconfactory; Fox News launches iPad app because no one can stop them from doing so
Lodsys followed through on its threat to sue developers for what it claims is patent infringements. The patent troll picked out seven small developers to sue, though one of them is fairly well known.
Iconfactory, the maker of Twitterrific was one of those companies targeted. Of the seven, most concerned apps for iOS, but there was one developer that also creates for Android.
Florian Mueller has a good post on the lawsuits over at his website Foss Patents, so there is very little for me to say on the subject.
Let me just say that the whole patent game is a sad condition of the current era. I remember very well the laughs Steve Jobs got during his iPhone keynote address in 2007 when he described multitouch saying "it works like magic" - which also got a laugh. But the big laugh was when Jobs said "And boy, have we patented it."
The remark was obviously intended to show that Apple considered their new device groundbreaking and companies that had a tendency to copy Apple (read: Microsoft) should beware.
So while Lodsys and other patent trolls may be considered a threat to the new mobile and tablet industries, they are probably no more a threat than all the major players, Apple included, that are currently involved in patent lawsuits. The difference is that Lodsys has simply shown exactly how evil these companies can be by targeting small developers.
So Fox News has launched an iPad app, what is there to say? I downloaded it, opened it and then took a screenshot. There you have it, my report.
One could say that it is just another app, works in both portrait and landscape, etc. etc. In other words, I could be like the other media writers: pretending that Fox News has lowered the level of professionalism of the whole industry, blurred the lines between reporting and advocacy, etc.
No, it's another news app, and I'm sure a lot of people will download it to read up on death panels, Obama's fake birth certificate, how the country is moving towards socialism, and to hear about the latest adventures of Sarah Palin. Actually, this sounds like the CNN, NBC News and CBS News apps.
I find it interesting that few people question the wisdom of TV news networks releasing free apps, while everyone talks about paywalls for newspapers. Both are news products on the same platform.
My own thoughts on this are that this is a reflection of the decline of newspaper advertising. Newspapers have not made the transition to online very well, and now mobile and tablets are presenting the same problems.
