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Short reads on a Saturday morning:
A rather uneventful week compared to last week, which saw the introduction of the iPad internationally, and next week, which will see a new iPhone introduced on Monday. So we'll bookend this Week in Review with the topic of the upcoming WWDC.
• WWDC: I don't expect that the new iPhone, or the new iPhone OS, will have much of an impact on the media world -- those developments have already occurred. The new iPhone is expected to have a front facing camera which will come in handy for those small number of people who will use it for video conferencing, as well as a flash on the backside. The new OS will introduce multitasking and tethering -- all important elements for users, but hardly ground breaking for media.
I suppose the biggest addition to the iPhone OS4 will be iAd, Apple's new ad platform which the company hopes will be used as a way of creating a better user experience on the iPhone (and, I suppose, the iPad, as well). From my perspective, the non-content perspective, I think the best sales team will win the mobile advertising battle. Because of that belief, I wouldn't bet against the AdMob/Google team. As one of the last people in media business, it seems, who still is a strong advocate for sales, I think getting advertisers onboard will be thing that makes the difference. In Apple's favor, however, is the fact that iPhone users are heavy users of the Internet -- and that according to AdMob -- meaning that if you are an advertiser you had still better be on the iPhone if you actually want to reach customers. This may change significantly if and when an Android-based tablet is introduced.
• Blogger proves his worth: the NYT announced on Thursday that they had entered into a partnership with Nate Silver and his FiveThirtyEight blog. The blog will be absorbed into the Times website (with its won URL) and Silver will become a contributor to the Times. As I wrote later that day, this is a wise move and should be emulated by other publishers.
• Ziff Davis will be changing hands again, and once again will be owned by a private equity firm -- this time Great Hill Partners. But unlike the infamous Ziff sale of 1994, in which Softbank paid an eye-popping $71.4 billion, this sale will leave the company without debt and run by former Time Inc. executive Vivek Shah.
"This is an unusual opportunity to acquire a recognized category leader with a very deep team of talent that has already fully transitioned to digital,” said Shah, on the Ziff Davis website. “Ziff Davis is an incredible foundation off which to build an exciting new digital media company focused on delivering fantastic content to our audience and unprecedented opportunities to marketers.
Ziff Davis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April of 2008 when it was reportedly $225 million in debt. Since then the company has been owned by its creditors. The total lists of brands associated with the company has shrunk considerably over the years. If the acquisition can lead to a more nimble company, capable of launching its own titles and apps, then the sale should prove profitable for Great Hill Partners. But if this is about exploiting the PC market . . .
• Most in the media-watch world had their eyes on the WSJ's D8 conference -- so named because it was the eight All Things Digital conference held. I would have loved to attend the conference simply because it was held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. I used to live nearby when I worked for Hearst at the L.A. Herald Examiner -- it's a truly beautiful location, and still in L.A. County.
But as far as news was concerned it was a snooze. Everyone tried to make a big deal out of the words that came out of the mouths of various CEOs, but there were really no revelations. The best that can be said is that the CEO talks reinforced the prevailing views: Steve Jobs came off confident, single-minded; Steve Ballmer came off lost, bitter and desperate; Rupert Murdoch came with notes.
• It is increasingly hard to get the big tech companies to playball with the media events folk. In the past year Apple has pulled out of MacWorld (still an amazing thought) and both Google and Apple have begun making their big product announcements at their own developer conferences.
Google, which held its I/O event a couple of weeks ago, announced so many new things that it was impossible to keep up -- crowning their event, I suppose, with their Google TV announcement. Apple's WWDC10 starts Monday at the same venue that Google used, Moscone Center. (Apple doesn't normally put a number after "WWDC", but who could resist using "10", such a nice round number).
Developer conferences are usually of less interest to the general public. Their purpose, after all, is to introduce changes to code and other technical matters. But they are also of far more lasting importance. In January 2007, Apple introduced its iPhone at MacWorld; but in June of 2008 Apple introduced iPhone apps and the app store at that year's WWDC. This year will come iAd, as mentioned above, and possibly more -- we'll see Monday morning. See you there.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Week in Review
Friday, June 4, 2010
Photoblogging Friday - 22
Something different for Photoblogging Friday this week, a more business-like post. Normally PbF consists of photographs from professional photographers, photojournalists, historic photographs, or even film stills. But this week, because of there have been a number of very good iPad apps released that involve photography, I thought today would be a good time to look at at least one of them.
There were a number of good choices: The Guardian released its photography app back on May 11, The Guardian Eyewitness, and I was immediately impressed. But several other apps have come out since that are interesting, as well, including photoJ.1, a digital photo magazine from The Mainichi Newspapers in Japan. The app costs 99 cents and is, of course, in Japanese. And although there are some 187 paid apps in the Photography section of the iTunes app store, the photoJ.1 app can be found under News.
Additionally, photographers are starting to use the iPad as a way of showing off their portfolios -- and why not, the screen on the iPad displays both color and black & white photographs very attractively. As a someone who is serious about photography I would have to say that nothing can replace a high resolution print of a photograph -- let alone a developed and processed photograph -- the iPad, however, is hard to beat as a photographic display platform.
The iPad and Photography
The conversation concerning the iPad in the photographic community is about at the same inane level as in the media world, with many of the articles written well before the iPad even shipped. (Have we seen headlines like this when discussing the iPad and media?" Will the iPad same photography?)
This Flash slideshow won't, of course, play on an iPad. But assuming
you are on your computer, use the controls in the lower right hand
corner to control the pictures.
In the end, though, the Guardian app keeps bringing me back. The app has a single-sponsor model -- in this case, Canon. It is simply designed, leaving in the photographs to speak for themselves. A small caption appears on each photo and a button on the lower right of the caption will bring up a "Show pro tip". A tap of the photo, though, gets rid of the caption altogether. A finger swipe then brings in the next photograph.
There is also an "About" page which contains a video introduction that can be enlarged to full screen. Did I mention that all this looks gorgeous?
The Guardian promises that the app will be updated daily -- quite a tough promise to keep, weekly would probably be good enough for most users, but daily is quite a treat, especially for a free app.
MTV new iPad app is a giant commercial for itself
It's Friday afternoon and its time to start preparing for the weekend. There is the Times new The Scoop app that is a lot of fun, but is there something else in iTunes an iPhone or iPad user can download that is sure to be entertaining? Look a brand new MTV News app, that's gonna be fun, right?
Ah, no.
Well, I suppose reading and viewing MTV promoting itself might be considered fun for some Viacom executive. For anyone else, including my kids who are generally more tolerant of self-promotion (read: Disney Channel), the material included in this app is usually what goes on when you head to the fridge between shows.
Chock full of such news items as Diddy Says 'Hello, Good Morning' To 'Good Morning America', the "news" here is decidedly light-weight.
OK, I say to myself, it is MTV, after all, so let's watch some videos.
Oh, oh. No landscape view? Really? And these videos, even ridiculously small they seem lo-rez.
OK, I finally get it. This isn't an iPad app, this is an iPhone app that they -- apparently in a hurry -- developed in order to . . . well, who knows.
Do yourself a favor, if you want some brain-dead entertainment download the MTV iPhone app, and leave the iPad app for another day. On the other hand, there is the Beavis and Butt-Head iPad app.
Have a good weekend.
Apple posts HTML5 demos in latest push to support standard over Flash; demos includes audio, video and VR
Under the guise of promoting their own Safari browser and the HTML5 standard, Apple took a gentle poke at Adobe by posting a series of demonstration pages on its website all built without Flash.
The seven demonstration pages, all which will require web users to have Safari installed on their devices, include pages on Video, Audio, Typography, Gallery, Transitions, 360°, and VR. On my Mac all the demonstrations ran flawlessly as you would expect.
(My guess is that Apple forced web users to have to use Safari to view the demonstrations to again control the experience, making sure the demos ran perfectly. Theoretically, these pages should run fine on both the Chrome and Firefox browsers.)
Apple may not have mentioned Adobe my name but the HTML5 lead-in page also includes Apple CEO's post Thoughts on Flash which was a more direct swipe at Adobe.
Morning Brief: Google gives in to European regulators; The Scoop for iPhone; Businessweek looks at Foxconn
The Financial Times is reporting that Google has agreed to hand over to European regulators the data it intercepted from WiFi connections while collecting data for its Street View project.
"We screwed up. Let's be very clear about that," Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO told the FT.
The company also said it will reveal the results of an external audit into its practices that led to the disputed collection of personal data.
The New York Times released an iPhone app that will make non-NYC residents (like me) very jealous. Called The Scoop, the app is a wonderfully constructed entertainment app that contains many of the features that make smartphone apps so useful.
The app's main menu is broken out into four segments: The Sifty Fifty, Times critic Sam Sifton's favorite 50 restaurants; The Top Shelf, dining editor Pete Wells lists his favorite city bars; Events, a guide to city concerts, dance and other events; and Only in N.Y., a collection of articles concerning . . . well, just about any topic, I suppose.
Each category includes a list view and a map view, integrating Google maps in a way that makes perfect sense.
To monetize the app there are is a small banner ad spot along the bottom. In addition to that ad, an animated ad also appears the first time one jumps to a section or article -- in this case an ad for The Lion King.
Assuming this app is constantly updated, this will prove to be an extremely popular mobile app. The app is free to download and so far the only fault I can find with the app is that it isn't for Chicago.
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Right: the use of maps in the Events section
Hearst Corporation and Condé Nast today announced that Jay Felts, a Hearst veteran, has been named president of Comag Marketing Group, the newsstand distribution and marketing company which is a joint venture of the two companies.
"Jay has done an exceptional job cultivating and strengthening relationships within the wholesale and retail communities and has played an important part in establishing CMG as an industry leader, as well as promoting the category overall," said John Loughlin, executive vice president and general manager, Hearst Magazines. "In this new position, he will serve as an even more essential advocate for the industry."
Businessweek (or is it Bloomberg?) has an excellent article on the troubles at Foxconn.
In case you are not up to speed on topic, Foxconn is the Taipei-based company that maintains a huge manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China which produces Apple and Dell products (among others). The company has been reporting an unusually high number of suicides of employees -- ten so far this year -- and it has their clients very concerned. "We're all over this," Steve Jobs of Apple said at the recent D8 conference.
Working conditions at the facility are accused of being grueling with conversation forbidden, bathroom breaks minimal, etc.
The article ends with this line: Foxconn's suicides are a reminder of the human cost that can come with the low-cost manufacturing U.S. tech companies demand. (Well said)
The article was penned by Stephanie Wong, John Liu and Tim Culpan.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Broadcasters to deliver the World Cup in 3D, or via iPad
Thank you to the publisher behind the Bloggasm site for passing along a note concerning a post on the Comcast blog: ESPN 3D will be broadcasting up to 26 matches in 3D starting with the first match between Mexico and South Africa on June 11.
Now I don't know if Mr. Owen knew that I am a soccer fan, but he definitely hit a soft spot as I tend to watch all the U.S. national team games (men's and women's team). Of course, I also tend to scream at the TV in frustration as I watch Clint Dempsey lose the ball again, only to find the ball at his feet at the most opportune time and score a goal (guess you'd have to be a fan to understand).
Comcast actually made their initial announcement about ESPN and the World Cup a few weeks ago, but the first collaboration with ESPN in 3D goes back to the Masters, which (I believe) was offered not as a dedicated channel, but on-demand.
“ESPN was a pioneer in HD, and continues to move the industry forward with the first 3D sports network,” Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation is quoted in the original statement. “We delivered the first live national 3D sports event to consumers homes earlier this year with the Masters Tournament and believe that 3D sports will drive the adoption of this technology and continue to revolutionize how we deliver entertainment.”
DirecTV will also be carrying ESPN 3D, and Dish and Cox are expected to land the network, as well. According to Mediapost, though, the market is incredibly small. "One estimate calls for .009% of U.S. TV homes to have a 3D set by the end of the year. Also, 3D set owners need special glasses to watch and have to do some tinkering with set-top-boxes to ensure a clean feed," David Goetzi of Mediapost wrote a couple of weeks ago.
I don't own a 3D television, and those glasses have to go, but I do own an iPad and am waiting for ESPN to introduce something concerning broadcasting the World Cup via that device.
U.K. satellite broadcaster Sky, on the other hand, wasted no time launching an iPad app (though it can only be found in the U.K. iTunes store). The Sky Mobile TV app is free, but like all of the mobile and web offerings from Rupert Murdoch owned properties the subscription prices to actually receive content are high -- in this case £35 or €54 per month for non-Sky subscribers. If you are a current subscriber the cost is an additional £6 or €7 per month, assuming you are already subscribing to the Sky Sports Pack. Oh my.
But the Brits go World Cup crazy every four years (this time we can win it!) so the company is giving it away to current customers for the first three months. No matter, if you log into the UK iTunes store you will be entertained by the comments from iPad owners who are not exactly thrilled with the pricing scheme -- I guess the U.K. has its share of people who demand free, as well.
