The Apple iPad is real! If we adopt this eReader and multi-use device we may ditch our keyboards in the not too distant future.
The new device will have to be far better than the laptop and smartphone at doing important things: browsing the Web, doing e-mail, enjoying and sharing photographs, watching videos, enjoying your music collection, playing games, reading e-books. Otherwise, “it has no reason for being.”Apple’s answer: the iPad.
Big news for the magazine printing sector. Two large magazine printers are joining forces.
SUSSEX, WISCONSIN and MONTREAL, QUEBEC, January 26, 2010 – Quad/Graphics, Inc., the largest privately held printer in the U.S., and World Color Press Inc. TSX: WC, WC.U “Worldcolor”, the second largest provider of print, digital and related services in the Americas, today announced that their boards of directors unanimously have approved a definitive arrangement agreement whereby Quad/Graphics will acquire Worldcolor, enhancing Quad/Graphics’ position as a leader in the printing industry with increased efficiencies, greater geographic reach and broader product and service scope.
Zinio has just released a new iPhone App. This is great news for magazine publishers who ultimately will depend on technology providers and specifically magazine digital edition solution providers for mobile and magazine app delivery of their content.
Zinio has always been the leader in the digital magazine space and sets the bar for other digital magazine vendors. Zinio is more focused on the broad consumer magazine market so it’s likely that your favorite niche title or trade magazine will not yet be listed. In the past year however, we have seen Zinio move toward the business and regional market with special programs for these publishers.
Lets look at the Zinio App in the iTunes Store.
Glad to see the app is free. Obviously this market is more valuable from a overall market expansion perspective than making a buck or two on the app.
Once you download the Zinio App and tap, it launches to the initial account initialization or setup screen.
Existing Zinio users (register online at zinio.com) can enter their username and password.
You then see the main digital magazine iPhone reader interface. The App launches to the “My Library” screen as expected. You can sort your iPhone magazine library by Date or Title.
The magazine app’s iPhone newsstand is where I expect to see some real growth in the futere app updates. As more titles are added, you can bet this section of the app will enable Zinio to feature and promote new titles in a similar format to the iTunes store.
The Zinio App “More” menu presents administrative elements of the app. There’s room for an additional main screen app menu and perhaps this is where we will see app magazine previews and other features in future updates.
Selecting an iPhone app magazine title in the app newsstand launches Safari to complete the digital magazine app subscription. Once accepted, the Zinio App is re-launched from Safari and you may download your digital magazine app to read on your iPhone.
As you view your digital magazine in 1 page or 2-page layout mode, you’ll appreciate that for article and feature text, the app developer has created a “Read Mode” which brings the article into a text mode for ease of reading.
Overall, the simplicity and quality of this magazine app for iPhone makes this an app that any magazine enthusiast will want to grab.
While several large publishers made news with tablet concepts, many other publishers are likely to wait for technology providers to set a path for eTablet and eReader access to their print layout designed content.
Want to get a peek at collective and collaborative content presentation of the near future? Check out the latest news from HP.
I always look at the early models of user generated and assembled content similar to this as a foundational first step. The next step will be the provision of design tools that make the periodic element organized into a magazine format actually look good. Then they will need to figure out the social sharing and perhaps even traditional subscription circulation elements of micro niche published content.
It’s a sign that continues to hint at content generation and consumption models coming soon. If you’re an advertiser, get out that same pen you’ve used to sign checks for industry niche blogs.
“By teaming with Wikia, HP is bringing some of the richest community content on the web to life in a glossy magazine format,” said Andrew Bolwell, director, New Business Initiatives, HP. “Thanks to HP’s MagCloud, Wikia’s passionate communities of readers will be able to enjoy information on their favorite bands, hobbies, comic books and more in a tangible print format that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”To publish a glossy, full-color magazine for friends, the coffee table or mass distribution, Wikia users select the content and cover page, and then order their request through MagCloud. For example, a Wikia user could create a custom magazine with original content found in wikis about Lady Gaga, vintage dress patterns and cooking.
If you have not yet reviewed Wikia and the power of community driven news you should take a peek. Think of news for Wikipedia but in a format where the editing tools are such that people can actually understand how to use.
And like a blog, we will likely see many industry leading icons with their own magazines in the not so far away future. These will morph into both consumer segments and touch on the massive photo and creative books space as well as become a marketing channel for business and industry professionals.
eReaders and digital content are the future of publishing. The great news is that periodic content can be designed to look great on the future of these devices. While everyone awaits the move by Apple in this space as a potential tablet and ultra mobile notebook media device, the innovative tools appearing now will likely be strong wedges in alternate content delivery models.
Mountain View, CA – October 19, 2009 – Plastic Logic revealed today its plans to unveil QUE™, the first proReader designed for business professionals. Premiering January 7, 2010 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Central Hall of Las Vegas Convention Center at Booth 11840 anchoring the e-Book Techzone), QUE is an essential tool for busy professionals, providing access to a dynamic ecosystem of content.
Who wins? The consumer and the publishing business. Designers will be more important than ever to make user experiences with content a premium experience. User interactive and UX optimized content is the real king and the delivery mediums and capabilities will be limitless. We will teach publishers the key to article level advertising and premium content offerings and remind them that in many cases the future of media rewards the readers for showing up.
Google Labs is making a play further into the digital publishing sector with Fast Flip. The Google News Blog reports that Google partnered with three dozen top publishers in a revenue share program to build the service platform. It’s a different type of digital edition. The digital images provide a fast viewing experience across many publisher website web pages. In my opinion there are implications here on what may come in the future. Fast Flip certainly supports the digital edition presentation concepts popular within the magazine publishing community today. It’s all about content, usability, and design folks.
Today we’re adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers.
Design is important! As we move back to the important of design and graphic communication, I believe that publishers doing well (especially magazine publishers) in this area will benefit from visual presentations. My first question every time someone walks into my office with a new eReader, ebook, or mobile app is, “does it display graphics?”
But Fast Flip requires publishers to showcase more of their content than a simple Google News listing requires, which could allow readers to completely skip clicking through after getting the gist of the story from the first few paragraphs. On the other hand, a more attractive presentation of the story could attract more clicks than a single headline might. – cnet News
Martin Nisenholtz, the NYT‘s SVP of digital operations, cautions against reading too much into the revenue sharing—or the relationship. “There’s no grand plan here, nothing more to this other than learning,” he told paidContent. “This is not about any kind of large strategic relationship issue.” – paidcontent.org
I’m always searching Google to find the code for setting a YouTube link to the HQ (High Quality) or HD (High Definition) version of a video. Using this code on your URL hyperlinks means that you don’t have to remind your friends, “don’t forget to click the HQ or HD button” to see the video in the best quality possible.
The Question: How do I link (URL) directly to the HQ or HD version of a YouTube video instead of the normal version?
So here’s how to use the URL extension format codes to play videos on YouTube with HD or HQ capabilities without having to click the HD HQ video player button once your browser has lauched the video on YouTube. Remember that HQ and HD options are based upon the original upload. So if you are publishing to YouTube and want your own videos to be optimized for a high definition playback, read the YouTube guidelines for optimizing your uploads.
The Answer: Add &fmt=22 or &fmt=18 to the end of the normal YouTube video URL when linking
You can link (hyperlink via the video URL) to any public YouTube video. The video link is located in the URL field just right or below the video when played on YouTube. If you are viewing a YouTube video on any site other than YouTube, just click the video play region (not the ad bar) and you will be taken to YouTube to resume playing the video.
Here’s a regular link to a YouTube video (The link provided be default in the above image):
Here are some additional format codes to force the format view when linking to have the desired format play from your link to a video.
From SQUIDOO How-To:
&fmt=6 increases the resolution from 320×240 to 448×336, Flash 7 video @ 900Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 96Kbps Mono CBR. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=6
&fmt=18 increases the resolution to 480×360, H.264 video @ 512Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 128Kbps Stereo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=18
&fmt=22 increases the resolution to 1280×720 (720p), H.264 video @ 1024Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 232Kbps Stereo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=22
Sometimes “high quality” is HD H.264 in stereo (“&fmt=22″), or smaller (480×360, 4:3 frame aspect ratio) in H.264 stereo (“&fmt=18″) or H.263 mono (“&fmt=06″). Format 22 is not always 1280×720 — the tag is ignored if there’s no HD movie uploaded, as with David Kalb vs LeBron James – Horse (HIGH QUALITY), where format 22 seems like format 06. via http://aeportal.blogspot.com/2008/11/youtube-quality-confusion.html
How to Embed HQ / HD into your blog post
The obvious next question is how to embed the HD and HQ version of the video directly into your blog post. Just below the location on YouTube where you copied the URL link you’ll also find the embed code. If you want to embed the video directly into your blog post or web article, you’ll want to make sure you switch to the HTML view / entry on your CMS (Content Management System) or blog admin.
Select the width that will maximize the video size based on the width of the body of your blog post.
Here’s the same video we used URL link examples above but embedded into this blog post.
Again, you will want to make sure that you’ve optimized the video you upload if this will be your own video. Directly from YouTube’s video optimization help page:
How to best upload widescreen videos
Originals Please!
The less a video is re-encoded prior to uploading, the better the resulting YouTube video quality. We encourage you to upload your videos as close to the original source format as possible, with a minimum of intermediate re-encoding steps. Each re-encoding can generally degrade the quality of your video and create some specific problems too, which we’ll address below.
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the original source video should always be maintained when it’s uploaded: Uploaded videos should never include letterboxing or pillarboxing bars.
The YouTube player automatically adds black bars so that videos are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching, whatever the size of the video or the player. For example, the player will automatically add vertical bars (pillarboxing) to 4:3 videos in the new 16:9 widescreen player size. If the player is re-sized (when embedded on another website for example) the same process takes place, so that 16:9 videos are letterboxed (black bars top and bottom) when the player is sized to 4:3, for example. Similarly, anamorphic videos will be automatically letterboxed when shown in either 16:9 or 4:3 sized players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained.
How to best upload widescreen videos
Originals - The less a video is re-encoded prior to uploading, the better the resulting YouTube video quality. We encourage you to upload your videos as close to the original source format as possible, with a minimum of intermediate re-encoding steps. Each re-encoding can generally degrade the quality of your video and create some specific problems too, which we’ll address below.
Aspect Ratio - The aspect ratio of the original source video should always be maintained when it’s uploaded: Uploaded videos should never include letterboxing or pillarboxing bars.
The YouTube player automatically adds black bars so that videos are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching, whatever the size of the video or the player. For example, the player will automatically add vertical bars (pillarboxing) to 4:3 videos in the new 16:9 widescreen player size. If the player is re-sized (when embedded on another website for example) the same process takes place, so that 16:9 videos are letterboxed (black bars top and bottom) when the player is sized to 4:3, for example. Similarly, anamorphic videos will be automatically letterboxed when shown in either 16:9 or 4:3 sized players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained.
A quick tutorial on how to embed by YouTube user YTSecretWeapon
If High Definition is available for a video, YouTube is now presenting a checkbox to embed the video in HD instead of just displaying a message during the initial play period advising viewers that they may g to YouTube for a HD version.
Here’s an Example of HD off and on. To see the full capabilities of this video on YouTube at 835×505 in High Definition click here
I have found the &hd=1 extension to work on all HD videos to force the High Definition version regardless of the last played settings. So just add &hd=1 to the URL provided in the YouTube subscribe and more info dialog box.
Please Share this HD Link Tip and Comment Below
Do you have any questions or ideas about HQ and HD YouTube video URLs and Embeds?
If you have questions about how to link to higher quality formated videos please post below. Have you found other ideas, hacks, tricks, or tips you can share? If this post helped you, please comment and share. Iwill invite experts to comment if I can’t answer any questions below.
Many of the social media pros have left their Jaiku accounts and moved to new micro-blogging platforms including Twitter and FriendFeed. I was late to Jaiku but appreciated both the channels concepts for hashtags, the icons for identification (taxonomy of the posts) and per post comment thread features (much like FriendFeed) that made this tool look like a great place to camp.
Jaiku was acquired by Google almost two years ago and subsequently became JaikuEngine served from Google App Engine.
March 12, 2009 Jaikido Blog Post: JaikuEngine differs from Jaiku in a few key ways. Although core features like the website, SMS (in the US only) and IM bot still work, feed fetching and international SMS are no longer available. via Jaikido Blog
It took me a while to piece together all the details of what had become of Jaiku and I can remember searching with anticipation of finding a super Jaiku iPhone app. To my surprise, I found only one Jaiku app, mJaiku. I tried to make the mJaiku app work but unfortunately could never get the app fully connected and interactive with my Jaiku account on either my iPod Touch running iPhone 2.0 OS or my iPhone 3 G. As of the iPhone OS 3.0 update, the app is no longer available in the iTunes store.
The simplicity (much like Twitter) of Jaiku was the beauty to me. With just a few more UI elements to help organize information and provide taxonomy cues as an overlay to the microblog posts I was convinced this was a best of class tool. The service is active today and you can view the Jaiku Tour. I know that many iconic users have since left the site and many Jaiku users display lasts posts from months or years ago.
Today, if you want to use Jaiku on your mobile device, you can use m.jaiku.com.
March 13, 2009 Jaikido Blog Post: Yesterday, we flipped the switch and moved Jaiku to App Engine. Today, we are open sourcing the Jaiku code base under the Apache License 2.0. The code is available as JaikuEngine on Google Code Project Hosting as of now. Anyone can set up and run their own JaikuEngine instance on Google App Engine. via Jaikido Blog.
I’d like to know if anyone else is looking for or working on an open source JaikuEngine project and iPhone app? I’m very interested in the potential use of this application for magazine publishers and how both small groups of users and very large groups might take advantage of this tool to interact within a publisher’s media niche.
