MagBlast shows us the innovative magazine capabilities.  In addition to these traditional print magazine advertising innovations, can you think of digital magazine advertising innovations beyond the clickthrough conversion?

There is so much that you can do to innovate with magazines. The list of creative uses of the medium continues to grow. It’s limited only by one’s imagination. Be sure to work with your friendly magazine sales professional who will happily help and guide you in meeting your communication objectives – Magazine Innovations pdf

Google Buzz leverages your existing friends and provides a clear public or private update option. For publishers, this is another social media promotion and interaction channel. Fans, followers, and leverage for your publication audience.

Share updates, photos, videos, and more. Start conversations about the things you find interesting.

via Google Buzz.

The magazine presentation is really the presentation that will set the color iPad out from other eBook readers.

Web browsing, painting programs, TV and movies, newspapers and magazines all seem like naturals on this 1.5-pound machine, too

via From the Desk of David Pogue – The Apple iPad – First Impressions – NYTimes.com.

I’ve have the past year to learn that browsing with an iPhone is a unique experience. I do believe that the iPad tablet will make interacting with the web a completely fun and interactive experience.

The magazine iPad design landscape is wide open. The capabilities of reading a iPad magazine, downloaded from the iBook store “on demand newsstand” and having both stunning visuals and digital media capabilities inherent in the future of digital iPad magazines is excellent!

iPad Product Video from Nick O'Neill on Vimeo.

I’m excited to get the details on the SDK and how we can start watching for iPad magazine design inspiration to help other publishers leverage this new digital user interface.

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.

via Live Blogging the Apple Product Announcement – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.

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.

via Quad/Graphics to Acquire Worldcolor, Adding Products and Services, Entering New Geographies and Enhancing its Position as a Printing Industry Leader.

I like the name.  The Slate sounds good too.  But it’s just what all the “book and newsprint” e-readers are missing that has me scratching my head.  Sure, digital magazine editions are a bit hard to curl up with or throw into a day bag but they do present color and multimedia.

Ask any iPhone user and they will tell you that they are now able to easily surf browser versions of web pages with their phone.  Give me a little larger screen and typing on a glass keyboard might actually be a reality.  A virtual drive is about the only other missing link and I’d be connected 24-7.  Now I did try the mini for a while as an at home casual workstation but the small keyboard and limited features pushed me to either the faster iPhone or back to the laptop for getting things done.  And yes, in many ways, the iPhone could be a faster tool for social media management.

Back to the Skiff.  I just don’t know how brands that are set to innovate on a quarterly basis will keep up with Apple or even the tablet competitors which we can expect to come on fast and strong.

The Skiff Reader will try to distinguish itself from the Kindle, nook, Sony eReader, QUE and other e-ink devices with size and portability. The 9 x 11-inch unit will hold an 11.5-inch (measured diagonally) display, which does out-size the large Kindle DX and the Plastic Logic QUE

via Hearst Reveals Skiff E-Reader :: MinOnline.

I welcome the eReader innovations.  Please remember the magazines if you are creating the next news and information reader.  The current readers and 16 shades of gray just don’t support the colorful and dynamic capabilities that are part of the publisher upgrade plan this year.

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.

Zinio iPhone App Video

More information about the iTablet… or shall we say the Apple iSlate, or just call it the SLATE?

Hmmm…. TiPb’s just been calling it still unannounced device the iTablet, others have called it the iPad, but how does iSlate grab you?

via Apple Owns iSlate.com, Let iTablet Name Rumors Commence! | The iPhone Blog.

More from Jon4lakers with http://technobuffalo.com/

So is Jan 26th the announce date for Apple?

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.

Publishers made 2009 the year of the concept newspaper and magazine.  via 2010: The Year of the Tablet – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.