Hasta La Gadget!

You know that Condé Nast tablet / digital magazine demo we saw recently (non-ironically paging through a copy of Wired)? Well now Time Inc. has gotten in on the same game, showing off its version of a digimag running a touch-friendly issue of Sports Illustrated. The company not only buzzed everyone with the charming walkthough video — a floating hand paging through SI on a sleek, black tablet (embedded after the break) — but also had a live, functioning variation of the product up and running on a touchscreen HP laptop. The gist of the project seems to be that the publisher will be able to offer this digitized version of its magazines in some sort of agnostic format, one that would be accessible to PCs and phantom Apple tablets alike. Peter Kafka over at All Things D says that he had a chance to play with the demo and it was, “quite a bit of fun.” While it’s clear that both Time and Condé Nast are taking parallel routes to online publishing (the former is purely in concept mode, the latter is working with Adobe on digital versions of its titles as we speak), one thing is painfully clear: both companies have shockingly similar ideas about what the future of magazine publishing looks like. We hope Apple has been informed.

Continue reading Time Inc. shows off magazine tablet demo, plans future anger about 70/30 profit split

Time Inc. shows off magazine tablet demo, plans future anger about 70/30 profit split originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors of the mythical Apple tablet‘s release were just starting to coalesce around an early 2010 release, so naturally DigiTimes is now reporting that the much ballyhooed device won’t show up until the second half of next year. Apple is said to have given itself more time to swap out internals and install a 9.7-inch OLED display from LG, which meshes with earlier rumors about where the relationship between the two companies was heading. Sources expect the opening retail price to be around a hefty $2,000, but for the budget-conscious there will also be a 10.6-inch LCD version that will land somewhere between $800 and $1,000. Or so we’re told. Somewhat more concrete is the news that Conde Nast, publisher of Wired Magazine, has openly confirmed that it is developing a digital version of its tech magazine for consumption on the Apple tablet, with the rest of its content catalog to soon follow. Its own estimate of having the paid-for digitized magazines, which will include Vogue and GQ, ready for the middle of 2010 also jibes with the reported delays. Then again, Apple has refused to discuss the unannounced device with anyone, leaving Conde and Adobe developing the necessary software in the dark.

Apple tablet(s) in 2H 2010 with OLED screen and tailored content in tow? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You think maybe the cats at NVIDIA are a little hot to trot on the tablet concept? Not only did Mike Rayfield (the company’s general manger of its mobile division) spout off on a “3G capable touchpad” a few months ago, but CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has been spotted in Dubai with some seriously radical looking hardware. When we hit a post on Huang and his love for all things Apple earlier today, we somehow missed a pic of the CEO hanging tough with that handsome slab you see up above. We’re not going to speculate on what it all means, but from the looks of things, NVIDIA is trying to drum up hype around the concept of a Tegra-powered handheld that’s just a bit more sizable than your standard PMP. Of course, if you were hoping for more than a tease (like, you know, a partnership announcement or something), you can just keep on waiting.

[Thanks, Ron]

Filed under: Handhelds

NVIDIA CEO shows off mystery tablet, makes zero statements about mystery tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“What is it in France they say? ‘America contributed three things to culture: jazz, musical comedy and comic books.'” You can already buy two on iTunes. And if things pan out, you’ll be get the third on the Apple tablet.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking to people within the comics industry to try to sniff out Apple’s plans, including Neal Adams, developer of an upcoming motion Astonishing X-Men comic on iTunes, who also told me the French saying. Everyone in Adams’ line of work is buzzing about the tablet and what it can do for their masterpieces.

It’s an easy presumption for comic book fans. The Sun Times’ Andy Inhatko is betting that LongBox, a digital distribution platform for comic books, will make an appearance on Apple’s upcoming tablet. More than just an appearance, really:

I’m pretty sure that Apple is entering into a formal alliance with LongBox. When I asked [LongBox CEO Rantz] Hoseley about what kind of partnerships the company is forming, he spoke vaguely of what was taking up most of his time at the moment: a lengthy and complicated agreement with a seriously large company operating in the media space.

One problem: Several sources I spoke to over the last couple of weeks, including top-level executives at giants like Marvel and DC, have said they’ve not heard a whisper from Apple—despite a nearly desperate hope that Apple would come a-courtin’. One executive said to me, when I mentioned the possibility of putting his comic books on the Apple tablet, “If you’ve heard anything from Apple, please tell them I’m ready to do it.”

That means that LongBox may be the only distribution option for comic books at the tablet’s launch, through some sort of dedicated LongBox app. And if LongBox’s distribution plan for the Apple tablet is just an app, why would they need to do any negotiations with Apple? Launch the LongBox app, sell the content, and go. No Apple nod necessary.

We know that Apple has been reaching out to select publishers. It was Andy Inhatko who passed on the rumor about “trucks loaded with books” earlier this year. It all fits with the moves we already know Apple is making in its outreach to magazine and newspaper publishers. For Apple, the tablet is about cleaning up; with the addition of books, newspaper, magazines and comic books, there isn’t a single vector of mass media that Apple won’t be able to distribute through iTunes. With the success of the App Store—a success I think even Apple wasn’t expecting to such a degree — they’re even a major distributor of software and games.

Oh right, there’s also music and video.

Marvel content, especially, seems like a given. Disney bought Pixar, putting Steve Jobs on the Disney board. Then Disney buys Marvel. Marvel has already dabbled in publishing content through iTunes, with a new “motion comic” version of The Astonishing X-Men hitting iTunes on October 28th.

I spoke to Inhatko on my tiny Apple tablet last week about his story. He’s increasingly persuaded that Apple is content to let print publishers distribute their content through apps, not through the iTunes store itself.

He may very well be right, at least at the tablet’s launch, especially given Apple’s reticence to even acknowledge the tablet’s existence, let alone provide publishers with detailed, unified specifications for an “iRead” format. But it also strikes me as an inelegant solution at best, especially considering iTunes 9’s iTunes LP format is an HTML- and JavaScript-based 720p format that would work just wonderfully for a digital magazine and comics format.

Could just be wishful thinking on my part—I’d rather manage subscriptions through iTunes like podcasts, rather than individual apps—but either way it’s a win for Apple, who will happily get their cut no matter what system of digital print distribution ultimately takes off. If you have any leads on comic book tablet activity, by all means, send us a tip.

There is one shocker I discovered in my discussions with Marvel folk: It’s been confirmed to me that Hulk is stronger than Thor. Chew on that one for a while — at least until you can buy Hulk vs. Thor on iTunes. Excelsior!

Joel Johnson has a blog, but your best bet may be to follow him on Twitter @joeljohnson.

Steve Jobs said people don’t read any more. But Apple is in talks with several media companies rooted in print, negotiating content for a “new device.” And they’re not just going for e-books and mags. They’re aiming to redefine print.

Several years ago, a modified version of OS X was presented to Steve Jobs, running on a multitouch tablet. When the question “what would people do with this?” couldn’t be answered, they shelved it. Long having established music, movie and TV content, Apple is working hard to load up iTunes with print content from several major publishing houses across several media.

Two people related to the NYTimes have separately told me that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a “new device.” The R&D labs have long worked on versions of the paper meant to be navigated without a keyboard or mouse, showing up on Windows tablets and on multiple formats using Adobe Air. The NYTimes, of course, also publishes via their iPhone application. Jobs has, during past keynotes, called the NYTimes the “best newspaper in the world.”

A person close to a VP in textbook publishing mentioned to me in July that McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press are working with Apple to move textbooks to iTunes. There was no mention of any more detail than that, but it does link back to a private Apple intern idea competition held on campus, in their Town Hall meeting area in 2008, where the winning presentation selected by executives was one focused on textbook distribution through iTunes. The logic here is that textbooks are sold new at a few hundred dollars, and resold by local stores without any kickbacks to publishers. A DRM’d one-time-use book would not only be attractive because publishers would earn more money, but electronic text books would be able to be sold for a fraction of the cost, cutting out book stores and creating a landslide marketshare shift by means of that huge price differential. (If that device were a tablet, the savings on books could pay for the device, and save students a lot of back pain.)

Apple also recently had several executives from one of the largest magazine groups at their Cupertino’s campus, where they were asked to present their ideas on the future of publishing. Several mockups of magazines were present in interactive form. It is presumed that more talks took place after the introduction and investigatory meeting. Some magazine company is also considering Adobe Air as a competing option for digital magazines, but without a revenue/distribution system that iTunes has, it seems unlikely.

I haven’t heard anything about traditional book publishers being approached yet, but given the scope of the rest of the publishing industry’s involvement, it’s not hard to imagine they’re on board as well. (If you know something, please drop me a line.) Update: Reader Tom reminds me of this Andy Ihnatko rumor, from several sources, that Apple is receiving truckloads of books at its HQ. It’s a thin line to draw, but its something.

Another source corroborates that the January announce date others have reported is correct within the month, with this information heard from a high level.

Some I’ve talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it’s nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn’t do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.