People Love the Flash…

Did you know the chances are greater that you’re running the most current version of Flash than they are that you’re running the most current version of your Internet Browser?

Despite the fact that 40% of the population isn’t using the most recent version of their Internet Browser, within six months of release more than 80% of people have updated their Flash player.

Worldwide, Flash still has nearly 99% penetration. The study didn’t include Silverlight and other plug-ins with minimal penetration.

What this means to you? With an audience that has demonstrated regular updating of the service, Flash users are highly likely to be running the most current versions, which allows publishers to create cooler content, better videos and offer a more dynamic reading experience than other magazines.

E-ink coming to a magazine near you…

In the future, we hope to save money with e-ink. For now, though, the plan seems to be to spend more and combine it with paper:

"…a forthcoming issue of Esquire will likely be the poster child for the
change. According to David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, rags
have generally "looked the same for 150 years," but all that will
change when 100,000 copies of the September issue arrive on newsstands
with a flashing electronic cover."

 

Another Step Closer to the Permanent Magazine…

The NY Times features Readius, the first roll-up e-paper display due to hit the market next year. At $359, we’re still nowhere near a price that the average consumer will pick one up and at five inches diagonal with black and white text, we’re still nowhere near the size or resolution it will need to be if magazine publishers are to embrace it, but no matter…. it’s the type of product that could birth the magazine of the next generation.

 

Simply Shocking

For years, we’ve offered publishers custom Flash animation services. Some have taken us up on this, but many haven’t. When asked, there are typically two responses:

1) We don’t know what we want.
2) We don’t want to pay a lot.

Now, we have a product that answers both concerns. Ad-Jolt is a new service we’re offering that’s about as simple as Flash animation gets: We take your PDF and add attractive, tasteful animation. In short, we give your ad a “Jolt.” Ad-Jolt is perfect for the publisher with a PDF who just wants to give their product some sizzle.

We do this for the low price of $100, and include 3 free Ad-Jolts if you’re on our Platinum Pricing Program (available to magazine publishers in the US).

To see the Ad-Jolt sample book, please click here.

Flexible, Full-Color Displays Are Here!

Sony just announced a prototype of the first full-color, flexible OLED display. The display has a size of 2.5 inches, a resolution of 120×160, and supports 16.8 million colors. It is built on organic thin-film transistor (TFT) technology and is only 0.3 mm thick. This technology is still a ways off, just like the other e-paper and thin displays I have been writing about on this blog, but this new announcement is more evidence of how the technology is steadily advancing forward.

E-Paper Devices Face an Uphill Battle

A few weeks ago, Guardian Unlimited posted a good article about the experience of using an e-paper reading device.  I believe it is probably a fair assessment of the devices currently available for consumers. I have been thinking a lot about these e-paper devices and here is what I believe needs to happen before they will get any kind of penetration in any market: they need to be very cheap or have additional uses besides just reading.

Here is the problem that e-paper devices need to overcome: with other media, such as music, movies, TV shows, etc., we have always had to buy a device to watch that media. Televisions for TV shows, DVD players for movies, and cassette/CD/MP3 players for music. But printed media has never before required a device to read it. The device (paper) always comes with the content. Therefore, getting people to buy a device in order to read printed content will require changing a mindset that is very well ingrained in the consumer psyche.  I believe that those obstacles can only be overcome if the devices are very inexpensive (much less than the current $200-$300 price tag) and/or the devices contain other functionality beyond reading, such as playing MP3s,  PDA functions, or video playback.  If consumers don’t need to pay much or feel they are getting a device that performs tasks that they are used to paying for, then I think adoption of such devices could happen very quickly.

Devices that have e-paper features will eventually make roads into the consumer market, but it will take a few years before they can overcome the obstacles that I listed above.  That being said, you should pay attention to the development of this technology because it will eventually have a big impact on how we consume print media.

Del.icio.us Add-on

At NXTbook Media, we love del.icio.us - and not just because it’s integrated inside our product. The simple truth is that everyone we’ve taught to use del.icio.us loves it. Quite simply, once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you saved web info before.

And if you use Firefox, this awesome extension makes the del.icio.us experience even yummier by integrating the two together.

You Oughta Be in Pictures…

Is there a place for video in digital editions? Our readers think so.

Last month, we very streamed just under 1 terabyte of video - if you’re not sure how much video that is, it’s equal to 1,000 gigabytes!

Here are just a few of the videos included in recent NXTbooks:

Tech Topics - Georgia Tech Alumni Association
American Cinematographer Magazine
FMG on Demand Brochure

Roll Up Those Digital Publications

I realize this news is a couple of weeks old, but it is so exciting that I couldn’t not write about it. Polymer Vision, a Dutch company specializing in rollable displays, and Telecom Italia, a mobile operator in Italy, have announced that they will be jointly developing the first mobile device with a rollable display. The device itself is smaller than most mobile phones, but has a screen that can extend up to 5 inches. Newspapers and books will be delivered via Telecom Italia’s mobile network and stored on the device’s 4GB+ memory (which I assume is flash). The device will also be able to play music, podcasts, etc. If only this device could display color and not just 16 grey levels, it would be an amazing mobile device! But, from all appearances, it will still be very useful and convenient.

Polymer Vision’s rollable displays are based on technology from DuPont Teijin Films, SiPix, and E Ink. We have discussed E Ink’s technology many times before; their technology seems to be involved in almost all the new reading-focused display technologies that are being developed.

Remind Me Not to Play Scott Karp in Jeopardy…

One of our favorite bloggers is using big words to say that 25 year-old males who like tech stuff love Digg, which means if your magazine is going after this same audience, a digital edition that lets you automatically submit content to Digg is in both your and your readers’ best interest.

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