Tablet Crystal Ball, Pt 3: Another Demo on Magazines Going to Tablets
Hot on the heels of the NYT's article yesterday about the Sports Illustrated and Wired solutions for magazines on the fabled Tablet, Bonnier (home to Popular Science, Field & Stream and others) introduced this video yesterday of what they're working on:
Am I the only one who finds this trend of publishers attempting to crash the technology a little silly? I mean, we all know that between products like joojoo/ereaders (which still need color)/TK apple tablet/etc., we're dealing with a future that is apparently touchy screens. Instead of focusing their energy and capital on projects like this, which will certainly be up against seriously stiff competition from real technology companies, why not focus that energy and capital on getting current staffs more familiar with the properties of non-paper media? I don't need some guy to tell me about what's good for readers because he knows how to make software; what publishing houses ought to be spending some of that cash on is helping us get up to speed with our tools so we can continue to create good experiences for our readers when our paper goes away. Did anyone else see the Microsoft 2015 videos? I don't much find myself ever really championing their ideas about design, but they clearly let someone who thought a lot more about the greater implications of new touch-screen media do their work. If you haven't seen it, here's the long version (7 mins) on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WK7mOQO2g
Instead of some fancy version of the web, I wish publishers were thinking bigger and working together to do something more compelling, like this. Check out the guy with the newspaper about 4 minutes in. That's what I want. Until then, I think my fanciphone will hold me over.
dp_danpeterson
Interesting. This is going to look great in a pile in the dentist's waiting room.
