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- 7 for 7: A New Publication Wrapper
This is the third in a series of 7 posts in the 7 days prior to Apple's January 27 media event in which I explore various possibilities for an Apple Tablet and other potential announcements.
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of a new Apple tablet many expect to be introduced next week–whether called the iSlate, iPad, or something else–is a new publication wrapper that will allow publishers to create varied, compelling multimedia experiences for their content.
By wrapper, I mean a format for a publisher’s core content so that it can be displayed on the device alongside whatever additional digital content the publisher chooses to include. Apple already has two such wrappers. The first, iTunes Extras, is designed to allow movie studios to create DVD-like experiences for movies downloaded from iTunes to display in iTunes or on an Apple TV. iTunes LP allows bands and music labels to publish albums with related content like bonus tracks, videos, liner notes, lyrics, photos, and more.
iTunes Extras and LP Technologies
iTunes Extras and iTunes LP are effectively one and the same from a technological standpoint. They are a collection of now-common technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML, used along with a set of standards and parameters for publishing WebKit friendly multimedia interfaces. The only real difference is that one is associated with filmed entertainment, the other with audio content (one file extension is different, and one file’s aspect ratio is different… that’s about it).
The solution is quite simple and rather elegant. In many ways, these wrappers are nothing more than little mini websites that run inside of iTunes and Apple TV, whose user interfaces are WebKit browsers just like Safari, Mobile Safari, Chrome and Android. But to the end user, they appear to be custom little applications full of interesting and engaging content. An entire bundle of files–or package–that can include several directories, subdirectories and files–appears instead to be a single file and is downloaded and managed by end users as such. This is exactly how most applications and many file types work on the Mac today. The key difference between the iTunes wrappers and Mac application bundles is the types of contained filed in their respective packages. The iTunes wrappers are mostly standard web technologies, whereas the Mac apps contain more native code objects which are not as common and familiar.
The true beauty of the iTunes Extra and LP formats is that publishers essentially only have to know web programming to create a great experience. Because they most likely already have a lot of assets for their websites, they can simply reuse those assets for iTunes. In fact, its possible to write code that identifies the device the content is to be displayed on and render it appropriate for the device, just as you can optimize websites for different browsers. Because these wrappers are based on common standards and familiar technologies, they are incredibly easy and inexpensive to create. Likewise in using the iTunes Store for distribution.
Getting Written Word Content Onto the Tablet
Because of their openness and portability, the iTunes Extras and LP content should very easily translate to Apple’s new tablet computer expected to be announced on the 27th. In fact, the tablet might very easily already support existing Extras and LP packages by rendering the Apple TV version. Some design tweaks might be necessary to optimize the experience for touch input, but everything else should essentially “just work.” Every indication is that Apple is working hard to support a wide variety of traditional written word formats with the tablet, including books, magazines and newspapers. Expectations are that the iSlate will support reading long-form content, which typically means black text on a white background with little distraction. Both Extras and LP are more akin to DVD and multimedia CD-ROM experiences, and neither lends themselves to lengthy reading sessions.
But simply putting books on screen likely falls far short of Apple’s ambitions. Colorful, graphics-intensive magazine spreads will probably be part of the Apple tablet experience, as will newspapers with charts and graphs like those from the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, or video content like that featured regularly on The New York Times website. Fiction, non-fiction, and textbooks will likely be supplemented with multimedia content and features to engage with other readers, peer groups, or even authors. In short, Apple is likely attempting to completely reinvent what today we think of as books, newspapers and magazines.
The Extras and LP format aren’t likely robust enough to fulfill this grand vision. But they serve as an excellent foundation, and as with movie studios and music labels, publishers can quickly and cost-effectively migrate their content to the device.
Predictions for a New Content Wrapper
When Apple introduces the world to its new tablet on the 27th, and more broadly speaks to consuming digital content, I expect them to announce not a new publication wrapper, but a new Content Wrapper instead. I expect them to do away with the distinctions between Extras and LP, and launch a new, single version of the solution that also supports books, newspapers, and magazines. This publishing engine will be to Apple’s products what WordPress is to web publishers: an open, core publishing engine based on simplicity and standards that can efficiently support a wide array of content and easily be extended through a form of plugin architecture. Plugins will support all sorts of functionality, from news feeds from sources like Lexis-Nexis, reader discussion forums, and educational solutions like Blackboard, McGraw-Hill Connect, and Prazas Live.
This new content wrapper will also have some features specific to the tablet. For example, if you are reading a book in portrait mode, perhaps it will work much like the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and Barnes and Noble Nook. Rotate it into landscape mode, however, and the book may take up half the screen, with multimedia widgets on the other half. In either view, the text itself will support gestures for accessing the dictionary or adding audio, video or text annotations. And the wrapper will support many iTunes App features, like notifications, and importantly, in-app purchases.
The growth of the iTunes App Store will pale in comparison to the explosion in titles that will appear in Apple’s new content format. There are a tremendous amount of publishers thirsting for a solution, and the Apple tablet will deliver.
Переслать - The Smart Mac: Address Book & Mail
Apple's original implementation of "smart" file management isn't just limited to the Finder, and in fact, you've probably seen it more often in other applications like Address Book and Mail.
Here are some ideas of how you can harness the power of these two applications using the same idea as Smart Folders.
Smart Groups
Address Book provides support for smart groups which allow for dynamic content, just like a smart folder. As new content is added that meet your guidelines, the group will automatically update.
Creating a Smart Group is as simple as going to File and selecting "New Smart Group…" or by clicking the plus icon (+) in the lower left corner of the Address Book window. Then give your group a name and set of criteria. As you add your second criterion, you'll have the choice for your group to consist of any of your rules or all of your rules.
Here's some ideas for useful smart groups.
Upcoming Birthdays
Interested in who might have a birthday this month? Set the birthday criterion to include entries that occur within the next month. (This will include all birthdays within a month of the current date or when you click to view the group.)
Missing Email Addresses
To see a list of people who you do not have an email address for, set the email criterion to include entries that are not set.
My Coworkers
Most companies offer their employees an email address that uses the corporate domain. If you created a smart group for "email" that contains "yourdomain.com" then you will have a group that is always updated with all of your coworkers. An extra bonus, these Smart Groups also show up and autocomplete in Mail.
Or Anything You Want
Since the Address Book allows for a "notes" section on each card, you can use this region to "tag" cards and then use a smart group to show results based on that information. (You could also repurpose one of the other standard fields for this use.) For example, throwing the word "family" into the appropriate contacts' card would allow for you to create a smart group that just showed your family members.
Currently, Smart Groups cannot be synced to iPods or iPhones. While they also cannot be synced through MobileMe to me.com or Windows computers, they can still sync through MobileMe to other Macs.
Smart Mailboxes
Mail has its own flavor of smart file management too with the implementation of smart mailboxes. To create one, use the Mailbox menu or the plus (+) icon in the lower left of the message viewer and select "New Smart Mailbox."
Give your smart mailbox a name and choose the appropriate criteria for your mailbox. With the ability to create criteria based on recipient, subject, mailbox, date, message, attachment and more, you can create some pretty powerful mailboxes to help organize your workflow. Here's a few suggestions.
Recently Viewed
Most people process tons of email on a daily basis and frequently people have multiple email addresses for different purposes. With all of these messages, is there an easy way to find that email you were looking at last night?
Sure! Create a new smart mailbox and select "date last viewed" and choose "is in the last" and specify a number of days.
Recently Sent
If I wanted to quickly find an email that I had sent recently, I could create a Smart Group that showed me messages in the mailbox "Sent" that were "date received" in the past 2 days. Also make sure you tick the "Include messages from Sent" checkbox.
Emails from My Family
Remember the family smart group we made in our Address Book earlier? We can create a smart mailbox to show us all the messages from those family members.
Select "Sender is Member of Group" and then choose the appropriate group from the drop down menu.
Similar to Smart Groups, Smart Mailboxes do not sync to iPods or iPhones nor to me.com or Windows computers through MobileMe. They will only sync via MobileMe to other Macs.
Do you use Smart Groups or Smart Mailboxes? Have any tips you'd like to share? Share them in the comments.
Переслать - iPhone Dominating Worldwide Smartphone Usage: Report
The iPhone is still doing tremendously well, in case all this buzz around Google’s new Nexus One had you thinking otherwise. A new report by Google’s own recent acquisition AdMob says as much. The report details smartphone usage globally over the last quarter of 2009, as determined by requests made by devices for ads on AdMob’s extensive mobile advertising network.
Worldwide, the iPhone accounts for more than half of the total overall smartphone usage. It’s worth noting that doesn’t necessarily mean that the iPhone’s actual market share is double that of all other companies combined, only that iPhone owners use their devices much more than the owners of any of its competitors do.
Still, it’s definitely good news for Apple. High device usage means iPhone owners are obviously, for the most part, enjoying their smartphones, which in turn means that they will be more likely to speak well of the iPhone to others and to purchase another Apple product in the future. It also means Apple’s revenue from iPhone app sales will likely remain very healthy for the foreseeable future.
Symbian had the next strongest showing, with 21 percent of the overall usage share. But geographically, Nokia’s OS only leads in Africa and Asia now, while the iPhone has surged ahead into the lead position in both North America and Western Europe, two very lucrative mobile markets. 54 percent of smartphone usage in North America was on an iPhone, and in Western Europe 78 percent occurred on Apple’s device. More than half the OS share in Eastern Europe belonged to Apple, too.
In Africa and Asia, Nokia has rather commanding leads of 53 and 50 percent respectively, but Apple is quickly gaining ground. In Asia, Apple’s share during the period covered in the survey rose to 27 percent, thanks to the launch of the iPhone in a number of new countries, and strong sales in some key markets like Japan.
Android also performed fairly well. Google’s operating system gained ground in all markets, reaching a high point of 27 percent in North America and hitting 16 percent overall worldwide. Still, North America is the only market in which Android’s OS share reached a double digits percentage score, the next closest being Western Europe with 8 percent.
This is prime marketing material for Apple, and even for AT&T. Luke Wilson throwing postcards at a map on the ground just reeks of desperation, if you ask me, but playing up the fact that your device is the most used smartphone in the world, and far and away the most used in North America, well that actually starts to become appealing to my interests as a consumer. Or, you could stick with Luke Wilson talking to himself. Whatever you think is best.
Переслать - Amazon Announces Sweeping Kindle Changes (The Timing is Just Coincidental)
I have heard it said, "If you can't compete, sue." Of course, I'm sure that's not the case with Nokia's recent complaint against Apple. Sure, it could have started litigation back in 2007 when the iPhone was first launched, but I guess the almost-three-year-delay was just how long it took getting its lawyers to agree on the wording. Or the letterhead. Or something.
Amazon, on the other hand, is doing the exact opposite and choosing to Compete with a capital C. This week it has floated a boat-load of announcements around its Kindle e-book reader device and platform. Now, stop being cynical, I'm sure the timing has nothing to do with the imminent unveiling of Apple's mythical Tablet.
In January alone Amazon has introduced the Kindle DX to over one hundred countries with Global Wireless, expanded the Kindle Digital Text Platform to both publishers and individuals (allowing independent authors to publish and sell their work without a contract with a publishing house), amended its revenue sharing policy (effectively enabling authors to earn higher royalties) and, yesterday, announced a Kindle Development Kit which will allow developers to build "active content" for the Kindle.
This last announcement means that apps from developers like Handmark (a restaurant reviews guide), Sonic Boom and EA Mobile (games) will one day be available on the Kindle in all their digital ink glory. The Kindle's slow refresh rate and low-resolution, greyscale e-ink display suggests sudoku-style or word puzzle games will be the most likely apps for that platform. Canabalt fans should look elsewhere.
Love Your Kindle, or Your Money Back
Not since Victor Kiam fell in love with his Remington electric razor has a company dared to offer complete refunds based on a customer's sense of satisfaction. But that’s exactly what Amazon is doing.
Related GigaOM Pro Research: Evolution of the e-Book Market
Amazon’s Kindle-marketing-blitz continues. According to TechCrunch, customers buying an obscenely huge number of books from Amazon on a regular basis have started receiving a remarkable email invitation; if they buy a Kindle before January 26 and don't experience Victor Kiam levels of satisfaction, they get their money back. Every penny of it. Oh yeah — and they can keep the Kindle, too.
Going on the Offensive
Expanding into new markets, lowering prices, producing developer kits & app stores and offering free Kindles to unsatisfied (or just mildly-indifferent) customers speaks volumes about how threatened Amazon feels by Apple's tablet.
It is remarkable that a device we still don’t know actually exists is having such a measurable effect in the technology world. The media are falling all over themselves to fill column inches (virtual and dead-tree varieties) with breathless speculation and debate over screen sizes or front-facing cameras. Meanwhile, every tech company on the planet seems to have launched their very own tablet at this year's CES. Even Microsoft couldn't resist the temptation to jump up and down shouting "Me, too!" as Ballmer showed off HP's lackluster prototype during his keynote.
Now Amazon is doing marketing and promotion somersaults to get their Kindle message heard over the din.
The sad thing, of course, is that no matter how hard Amazon tries, their efforts will be in vain. Assuming, of course, the rumors are accurate and Apple's tablet will revolutionize e-book/magazine reading, nothing the Kindle does at this stage can make the tiniest bit of difference. The world is waiting for the Tablet because, despite so many conflicting rumours over the last few months, the general consensus seems to be that Apple's Tablet will crush all the competition.
In due course, we'll find ourselves where we are today with the iPhone; in the same way every new smartphone is compared less-than-favorably with the iPhone, so it will be with tablet devices. Predictable phrases like "Microsoft's answer to Apple's Tablet" or fanboy-baiting headlines like "HTC Launches THE Tablet Killer" will appear in popular publications and generate the usual Comment Flame Wars in the leading tech blogs. And in the meantime, everyone will forget the Amazon Kindle with its author-friendly royalty rates and digital-ink word games.
How Will Apple Do It?
The Kindle might have fared better had Amazon not delayed its rollout so markedly. In its early years the Kindle was available in only a select few markets (for a long time North America only) and even since its recent expansion to over a hundred countries, content availability has proven somewhat patchy. That's not Amazon's fault, but the precarious distribution rights of major publishing houses across different territories. If Amazon had released the Kindle sooner, and in more markets, rather than setting sights on North America only, it's possible some of the more chewy worldwide licensing issues faced by publishers might have been worked out earlier in the game, thus cementing public perception of the Kindle as the e-book reader of choice. But they didn’t.
This thorny issue of content rights plagues all publishers and distributors everywhere, so it will be deeply interesting to see how Apple tackles these problems if (when) it starts selling books and magazines in the iTunes store.
And so here we are today, on the eve of Apple's bound-to-be-historic tablet launch, witness to Amazon's last desperate thrashing attempts to remind the world that they have this Kindle thingy. Only, I don't think the world can hear them.
Переслать - Adapting iLife for a Tablet
One of the interesting rumors that has come up after the official announcement of Apple's event on the 27th is that a new version of iLife will also be announced there. Whether or not this rumor is accurate is less interesting than what an Apple tablet might mean for iLife.
As we all know iLife has been a key selling point for the Mac lineup ever since the first version was announced at Macworld in 2003. In many ways it epitomizes the difference between Macs and the competition, as iLife gives any Mac user easy to use and well-integrated tools to explore their creativity on a computer.
Whether iLife, or some version of it, will make it to an Apple tablet is a matter of debate, it depends on whether you think the tablet will be a complete computing platform or just a content-consumption device a la the iPhone. I tend to agree with John Gruber that what Apple is aiming for with the tablet is redefining the computing experience, that is replacing entry-level computers rather than complementing them. That leads me to believe that Apple will try to reproduce at least some of iLife on its tablet device, even if it's just a matter of consistency in branding.
So what would that look like? Let's look at each application in turn and consider what might be left in and what would be taken out.
iPhoto
In:
Thumbnail browsing is obvious and I imagine the event browsing view will also be a core feature. I also expect the editing features to remain intact, including non-destructive editing. Uploading to MobileMe, Facebook or Flickr will almost assuredly be included.Out:
Faces may be the most obvious feature not to make it into iPhoto on a tablet due to its impact on the processor. Places might make it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it left out. I also expect the ability to create books, calendars etc. wouldn't make it to a tablet.GarageBand
In:
This one is tough, I frankly wouldn't be surprised to see GarageBand left off a tablet entirely. That said if Apple does decide to put the iLife suite on the tablet it’s unlikely to pick and choose apps so what would GarageBand on a tablet do? I'd expect basic functionality, like trimming and arranging audio clips. Perhaps some fun effects and instruments that can be thrown in.Out:
Don't expect to be able to record and produce your own music on the tablet. GarageBand has always been one of the most impressive parts of iLife, I would not expect it to keep that badge on a tablet device.iMovie
In:
At the very least simple trimming of clips will be in (see the iPhone). I also expect the ability to combine clips, add transitions and titles and perhaps even add your own music or voice-over. Uploading to YouTube or MobileMe will also definitely be included.Out:
Advanced color editing and the ability to pull audio out from a video clip will probably not be included. I also wouldn't expect the ability to import AVCHD files.iWeb
In:
Like iPhoto, iWeb's interface lends itself to a touch capable tablet device. It's really just a drag and drop operation. Thus I expect most features of iWeb to make the transition to a tablet.Out:
I wouldn't expect the ability to export your site to a local folder as I don't expect a tablet device to have much in the way of a file system. Other than that I can't think of any major features that might be left out.iDVD
In:
Ah, the red-stepchild of the iLife suite. Let's be frank, there's no way in heck anything resembling the current iDVD makes it to a tablet. That said there have been rumors of a re-worked iDVD that might become the publishing tool for things like iTunes LP. If that happens then some version might make it onto a tablet device.Out:
Everything.Related GigaOM Pro Research: Rumored Apple Tablet: Opportunities Too Big to Ignore
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