Dave Flanagan
Materials science and the future of publishing
More ideas on iPad design
Jul 29th
Which is harder, designing for the iPad or having your app approved?
- Time Inc. Frustrated by Apple Over iPad Subscription Issue – Apple rejects Sports Illustrated app that would allow in-app subscriptions. Whaaat?
- An In-Depth Look at How People Are Using the iPad – The biggest category that has been affected by the iPad is that of standalone e-readers.
- Derek Powazek – Thoughts on Designing for iPad – From the article: ”Design language [is] still emerging. We’ve had 15 years to figure out a visual language for the web, and it’s still evolving. The iPad has a few conventions, but they’ll look as silly in a year or two as the candy-colored iMacs look now.”
- More Touchscreen Innovation: ABC News for iPad Launches – Another example of user interface madness spawned by the iPad.
- Newsweek for iPad – How NOT To Do a Digital Magazine – Author’s summary: “It’s crap – don’t waste your time.”
Kindle: Device or platform?
Jul 29th
Maybe the Kindle isn’t going anywhere?
- New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK – Amazon looks like it is pursuing a twofold strategy:
1) Make the Kindle platform ubiquitous on all devices
2) Dominate the eInk dedicated reader niche market - Why the iPad Hasn’t Killed Kindle – Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) argues that the Kindle device (as well as the platform) is actually here to stay.
Why intelligent people fail
A list by Michael Anissimov (via Matt Mullenweg).
How many apply to you? I counted four…
Traffic estimators don’t work (well)
Jul 20th
The social news website Reddit has a post “Experts” misunderestimate our traffic, and we dont know why that documents how traffic estimator sites like Compete.com, Quantcast, and Alexa don’t work very well. They compared their own server log data and Google Analytics data to the estimates provided by these other sites.
These traffic estimating tools use their own voodoo to generate numbers so advertisers can compare sites without having access to the actual traffic numbers. The problem is, they’re skewed (and as the Reddit post documents, inaccurate).
For example, Alexa samples users who installed the Alexa toolbar, considered by Symantec and McAfee to be spyware. Do you want to rely on data generated by the kinds of users who would install BonziBuddy?
If you want real usage, you need the server logs. If you can sacrifice some accuracy (resulting from Javascript and privacy blockers), use Google Analytics. If you want a guess, take your pick.
Sudden impact?
Jul 1st
Acta Crystallographica – Section A came out of nowhere to knock the New England Journal of Medicine out of the #2 overall spot in this year’s 2009 ISI Impact Factors. How in the heck? More >
Second thoughts on H.264
Jun 29th
Looking to send video to an iPad? It’s more complicated than I first thought.
- MPEG-LA Considering Patent Pool for VP8/WebM and X264 developer says Google’s new VP8 WebM codec is a mess – VP8 may have patent issues in addition to being a bit of a messy spec.
- Why Flash Isn’t Going Anywhere, iPad Be Damned – Moving from the Flash plug-in to the H.264 codec is like moving backward — from Flash to a more expensive Flash.
- HTML5 video and H.264 – what history tells us and why we’re standing with the web – “Much like MP3, H.264 is currently liberally licensed and also has a license that changes from year to year, depending on market conditions. This means that something that’s free today might not be free tomorrow. Like sending an H.264 file over the Internet.”
- No, you can’t do that with H.264 – Confusing licenses may limit what can be done commercially with increasingly popular video codecs like that used to deliver video to the iPad, H.264.
Update: After publishing this, John Harding of YouTube posted a defense of Flash as the primary means of YouTube’s video delivery on his company’s API Blog: Flash and the HTML5 <video> tag. This debate isn’t going away.
HTML5? Yahoo!
Jun 28th
The Yahoo! Entertainment app for the iPad is based on HTML5, but it looks like the hotly anticipated Sports Illustrated app falls a bit short of the promise of the concept.
- Sports Illustrated Releases Apple iPad App – Sports Illustrated shows how difficult it is to execute the iPad magazine app that we’re all (still) waiting for. The SI app is built on the same “backbone” as the Time app, from The Wonder Factory and WoodWing Software. Chris Hercik, SI creative director, also answers a few questions in an accompanying video.
- Is That HTML5 in Your App? – Yahoo! Product Engineer Travis Young gives an overview of how the Yahoo! Entertainment App for the iPad is based on HTML5.
- HTML5 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Just in case you wanted a semiofficial definition of what HTML5 actually is.
- Papers for iPad – The popular alternative PDF library app for OS X, on your iPad.
- Gourmet Magazine Revived for the iPad – Can a shuttered magazine find a new life on the iPad?
HTML, ePub, apps, or Adobe Digital Editions?
Jun 22nd
HTML, ePub, apps, or proprietary formats: What’s the best way of getting content into readers’ readers?
- E-Book Apps: You’re Doing It Wrong – Imagine that, in addition to listening to music in iTunes (or Windows Media Player, or whatever), there were some albums that you had to install. When you wanted to listen to those albums, you’d need to fire up your special Thriller, Dark Side of the Moon, or Rubber Soul program.
- Book and Beyond – Premium ebooks from Random House – The extra content is designed to be used with Adobe® Digital Editions on a computer, as they require extra processing power to display! The extra content cannot be used on the Sony Reader or other hand held devices, as they do not have the capability to display the material.
- VQR Now Available for the iPad – We have produced what we believe to be the most advanced ePub available. Period.
- iPad Revisited: 5 Topics for Publishers to Consider – Aptara CTO Samir Kakar gives an update on what may be possible with the iPad. There seems to be more possibilities for enhanced media content in the ePub format.
- Making an iPad HTML5 App & making it really fast – 7 tips for developing a fast HTML5 app for the iPad.
Digital Strategies: Learning from RPG Publishers
Jun 18th
Are you a publishing geek and a gamer? Then find your dice, stock up on Mountain Dew, and register for this webinar on how RPG publishers have adapted eBook and print-on-demand to their particular needs. I’m looking forward to this.
