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New Yorker, Gourmet iPad apps debut
Two highly-anticipated iPad app releases have finally hit the App Store, and they're both magazines: The New Yorker and Gourmet Live. The New Yorker (free for the app, US$4.99 per issue) joins Gourmet Live as the latest magazine apps from publisher Condé Nast. The navigation is simple: tap anywhere on the screen to bring up the controls. You can quickly move between sections and articles with the scrubber or table of contents. For more leisurely reading, swipe between pages. One unique feature is how the magazine's famous cartoons are handled. Tap anyone to bring up a scrollable cartoon gallery. Plus, you can enter the regular caption contest right from within the app. It looks great, and we're eager to try it out. Meanwhile, ill-fated Gourmet Magazine has been reborn as the iPad app Gourmet Live (the current issue is free; there's no word of future pricing). As John Gruber points out, Gourmet is now in the unique position of existing as an iPad app only. Its content is organized by topic and theme, and it features recipes, slideshows, video and a lot more. For now, there's no subscription option for either, but rumors suggest that could change soon. WIRED has come down in price since its introduction, but it remains to be seen if customers will embrace the per-issue pricing model. Other Condé Nast properties have transitioned to the iPad well, like WIRED, Epicurious and GQ. Finally, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola have produced a hilarious short film introducing The New Yorker's app. Check it out on the next page (Flash, sorry).
Gourmet Magazine resurrected for iPad premiere
We aren't about to say that the iPad (or e-readers and tablets in general) is out to save the newspaper and magazine industry, but at least one Conde Nast brand is back in business after the paper edition was shuttered during last year's turmoil. Gourmet Magazine is being revived and retooled with a gratis iPad app, Gourmet Live. It'll bring the best of the magazine, but also weave in social networking integration in order to let readers "share articles to social sites like Facebook and Twitter, tag articles as favorites and see which articles are more popular among their friends." In fact, we're hungry just thinking about it.
Adobe's Digital Publishing Platform behind Wired app, uses CS5 tools and will be available to all
So, despite all that hubbub about Flash, Adobe managed to still deliver iPad magazine publishing tools to Wired after all... and it's not stopping there. Adobe's "digital viewer software" is the crux, which Adobe says it built in Apple's Objective C and will continue to maintain for the iPad while considering other platforms like the iPhone. Meanwhile, anything built matching this vaguely defined spec (Adobe's keeping a lot of details close to its chest right now) will be able to publish to this iPad reader software, along with any Flash 10.1 or AIR 2-compliant devices. HTML 5 will also come in to play somehow. Adobe will be releasing the publishing tech to Adobe Labs later this year, but you'll have to have Adobe InDesign CS5 to take advantage of it. Of course, none of this really solves the debate over 3rd party development tools for building iPad and iPhone apps, but it seems to sidestep it pretty handily.
Conde Nast stakes out 'leadership position' on iPad
This isn't the 80s anymore. It's not good enough to just pump out lusty hardware like the Walkman in order to drive generous profit streams. In the modern age of consumer electronics, it takes content and an entire ecosystem of software and services to keep customers locked in and buying your gear. That's why we're paying close attention to content deals for the suddenly hot tablet category of devices. Conde Nast has been teasing custom content for next generation tablets for months, lead by mock-ups of its Wired magazine property. So it's no surprise to hear Charles H. Townsend, president and CEO of Conde Nast say he wants to "take a leadership position," on Apple's iPad. According to the New York Times, the company will announce plans today (via an internal company memo) for its first custom iPad digital pubs: the April issue of GQ (there's already an iPhone app for that), followed by the June issues of Wired and Vanity Fair, and then The New Yorker and Glamour sometime in the summer. This first cut represents a broad swath of demographics as Conde Nast trials Apple's newest platform in order to see what works. We should also expect a variety of prices and advertising models during the initial experimentation period. Also noteworthy is Conde Nast's two-track development approach: the iPad version of Wired will be developed with Adobe (as we heard) but the others will be developed internally -- all the digital mags will be available via iTunes although Wired will also be made available in "non-iTunes formats." Assuming it finds a model that works, then Conde Nast plans to digitize other magazines in the fall.
Wired's tablet app goes on show: developed on AIR, heading to the iPad (video)
Mmm, digital magazines. They are the little bites of paid-for content that all the publishers believe we should be deeply enthralled with. Hoping to show us why exactly it is that we should all care (and pay) for prepackaged digital content is Wired's latest and most comprehensive demo of its tablet app on an unspecified 16:9 device. Setting aside hopefuls like the Joojoo and Adam for a moment, it is clear that this is ultimately intended for Apple's iPad -- the device that stands by far the biggest chance of making the digimag concept a commercial success. Interesting choice of development partner, then, as Condé Nast has opted to use Adobe's AIR platform for the underlying mechanics. Adobe promises its Packager for iPhone, part of CS5, will allow devs to easily port AIR apps to run natively on the iPad, but until Apple gives its official assent to the final code, nothing is guaranteed -- and Packager hasn't even officially shipped yet. As far as the app goes, it'll come with Twitter and Facebook integration, and navigation is geared toward the touching and swiping model so prevalent today. See it on video after the break.
Magazine publishers announce joint digital distribution scheme
The joint venture between four leading publishers has issued a press release highlighting a few of the finer points of its plan to create a platform for digital magazine distribution -- we guess that The New York Observer wasn't kidding when it said that a deal between Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation, and Time Inc. was imminent. Essentially a vehicle for selling publications for just about any device (including smartphones, e-readers, and laptops), the content will be optimized for multiple operating systems and display sizes, and according Time exec John Squires, it will all be DRM-free. They've yet to announce a name for this beast -- although we're leaning towards Magulu (or, perhaps, the iMags Store). PR after the break.
Major media giants to form joint venture for digital future, says WSJ
News Corp, Time Inc., Condé Nast Publications Inc., Hearst Corp., and Meredith Corp. If this Wall Street Journal report is to be believed here, these five major media firms are preparing to announce a new joint venture tomorrow to "prepare print publications for a new generation of electronic readers and other digital devices." Details are a bit sketchy here, and what makes it more interesting / confounding is that many of these companies already have or have showcased separate initiatives, such as Hearst's Skiff and tablet demos from both Time and Condé Nast. We'll be eager to find out if there are any devices the group rallies behind (or even produces itself), but one thing's for sure: good old Rupert Murdoch will have something fun to say on the matter.
Time Inc. shows off magazine tablet demo, plans future anger about 70/30 profit split
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.
Magazine publishers said to be 'very close' to digital distribution deal
Rumors of magazine publishers striking a deal to make their content available for digital devices -- even a certain tablet -- have been around for quite a while now, but it looks like something may finally be close to really happening. As The New York Observer reports, Time Inc. exec John Squires has been taking the lead on the initiative (and is apparently set to become interim head of the new company), which would see rival publishers including Time, Condé Nast and Hearst join together to make over 50 magazines available in digital form, and for a variety of devices. Details are otherwise a bit light, as you might expect, but one source familiar with the situation reportedly says "it's very close and more imminent than it's been," while others familiar with the plans say they "compare to iTunes," and that you'll be able to buy "new and distinct iterations" of magazines like of The New Yorker or Time -- and even actual print editions, for that matter.
Wired shows off an Apple tablet-formatted copy of Wired on a fake Apple tablet
It's a wild land of imagination over at Wired and Condé Nast these days. The pair have managed not only to dream up a colorful, animated copy of Wired magazine for the so-far imaginary Apple tablet, but actually whipped up a concept of a Apple tablet to go with it. The Willy Wonka-style pairing are being shown off at the Wired Store in New York, and go along with word the other day that Condé Nast was taking the development of "iTablet" versions of its publications very seriously. Perhaps a bit too seriously? We're not ones to judge. Video of the tablet is after the break.
Apple tablet(s) in 2H 2010 with OLED screen and tailored content in tow?
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.
