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The New York Times launches HTML5 web app for iPad
The New York Times has launched an experimental HTML5 web app specifically for viewing content on the iPad. The web app has a few different features from the regular iPad app, including the ability to find out which articles are trending on Twitter and a continuous wire feed. It supports swipe gestures and orientation for portrait or landscape viewing. The Verge theorizes that the newspaper launched the app to sidestep Apple's subscription fees, but NYT Corporate Communications Manager Linda Zebian told the site that it was a push to get content across to all mobile platforms, and that the iPad was a natural testing ground to make sure that it worked. "It is not an attempt to avoid Apple's purchase fee and we have no plans to eradicate our native iOS apps, it's just another way our subscribers can access Times content," Zebian said. The web app is only for subscribers that have tablet access in their subscription package. Those subscribers can visit app.nytimes.com via Safari on the iPad to install it.
New York Times releases 'experimental' HTML5 iPad app, puts Twitter trends front and center
The New York Times isn't beyond a little "experimentation" -- not when it comes to iPad apps, at least. The old gray lady today is showing off its "experimental" iPad web app, an HTML5-powered reading experience available to digital subscribers with its Web + Tablet and All Digital Access packages. The app's got four ways to consume all the news that's fit to digitize, including the Trending format, which offers up the past hour's top 25 trending stories on Twitter and the more traditional Today's Paper, which recalls those days when people used to get their news from dead trees. More info can be found in the press release after the break, and if you're on an iPad, you can access the site via the source link below.
Obama, Romney get chiptuned in battle for presidential seat
The battle for the White House is an epic, intense drama to rival those of legend and myth, so of course it makes a great chiptune video game. The Gregory Brothers, creators of Autotune the News and all those viral videos about burgers and bed intruders, songified Barack Obama and Mitt Romney from the Democratic and Republican national conventions (respectively, in case you get those two mixed up).The video is titled "Patriot Game" and presents the presidential candidates side-by-side, comparing their talking points as if they were literal points in an 8-bit video game, set to an upbeat tune. Watch the piggy banks, (bleeding) hearts and American flags stack up over at The New York Times, and see who wins to be the fictional, autotuned President of Earths and Moon. It might surprise you.
NYT: EA tried to buy Valve
EA has tried "over the years" to buy out Valve, the New York Times reports. These talks, had they ever reached negotiation, would have valued Valve at "well over $1 billion," NYT says, which is most likely a ridiculous understatement.Valve is a private company controlled by founder Gabe Newell, who doesn't release any of its financials, but Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates Valve is worth $2.5 billion today.Newell says it's likely Valve's employees would scatter and the company would "disintegrate" before it would be sold."It's way more likely we would head in that direction than say, 'Let's find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,'" Newell says.
FTC considering new settlement process so companies can't deny wrongdoing
Google recently paid the FTC $22.5 million and Facebook was ordered by the commission to change the way it handles data, but you might be surprised to hear that both companies did nothing wrong. Well, not exactly, but by settling their privacy violation cases, the internet giants are entitled to deny any misconduct. The New York Times reports that J. Thomas Rosch, a commissioner who voted against both settlements, feels that current rules will invite "denials of liability in every case in the future." Rosch wants the policy changed so companies can't deny responsibility when settling, much like the way the SEC handles similar indiscretions. Most of his colleagues weren't in a hurry to back his opinions, but three did say that refining the process could "avoid any possible public misimpression" of how the FTC strikes such deals. The commission is expected to look at the issue in the near future, but until then, we're sure you're more than able to separate the reality from the legalese.
116 years of Olympic medalists compared
If you've paid any attention at all to the Olympics over your lifetime one thing may stand out to you -- every four years, records seem to crumble. We're getting faster and stronger, not because of evolution, but thanks to science. High speed video has us refining our form, nutritionists are finding the most efficient diet and coaches are timing training schedules for peak performance. Just how much of an impact has this had on athletic achievement? Well, the New York Times decided to plot every medalist from the last 116 years of Olympic games in the 100-meter sprint, the 100-meter freestyle and the long jump. Though records aren't actually shattered every year, there's a clear trend of improvement (with the exception of the long jump). In fact, this year's last place sprinter in the final round would have edged out 1896's gold medalist by more than half a second -- and he was battling a groin injury. Hit up the source links to see 116 years of medal winners compared, and the more coverage link to see how athletes are squeezing every last bit of performance from their bodies as we approach the limits of human capability.
NYT: Apple is (or was) considering a stake in Twitter
The New York Times is reporting that Apple might invest some of its considerable cash reserves in Twitter. After the unrewarded experiment that was Ping, Apple put a few hundred million dollars in Twitter in return for tighter cooperation between the companies and sharing Twitter's insight into the social media world. The conversations over the past few months have been private, the NYT reports, and the two companies are not in active negotiations right now. If there were to be an investment, however, it could raise Twitter's value to more than $10 billion. (Philip Elmer-Dewitt points out that both the NYT and the followup WSJ story implied that the conversations between the two companies had ended without any deal.) Tim Cook acknowledged at D10 that the company needed to be more social and that it could consider killing off Ping at some point. "We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said 'This isn't something I want to put a lot of energy into,'" he said during the conference. He pointed out that Apple doesn't have to own a social network to be more social and used the added integration of Twitter into OS X Mountain Lion as an example of that. But will this go through? It's hard to say. Remember, at one point there was speculation that Apple would buy Facebook. Apple has a solid relationship with Twitter though, with its deep integration into iOS and now OS X. The NYT reports that the integration of Twitter into iOS 5 has resulted in more than 10 billion tweets since last fall. It would make sense for them to invest financially in Twitter than to keep pumping resources into Ping. But what could Apple get from such an investment that it doesn't already have in its current relationship with Twitter? If Twitter goes public, Apple would most likely be a significant stockholder. It would keep Apple on the leading edge of social media instead of playing the catch-up game that it was doing with iOS 5 and Mountain Lion. Apple has used its cache of cash to buy companies that give it a strategic advantage, as seen with today's purchase of AuthenTec. Apple isn't willing to risk its relationship in Twitter going sour and might well invest in it financially to keep the relationship on an even keel.
New York Times ends support for official BlackBerry, WebOS apps
Looks like the New York Times is signaling the death knell for RIM, albeit subtly. In a move that surely underscores the withering faith content companies have for the once beloved platform, the venerable Sulzberger-backed news organization has pulled all support for its DealBook Reader and NYTimes app for BlackBerry as of July 23rd. Users that attempt to access that application in the days since will find a stale content list that no longer updates and are being urged, instead, to visit the paper's mobile site for a "more complete... experience." And as if the ailing Waterloo-based company hadn't suffered enough indignity, it's been cast out of the developer pen alongside WebOS, joining PalmPre users on the reject list. Not to worry though, the Times crossword app has yet to get the axe -- that's got to be some consolation, no? You can check out the NYT's official line on its decision at the source below. [Thanks, Dhruv]
Siri's novelty is wearing off ... for some
New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton may be breaking up with Siri, per his post on the NYT Bits blog. Bilton's on-again, off-again love affair with Apple's intelligent assistant seems to be familiar territory for some other iPhone 4S users. He notes that "Many people I have spoken to have switched Siri off and reverted to the iPhone's voice dictation service, which is more reliable because it doesn't use Siri's artificial intelligence software." According to Bilton, Gene Munster -- our favorite securities analyst from Piper Jaffray -- ran a series of 1,600 voice tests with Siri. It could hear requests fairly well, understanding 89 percent of requests made in a quiet room and 83 percent of those made on a noisy city street. But Siri's understanding isn't that great; Munster said that it could only accurately answer a question 68 percent of the time in a quiet room or 62 percent of the time on the street. Munster gave Siri a "D" and says that the beta service needs to sharply improve. Bilton has spurned Siri for another sexy voice, that of Google Voice Search on Android phones. He may not realize he can already use that same technology via the free Google Search app on his iPhone 4S. The public seems to still have a fondness for Siri. A survey by John Barrett of Parks Associates cited in Bilton's article showing that 55 percent of respondents gave Siri a high rating, 21 percent said it was "satisfactory," and only 10 percent completely dissatisfied with it. For me, I've found that the more I use Siri, the better my success with her. Maybe Siri likes me just because I used her as the lead character in a book, but I still find her enchanting, helpful, and sometimes mysterious. Don't worry about that breakup with Nick Bilton, Siri; you'll always have me, even if my love is a bit one-sided...
Apple's tepid retail growth in China
Apple may view China as its next big market, but the Cupertino company is dropping the ball when it comes to expanding its retail presence in the Asian country, says a Reuters story. Back in 2010, former head of Apple's retail division Ron Johnson predicted Apple soon would have 25 retail stores in China. The company now operates a total of five stores that are located in either Shanghai or Beijing. Reuters estimates that Apple has one store for every 215 million Chinese citizens. Not only does this create an overflow of customers into the five Apple stores, it also opens the door for a booming grey market where smuggled Apple products are sold by unauthorized re-sellers. Some peddlers don't even bother trying to get authentic Apple goods and sell cheap Chinese knock-offs that bear a striking resemblance to the real thing. The grey market has gotten so big that several copycat Apple stores have even opened in the smaller mainland cities. Poor quality products and no customer support from these grey market sellers could tarnish Apple's reputation and stifle growth in the country. This situation may not entirely be Apple's fault, however. Some of the delay may be the result of regulatory red tape which makes it difficult for Apple to open new stores at a rapid pace
Flipboard enters content deal with the New York TImes
The New York Times announced today that it is bringing its subscription content to the popular social reader app Flipboard. Starting Thursday, June 28, subscribers to The New York Times will be able to read full articles, browse image galleries and watch videos using the Flipboard app. This is the first time all the NYT's content is available through a third-party service. Previously, the publication only made a part of its content available outside its own digital subscriptions. Denise F. Warren, general manager of The New York Times's Web site, told Brian X. Chen of NYT's Bits blog that "We realized that we have an opportunity to enable this kind of access for paying subscribers, and we thought it was something we ought to try and see how users react to it." This is a worthy addition to Flipboard, which already pulls down content from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Reader and other social news sources. This also is the second big news story for Flipboard in the recent weeks. After a two-year exclusive stint on iOS, the app debuted on Android last week.
The New York Times is coming to Flipboard Thursday
Well, it's hardly the release of a new summer blockbuster, but getting full length content from the New York Times in Flipboard is certainly going to excite news hounds that also appreciate fine UI design. A lot of content from magazines and newspapers is presented in abbreviated format in the slick app, but now Times subscribers will have unfettered access to the "paper of record's" reporting. Even non-subscribers will be able to read some of the publications articles for free, just as they can through the site. Now all you have to do is wait for the switch to be flipped on Thursday and hope that other outlets follow suit.
Twitter brings expanded news tweets to the web, makes skimming articles all too easy (update: Lytro too)
While Twitter has had expanded tweets for photos and videos, it's been necessary to click through to full news articles to see any of their content, sometimes even for the headline. A newly-launched update to the desktop and mobile web versions of Twitter is making that at-a-glance reading easier. Major traditional outlets like the New York Times, Der Spiegel or Time now show a brief snippet of an article when the linking tweet is given a click. More Internet-focused sources such as BuzzFeed and TMZ are also in the batch, and videos from the likes of BET and Dailymotion will play in-line. Android and iPhone users will see the same expansion from their native apps in the near future, although we're already weeping quietly for attention spans everywhere. Update: If you're craving shots taken with a Lytro camera, the company has revealed that its interactive, infinite-focus photos are included in the expanded tweet collection.
WWDC chatter focused on products, not Jobs or Cook
Did you notice something a bit different yesterday at the WWDC keynote? Nick Bilton of the New York Times did -- the focus of chatter during and after the keynote was all about the products, not about the present or past CEO. Of course, this wasn't Tim Cook's first shot at a major announcement. Cook took the stage for the rollout of the third-generation iPad a few months ago, but the big news at that point seemed to be the fact that Cook was wearing a black button-down shirt that wasn't tucked into his jeans. Everything yesterday was focused, as it should have been, on the products. Whether it was the announcement of the Retina display MacBook Pro, Siri's comedy routine and new features, the completely new Maps app, or the nuances of Mountain Lion, the presenters -- including Cook -- took a back seat to the products. In my opinion, that's the way it should be. While Steve Jobs was a charismatic presenter, Monday's keynote put the spotlight where it should be -- focused brightly on the shining results of Apple's hard work.
New York Times sees higher circulation numbers, digital paywall smiles knowingly
Given how aggressively The New York Times pushes its digital packages -- we've long since dropped our subscription yet are still bombarded with offers -- you'd hope the paper was at least seeing some results. Well, never fear: it is. A report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) found that the Times has seen a healthy increase in circulation, with the Sunday edition selling 2,003,247 copies (up 50 percent from last year) and the weekday editions racking in an average of 1,586,757 (up 73 percent). The ABC attributes much of this gain to the NYT's addition of digital access to paper subscriptions, and we're sure the paywall, which limits non-subscribers to just ten free articles a month, has something to do with it, too.
Apple defends its tax practices in the New York Times
A recent New York Times article slams Apple for avoiding billions in state and federal taxes using common corporate loopholes. Apple didn't take kindly to this report and has issued a four-paragraph response defending its practices. The Cupertino company says it pays "an enormous amount of taxes which help our local, state and federal governments." Besides paying taxes, Apple also points out that its "among the top creators of American jobs in the past few years." You can read the full response on the New York Times's website. Also of note, Forbes magazine has pointed out that one of the key numbers in the Times story -- Apple's supposed 9.8% effective federal tax rate -- is hooey.
CNN Money: New York Times gets Tim Cook's earnings wrong
The New York Times ran a report over the weekend that claimed Tim Cook was a million-dollar-a-day CEO. Acording to a follow-up report from CNN Money, that estimate is way off. The CNN report claims the NYT was correct with the CEO's yearly salary of US$900,000, but made a mistake when it included the one million shares of Apple stock that Cook was granted in 2011. These shares won't vest for ten years, which means Cook won't see any of that money until 2021. CNN Money took the value of those shares ($376.2 million on the day they were granted) and calculated that Cook would get $103,000 a day over the ten-year period. When you combine the stock money with Cook's salary, the resulting figure is not even close to the $1 million the NYT claims.
New York Times playable space game lets you blow up those pesky banner ads
Let's be honest here: as great as The New York Times story on casual gaming might be, it's destined to be overshadowed by the sweet interactive feature at the top, an embedded version of an Asteroids-like shooter from Rootof Creations that lets you do a number on the site's page layout, zooming across the article and blasting elements like ads and Facebook plug-ins. So, is this the future of newspaper publishing right here? We'll let you know when we figure out a way to blast that pesky paywall.
NYT: New iPad screen could be too good for the web
The New York Times points out what we (and Gruber) first saw when we fired up our new iPad -- most web images look terrible its Retina display. Companies that do business on the web now have a difficult decision to make about their graphics. Do they spend the extra cost to create, store and serve up retina-compatible images on their website or do they spend that money on a retina iPad app instead? It's a decision that'll affect the company's finances as well as its website's performance as larger images will take longer to load. It will also impact iPad owners who browse over a cellular connection and must download these bigger files. If you're an iPad owner, what would you prefer?
New York Times nears half-million online subscriber mark, halves free article allowance to celebrate
The New York Times just gave you more reason to consider making the jump to a paid online subscription -- beginning in April, that free article allowance will see a 50-percent cut, from 20 monthly articles to just 10. This modification comes one year after NYTimes.com launched its infamous content paywall, and following an announcement that the publisher has signed up 454,000 digital subscribers. Paying readers will receive a 12-week subscription that they can gift to anyone on the fence about swiping for access, and smartphone and tablet app users will continue to have access to the "Top News" sections for free. You'll also be able to read articles linked from other sites on the web, including your inbox, and can access five free posts a day that appear in search engine results. Completely unfettered access will range in price from $15 to $35 per month -- you'll find full details in the PR just past the break, and at the source link below.
