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Time Inc., Apple to offer free iPad downloads to print magazine subscribers
After months of speculation, Time Inc. has finally inked a deal with Apple that will allow print magazine subscribers to access the company's iPad editions for free. Beginning this week, subscribers to print versions of Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Time will be able to download the iPad counterparts at no cost, directly within the magazines' apps. Today's deal comes just a few months after the company struck a similar arrangement with HP, but iPad users, unlike TouchPad readers, still won't be able to purchase exclusively digital subscriptions to Time Inc.'s stable of publications. It's no secret that Time Inc. wants to incorporate digital subscriptions to its iPad model, but negotiations have hit some roadblocks, largely thanks to disputes over how Apple shares subscriber data. Publishers say they need that data to apply the TV Everywhere model to magazines, but Apple thinks subscriber information should only be shared on an opt-in basis. We don't really expect Apple to budge any time soon, but execs at Time Inc. seem optimistic, telling the Wall Street Journal that today's deal proves that the two parties are "moving closer" on the issue -- apparently not close enough, however, for Apple to comment.
Portal 2 stuff ready for transport to you (not by portal, unfortunately)
You pre-ordered a copy of Portal 2 from Amazon, then bought another one from Steam, and you paid $40 for the Potato Sack just to ensure you'd get the game ASAP. Maybe you also stood in line for a copy last night. Now that you have the game, it's becoming more difficult to find ways to give Valve your money. Don't worry, though, you aren't being forced into financial responsibility just yet. Valve has added a dangerous amount of new Portal 2 merchandise to its online store, including: ten new t-shirts, a track jacket, a tank top, a hoodie, thirteen prints, and a pint glass for good measure (of one pint). You're going to be so deep into debt with Valve that you'll have to seek extra work as a test subject.
Nicholas Callaway shifts paper-based empire to app, prays the publishing gods approve
If you've found yourself even mildly obsessed with style, art or design over the past score, there's a better-than-average chance you've got a Nicholas Callaway book on your coffee table. And it'll soon be a collector's item. The publishing monolith made his fortunes in the pages of ye old paper-based books, but it seems that he'll be paying off future mortgages with something else entirely. In a recent sit-down with Reuters, Callaway confessed to "betting the ranch" on apps, quietly stroking the capacitive touchpanel on his iPad and gazing fondly into the middle distance. For him, this is a "once in a century" revolution, where an entire industry hits a fork and is forced to continue on with an entirely new medium. Of course, Callaway is far from the only one making this shift -- we've seen legendary newspapers make similar moves, and as e-book stores continue to grow in prominence, it's a given that paperbacks will eventually give way to whatever's next. Hit the source link for the longest, most in-depth dive you'd ever dream of taking into this here topic.
HP enables Google Cloud Print on ePrint printers right out of the box
Man, remember when transferring data to your printer required a big fat cable and physical proximity to your ink spitter? Thankfully, we live in more refined times now and HP and Google have hooked up to deliver the first printers with driverless Cloud Print support, making the whole thing that extra bit easier. HP ePrint printers were already sophisticated enough to receive instructions via email and now they're casting aside the need for a connected PC to talk to Google's Cloud Print service as well. All you need is your machine's @hpeprint.com email address and then you're away, zipping pictures and text from your smartphone, tablet or laptop to the HP paper decorator. It's all seamless and wireless and probably feels like the future when you're doing it. We'd tell you, but we stopped printing stuff in 2004.
Watch-controlled robo-tot grasps small objects, the meaning of life (video)
It may seem like there's an abundance of robot news lately, but we're just trying to please our mechanical overlords deliver the latest in gadget and technology news. What we've got here is an Arduino-based robo-gripper that serves only to move around and use its 3D printed claws to grab tiny objects that we'd otherwise be too lazy to pick up ourselves. The robot, infused with a Texas Instruments CC1110 dev kit, is controlled using an accelerometer-based Chronos watch and can move in all directions by simply tilting the timepiece. If you want to take a gander at this little guy in action, check out the video past the break -- it's always warming to see humans having the upper hand against the machine.
Google brings Cloud Print service to mobile Google Docs, Gmail
You'll still need to have that Windows PC acting as an intermediary, but folks looking to use Google's Cloud Print service now at least have considerably more devices at their disposal to print documents from. Following up its roll-out to Chrome OS netbooks last month, Google has now announced that it's begun rolling the service out to its mobile Google Docs and Gmail sites, which you'll be able to use to print documents from most mobile devices that supports HTML5 -- those running Android 2.1+ or iOS 3+, for instance. What's more, while you will still need that Windows PC connected to your printer for the time being, Google now notes that both Mac and Linux support are "coming soon."
RepRap prints transistors, but fabs have little to fear
Budding hobbyists almost have it too easy these days, what with all the ready-made components, Mindstorms and Arduino boards, but there's still a couple of folks out there kicking it old-school... and printing transistors at home. Yes, that's a RepRap 3D printer you see there, with a MakerBot Unicorn pen head, depositing tiny dots of silver ink to form intricate rows of tiny electrodes. Sadly, the printer doesn't currently automate the entire process, as you'll also need to separately apply a dielectric material and a host of chemicals to get a working field effect transistor from scratch, but once the basic process is perfected the possibilities, as they say, are endless. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a hot date with some vacuum tubes. Find the basic formula for DIY transistors at our source link.
Google Cloud Print is ready to spool in beta, if you have a Windows PC handy
Google blew the lid off of Chrome OS yesterday in a big way, and one of its key features is now ready to roll. Cloud Print was unveiled back in April, a method to enable Google mobile devices to print via nebulous networking, and it's now here -- with some caveats. The biggest being that right now the only host for a non Cloud Print-compatible printer (basically all but this one) is a Windows PC running Chrome 9.0.597.1 or greater. Set up the service through there and the browser will host your good 'ol printer to your Chrome OS device. Don't have a Chrome OS device? You will. Eventually more printers will support this natively, eliminating the middleman, and we're sure printing support will be coming to Android down the road too. When? In due time, fair reader. In due time.
MakerBot's Automated Build Platform enables handsfree, multi-part 3D printing
Currently, 3D printers require users to remove a finished object, clean things up and input more commands before it starts building something from nothing a second time around. At least, the "affordable" ones do. But our pals over at MakerBot Industries have a far better idea, and if we didn't know any better, we'd say this type of problem solving would get the ever-desired thumbs-up from one Anthony Sullivan. Put simply, the Automated Build Platform works with your existing 3D printer, and thanks to its mighty conveyor belt action, it wipes away completed objects, clears the boogers off the nozzle, resets itself and prints again. It's up for order right now for $160, but you should probably check out the (admittedly enticing) video after the break before deciding if it's right for you. Oh, and if you're too lazy to click through, chances are it is.
iOS 4.2 beta hits Apple's developer portal, wireless printing dubbed 'AirPrint'
(function() { var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); Digg If you're an iOS developer (or good friends with one), today is going to be totally awesome. Apple has just let loose the official iOS 4.2 beta builds for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch -- meaning that someone somewhere is going to be experiencing multitasking on the 'pad (sans jailbreaking, of course). Additionally, Apple has decided to bestow a name upon its new printing experience (the direct-to-printer tech the company showed off at its fall event). And that name? AirPrint. In a piece of PR just issued by Apple (available to read after the break), it's noted that owners of HP products with ePrint tech will be the first to take advantage of the new tool -- so that's something. Of course, all that news should be lost in a cloud of excitement over 4.2. As usual, we're going to take the OS for a spin on our developer iPad here and see what's what, and then report back to you cats and kittens about whatever nuggets of joy we find. Stay tuned!
Next edition of Oxford English Dictionary may be online-only
Video killed the radio star and the internet, it seems, is about to obviate printed reference tomes. Oxford University Press, the publisher of the 20-volume authoritative text on the English language, has said it might not publish a printed version of the next edition. The OUP cites 2 million monthly hits on its subscription-based ($295 per annum) web lookup service, which compares rather favorably to the 30,000 total print sales since the current (Second) edition's publication back in 1989. The complete Oxford English Dictionary hardback set costs $1,165 and weighs in at a whopping 130 pounds altogether, so perhaps Oxford would be doing Ma Earth a favor as well by going paperless. Of course, we're talking about the somewhat distant future here; the next OED isn't expected to be completed for another decade, by which time we could have all sorts of magical devices, maybe even a color Kindle!
Canon SELPHY CP800 photo printer takes cue from Flickr with 'Shuffled' collage option
Laugh all you want, Digital Elite, but there still exist those out there who like holding physical representations of their capture memories -- but how does a company stand out in the field of photo printer? Canon's giving it a shot with the SELPHY CP800 and a random standout feature or two. In addition to a 2.5-inch tilting LCD screen and numerous image optimization features, there's also a Shuffle feature that'll take randomly selected shots and create a 4 x 6-inch collage. A neat trick, sure, and it looks okay as our Flickr Collections icon, but even there we have more of a say in what shows up -- and it doesn't waste expensive ink to try again. Still, the less picky out there might enjoy the convenience, and it's not mandatory that you use it. PR after the break and pre-order via Amazon; the magic print box will cost just under $100 on arrival, but when that might be is still an elusive mystery.
The HP eStation Zeen, the Zeus printer, and everything we know about them
We've been flooded with a deluge of tips about the HP Zeen ever since we posted those first FCC images of the tablet device this morning, and it's actually a little surprising at how perfectly everything aligns. We've now had multiple tipsters confirm that the Zeen is an e-reading-focused Android tablet with the unique ability to connect directly to an HP printer and function as its interface without the need for a computer. But that's not all -- here's everything else we know: The Zeen is a capacitive tablet running a HP skin on top of Android 2.1 -- it won't get shifted to webOS, and it's not clear if it'll get upped to Froyo before launch given the development time required. It has capacitive touch buttons, a SD card slot, video support, and at least some prototypes have cameras with a special webcam app installed. The goal is for the HP home screen and skin to be the only home screen available, but that hasn't been fully implemented yet. E-reading is a major focus, and the Zeen has "significant" integration with the Barnes & Noble Nook bookstore and ecosystem. Makes sense, as the Nook itself is based on Android, and being able to print e-books from the Zeen would be a huge differentiator -- and a great way for HP to sell more ink. The Zeen will come in two configurations: a $399 bundle with a new printer called Zeus and as a standalone unit for an unknown price. The Zeus has its own "basic" control setup, but when the Zeen is docked it provides a rich interface to the printing functions -- presumably a web-connected interface like the one HP's been moving towards with other printers. Despite the CQ model number, the Zeen is a straight HP product, with a laser-etched logo on the back. So that's what we know about this enigmatic product. It certainly adds up -- HP has long said one of the reasons it bought Palm was to use webOS as a consistent interface to other connected devices like printers, and it only makes sense that the company was working on executing that strategy with an OS like Android long before Jon Rubinstein and company joined the team. Besides, how better to sell more ink than by making it easy for consumers to hit Facebook and print pictures without having to use a computer at all? It's certainly interesting -- we're waiting patiently to see when and where the Zeen next appears.
Pocket God comics out now for iPad, coming soon to stores
From iPhone app ... to comic book? That's where Pocket God is apparently headed. The extremely popular iPhone app has "inked" a deal to release a set of comics based on the little islanders. The books will be available on the App Store first, in virtual form, and they will eventually take the form of paper comics. There's an iPad app available now (for 99 cents) that features the adventures of Ooga, Noobie, Klik, and friends. (Wait, they have names? Now I feel bad about tossing them into that volcano.) The physical books, which will be released in September, will have four-page stories that can't be seen anywhere else. It's crazy to think that Apple's little software store has spawned a full-fledged franchise, and this isn't the last we'll see. TUAW has heard, off the record, that at least one other major iPhone app property is putting together a very large licensing deal, which (if it works) will bring a very popular App Store brand to more traditional media. We've seen lots of instances of major brands coming into the App Store, but some original properties on the iPhone and iPad are growing up into a life of their own.
Time Warner CEO hints at tying print, tablet magazine subscriptions together
We'd already heard that Time Warner was looking to offer magazine subscriptions on the iPad (and running into some difficulty doing so), and it now looks like it might have some even grander plans. As hinted at by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes in an earnings call earlier today, the company is apparently looking at extending its TV Everywhere concept to magazines, which would give customers that subscribe to the print editions of Time, Sports Illustrated and other publications access to the digital version as well. Of course, Bewkes didn't offer any indication as to exactly when that might happen, but he did say that the "key to it all" is to give subscribers access to content "over all broadband devices as soon as possible," which is certainly promising.
Reading a book is faster than reading an iBook
A study conducted by usability consultant Jakob Nielsen claims that reading on e-book readers like the iPad and the Kindle still doesn't match up to the reading speed of good old printed paper. The test chose 32 people (admittedly a small sample, but one that was felt to be representative of an e-reader audience), taught them how to read on both the Kindle and the iPad, and then clocked their speed in reading through an Ernest Hemingway story on both devices, a PC-based reader, and the printed word. It turns out, according to the study, that the iPad was generally faster than the Kindle at reading speed -- about 6.2% slower than reading a normal book, compared to the Kindle's 10.7% slower than the printed word. The way it all worked out, there was no actual significant difference between the iPad and the Kindle, so the study can't say officially which one of those is faster. But the difference between the Kindle and the book was significant, so reading print is faster than e-readers so far. The iPad and the Kindle barely beat the book in ease-of-use, while the PC lagged way behind, so the study is still bullish on e-readers in general. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of reasoning on why the e-readers are slower -- is the audience just not used to them, or is there something in the mechanics that make things slower? Since e-readers can adapt for usability and your standard book is pretty much as good as it's going to get, we'll likely see the iPad overtake a printed page in usability very soon. [via PC World]
Gourmet magazine to return as iPad app
There's been a lot of talk about the iPad saving print, but in this case it might actually happen. Gourmet magazine closed up shop late last year, but the publisher is getting ready to bring the mag back -- as an iPad app called Gourmet Live. The app will be free (with a few options for in-app payments), and will not only include articles and recipes from the magazine, but some online check-in functionality, and a few other fun tidbits. It's not something that could support a print magazine, sounds like, but for fans of the brand, it'll be a nice return. Then again, maybe an app like this can support a magazine. Conde Nast, who owns both Gourmet and Wired (which is already making waves on the iPad), says that surprisingly, app sales have not only "surpassed our newsstand sales" but "has not cannibalized them either." That's intriguing -- all of the talk about the iPad saving print has focused on moving newsstand customers over to digital media, but a story like that hints that maybe digital media can still work as promotion for traditional newsstand publications. We'll have to see how this all plays out -- Gourmet Live is due out in the fall.
Sony predicts digital content will overtake print 'within five years'
We can't say if there's an actual rule or not, but we're pretty sure that anyone in the e-reader business has to, at one point, make a prediction about when e-books will overtake actual books, and it looks like Sony has now come through with a big one of its own. That comes courtesy of Sony's Steve Haber, the man responsible for the company's digital reading business division, who says that: "within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content." Note that he says "digital content," not books, so we can presume that also includes magazines and newspapers, but it's still a fairly ambitious statement nonetheless. What's more, Habar also insists that there is a place for standalone e-readers alongside multi-function devices like the iPad, saying that, "it's just like digital imaging, where you can take pictures with a cellphone - and many people take pictures with cellphones - but if they want the best possible picture they'll use a point-and-shoot camera or a digital SLR."
Mac 101: Checking in on CUPS
More Mac 101, tips and tricks for new Mac users. Ever wonder how your documents go from screen pixels to paper printouts? CUPS is the open source printing system that powers Mac OS X output, built for a variety of UNIX systems and now developed (or at least assimilated) by Apple. It provides print services by creating a representation of the page contents, and converting that data into formats that any number of printers understand. OS X applications don't need to know the printer specifics. All they have to provide is a page description, which they pass along to the CUPS server. The server takes over from there and sends the document data to the active printer. You can access your CUPS-based printers via a Web administration page, if the mood strikes you. It's easy; point your Web browser to http://127.0.0.1:631/printers. From there, you'll be able to check print queues, show completed print jobs, and more. You'll also be able to print a test page, pause the print queue, cancel all jobs, and set the default printer -- among other maintenance and administrative tasks. Most of the things you'd do there are also manageable via System Preferences, but it's nice to know what's underneath.
Boutique publishing house les éditions volumiques shows us that print is far, far from dead
Say what you will about traditional media and the continually shrinking size of print magazines, but we've got some proof right here that good 'ol pulp still has a lot of life left. French publishing house les éditions volumiques has been doing research into new and... interesting ways to use the print medium and to combine it with mobile devices. The company's site is like a playground for bookistas, with short videos showing off all sorts of wondrous things. One project is The book that disappears, a volume printed on reactive paper that turns black after 20 minutes. Another is The Night of the Living Dead Pixels, a graphic novel (shown above) that allows you to choose your path, with terminal pages featuring QR codes that trigger videos on your smartphone. There's a board game that uses iPhones for pawns, and even a book that turns its own pages. All are demonstrated at the company's site (in Flash, so watch out for Steve), and most are destined to actually see print by the end of the year. We've already made room on our bookshelves.
