The problem newspapers face isn’t that they didn’t see the internet coming. They not only saw it miles off, they figured out early on that they needed a plan to deal with it, and during the early 90s they came up with not just one plan but several. One was to partner with companies like America Online, a fast-growing subscription service that was less chaotic than the open internet. Another plan was to educate the public about the behaviors required of them by copyright law. New payment models such as micropayments were proposed. Alternatively, they could pursue the profit margins enjoyed by radio and TV, if they became purely ad-supported. Still another plan was to convince tech firms to make their hardware and software less capable of sharing, or to partner with the businesses running data networks to achieve the same goal. Then there was the nuclear option: sue copyright infringers directly, making an example of them.

Das Besondere an Berliner Zeiten* ist jedoch, dass das Magazin nicht nur für das iPad, sondern auch auf dem iPad erstellt wird. Eine spezielle Produktions-Anwendung mach es möglich, dass dabei das Layout mitsamt Überschriften, Unterzeilen und Texten auf dem Touchscreen eingegeben und mit zwei Fingern in der Größe angepasst werden kann. Dafür hat die B.Z. mit dem IT-Entwickler Markus Glasmeier zusammengearbeitet, der momentan auch an einem neuen System zum Verwalten und Veröffentlichen von mobilen Inhalten arbeitet. Die Anwendung eXPublica erlaubt es, Magazine, Tageszeitungen oder Bücher flexibel zu layouten und für verschiedene Endgeräte zu publizieren. Das System soll in Kürze erscheinen und zunächst für iPhone, iPod und iPad verfügbar sein.

I read a great article in the Economist the other day on my iPad. I tried to share it with my social network on Facebook and Twitter, but I can't do that with old media.

When the iPad came out, I was ready to give big media another chance. I thought they might wake up and start exploring new products and business models. I thought they might explore how to integrate with the modern Internet, the distributed and syndicated content model, and the social ecosystem. Then the apps came out. It was all the same - a proliferation of branded channels.

iPad Magazine Stand

5 Things Big Publishers Don’t Understand About Small Games
Sean Murray, Hello Games

I’m Sean Murray, one quarter of Hello Games. We’re a tiny studio. Four friends. A young startup, we’ve just released a game called Joe Danger on PSN. We’re bedroom developers and bedroom publishers. We published our game as well as developed it.

Matthew Wiggins of mobile developer Wonderland, creator of the chart-topping Godfinger, has claimed that charging any price for an iPhone game is a mistake.

Following the Canada-only release in March, Godfinger went to no 1 in the charts in 36 hours with no promotion. It also topped the charts come its worldwide release in June.

Wird das iPad als Lesegerät von den Konsumenten angenommen? Diese Frage beschäftigt Land auf Land ab die Medienbranche. Doch die Antwort hängt wesentlich davon ab, wie Medienhäuser das iPad bespielen werden.

First, the paper magazine was crammed into the little iPad frame. In form of a PNG slide show. To compensate for the lack of interactive logic, this pretty package was provided with a fruity navigation. In the end it was spiced with in-app links, plucked with a couple of movies and salted with audio files (”interactive”). Then it was off to marketing. And it sold 24,000 copies. Dammit. It’s the Nineties all over again.

Apple iPad applications are often confusing for users and need more consistent features to be successful, according to Jakob Nielsen, one of the internet’s leading experts in usability.