Further to our recent news item regarding News International and the electronic version of The Times newspaper, the world of publishing is gradually getting its head around the benefits of the iPad with news now breaking regularly on new publications. Popular Mechanics from US publisher Hearst has announced its presence on the iPad, with the intention of releasing the electronic version at the same time as the printed version by the end of the year. A price has been set for the at app at $1.99, but no price per edition has been established as yet. To illustrate how keen publishers are to adopt the tablet form of computing, Indonesia’s largest daily, Kompas, has become the first newspaper in the region to release an iPad app.
Certainly it is easy to understand why publishers would want to migrate to a digital platform. Two of the three main costs for most publications can be reduced significantly: the cost of printing, and the cost of distribution. Only the third, the cost of content creation, remains. However, taking the cost of iBooks on the iPhone/iPad as one good example (and The Times newspaper application as a second): why aren’t those mathematical basics being reflected in the price of the electronic version? As a simple example, Jeremy Clarkson’s “Driven to Distraction” book costs £6.49 on the iPhone/iPad. A very quick internet search reveals that I can buy the printed version of the book for £5.59 in Waterstones, £4.39 at W H Smith, or £3.99 at Amazon for a new copy, or even £2.99 for a used version. Why does a digital file flying through the ether cost up to £3.50 more than a printed paper version of a real live book, that has had to undergo many long motorway journeys throughout its short existence, having started its life several decades ago when it was born as a tree?! Thoughts, comments and answers more than welcomed: PIND.editor@gmail.com
It should be recognised that, at this moment in time, publishers are only catering for a pretty small audience with their digital departures. It is however a quickly growing audience, and, as the above example illustrates, an audience that offers some serious profits for the publisher at the moment; but, at the same time, an audience that is sharp witted enough to see when its being reamed!Still, it is also good to read news that indicates that traditional newspapers are still far from dead! Information came to us from the US newspaper publication News&Tech regarding the first European triple width KBA Commander CT press which has been snapped up by a German newspaper house for a mere $30 million.
Elsewhere, we were fascinated to see that RR Donnelley has been spending money developing its own ink-jet add-on for a web press. Certainly some equipment suppliers have been working along these lines, though only in monochrome to the best of our knowledge. It does, however, say something about the industry when the world’s largest printer is developing its own in-house solutions.
It was also interesting to read from the team at PrintWeek about alarm bells being sounded in the world of print finishing. With specialist trade finishers closing at an alarming rate concerns are being raised that printers simply won’t have anywhere to go when the good times return. Unfortunately no hint is given as to when the good times will return!
This week the Lifehacker team have given us a few extra thoughts on what you might be able to do with a “thumb drive” (as they call it), a USB stick, memory drive, or whatever name you want to give to those great little portable bits of technology! The link takes you to their top 10.Getting the most from your Mac: squeezing hidden functionality out of the option key. I do like these added extra’s that you can get from a system. The guys at Lifehacker have pulled together a great selection of ideas for Mac operators to have a fiddle with!
And finally, a post that interested me on the most simple of tech issues: a straightforward and user friendly way of capturing plain text input. As mentioned not long ago in PIND, we were most pleased to connect up an Apple Bluetooth keyboard with our recently acquired iPhone 4, meaning that we could key on the go. This software recommendation actually does help to complete the picture. The Simplenote application, coupled with the ResophNotes on the PC, means that you have your notes on your desktop just as soon as you have keyed them remotely on your iPhone or iPad.PIND014
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