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Open source: Less profit, more fun

Open source ain't what it used to be. It's both more and less.

On the "more" side of the equation, let's start with a big number: 19,000. According to Black Duck Software, that's the approximate number of open source [1] projects started in 2009. As Peter Vescuso of Black Duck told me, "While the economy and IT budgets were declining, the open source community was busy coding."

[ For ongoing coverage of open source issues, visit Savio Rodrigues' blog, Open Sources [2]. | And stay up to speed with the open source community with InfoWorld's Technology: Open Source newsletter [3]. ]

At the same time, "the tag 'open source' is no longer cool, nor is it a differentiator in itself," says Michael Skok of North Bridge Venture Partners. Instead, Skok says, the emphasis is on real ROI and payback, which has had the effect of making open source a "mainstream, reliable, de facto part of the landscape."

So if open source has gone from show horse to workhorse, what are all those developers working on? Certainly a diminished percentage work for healthy open source software vendors, where the old-fashioned business model -- give away the code and make money on support -- isn't doing so hot. "The vendors who are scaling have more ways of making money," says Skok, such as the extensive professional services and consulting offered by Red Hat.

But the real open source explosion, says Black Duck CEO Tim Yeaton, is in enterprise app dev [4]. Rather than code from scratch, enterprise developers are collaborating across company boundaries to develop components that can be shared under open licenses. "They're co-mingling third-party open source code with their own development," Yeaton says. Black Duck estimates that in the United States alone, the potential to offset enterprise app dev spending through the use of open source code amounts to $17 billion.

Skok dubs this use of open source "entersource," which he sees chiefly as a means for collaborative development. "Very few of these projects will reach the critical mass required to create a company," he observes, adding that, "a good product doesn't make a good open source project." In fact, he says, it's the reverse: You need a community first -- and then a project to serve that community.

Obviously, community around mobile [5] is big enough to foster all kinds of projects; Black Duck counted 224 new projects for Android [6] alone in 2009. I was surprised to learn, however, that the health care vertical has a grand total of 800 active projects. And government is embracing open source to an unprecedented degree, to the point where some see open source as essential to open government.

If you ask me, though, analytics has become one of the most exciting open source areas of all. This January, InfoWorld gave Apache Hadoop [7] a Technology of the Year Award [8], because it opens the possibility of running huge analytics calculations with petabytes of data on commodity hardware. With Hadoop and open source NoSQL databases [9] that vastly reduce processing times, we are on the brink of something game changing, where analytics that once required highly specialized knowledge -- plus expensive hardware and software -- will become available to a much wider range of knowledge workers.

Very likely, much of that processing will occur in the cloud [10], offered as a service to those who don't need to run such monster calculations 24/7. In fact, the cloud itself has become entangled with open source in two ways. First, multitenanted open source stacks have become the default software underlying SaaS (software as a service) [11] offerings. And second, the open APIs offered by the likes of Google, Amazon, et al. are now considered by many to be open source. That seems like a bit of a stretch to me (Google Maps API, open source?), but many in the industry seem to accept this redefinition.

So there you have it: The bottom has dropped out of venture funding and many open source software companies are struggling, yet open source is proliferating to a degree no one would have believed a few years ago -- especially when you take into account the major open source offerings of IBM, Oracle, and yes, even Microsoft.

This article, "Open source: Less profit, more fun [12]," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com [13]. Read more of Eric Knorr's Modernizing IT blog [14] and follow the latest developments in open source [15] at InfoWorld.com.

via infoworld.com

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The Social Media Cheat Sheet #yam

via thenextweb.com

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NPR Creating New App and Web Site for Apple iPad #yam

For NPR, the iPad Means a New App–And a New Web Site

by Peter Kafka
Posted on March 15, 2010 at 8:27 AM PT

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Like many media companies, National Public Radio is scrambling to prepare an app in time for the iPad’s April 3 launch.

But the standoff between Apple (AAPL) and Adobe has prompted NPR to take on another engineering project at the same time: It is building a version of its Web site designed specifically for the iPad.

So if all goes as planned, iPad users who want to listen to NPR programming will have a couple choices next month. They can:

• Download a free iPad-optimized version of the broadcaster’s popular (two million downloads) iPhone app. Or
• Use the iPad’s browser to visit NPR.org, which will detect that it’s being viewed with Apple’s device and serve up a custom-built site. This means no trace of Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash, which is used to power graphics and media on the site.

I’ve heard about a handful of other big publishers who are altering some but not all of their Web sites to create iPad-optimized versions.

That’s what The Wall Street Journal–like this Web site, the Journal is owned by News Corp. (NWS)–is doing, for instance: Visitors to the newspaper’s front page will see an iPad-specific, Flash-free page. But those who click deeper into the site will eventually find pages that haven’t been converted.

Kinsey Wilson, who oversees digital media for NPR, says he has been able to create a new version of his Web site–while keeping the existing one up and running for other visitors–because of the site recent redesign, which split up the data that powers the site from its presentation layer. In English, this means NPR can swap out the site’s facade while keeping its plumbing and foundation intact.

Just as important: NPR only runs a smattering of advertising, in the form of sponsorships it sells to a handful of marketers. This means it doesn’t have to worry about how to handle the Web ad ecosystem, which depends on Flash. Wilson says NPR has locked up a launch sponsor for both the iPad app and the custom site.

So what will the app and site look like? Alas, NPR won’t let me see a demo or look at mock-ups, i part, I gather, because the network is still building the things.

But here’s something to chew on until launch: Wilson says that while iPhone apps are a “very intentional experience”–you load the thing up and seek out specific content–he thinks the iPad will be a “lean back device.” That’s traditionally the distinction multimedia types use to differentiate between a computer and a TV. Intriguing.

via mediamemo.allthingsd.com

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Content sales predicted to near 30% of iPad hardware revenue #yam

Content sales predicted to near 30% of iPad hardware revenue

By Neil Hughes

Published: 08:10 AM EST

The sale of applications, e-books, newspapers and magazines for the iPad is predicted to equal nearly 30 percent of the revenue Apple will earn from selling the hardware by the end of 2011.

Analyst Brian Marshall with Broadpoint.AmTech issued a note to investors Tuesday forecasting the "sticky" nature of the iPad and content purchases for the new device. He believes content revenue will top 10 percent of total iPad hardware revenue by December of 2010, and a year later that number will nearly triple.

"We believe the iPad offers a rich media experience that will translate into a content-based recurring revenue stream over time," Marshall wrote.

If true, it would be a significant change for Apple, which had long maintained that both the App Store and iTunes do not create much revenue for the Cupertino, Calif., company. In January, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company runs "a bit over break even" for both the App Store and iTunes stores. Apple has said for some time that those businesses are not meant to be profit generators, but rather a means of attracting customers to the products they represent.

The analyst has also increased his forecast for iPad shipments in the 2010 calendar year to 4 million units, up from a previous prediction of 2.2 million. He said that "if the device lives up to its potential," he could see it shipping more than 7 million in this year alone, a number that skews higher than most Wall Street estimates.

Accordingly, Marshall has also raised his earnings per share estimates for 2010 by 6 percent, to $12.75. That's up from his previous prediction of $12, and above the Wall Street consensus of $12.14.

Marshall said he believes the general view of the iPad, particularly in the media, is overly pessimistic.

"We note the vast majority of the naysayers have not yet had the opportunity to use the iPad on a firsthand basis," he wrote. "As we stated in the past, we were hooked after the first 15 minutes of use. In our view, the true genius of the device is its media/content aspects (e.g. eBooks, newspapers/magazines, Apps/games, movies/TV episodes, etc.) which we believe will be recurring in nature."

Broadpoint.AmTech has increased its price target for AAPL stock to $280, from $264, and reiterated its "buy" rating. The iPad, which starts at $499, goes on sale in the U.S. April 3, while pre-orders begin on Friday.

via appleinsider.com

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Microsoft Courier Shaping Up as a Truly Novel iPad Competitor #yam

Microsoft Courier Shaping Up as a Truly Novel iPad Competitor

Written on March 08, 2010 by Darrell Etherington and 18 people have commented

It may be a little early to say this, but to me it seems like Microsoft took all the disappointment and fear resulting from Apple’s dominance of the mobile devices category over its own products through the years and used that energy to create the Courier. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen another company’s product and thought “That seems like something Apple would’ve made.”

Engadget posted more details about the device late last week, including two lengthy HD interface videos. Microsoft isn’t yet officially saying anything about whether or not this will become a production device, but Engadget seems very confident in its sources, and I’d be inclined to believe them since it seems more than likely Redmond is taking a page out of Apple’s marketing playbook by keeping things somewhat hush-hush but using “leaks” to steal focus.

Microsoft gets a lot of flak for doing a tablet the wrong way, as demonstrated by the HP model it unveiled ahead of the iPad to grab some of the attention away from that spotlight hog. But the Courier doesn’t have the same shortcomings. For one, it’s not based on Windows 7, but on a version of Windows CE 6, which also provides the basis for the Zune HD’s interface and the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 OS. It also runs on the Tegra 2, an impressive mobile processor.

It also has some considerable advantages over its Apple rival, especially if the hype is actually representative of what a production version will look like. First, there’s the size. The clamshell design allows it to be smaller than the iPad, while providing more screen real estate. Closed, it’s said to measure five by seven inches, and still remain less than an inch thick. It should also weigh less than a pound. It should take up just a little less space than the Amazon Kindle, for reference, which goes a long way toward making it truly, conveniently portable.

The Courier’s big advantage over the iPad, for me, isn’t the dual-screen design (although that helps), but the combination of pen and touch input. If I had to choose one, I’d go with touch, as Apple’s done with the iPad, but the opportunity to have both is a major selling point. Viewing the UI videos emphasizes why, and if you’ve ever used a tablet with a computer, especially those with a built-in display, you’ll know why a pen is a much better option than trying to learn to write or draw with your clumsy finger.

Microsoft’s notebook tablet is also refreshing because of its emphasis on interactivity between components and hardware features of the device. The software seems designed from the start to work perfectly not only with the specific features of the device, but also with every other software component of the OS, and all through a brilliantly intuitive UI. Nor is it a closed system despite this sharp focus, since the sharing features appear to be rich and varied.

Apple, for its part, emphasizes the apps. Apps are great, and they provide some pretty useful functions and terrific distractions, but they don’t really seem to work as well or with the same degree of interconnection as the Courier’s software promises to. Even Apple’s own built-in apps don’t have anywhere near as much potential for communication between and across each other.

In my opinion, where Apple got lazy with the iPad, Microsoft is throwing its entire mobile future behind the Courier. Not only that, but these previews are emphasizing the Courier’s strengths over the iPad without addressing things like media playback. The impression I get isn’t that the Courier is bad at those things, just that they’re taken as given. Instead, Redmond’s project is all about what a tablet can do that a media player can’t, something I’ve yet to really see illustrated by Apple regarding the iPad.

via theappleblog.com

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Gartner: iPad will "change entire PC ecosystem" #yam

Gartner: iPad will "change entire PC ecosystem"

by Michael Grothaus (RSS feed) on Mar 5th 2010 at 8:00AM

Gartner's latest forecast is projecting global PC shipments will total 366.1 million units in 2010, a 19.7 percent increase from 305.8 million units shipped in 2009, with global PC spending forecast to reach $245 billion in 2010, up 12.2 percent from 2009. These latest numbers don't only include traditional PC towers and laptops, however. Garnter believes that netbooks and tablets will comprise a significant portion of the 366 million PC expected to ship this year – and they believe the iPad will help change the entire PC ecosystem.

"User requirements are clearly segmenting, and the mini-notebook proved this point," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner. "Vendors can no longer afford to just think in terms of traditional PC form factors or architectures. With the rise of Web-delivered applications, many users no longer need a traditional PC running a resident general-purpose operating system and fast x86 CPU to satisfy their computing needs. Apple's iPad is just one of many new devices coming to market that will change the entire PC ecosystem and overlap it with the mobile phone industry. This will create significantly more opportunities for PC vendors as well as significantly more threats."

Netbooks aside, Gartner believes that vendors could ship up to 10.5 million traditional tablets and next-generation tablet devices worldwide in 2010 – that's roughly 2.8% of the total PC market tally. How much of that tally could be iPads? "The most likely scenario for iPad sales this year is 4.2 million units," says Gartner analyst Angela McIntyre. Most Wall Street analysts expect Apple to ship slightly more – around 5 million iPads in 2010.

One thing is sure: the PC market is changing. Some people, like my mother, will only require a tablet for simple browsing and email. Gone are the days when PC technology was "one size fits all."

via tuaw.com

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How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad |#yam

First Look: How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad

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As the race to be be ebook format of choice hots up, Penguin is making some bold, experimental bets. These first-look demos of forthcoming books from iPad’s iBook Store, presented by Penguin Books’ CEO John Makinson in London on Tuesday, give an idea how publishers might approach Apple’s tablet…

Many of Penguin’s iPad books seem hardly to resemble “books” at all, but rather very interactive learning experiences, from its Dorling Kindersley and kids imprints - the Vampire Academy “book” is “an online community for vampire lovers” with live chat between readers, and the Paris travel guide switches to street map view when placed on a table.

“The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers,” an excited Makinson told FT’s Digital Media & Broadcasting Conference. “The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.”

But Penguin’s thinking bigger than just the one device. Makinson said he sees ebooks hitting 10 percent of book sales next year (it’s currently four percent in the U.S. and Penguin’s ebook sales)...

“We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we’re now talking about.

“So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs.

“We don’t know whether a video introduction will be valuable to a consumer. We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error.”

Makinson’s hardly retiring in negotiation with the key players - says he met Apple, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) last week. But he views the key issue of revenue share with each as an opportunity...

Asked if he wasn’t about to give away 30 percent of Penguin sales to Apple (as is the split with apps), Makinson told paidContent:UK, during Q&A, this is better than the equivalent print agency model, in which publishers let retailers keep 50 percent.

Record labels are now lamenting having given Apple so much control of their industry, but Penguin appears to be relishing trying out all these new ebook formats, seeing “the opportunity to test pricing and access to consumer data”.

Not that Makinson wouldn’t take more from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). “There is an argument for saying Apple needs the content, that they should be paying us for our content,” he said. But that argument hasn’t worked.

A copy of Pride And Prejucide might conceivably come with videos of Keira Knightly and Colin Firth (the movie adaptation’s cast), he said, but: “We need to understand how much the consumer will pay for that, we need to engage in dynamic pricing.

via paidcontent.co.uk

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10+ useful code snippets to develop iPhone friendly websites

10+ useful code snippets to develop iPhone friendly websites

By Jean-Baptiste Jung

« WordPress : 10+ life saving SQL queries

When developing websites, you have to care about different browsers, as well as mobile devices such as iPhones or iPods. In this article, let's have a look at the 10+ most useful code snippets (Javascript, PHP, CSS, etc) for developing iPhone friendly websites, quickly and efficiently.

Detect iPhones and iPods using Javascript

When developing for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the first thing we have to do is obviously detect it, so we can apply specific code or styles to it. The following code snippets will detect iPhones and iPods using Javascript, and redirect those users to an iPhone specific page.

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1.if((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i))) {

2.    if (document.cookie.indexOf("iphone_redirect=false") == -1) {

3.        window.location = "http://m.espn.go.com/wireless/?iphone&;i=COMR";

4.    }

5.}

Source: http://davidwalsh.name/detect-iphone

Detect iPhones and iPods using PHP

Although the previous snippet works great, Javascript can be disabled on the iPhone. For this reason, you may prefer to use PHP in order to detect iPhones and iPods touch.

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1.if(strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPhone') || strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPod')) {

2.    header('Location: http://yoursite.com/iphone');

3.    exit();

4.}

Source: http://davidwalsh.name/detect-iphone

Set iPhone width as the viewport

How many times did you load a website in your iPhone and it just looked like a thumbnail? The reason of this is that the developer forgot to define the viewport (or didn’t know it existed). The width=device-width statement allows you to define the document width as being the same than the width of the iPhone screen. The two other statements are preventing the page from being scaled, which is useful if you’re developing an iPhone-only website. Otherwise, you can remove those statements.
Defining a viewport is easy: Just insert the following meta in the head section of your html document.

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1.<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0;">

Source: http://www.engageinteractive.co.uk/blog/2008/06/19/tutorial-building-a-website-for-the-iphone/

Insert an iPhone specific icon

When a user adds your page to the home screen, the iPhone will automatically use a screenshot of your website as an icon. But you can provide your own icon, which is definitely better.
Defining a custom iPhone icon is easy: Simply paste the following in the head section of your html document. The image should be 57px by 57px in .png format. You do not need to add the shine or corners, as the iPhone will do that for you automatically.

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1.<rel="apple-touch-icon" href="images/template/engage.png"/>

Source: http://www.engageinteractive.co.uk/blog/2008/06/19/tutorial-building-a-website-for-the-iphone/

Prevent Safari from adjusting text size on rotate

When you rotate the iPhone, Safari adjust text size. If for some reason you’d like to prevent this effect, simply use the following CSS declaration. It has to be inserted in your CSS file.
The -webkit-text-size-adjust is a webkit-only CSS property that allow you to control text adjustment.

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1.html, body, form, fieldset, p, div, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {

2.    -webkit-text-size-adjust:none;

3.}

Source: http://www.engageinteractive.co.uk/blog/2008/06/19/tutorial-building-a-website-for-the-iphone/

Detect iPhone orientation

Due to the fact that the iPhone allow its users to view a page in both portrait and landscape modes, you may need to be able to detect in which mode the document is being read.
This handy javascript function will detect the current iPhone orientation and will apply a specific CSS class so you can style it your way. Note that in this example, the CSS class is added to the page_wrapper ID. Replace it by the desired ID name (See line 24).

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01.window.onload = function initialLoad() {

02.    updateOrientation();

03.}

04. 

05.function updateOrientation(){

06.    var contentType = "show_";

07.    switch(window.orientation){

08.        case 0:

09.    contentType += "normal";

10.    break;

11. 

12.    case -90:

13.    contentType += "right";

14.    break;

15. 

16.    case 90:

17.    contentType += "left";

18.    break;

19. 

20.    case 180:

21.    contentType += "flipped";

22.    break;

23.    }

24.    document.getElementById("page_wrapper").setAttribute("class", contentType);

25.}

Source: http://www.engageinteractive.co.uk/blog/2008/06/19/tutorial-building-a-website-for-the-iphone/

Apply CSS styles to iPhones/iPods only

Browser sniffing can be useful, but for many reasons it isn’t the best practice to detect a browser. If you’re looking for a cleaner way to apply CSS styles to the iPhone only, you should use th following. It has to be pasted on your regular CSS file.

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1.@media screen and (max-device-width: 480px){

2.    /* All iPhone only CSS goes here */

3.}

Source: http://csswizardry.com/2010/01/iphone-css-tips-for-building-iphone-websites/

Automatically re-size images for iPhones

On recent websites, most images are above 480 pixels wide. Due to the iPhone small size, there’s a strong chance that images will break out of the wrapper area.
Using the following CSS code, you’ll be able to automatically re-size the website images to 100%. As the device max width is 480px, images will never be wider.

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1.@media screen and (max-device-width: 480px){

2.    img{

3.        max-width:100%;

4.        height:auto;

5.    }

6.}

Source: http://csswizardry.com/2010/01/iphone-css-tips-for-building-iphone-websites/

Hide toolbar by default

On a small screen such as the iPhone screen, a toolbar is useful but also wastes a lot of space. If you’d like to hide Safari toolbar by default when an iPhone visitor open your website, just implement the following javascript code.

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1.window.addEventListener('load', function() {

2.    setTimeout(scrollTo, 0, 0, 1);

3.}, false);

Source: http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/iphone-development-12-tips/2

Make use of special links

Do you remember those “mailto” link that were very popular some years ago? This prefix automatically open the default email client used by the person who clicked on it. The iPhone has introduced two similar prefixes, tel and sms, which allows the person who clicked on it to phone or text automatically.
I’m definitely not a fan of those, but maybe that will be useful to you. The only thing you have to do to implement this, is to paste the following anywhere on your html page.

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1.<a href="tel:12345678900">Call me</a>

2.<a href="sms:12345678900">Send me a text</a>

Source: http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/iphone-development-12-tips/3

Simulate :hover pseudo class

As no one is using a mouse on the iPhone, the :hover CSS pseudo class isn’t used. Though, using some Javascript you can simulate the :hover pseudo class when the user will have his finger on a link.

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1.var myLinks = document.getElementsByTagName('a');

2.for(var i = 0; i < myLinks.length; i++){

3.   myLinks[i].addEventListener('touchstart', function(){this.className = "hover";}, false);

4.   myLinks[i].addEventListener('touchend', function(){this.className = "";}, false);

5.}

Once you added the code above to your document, you can start css styling:

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1.a:hover, a.hover {

2.    /* whatever your hover effect is */

3.}

Source: http://www.evotech.net/blog/2008/12/hover-pseudoclass-for-the-iphone/

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Condé Nast reveals initial list of iPad magazines

Condé Nast reveals initial list of iPad magazines

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Mar 1st 2010 at 12:00PM

As we move closer to the iPad's release date, more information is becoming available regarding 3rd-party content. Just this week, an internal memo from Condé Nast revealed the list of the first of the magazines that will be initially available for the device. They are:

1. GQ
2. Vanity Fair
3. Wired
4. Glamour
5. The New Yorker

Expect GQ to be the first one available, either at or directly after the iPad's launch. Vanity Fair and Wired should be available in June, while launch schedules for Glamour and The New Yorker are unclear.

Condé Nast's editorial director, Thomas Wallace, noted that there's an experimental aspect to releasing these publications for the iPad. These titles will be used to test pricing and advertising strategies. It won't be easy, as distribution will be handled via iTunes, and Apple doesn't share reader data.

Last week, we saw what may be a list of the books that will be available for purchase at launch, including bestselling fiction, non-fiction and autobiography titles. iBooks is going to be a huge part of the iPad, and at this point we can't wait to get it started.

via tuaw.com

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O Brave New eBook, a vision of ebooks / capable ereader devices in education #ipad

O Brave New eBook

Posted by DBW on 2/16/10 • Categorized as eBooks

By John Ott and Eric Freese, Aptara

Welcome to class. Take your new tablet— your only textbook this semester— out of your backpack. It’s about the same size, but lighter and thinner than your old textbooks. It’s also battery-powered, similar to a big touch-screen, like your iPhone.

Use that touch-screen and download the first chapter of your first lesson. That’s right—your lesson is an app. Plug in your earbuds and tap the screen to begin the introductory video.

Cool, the presenter is that famous scientist from the cable show…

Now the video goes into full documentary mode; scenes from real life. Major ideas from the lesson appear as text at the bottom of the screen; so do vocabulary words. Now the presenter is back and he’s working out a big idea step-by-step on the whiteboard…

Video over. Time to read.

The text repeats and expands upon what you saw on the video. Tap an unfamiliar word and a popup gives you a definition; the voiceover gives you the proper pro-nun-ci-a-tion. Have some text you want to highlight? No magic marker needed—just tap and color the passage in one of six colors. Use the virtual keyboard to write yourself some study notes…

Click to enlarge

Tap Figure 1.1 in the text and it becomes a little animation—no step-ones and step-twos and little arrows like in your old textbooks. Graphs, charts, and diagrams each have their own animations – watch the bars grow; see how the pie chart is sliced; the voiceovers explain everything that happens. Here’s a still photo; tap on it and it becomes a slideshow—with narration for each picture. Other photos turn into additional short videos.

Well, did you learn anything? Tap the screen and bring up the exercises. Tap to answer the questions—and your textbook will tell you if you got the right answer or not. Have a real question? Use your textbook and email it to your teacher.

So, that was science. On to the next class—where you’ll use tablet for history. And for math. And health.

And you can use your tablet to record your teacher’s lecture in Spanish class.

And you’re really looking forward to English Lit, because you get to watch Shakespeare and read along at the same time.

Finish off the school day at band practice. Need the music? Got an app for that. Download it. While you’re waiting for the conductor, give a listen what the piece sounds like. Tune to a perfect “C” from your tablet; then tap up the sheet music, prop your tablet on the music stand, and toot that horn.

Now you’re on the bus going home; you’ve got homework. The Moby Dick app is on your tablet, but the writing is pretty dense and you think you’d rather watch the old 1956 John Huston-Ray Bradbury movie… or watch that Harvard professor lecturing about the book… or watch the documentary video on whaling… it’s all part of the app. Well, maybe later.

Your tablet is also a web browser…

Wow! James Cameron has another Avatar sequel coming out… there’s an eBook app already available. Navigate to the store and download it. Cool— it’s got clips and outtakes from the movie and tons of concept art, and video interviews with the stars and supplemental fiction and special animations… and links to sites where you can buy every authorized piece of Avatar merchandise…

This all sounds great, right? So when—? In about ten weeks. Plus the time it takes publishers to learn their way around Apple’s new, revolutionary iPad and start putting product on the market.

Apple’s iPad is likely to be the first tablet device to capture the public’s imagination and the mass market, opening the floodgates for similar devices and sparking a gold rush among eBook publishers. Its ability to incorporate color, video, interactivity, and sound into the eBook experience, along with its user-friendly touch-screen interface, means that publishers will now have to move beyond the model of simply reproducing printed pages on an electronic screen. The distinction between eBooks and apps will disappear.

Soon, there will be only two kinds of eBooks: those with video, motion graphics, and sound, and those without.

The Aspen Post put it very well:

“At the end of the day, at the end of this decade, the iPad will be seen as the first device that collected all the media together in one truly portable place… the tablet is literally a tabula rasa for the commingling of audio, video, text, and graphics—of movies, books, pamphlets, plays, diaries, novels, novellas, non-fiction, newsreels… and the list never ends…. In two or three more generations the iPad will become a true multimedia monster that changes the means of production forever.”

Touch-screen interaction is part of the whole spectrum of features (color, sound, video, motion graphics, interactivity) that make the iPad a breakthrough eBook device — not just an electronic substitute for paper. The thing publishers have to focus on now is not how to adapt legacy works to electronic formats, but how to completely reinvent their educational and mass-market products to take advantage of what the iPad, and subsequent devices, can do.

Traditional books don’t have moving parts or make sounds, and now suddenly publishers have to become experts on eBooks that do— video, audio, animation, motion graphics, and interactivity. They have to become— among other things— multimedia producers. Expect to see publishers pairing off with expert partners in multimedia fields real soon.

O brave new world for publishers…

But don’t worry. There will probably be an app for that, too.

John Ott is Senior Multimedia Designer at Aptara; Eric Freese is Digital Solutions Architect, Aptara. Aptara provides digital publishing solutions that deliver significant gains in quality, time-to-market and production costs for eBook publishers.

via digitalbookworld.com

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