Category: Digital Media (Page 8 of 16)

      Sorry film nerds, a widescreen iPad doesn’t make sense

      April 6, 2010 /

      Apple's iPad.When the iPad was first announced there was a lot of crying about the screen size. If the thing was meant for watching video why wouldn’t it have a 16:9 aspect ratio? I mean, who wants black bars on the size of an already smaller screen than you might be used to.

      I do, actually. Why? The iPad is about more than just visual media consumption. Yes, movies are going to look great on that pretty little screen, but it needs to do more than that. From everything we’ve seen about the iPad (and everything you probably know if you’ve held one) it’s meant to be wielded a lot like a book. Imagine that book on a 16:9 aspect ratio. It would be ridiculously awkward to hold.

      That says nothing of actually viewing content either. Reading websites, ebooks, and browsing content like photos makes much more sense with a 4:3 screen. The iPad is not a purpose-built device; it’s designed for all sorts of content.

      If you’re really that concerned about a 16:9 screen, get yourself a JooJoo. I hear that company is doing very well.

      Digital Media, ebooks, iPad

      Pandora Universal app looks great

      April 2, 2010 /

      iPad Pandora app.With the iPad launching tomorrow there are a lot of apps to get excited about, not the least of which is Pandora. Pandora has been a huge success on every mobile platform. It’s also saved me from many a dull road trip with a virtually limitless pool of musical styles. The app got an update this week to include the iPad version and it looks great.

      The update includes a large screen version for the iPad, making the artist description and album art that much more accessible. The update also adds album artwork for every station and improves streaming for quicker song selection and less service dropouts. I gotta say, I’ve never had serious problems with streaming, though it does occasionally seem slow, so the improvements will be great.

      The really nice thing for the iPad is that everything is on one screen. There’s no flipping back and forth for stations and artist info and all that. The new app seems focused on users getting to know the artist’s their browsing which will be great for Apple with iTunes integration.

      Apple, Computers, Digital Media

      Amazon wants to be your digital media hub

      March 29, 2010 /

      Amazon box.Amazon’s been struggling to keep up in the new ebook market. With Apple fast encroaching and stealing away publishers with the promise of more flexible contracts, Amazon’s trying to keep its hand deep in the content cookie jar, in some cases with threats. But Amazon knows that books aren’t the only frontier. As some recent job postings show, the company is looking to get into game download distribution, like Valve’s Steam.

      The news comes from Lazard Capital, market analysis firm that says, “As in other segments of digital media, we expect Amazon to pursue new opportunities as an aggregator of online games, similar to Steam (PC), BigPoint (browser) and others.” It would put Amazon in an interesting position that no one else holds in the market, sort of like the Wal-Mart of digital media. If this is true I’d say it’s entirely possible to see them get into the video market as well, with some sort of answer to the iTunes platform. I know plenty of people that currently choose Amazon for music over the Apple alternative.

      The news is backed up by claims that Amazon is hiring somewhere in the range of 1,000 new employees, many of whom will be software developers.

      Source: MCV

      Audio, Digital Media

      Amazon unveils Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers (including the iPad)

      March 22, 2010 /

      Amazon Kindle App for Tablet Computers.I almost laughed out loud when I saw the diminutive text that accompanied Amazon’s new Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers. It reads “Including the iPad,” in a tiny, scrunched up font. Funny content wars aside, the new app looks pretty great, and it gives us a look at the full color future of digital books from Amazon.

      The new app include fancy features like page turn animations and adjustable backgrounds while holding onto the Amazon Whispersync technology to keep your reading experience up to date across multiple devices. While this may be the future of reading with Amazon, it makes me wonder where the future of the company’s hardware lies. I still can’t imagine a world in which Amazon wanted to get into the hardware business for just a couple years, but maybe it did. It’s still the largest online retailer, and content distribution is really a nice business. Just ask Apple.

      If the future of the Kindle brand lies in apps across all platforms, though, Amazon would do well not to piss off so many publishers. All the work Amazon has done to this point will be null if readers can’t get the books they want in the Kindle store.

      Apps, Computers, Digital Media, ebooks

      Apple’s real iPad focus: TV

      March 21, 2010 /

      Steven Colbert with an iPad.The iPad may have been sold to the world as the device that will save publishing, but Apple has shown its real focus now that we’re just weeks away from release. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple put the publishing content on the “backburner in favor of focusing on other content,” like a subscription-based television service.

      Apple wants to make a sort of “best of TV” bundle available for a subscription fee, as well as offering episodic downloads for a dollar. Content providers have been wary of making any deals, likely because they’re afraid of getting burned like the music industry. Now that we’re years into the digital music business we can see that things haven’t been all bad for the labels, but there are probably some things they wouldn’t have agreed to if given the chance again.

      It’s looking unlikely that we’ll see anything by the time the iPad launches, which leaves Apple in a position it knows well – using sales figures to produce contracts. The iPad has already had some nice presale figures. Once version 2.0 rolls out you can bet we’ll see more widespread adoption.

      Apple, Digital Media, News

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