As other publishers have demoed their tablet vision over the past few months, there’s nothing really new that we’re seeing here. But that’s likely because Wired is one of the first to get past the prototype and into a live product. No small feat.
The content is created in Adobe InDesign(!) and powered by an AIR app. I think I just heard a collective sigh of relief from print designers.
Editor Chris Anderson sees this (as do the other publishers) as an opportunity to “reset the economics” of publishing, and give people an experience that they’re willing to pay for.
As I look at the stack of un-read copies Wired in my office, who knows, maybe I’ll bite when I get my iPad.
According to the Financial Times Kodak has gone through the most radical business transformation in history.
Here’s a company snapshot to give you an idea:
Company employees 1988: 145,000
Company employees today: less than 20,000, 60% of which are new in the past 4 years
19 products drive almost all the company’s revenue, 11 of them are digital
Half of these products didn’t exist 2 years ago
In this video CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett is very open about the rapid pace and in-flux state of their brand transformation.
I have to say that I love this guy. In a very entertaining and humorous way he highlights the company bottlenecks that have them producing break-through products with meaningless names (i.e. Zi8).
In my opinion Hayzlett’s energy is just what this company needs if they’re ever to become a household name again. Seems like a great client to work for.
I’m continually baffled by retailers that waste their money (and our time) with impossibly useless product finders. This one from BestBuy is one of the worst ones I’ve come across in a long time.
There is just so much wrong with it that I can’t bear to waste even more of my time writing about it. If you feel like wasting some of yours, check it out for yourself.
Otherwise I think the image above says it all.
Just imagine if BestBuy created an easy to use tool that asked human questions and gave meaningful results. Think of what that could do for their brand.
Then again, considering the BestBuy in-store experience, maybe this tool real is on brand.
Typeface is a movie about a museum and print shop in rural Wisconsin that has a rich history in wood type. As the number of craftsmen (and women) of this trade have rapidly declined over the years, this museum hope to preserve this history and hopefully inspire a new generation.
Having worked for some time in a print shop in my younger years, and quite literally around 2-color presses, I have a bit of a soft spot for stories like this one.
For more information on the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum visit their website.
But what’s with the inch mark in place of the apostrophe at the end. Shame!
This TED Talk is over two years old, yet still feels very relevant today. In just eighteen minutes Lawrence Lessig manages to masterfully crystallize the impact of the democratization of the tools of content creation and its distribution on the way we communicate. Or more specifically, how today’s “kids” are communicating. As the title of this video suggests, this presentation is about how copyright law lacks the common sense to allow the reuse and distribution of digital content for non-commercial use.
As presentations go, this one is just ... awesome. I love the fast pace of his slides and their simplicity. And his narrative just pulls you in.
