Exact Editions Blog

Amazon announces its new Content Distribution Network: Cloudfront. This allows their ‘pay as you go’ web services to be even more widely and efficiently distributed, see a helpful blog at allthingsdistributed. Think of your content as being distributed in the higher reaches of the atmosphere accessible to all, from the cirrus layer. Cirrus clouds being those “which may appear as delicate white filaments, featherlike tufts, or fibrous bands of ice crystals.” Cloudnomenclature.

Media will benefit from this … Keep Reading

The recession is hitting magazines hard and there is no doubt that 2009 is going to be a tough year. Bad news this week from Haymarket, Centaur, and Time Out. These are publishers with top quality magazine properties. We assume that it must be even tougher for the second tier players. Advertising, mostly the lack of it, is a big part of the problem. But circulation figures are also being challenged. This makes it really incomprehensible that … Keep Reading

The BA reaction is summarized on the Bookseller web site:

The trade body warned that the arrangement could create “a de facto monopoly” and “have a hugely damaging effect on the publishing and bookselling industry” if adopted in the UK.

One can hardly blame the BA, since booksellers would appear to be thoroughly disintermediated by the Google type of digital book platform (to declare an interest: the Exact Editions system is very similar in this). It is indeed hard to … Keep Reading

The iPhone is a surprisingly good reading platform. The touch interface works wonderfully, both in sliding digital pages and in shrinking or enlarging them; and the brilliance of the Apple design means that no one needs a user manual. Even with its very small screen area, broadsheet digital editions are easily read. The main snag holding us back from awarding Apple the universal digital reading device accolade is its limited battery life. iPhone users get used to coaxing and feeding … Keep Reading

A YouTube is worth 1,000 words

The video clip shows you how it works, and its great fun to play with. Costs 79 euro cents. Very easy to get started with little breaths.

Perhaps the cleverest aspect of this invention is the way Smule have made the toy viral. The app also lets you see any other ocarina players out there. There is a navigable ‘earth’ interface that allows you to zoom in and select named ocarina players. The app … Keep Reading