Showing posts with label html5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label html5. Show all posts

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The mobile war is over and the app has won: 80% of mobile time spent in apps

VentureBeat reporting:
Only 20 percent of American consumers’ time on mobile devices is spent on the web. A massive majority, 80 percent, is spent in apps: games, news, productivity, utility, and social networking apps.
Turns out, it’s an app world, after all.
According to app analytics firm Flurry, which tracks app usage on a staggering 300,000 apps on over a billion active mobile devices, we spend an average of 158 minutes each and every day on our smartphones and tablets. Two hours and seven minutes of that is in an app, and only 31 minutes is in a browser, surfing the old-school web.
A big chunk of that 158 minutes is taken up with games — 32 percent — but it’s almost shocking to see how much time a single app and a single company eats up. Eighteen percent of all the time that Americans spend on their phones is spent in the Facebook app, a figure that by itself dwarfs all other social networking apps.
Combined, the others only take up six percent of our time.
The mobile war is over and the app has won: 80% of mobile time spentĀ inĀ apps

...
In an interesting twist, however, HTML5 is actually being used more as a tool for cross-platform native app development. In fact, it’s now the number one choice for developers building apps for multiple platforms.
Flurry also says that people are now using more apps than ever, launching 7.9 per day in the last part of 2012 versus 7.5 per day in 2011 and 7.2 per day in 2010. Consumers are continuing to try new apps as well, with long-term users adding new apps regularly to their existing stack.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/03/the-mobile-war-is-over-and-the-app-has-won-80-of-mobile-time-spent-in-apps/

Monday, June 24, 2013

HTML5 Has Place In App World?

onlinemediadaily reporting:
Where does HTML5 fit in an app world? That’s the question raised in a new NPD Group report examining the role of the mobile Web, specifically HTML5 technology, in a mobile ecosystem dominated by applications.

The study suggests that mobile Web proponents should focus on showcasing compelling use cases for HTML5 and building “hybrid apps,” to move the ball forward.
Linda Barrabee, research director of NPD’s Connected Intelligence service and author of “This is an App’s World: Can HTML5 Rejuvenate the Mobile Web?” points out the Web programming language has long been heralded as a way to overcome the fragmentation inherent in mobile technology. But “the technology is not quite ready for prime time and mainstream adoption,” she stated in a blog post.
This is underscored by companies like Facebook and LinkedIn that are ditching HTML5 in favor of native code for their mobile apps to improve performance and offer a better user experience. That’s why apps have typically been the default option for media companies, retailers and brands to extend their content and drive commerce on mobile devices.
Mobile users still spend the vast majority of their time with apps. Data from Nielsen’s latest cross-platform report showed that smartphone owners devoted 87% of their time to apps versus 13% on the mobile Web, while iPad users spent 76% of their time with apps, compared to 24% surfing online.
Still, the NPD report indicates there are areas where people opt for the mobile Web over apps, such as checking the news and visiting retail sites. Web and app use are also about even when it comes to mobile banking. Apps have only a slight lead over mobile Web sites in search and social networking.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Tech Explainer: Five challenges for publishers adopting HTML5

TheMediaMuch of the coverage of HTML5-based digital products built by publishers has centred on its lean, flexible development, cost benefits and usability.
Web-based apps, so we've heard, will save money on digital production costs, free publishers from the tyranny of native applications (and therefore the App Store) and enable publishers to create new complex and beautiful products better suited to multiple uses and myriad devices.
(If you're not familiar with the basics of HTML5 I recommend reading our explainer piece which you can find here).
So far, so promised land - but what are the disadvantages for publishers adopting HTML5?

Browser support

The continued use of older versions of browsers is a constant thorn in the side of developers, meaning they have to check how their software/website runs on a plethora of slightly different environments. However, with HTML5 that could become even more severe, as many elements of HTML5 simply won't work with some older PC/desktop browsers.
The main issue is with versions of Internet Explorer before number 9 which aren't compatible with HTML5 at all. Acccording to Stat Counter, more than 11 percent of internet activity worldwide comes through Internet Explorer 8 or earlier. ..
http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2013-03-11/html5-challenges-for-publishers?utm_source=Daily+Buzz+from+eMedia+Vitals&utm_campaign=dd5a8f08d5-nl_DB_03_12_2013&utm_medium=email

Friday, November 2, 2012

How HTML5 Based Books will Disrupt the Digital Publishing Sector

goodEreader reporting:
Many digital publishing companies are increasingly looking to iOS and Google Android to make standalone apps for their eBooks or digital properties. They also deal with the traditional eBook format that is available via online retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. Dedicated app development geared towards a singular platform normally warrants an extensive programing department to generally refine the apps over time and add new content. Digital Publishers and Online retailers all make apps to garner customers dollars and offer distribution systems to push sales to the end user. HTML5 seeks to disrupt the current model everyone is employing to the entire Digital Publishing Industry.
Last year Google released the source code for their browser based ebook “20 things I learned about Browsers and the Web”  It features a very solid animated book, complete with turn page animations. Most of the content is highly interactive and publishers can easily insert a picture and the text will conform to where you are dragging it within the book.  It revolutionized the way that electronic books are accessible via a multitude of web browsers. Instead of making a dedicated app, they made it available to be read on tablets, iPhones, computers and every other mobile device.
Amazon and Kobo have already taken advantage of HTML5, by opening their Kindle Cloud Reader and Kobo Reader. These were initially designed and made available to buy, purchase and read books on the iPad and iPhones. Apple had implemented a policy last year that demanded all in-app purchases be made by iTunes. This resulted in these two companies disabling the functionality to buy electronic content in the app. They bypassed this by developed a fully featured HTML5 based store app, that functioned like their iOS or Android equivalents...
One of the most highly contested debates these days is between books that are encrypted via Digital Rights Management and books that are free to share. We also see many different ebook formats like AZW, EPUB, PRC, PDF, TXT, RTF, CBR, CBZ and many more. This confuses the average user who just wants to buy a book on their Kindle and read it later on their Nook or on their PC.As it stands, you can’t read books purchased from Amazon on any other device. If you want to buy a book from Barnes and Noble and read it on your Kobo, you need to use complicated software like Adobe Digital Editions. Selling the HTML5 based version and using the e-Reader, Tablet and any PC’s web browser would give you a fuller experience and cut down on the manual work customers have to do, just to enjoy their book. This would seriously disrupt the conventional way that people use different ebook formats...
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/how-html5-based-books-will-disrupt-the-digital-publishing-sector/

Monday, October 15, 2012

HTML5 vs. Apps: Why The Debate Matters, And Who Will Win

Business Insider  reporting: HTML5 is a new technology that allows developers to build rich web-based apps that run on any device via a standard web browser.
Many think it will save the web, rendering native platform-dependent apps obsolete.
So, which will win? Native apps or HTML5?
A recent report from BI Intelligence explains why we think HTML5 will win out, and what an HTML future will look like for consumers, developers, and brands.
Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here's why the Apps-vs-HTML5 debate matters:
  • Distribution: Native apps are distributed through app stores and markets controlled by the owners of the platforms. HTML5 is distributed through the rules of the open web: the link economy.
  • Monetization: Native apps come with one-click purchase options built into mobile platforms. HTML5 apps will tend to be monetized more through advertising, because payments will be less user-friendly.
  • Platform power and network effects: Developers have to conform with Apple's rules. Apple's market share, meanwhile, creates network effects and lock-in. If and when developers can build excellent iPhone and iPad functionality on the web using HTML5, developers can cut Apple out of the loop. This will reduce the network effects of Apple's platform.
  • Functionality: Right now, native apps can do a lot more than HTML5 apps. HTML5 apps will get better, but not as fast as some HTML5 advocates think.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Twice as Many Mobile News Readers Prefer Browsers to Apps

Mashable reporting PEW research:
News organizations have invested significantly in native apps for iOS, Android, WP7 and even, for a time, webOS — yet nearly three times as many tablet owners and twice as many smartphone users access news primarily through browsers rather than apps, according to a Pew Research Center study released Monday.
Sixty percent of tablet news readers and 61% of smartphone news readers in the survey said they get most of their news through web browsers on those devices. Twenty-three percent of tablet news readers and 28% of smartphone news readers claimed they use apps, while 16% and 11%, respectively, said they use apps and web browsers equally.
The study found that mobile devices aren’t so much cannibalizing news consumption as adding to it, particularly when it comes to tablets. Forty-three percent of tablet news readers said tablets add to the amount of time they spend with the news, and about a third said they get news from sources they didn’t turn to before. But only 24% of mobile news readers with print subscriptions said they would consider substituting them with digital subscriptions.
Tablet owners tend to be multi-platform news consumers: Fifty-four percent said they also get news on smartphones, 77% on personal computers and half also get it in print. A quarter gets news through all four channels.
http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/mobile-tablet-news-consumption-study/?WT.mc_id=en_my_stories&utm_campaign=My%2BStories&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

Thursday, August 9, 2012

BII REPORT: How HTML5 Will Take Over Mobile Apps

businessinsider reporting: HTML5 is a new technology that allows developers to build rich web-based apps that run on any device via a standard web browser.
Many think it will save the web, rendering native platform-dependent apps obsolete.
So, which will win? Native apps or HTML5?
recent report from BI Intelligence explains why we think HTML5 will win out, and what an HTML future will look like for consumers, developers, and brands.
Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here's how HTML5 will eventually win out: 
  • But, it will still take a while: 
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-how-html5-will-take-over-mobile-apps-2012-8#ixzz233hMFMyE

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Hachette Joins Readium Project

ebookNewser reporting: Hachette Livre  – which includes both the Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK — is joining the Readium Project, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s new open source initiative. The move will make Hachette’s eBooks EPUB3 ready.
Hachette’s press release explains more: “The Readium Project aims to ensure that open source software for handling EPUB 3 publications is readily available, to accelerate adoption of EPUB 3 as the universal, accessible, global digital publishing format. This will be achieved by building on WebKit, the widely adopted open source HTML5 rendering engine.”
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/hachette-joins-readium-project_b21174

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Jan. 17, 2012, 8:30 a.m. A GarageBand for ebooks: Simplifying publishing could mean a flood of new content

NiemanLabs reporting:
It’s not just the platform — it’s the tools.
That’s the line that kept coming to mind this morning as I read this Ars Technica scoop on what Apple has in store for its press event in New York Thursday. Here’s Ars reporter Chris Foresman:
While speculation has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books — the “GarageBand for e-books,” so to speak — and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.
…[A]uthoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.
We’ll see on Thursday, of course — but making ebook publishing easier has the potential to have a significant disruptive impact on information industries.
The first disruption of the web, after all, was making it possible for people to publish online without caring about money. Ebooks have already allowed a new generation of small-scale (and large-scale) publishers to reach an audience — sometimes for money, sometimes just for passion’s sake. But the process of ebook publishing today reminds me a bit of the early days of blogging, when publishing online was possible but still a pain.
The web as a platform dates back to 1991, and nerds like me were publishing personal webpages not long after. But it took the development of tools like Blogger, Greymatter, and Movable Type — nearly a decade after the web launched — for the power of personal publishing to start to be fulfilled.
Doing it by hand meant learning HTML, then manually FTPing an updated .html file to a remote server. It wasn’t outrageously complicated, to be honest — but it was enough of an obstacle to keep most folks from writing online. When tools reduced personal publishing to typing words in a box and clicking “Post,” a whole new universe of potential contributors was suddenly ready to pitch in, and you saw the blogging explosion of the early 2000s.
And further improvements in tools — think Tumblr and Twitter — have brought even more people to publishing. For a host of creative endeavors — think desktop publishing, motion graphics, video editing, data visualization, coding — it’s the arrival of tools or frameworks that abstract away complexity that marks when they move from niche to something closer to mainstream.
While there are many hundreds of thousands of them published every year, books have historically been the most constrained form of publishing. Getting a book into print usually meant convincing an agent, then an editor, then a publishing house that your work was worthy — and that’s before trying to convince the Barnes & Nobles of the world it should have a place on their shelves.
Ebooks have blown open that world of exclusivity — but the ease of use still isn’t there.
There’s a long list of tools that try to make ebook creation easier, from big names (Apple’s Pages, Adobe’s InDesign) to smaller ones (Scrivener) to open source alternatives like calibre. But it’s still a complicated enough business that there’s a healthy ecosystem of companies offering ebook conversion services.http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/01/a-garageband-for-ebooks-simplifying-publishing-could-mean-a-flood-of-new-content/

Friday, January 13, 2012

Amazon Announces New Ebook Format For Kindle, More Elaborate

The Inquisitr reporting:
Amazon, the World’s largest e-commerce company, will be launching a new ebook format for their line of Kindle devices, dubbed KF8. The company originally announced the new format back in October when they also released the Kindle Fire.
The Kindle Fire has done tremendously well and continues to sell at a massive rate. The new KF8 ebook format will essentially give content creators more functionality and the ability to be more elaborate.
Via CNET:
“Through the use of HTML5 and CSS3, KF8 allows publishers to create great-looking books in all categories, particularly those that require rich formatting and design, such as technical & engineering books and cookbooks,” Amazon announced. Other features are well suited to graphic novels, comics, and kids’ books, Amazon said.”
Traditionally, someone would type up whatever book it is they have, do some editing and add in various graphic elements, then convert it and upload. Now, content creators and authors can add much richer formatting and give more “oomph” to their works.
More and more consumers are switching over to the Kindle and more and more authors are publishing their books to it. The simplicity is what’s so enticing and why it continues to be a big money maker, not just for Amazon but also for self publishers who can expect 70% of all profit, something that you don’t get with a traditional publisher.
“In the coming months KF8 will be rolled out to our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as our free Kindle reading apps,” Amazon said.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Economist Tries A Flipboard-Like Election App All In HTML

paidcontent reporting:
The Economist has given HTML web apps another shot in the arm by packaging its U.S. presidential election material in to a new Flipboard-like tablet content offering that works entirely in the web browser.
Electionism, as the new product is called, includes content from The Economist, its niche Washington, DC, sister title Roll Call, tweets and links to other web election writing.
Despite being built for the web, The Economist says specifically: “Electionism is currently available on the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy and the Kindle Fire and will be available shortly on the Blackberry Playbook. It is optimised for tablets.” So much is it optimised for touch, it doesn’t display at all on the desktop web.
It looks and feels just like Flipboard - that is, rather slick. As close to the bone as the comparisons might be, it shows what can be accomplished with HTML.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-the-economist-tries-a-flipboard-like-election-app-all-in-html

Amazon Scoots Past Apple’s Rules With HTML5 iPad Kindle Store

paidcontent reporting:
Back in July, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and other content providers pulled the purchasing options from their iOS apps, in order to comply with Apple’s new in-app purchasing restrictions. Today Amazon launched a workaround—a Web-based HTML5 Kindle store specifically optimized for the iPad.
The site is www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore. (You have to click that link through an iPad to see how it looks.) The store is optimized for a horizontal iPad screen, with big book cover icons. Amazon’s bestseller lists and New York Times (NYSE: NYT) bestsellers are prominently featured. When you launch the store site, a little message pops up inviting you to add it to your iPad’s home screen.
Users can also tap a button that leads them directly to the HTML5 Kindle Cloud Reader, which Amazon released in August. The web-based store does not link back to the Kindle for iPad app.
Content providers have generally focused on HTML5 apps as a way to circumvent Apple’s in-app purchasing restrictions, which were rolled out in July and require publishers to remove buy buttons from their apps or give Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) a 30-percent cut of sales made via the app. The Financial Times rolled out an HTML5 app, for example, and Kobo said in July that it would release one by the end of the year, although it has not done so yet.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-amazon-scoots-past-apples-rules-with-web-based-ipad-kindle-store

Friday, September 23, 2011

@ F8: Facebook’s Mobile Strategy Running In Place

paidcontent reporting:
With only a morning to highlight its work for the year and pitch thousands of developers on why they should continue to think of Facebook as a platform for their applications, the company clearly needs to focus on its bread-and-butter: the PC-based Facebook experience. But while Zuckerberg did demonstrate how the new timeline feature would look on a mobile device, he didn’t elaborate on whether or not we were seeing the mobile Web implementation of that experience or an app-based experience.
This is important because Facebook is believed to be working on HTML5 versions of its services that would allow it to bypass apps altogether in favor of the mobile Web, a development which could be a tipping point for the apps-versus-mobile-Web that we’re all getting a little sick of discussing. The lack of any significant mobile update at F8 gives credence to the notion that Facebook doesn’t see as much value in continuing to develop its traditional mobile strategy.
It’s not hard to imagine Facebook gearing up for a separate mobile-focused event sometime in the near feature. Executives and partners were tight-lipped after Zuckerberg’s morning keynote, but the lack of focus on something as vital to Facebook’s future as its mobile strategy likely means that something big is around the corner.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-f8-facebooks-mobile-strategy-running-in-place

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Hearst To Convert All Sites to HTML5

Niemanlab reporting:
NEW YORK—Hearst Magazines is aiming to improve its digital strategy through the integration of HTML5, the company announced plans early Tuesday to implement the platform on the majority of its websites through out the fourth quarter of 2011 and into 2012, according to Mark Weinberg, vice president of programming and product strategy for Hearst Digital Media.
The platform’s integration with the brand has begun with a complete redesign and relaunch of GoodHousekeeping.com, which was once named one of the worst magazine websites on the Internet. The newly revamped site, which went live five days ago and was designed over the last year, is now compatible with the majority of all commonly used devices.
“This project forms the basis for the kind of site structure that we expect to roll out to the rest of the network over the next six to 18 months,” Weinberg told reporters during a walk through of the new website in the Hearst App Lab. “We have a number of sites that we’re in the process of redesigning and relaunching now and they will be relaunched fundamentally on the same kind of code base of HTML5 and they will designed to be multi-platform. The kind of innovations we’ve baked into the Good Housekeeping relaunch will drive where we go with the rest of the network sites.”
According to a spokesperson for Hearst, the titles acquired in the Hachette deal will be the first properties to undergo the change, with the company’s staple brands to follow.
http://www.foliomag.com/2011/hearst-convert-all-sites-html5

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Could Mobile Apps Be Evolutionary Dead End?

adagedigital reporting:
...This summer, the app ecosystem started to show signs that it may be fraying at the edge. Several major players in media and social networking, including the Financial Times, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook have all launched rich web applications. These sites, thanks to the magic of HTML5, run in any modern browser and come very close to matching the functionality of their "native" app cousins.
Now none of these companies has abandoned their Apple or Android apps.
Still, the sudden interest in web apps is notable. There are arguably three factors driving it.
First, HTML5 has finally matured into a strong alternative to native iOS and Android apps. These web apps can even run offline.
Second, it shows that perhaps developers are frustrated that they need to support multiple platforms. Android devices alone come in so many shapes, sizes and resolutions, that supporting them is a difficult and expensive challenge. Web apps solve this conundrum.
Finally, there's freedom. Apple, most notably, recently changed the way that developers can sell content from within their applications. If a developer links out to their own online store, they must also allow consumers to purchase content using an iTunes account. However, Apple takes a 30% cut of the latter. challenge. Web apps solve this conundrum...
http://adage.com/article/steve-rubel/mobile-apps-evolutionary-dead-end/229429

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Financial Times shuns the App Store, but not the iPad

NiemannJournalismLab reporting:
The Financial Times has launched a new, subscription-based iPad app, but you won’t find it in Apple’s App Store. The app is a touch-optimized, HTML5-powered newspaper that runs in the browser.
And it’s slick. Open app.ft.com in Mobile Safari and you’re prompted to add a bookmark to your home screen, which unlocks the site’s full potential. The app launches full-screen, unencumbered by browser chrome. It’s fast and smooth. Stories are downloaded, which allows for offline reading.
In other words, the FT’s web app is practically indistinguishable from a native app.
That’s important, as Peter Kafka notes, because it allows the FT to deliver a “native” experience without having to play by Apple’s subscription rules. But it will become much more important, and interesting, if the newspaper pulls its existing apps out of the App Store next month, when Apple’s policy will become a Hobson’s choice for all publishers. At that point, Apple will demand a share of the publishers’ proceeds and keep valuable subscriber data to itself.
The FT’s promotional video opens thusly: “The FT app is moving.” And it seems to promote the web app’s advantages over its predecessor, the native app. “The app is quicker. You can now read more content and watch our award-winning video on iPhone as well as iPad,” the narrator says. The web app, in other words, could well be a test case for paid content that does its thing outside the confines of Apple’s walled garden. Though the FT says it has “no plans to pull out of any apps store,” Kafka notes, he continues: “That’s not the same as saying it plans to stick around, either.”
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/06/the-financial-times-shuns-the-app-store-but-not-the-ipad/?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ffbc54cd25-DAILY_EMAIL

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Ex-Newsweek President Edmiston Launching Seven New iPad Mags

paidContent reporting:
Nomad Editions, established to devise new magazines for tablet subscriptions, has seven or eight more titles in the pipeline, says CEO Mark Edmiston, a former Newsweek president.
Since its free iOS carousel app went live on May 11, it has sold “thousands” of subscriptions to its five weekly titles - BodySmart (weight loss), Real Eats (food), U+Me (social networking), Uncorked (wine) and Wide Screen (movies) - each of which is a new launch and costs $9.99 per year or $0.99 per month.
“What surprised me is, we’re getting almost 50 percent of people taking the year,” Edmiston told paidContent, explaining about 10 percent of free app downloaders convert to subscribe.
Nomad is trying to prove that tablets can be platforms for new as well as existing brands. Rather than convert existing titles to tablet, it taps journalists to devise new titles along with it, with an interesting new model - for pay, each editor takes five percent of subscription income, whilst writers split 30 percent between them.
“We look for editors but they look for us too,” says Edmiston, who also co-founded the JEGI media investment advisory. “The analogy is closer to a movie studio than to a trade publishing company.” Three of Nomad’s current five titles were conceived not by Nomad itself but by budding new editors. Nomad will shortly add Sustainable Money (business), Good Dog (pets), a spirituality title and one for collectors of 1960s muscle cars.
For Edmiston, the opportunity so far is all about iPad. But Nomad magazines may end up on other platforms - each is actually a HTML5 site, which just happens to be encased in an iOS application. Editors even handle production, using an automated workflow inside software called TreeSaver. “We’re bottom-up rather than top-down,” he says. “We have copy editors so we do impose discipline on the process, but we try not to impose on the choice of stories.”
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-interview-ex-newsweek-president-edmiston-launching-seven-new-ipad-mags

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Aside Magazine app runs on any tablet, shows what developers can do with HTML5

Poynter reporting:

A pair of Berlin-based designers has released a prototype of what they call the world’s first HTML5 magazine for tablets.
The project, called Aside Magazine, is an impressive demonstration of the design, interactivity and app-like experience that can be created using new advances in the language that powers the Web: HTML.
The newest version, HTML5, goes far beyond pages, hyperlinks and images. It includes new support for multimedia and graphical content without using any plugins such as Flash. These advances are important for news publishers seeking independence and a universal development strategy.
Web apps enable publishers to avoid several problems with developing news apps for mobile devices: developing different versions for iOS and Android (not to mention BlackBerry or Windows), submitting the app to Apple for approval (which can take days or weeks) and giving Google or Apple 30 percent of revenue.
“Don’t get us wrong, we love the App Store. But in our world, magazines are press content, not software,” Nico Engelhardt, who along with Johannes Ippen designed Aside Magazine, told me by email. “And we don’t want a big company to decide whether our content is allowed to be published or not.”

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/133366/aside-magazine-app-runs-on-any-tablet-shows-what-developers-can-do-with-html5

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Media companies haven’t exploited opportunities created by iPad and mobile technology

Poynter  Damon Kieslow: So far those (iPad) opportunities have gone largely unexploited as media companies try to figure out exactly what tablets are good for. As I noted last month, most of the U.S. newspaper apps to launch recently on the iPad are replica editions — basically PDFs of the printed product. While there may be a small audience for these replicas, this is a transitional model at best and will do nothing to build new audiences on tablets.
Likewise, many interactive newspaper apps are a lot like print products — but not necessarily in a good way. Apps from USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are well designed, but they still offer the same type of content as in print, with a similar look and feel.
Personalized news services like News.me and Trove are entirely new forms of news presentation, pushing the medium forward with a mix of aggregation, social media, curation and filtering. For better or worse, the vanguard of this effort consists of startups like Flipboard, Zite, News 360 and Taptu, not longstanding media companies.
So, just over a year into the age of the iPad, what can media do to compete? Clay Shirky has suggested that “nothing will work, but everything might.” That is a call to experiment,  fail and try again. Not every startup will succeed, but it only takes one Craigslist or Google to devastate an old industry (classifieds) or start a new one (search advertising).
The problem has been that media companies are not trying enough, quickly enough. It is not that media cannot innovate, it is that media organizations have not been structured to encourage it.
That is beginning to change, slowly. Look again at News.me and Trove. Neither is a finished product or a perfect one. But both were created by newspaper companies that put resources into research and development. News.me was created by The New York Times R&D lab and transitioned to Betaworks for development. Trove was built by the WaPo Labs team.
Tackable, a crowdsourced photojournalism app, is another example. An independent developer is building the app, but the San Jose Mercury News is incubating it. Tackable gets office space and some development assistance, and the Mercury News gets a version of the app built to its specifications.
And this week, the first round of the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Challenge launched. In the next two years the project will fund fellowships for 15 developers in newsrooms in the U.S. and abroad to “harness open-Web innovation for journalism.” One of the first challenges is building HTML5 apps for Web and mobile platforms.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/129372/media-companies-havent-exploited-opportunities-created-by-ipad-and-mobile-technology

Sunday, April 17, 2011

How HTML5 Is Influencing Web App Development

Mashable reporting

Over the last 12 months, the momentum behind HTML5 has continued to build, with application developers, browser makers and hardware vendors fully embracing and supporting the web of the future. Consumers have started to embrace HTML5 as well, especially as more users understand the benefits and potential that HTML5 can mean for the future.
With Firefox 4, Google Chrome, IE 9, Safari 5 and Opera all offering better, more robust support for HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, we’re already seeing glimpses of what is possible and what the web of the future may look like.
Let’s look at some of the aspects of HTML5 that are already making their mark on web app development.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/15/html5-web-apps/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29