Introducing a New Digital Magazine Experience
Posted by admin in Adobe MobileFeb 17th, 2010 | 14 responses
You’ll see a video, narrated by Jeremy and Wired Creative Director Scott Dadich, it explains why the tablet is such a groundbreaking opportunity for magazines such as ours.
It was not a CGI demo or concept – it was running live code with real copy. The content was created in Adobe InDesign, as is the case for the print magazine, with the same designers adding interactive elements, from photo galleries and video to animations, along with adapting the designs so it looks great in both portrait and landscape orientation. This is a departure from the usual web model, where a different team repurposes magazine content into HTML, unavoidably losing much of the visual context in the process.
Although the Wired Reader starts as an AIR app, Adobe has created tools that allow us to easily convert it for major tablet and mobile platforms. In Barcelona this week, Adobe announced that AIR would run on Android, and Adobe has already announced its Packager for iPhone tool that will allow Flash apps (including AIR) to run on Apple mobile platforms. And AIR already runs natively on Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems.
The concept enables — in digital form — the immersive content experience magazines are known for, and allows new interactive features to stimulate reader engagement, including:
- content designed specifically for the touch screen experience
- easy navigation methods, including an innovative zoomed-out “Browse Mode”
- the ability to browse image slideshows
- embedded 360 degree object viewers
- support for video and audio content
- the ability to rotate content using device accelerometer functionality
In addition, with this digital magazine concept, advertisers have new possibilities for displaying ad content. Advertisers can develop rich-media magazine “inserts” to provide expanded information to customers directly within the magazine experience — without directing the reader’s attention away to a Web site. Publishers can also offer expanded ad formats that include animation and embedded video. Finally, as is the case with most digital advertising, this new magazine concept opens the possibility for more precise advertising performance metrics beyond the comparatively crude audience measurement/ad engagement techniques in use today.
When the WIRED app becomes available as a consumer-facing product, readers will be able to use it across a variety of device types because Adobe AIR is cross-platform. And since the publishing world is abuzz about the forthcoming Apple iPad, we expect that through our Packager for iPhone feature (available in Adobe Flash Professional CS5), these types of AIR content apps will run on the iPhone and iPad.
But enough of the technical details. The point here is that we are entering a new era of media, where we finally have a digital platform that allows us to retain all the rich visual features of high-gloss print, from lavish design to glorious photography, while augmenting it with video, animations, additional content and full interactivity. We’re one of the first magazines to go beyond the concept stage with this, and the demo we showed at TED and in the above video reflects months of real tablet production as we prepare to go live this summer.
Much is still to be answered about magazines and other media on this emerging class of devices, from the business and distribution models to the consumer response. But what is already clear is that they offer the opportunity to be beautiful, highly engaging and immersive, going beyond what’s available on the web. I think tablets are going to sell like hotcakes, in part because they offer such an intimate, rich media experience. We’re betting big on them, as you can see, but this is just a taste. Stay tuned for a full release this summer.
http://www.wired.com/, http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/
Another Tablet Demo - Time Inc. Sports Illustrated
14 Responses to “Introducing a New Digital Magazine Experience”
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Why are people forgetting how much reading text on a typical LCD hurts the eyes?
Kindle is awesome because of the e-paper and no other reason.
I find that reading white text, or viewing anything, really, on a black background when using an LCD strains my eyes much less that black text on a white background. Sure, it’s not something that we’re used to (newspapers do not use black paper and white ink, though that would be interesting) but it’s something simple that helps my eyes, and will save energy when using a laptop or tablet. (fewer pixels have to be powered, but I admit that energy savings won’t be entirely noticeable
JacaByte – FYI showing black on an LCD screen uses more power than white. If you have “dead pixels” on a LCD screen, they go bright not dark. Although not sure about newer tech LCD’s.
iPad is running on LED not LCD.
Uhmm.. LED is the backlight technology.. in other words, the method of shining light THROUGH the LCD.
So your statement “LED not LCD” is meaningless. It’s LED and LCD.
was the mannequin hand in that demo also live code?
I still don’t know why people think the market will buy a device that’s too large to be convenient, too small to be useful and too expensive to be worthwhile…
This is really cool technology. I recently purchased a book on Flash CS4 and Adobe AIR to get a better handle on this. Looks like I will have to be learning code in the future.
I don’t have any trouble reading on my iPhone, so I don’t see how this could be any different experience.
I’m just glad there are options to the iPad. Apple’s joke of a tool that doesn’t support: Flash, cameras, USB, any serious productivity software and just about anything useful.
No matter what this tablet does or doesn’t do, it shows there’s a trend to this type of interface and let the competition begin.
I would be more interested to find out more details on this statement -”Adobe has created tools that allow us to easily convert it for major tablet and mobile platforms”.
Since the iPad doesn’t play nice with Adobe’s Flash, what is being used in the Wired pub that looks like flash but isn’t?
well, seems like today apple killed the adobe compiler! “New iPhone Developer Agreement Bans the Use of Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone Compiler”
cheers
Increíble presentación, De verdad esto es una buena idea para nosotros que hacemos revistas.
Por otro lado va ser una buena herramienta de venta personal(interactiva).
De verdad excelente trabajo.
Saludos al equipo de adobe y de Wired.
Hi, Nice article. Having only discovered the blogosphere within the last couple of weeks and I am completely hooked!! It’s blogs like this that are responsible!
I’ve been so inspired that I decided to create my own blog. I am just researching for an article i’m writing and was wondering if I may link to your article? I think it may be of some interest to my viewers. All the best! . David Proud
I wish Adobe would just start making their applications work under 64bit platforms especially Linux platforms. It really sucks that they will not support 64bit. 64bit hardware has been around for 10 years or more and still major software companies are dragging their feet building 64bit software?????