Category Archives: mobile internet

What I want for my Mac

February 27, 2011 – 6:39 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée I was a happy man. After twelve years of Windows use at work — the usual Outlook excuse — I was about to be saved by Vista. On January 30th 2007, 8:00 am, the doors opened at Fry’s in Palo Alto. I showed up early to claim my prize, a 17” HP [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in software | Tagged , | Comments (7)

Tear down this PDF

February 7, 2011 – 12:33 pm

TweetThe PDF document format is digital publishing’s worst enemy. For a large part, the news industry still relies on this 18-year-old format to sell its content online. PDF is to e-publishing what the steam locomotive is to the high-speed train. In our business, progress is called XML and HTML5. Picture today’s smartphone reading experience. We’ll [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in newspapers, online publishing | Comments (29)

iPad publishing: time to switch to v2.0

January 2, 2011 – 7:07 pm

TweetThere is no way around this fact: the first batch of magazines adapted to the iPad failed to deliver. Six months after the initial excitement, the mood has turned turned sour. See the figures below, they show the downturn in circulation for the much publicized iPad versions of a few American magazines: – Wired: 100,000 [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (85)

Rebooting Web Publishing Design

December 19, 2010 – 6:47 pm

TweetLet’s start by reviewing the basic ingredients of a successful online publishing operation: 1 / Quick load. 2 / Ease of operation and update 3 / Consistent visual identity 4 / Platform independence 5 / Open to the rest of the web 6 / Geared for transactions 7 / CRM and marketing-friendly Why am I [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Comments (22)

LimpingMe: Apple’s Cloudy Service.

December 13, 2010 – 1:06 am

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée Friday morning, I stop at Il Fornaio to get my last caffeine fix of the morning. Once arrived at the office across the street, I realize I “lost” my iPad. Not to worry, I’ve done this before. Find My iPhone will tell me where it is. It worked a couple of months [...]

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Measuring the Nomads

December 5, 2010 – 2:12 pm

TweetThe more diverse and ubiquitous the internet gets, the harder it becomes to measure. Especially with the mobile version’s rapid growth. A few weeks ago, my friends from the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) asked for a presentation discussing audience measurements for smartphones and tablets. The target was a conference held last Friday in Boston. [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Comments (17)

The Carriers’ Rebellion

September 26, 2010 – 5:18 pm

TweetBefore the Steve Jobs hypnosis session, AT&T ruled. Handsets, their prices, branding, applications, contractual terms, content sales…AT&T decided everything and made pennies on each bit that flowed through its network. Then the Great Mesmerizer swept the table. Apple provided the hardware, the operating system, and “everything else”: applications, music, ringtones, movies, books… The iTunes cash register [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in hardware | Tagged , , , , | Comments (25)

Nokia’s New CEO: Challenges

September 12, 2010 – 5:39 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée Here we are, back from last June’s Nokia science-fiction romp. The company has finally elected a new CEO to replace OPK, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. 43-year-old Stephen Elop’s bona fides are in order: As President of Microsoft’s Business Division (since January 2008) he was in charge of the Microsoft Office money machine and was [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in hardware | Tagged , , | Comments (41)

Science Fiction: An Apple-Curated App Store

September 6, 2010 – 6:46 am

TweetIn an alternate universe, Apple has announced the App Store Guide and Blog. Choice morsels from the PR material follow. “We came to realize that a quarter million apps meant worse than nothing to Apple users”, said Apple’s CEO. “I get confused too! Reviews are often fake, lame, or downright incompetent. PR firms have been [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in software | Tagged , | Comments (12)

A Toolkit for the Cognitive Container

August 29, 2010 – 4:15 pm

TweetWe now live in an apps world. “The web is dead” shouts Chris Anderson, Wired’s editor-in-chief. To make his point, he teamed up with Michael Wolff, a Vanity Fair writer. According his latest theory, the internet is taken over by mobile applications, and the web as we know it, will be soon dead. Wired produces [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (13)