Summary: Macmillan’s DynamicBooks offers editable digital textbooks for teachers; Google sees Buzz as a complement to other social networks

• Macmillian offers customizable e-books for professors
• Google VP: “Buzz does not compete with Facebook or Twitter. It’s a complement”
• Court orders Rapidshare to take down access to files for 148,000 pirated e-books… Publishers win a battle
• Mediashift: Digital publishers happy about Apple’s prices for digital editions… Mixed reactions to the iPad features

Photo Credit: Google

Tags: Industry News, The News by Jose Sanchez
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Probably one of the biggest objections to the new and still unreleased iPad and all of Apple’s web-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, iPod Touch) is the fact that they doesn’t support Flash. There’s millions of huge sites that rely on Flash rich content (CNN, Hulu, Google Finance, Disney) but Apple still doesn’t allow people to access them.

According to Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, Flash is an “old technology” and an “insecure” format. “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy (…) The iPad’s battery life would be 1.5 hours.”

Well, here are two different mobile devices running Flash games and even media content.

In terms of hardware, there shouldn’t be any problems with running Flash on iPhone’ish mobile devices. They display the format gracefully. Actually, Android phones (like the ones in the videos) have always supported Flash.

Then, what does Steve Jobs mean by “old technology”? Which version of Flash is he talking about? Jobs is referring to an imaginary version of Flash that doesn’t have hardware acceleration and therefore comes up with an imaginary battery life impact.

What do you think?

Tags: Industry News by Jose Sanchez
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Summary: 105K newspaper staffers have lost their jobs since 2001; The New York Times outlines its plan to profit from online content

• The New York Times finally reveals plans to make money from digital publications
• Total employment in newspapers has declined from 400,000 in 2001 to 300,000 now
• Authors opt out of Google Books settlement
• Newspapers have lost 105.000 jobs since 2001
• The entertainment industry has a new real-time social media dashboard
• US newspaper starts charging $5 weekly for digital editions

Photo Credit: NY Times

Tags: Industry News, The News by Jose Sanchez
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Summary: Reader’s Digest bankruptcy comes to an end;  Americans spend about 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet per day; Amazon puts digital books on Blackberries

• Reader’s Digest magazine emerges from bankruptcy
• Ruder Finn: Americans spend almost 3 hours per day using mobile web, 40% forwards digital content
• Amazon’s e-books available for Blackberries
• Local and digital advertising expected to grow in 2010
• Facebook, the top social sharing site… and we’re not surprised
• Tamyl-Canadian newspaper vandalized after warning about trouble

Phoro Credit: Getty Images

Tags: Industry News, The News by Jose Sanchez
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Summary: Mygazines develops multi-device browser-based app for publications; Photoshop hits twenty

• Mobile Marketer: Mygazines launches mobile web presence for publishers, forgoes apps
• Photoshop is 20 years old
• Traditional newspaper circulation keeps decreasing
• Google about to reach a deal with book publishers and demos Flash for Android Phones (good news for digital content)

Photo Credit: Mygazines

Tags: Industry News, Product Announcements, The News by Jose Sanchez
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Now you can check out our blog on your favorite mobile device. Read it on you iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and on any other web-enabled device. You don’t need a different URL.

Go to the blog’s URL (http://blog magazines.com) and the blog will automatically fit in your gadget. Read posts, e-mail us, write comments… all on the go.

Tags: Product Announcements by Jose Sanchez
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Summary: The iPad isn’t loved by the New York Times; Alexander McQueen dies at 40

• The iPad wasn’t even mentioned once by New York Times executives during its recent massive conference call
• Designer and fashion icon Alexander McQueen passes away at 40
• Adobe: 7 million iPhone users want Flash for their devices

Photo Credit: Apple

Tags: Industry News, The News by Jose Sanchez
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You can now follow Mygazines’ official Google Buzz profile. Just click here and start getting instant updates, start conversations, share digital editions… everything in real time!

Tags: Marketing, Product Announcements, Resources by Jose Sanchez
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Summary: NY Times profit triples (helped by cost cuts); Associated Press’ stories reappeared on Google News

• The New York Times increases its profit, but ads are still weak
• AP stories are back on Google News
• Yes, magazine sales have declined, but they’re still better than in 2008
• Controversy: Linday Lohan channels her inner Jesus for a French magazine

Photo Credit: NY Times

Tags: Industry News, The News by Jose Sanchez
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Yes. We already got Facebook and may have even tweeted a couple of times. Why would we use another social networking tool? Here are some reasons why digital publishers may start posting on Google Buzz:

• Be one step ahead. If users look for magazines, books or other digital publications on Google Buzz posts, you better be there and come up as the first option. As soon as other publishers start joining this network, competition will be tougher. Remember Buzz updates are either private or public (easy to find on Google’s super massive search engine).
• Share across the web. Twitter is officially supported by Buzz — the same is true of Flickr, Picasa, Blogger and YouTube. There’s no need to choose, just more content to share, including anything from Google’s empire. There are also more platforms, so if you decide to share a link to your own content (i.e. digital editions) with your Gmail network and everyone else on the internet, Buzz could be the best option. Here’s also a short tutorial on how to share you Buzz posts on Twitter.

• Get instant feedback. Imagine something is happening at a specific location in the World and you need to get instant feedback (good for newspapers!). Well, Buzz is also integrated to Google maps, so you can actually look a a map and see what people are ‘buzzing’ from there. You just choose the address and specific keywords (i.e. location: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS    Keyword: MAGAZINE LAUNCH). Visit Buzz and find more about it.
• Be where your readers are. By being on Google Buzz, you expand your social media presence and simply go where your customers are (or will be). Feedback for Google buzz has been pretty good so far, so you better give it a try. It will likely be adopted by a lot of people.

I’m sure it has more uses, and others will be developed, but this is a good start for digital publishers. Btw, you only need a Gmail account to start ‘buzzing’, just like this magazine is already doing.

What do you think? Will you ‘buzz’?

Have you found any other uses for it?

Tags: Industry News, Resources by Jose Sanchez
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