Digital publishing blog

The world of mobile digital publishing news is changing daily as mobile publishing consumers move more towards mobile digital devices like iPads, iPhones, and Android phones. Consumers want to get the latest information without having to spend a lot of time looking at their micro-screens. They also don’t what to spend too much time sitting in front of their computer because their mobile technology makes it unnecessary to get eye strain. For example, consumers can find out what their friends said earlier in the day by mobile publishing on Facebook without ever sitting in front of a computer (using mobile publishing apps). There is a piece of good news, though, because iPad users don’t have to squint at a micro-screen.

A recent report from the CMS Wire revealed that the digital newspaper publishing industry is moving to the mobile digital publishing news craze. Now people will be able to use their mobile devices to read the latest news stories from news brands like “Orlando Sentinel,” CNN, and Philly.com. That means digital newspaper publishing is going 3.0. Time will tell when digital magazine publishing will catch on. But many of these newspapers have digital magazine publishing brands in their media family.

Consumers who want to publish on the iPad to user-generated sites that feed content to newspapers may find that to publish on the iPad is not as convenient as using their mobile phone to publish. They will look to rapid iPad mobile app development for new apps that will make submitting content easier.

This important trend in digital publishing is also echoed by other tech companies focused on iPad mobile app development and apps for other mobile devices. The same article reported that MSNBC is reformatting its advertising format on its website. Users won’t have to look at a bunch of ads on their screen when they visit the website. MSNBC will sell one ad for each page, making a better viewing experience for website users. Also, a person with a mobile device will have a quicker page loading time.

In other digital publishing news, Amazon is lowering the price of Kindles and Nook readers and offering audio and video enhanced books for mobile devices like the iPad, the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It seems Amazon won’t be outpaced in this mobile explosion.

The mobile digital publishing news industry may also start paying more attention to a new solution developed by Automatic for WordPress. The new Plinky service that users must subscribe to gives motivational questions to users to jar them into thinking of new content to type on their screen. This new app may be the next craze since Twitter, but it is reminiscent of the box already common on some user-generated content sites. For example, Facebook has the classic prompt at the top of a user’s Home page — “What’s on your mind?”

And the result that a user types into Plinky’s question of the day is easily fed to his web profile on other social media sites. A great thing about Plinky is its tag-friendliness. A user’s post may be instantly linked to other content, such as photos, playlists, and maps. This is a great solution for people who want a quick way to think of something that will post to Facebook, Twitter, or another blogging service.

A study by the Pew Research Center found that news have become way more digital, participatory, portable and and personalized. The report revealed that 61% of Americans use digital editions to get their news and only 17% read them on newspapers. It also says that 75% get their news either by email or on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Other interesting facts:

• At least 28% of Americans read news on their mobile devices (e-reader, phone, tablet)
• 59% report that they use multiple sources
• 37% have either contributed to news creation or shared its content
• TV is still the biggest source: 78% say they get their news from a TV station
• And only 7% are getting information from a single media platform

It says that “the process Americans use to get news is based on foraging and opportunism (…). They seem to access news when the spirit moves them or they have a chance to check up on headlines.”

According to Tom Rosenstiel, Director of the Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, “those numbers are only going to go up as the penetration of smart phones (and e-readers) grows. The computer of the future is held in your hand.”

The Pew Research Center studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues in America and the World.

Montreal.- Turn-Page is the first digital publishing provider to make audio and video available on the iPad. With no downloads or extra costs, publishers can convert their print pubs into fully enhanced mobile digital editions. “We’re the only ones that offer a multimedia reading experience for the iPad and we do it at no additional cost”, said Turn-Page’s Vice President, Bill Lowson. The iPad Edition is an integral part of Turn-Page Mobile, a universal e-reading system that works on almost any touch-screened device.

The iPad, with its bigger screen and multimedia capabilities, is ideal for these enhancements. Turn-Page readers will simply have to use a dedicated publication URL. The company’s system will automatically recognize and display a unique and rich interface for the iPad.

This is Turn-Page’s third major release in 2010. The Canadian-based company recently launched Flipbook 3.0, a vector-based e-reader for PC, Mac, netbooks, laptops and any other Flash-enabled devices.

• Full support of Widgets!
  Rather than taking up crucial real-estate, on the iPad, your widget will slide in from the left and allow the user to hide it.
  The widget will support pretty much any html/css/js you have set. Great for ads and any custom content!
  (Note: if you have flash in your widget it won’t work. It will just appear blank as the iPad does not support Flash)
• Background image support:
  Your iPad edition now displays the background you upload. It will be positioned in the same way as with Flipbook 3.0

• 2-finger swipe gesture to turn pages!
  We continue to blur the lines of native app and web-app by introducing new intuitive gestures. You can now swipe the pages with 2 fingers to turn pages, and as always, press with one finger to zoom in.

Flipbook 3.0 upgrades:

• New crop/print/save feature:
  When editing a title, you’ll see a new checkbox setting that will enable this feature. Just like it sounds, a user can now crop any section of a page and either save it or print it directly

• First level zoom fits width of screen:
  We’re calling this “reading mode”. When you zoom-in the first time, the page you select will fit the width of the screen. We’re planning more improvements in this area to offer a more natural reading experience
  

• Printing multiple pages:
  Your users can now print multiple pages via our new interface. When clicking print, the thumbnails for your issue will allow users to select which pages they want to print. By clicking the print button those pages will be sent directly to the printer

No more processing errors!

• Processing errors are a thing of the past with our new parser system!
• Pages that cannot be processed by our system will now be replaced with an image copy (formatting and links removed)
• You get your publication online faster with the ability to replace any pages post upload

CUPERTINO, California—May 3, 2010—Apple® today announced that it sold its one millionth iPad™ on Friday, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*

Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

We have a couple of small but important upgrades to announce (yes, already!)

1. You can now click on a page’s edge to turn the next/previous page: this has now been implemented

2. The footer navigation thumbs can now be hidden: This has been added as a Title setting – click the check box next to “hide bottom thumbnail navigation” and save your Title

.

3. Clippings fixed: We fixed a problem with clipping positioning and changed its appearance to better mark clippings on the page

Here’s a few more minor technical fixes to announce:

1. We’ve resolved an issue with link styles and the tooltips not showing up for internal links

2. FLV auto-playback: we resolved the issue where in some instances the video would not auto-play

3. Links List: we fixed a bug that was causing clicking on links would not redirect properly to their destination

A few more improvements:

4. There was an issue where custom link hover-tips were not being displayed in place of the default tooltip – this has been resolved

5. we’ve made it clearer that you can enter a page number and hit <enter> on the main menu where the page number is displayed. There is now a tooltip that displays when moused over

6. The share links: “social bookmark” and “email” have been moved to the main menu.

We’re about to officially launch Turn-page Mobile 2.0 – more features, better layout and further blurring the lines between native Apps and our mobile web-app experience.

In addition, we’re launching an enhanced iPad-specific version which will cater better to the larger screen size of the iPad and open the door to future iPad-specific functions.

Just like with the original Turn-page Mobile, all your Turn-page digital editions will be instantly available across all devices including iPhones, Android devices, Blackberry devices and the new iPad.

You will find a new checkbox when editing your Titles called

“Single Page View” this is ideal for presentations

When enabled, your publications will appear as a single page. Currently this is only available as a publisher setting, but we’re working on allowing users to toggle between the view modes.

Unique Page/Issue views and Visitor Loyalty Statistics:

You’ll notice when viewing your statistics as of today there is an extra column for both page view and issue view which displays your unique views next to the total views. This data is also available when exporting your stats.

We’ve also separated the graph and table into tabs and introduced a new tab when viewing statistics for a particular issue – “Unique Visitors” – this displays your visitors’ loyalty (how often they’ve come back to view the same issue).

Note: our systems are still catching up on populating this data. If you see zeros for your unique stats please check back later on today as this data is still being populated.

You may have also noticed when managing your Titles, there is no longer a drop-down list for statistics, which lets you quickly access both page and issue stats for the selected issue.

Turn-page 2.0:

In addition to an updated look and feel, the following features have been added to the mobile platform (including the enhanced iPad version):
- Branded colors (applies to menu bar and zoom controls as well as navigation buttons on the iPad version)

- Logo with link to website in menu bar (only available on iPad version)

- Side navigation buttons

- Page sliding effect when turning pages

- A second level of buttons is available via a ” + ” button (only applies to non-iPad version as iPad has plenty of room to display all buttons on 1 level)

- Search, archives front/back cover buttons

- For iPhone and iPad, when hitting the big “+” sign on the device, and selecting “Add to Home Screen”, the icon is on the cover, and when launching, the issue is loaded in full-screen mode with no browser controls – giving the full experience of a native App!

Bug Fixes:

The following bugs have been addressed in this release:

- Page number offset was not being accounted for in advertiser lists within Flipbook 3.0 (FIXED!)

- When resending verification emails in batches within the subscription module, the process would often fail (FIXED!)

- When viewing the mobile version on a Motorola Droid, the pages would not scale properly to screen size (FIXED!)

Flipbook 3.0 will let readers have an even more enjoyable experience reading your publications. Some of the benefits of Turn-pages’ new Flipbook 3.0 are:

• Vector-based interface. A system that improves both the look and performance when delivering your content. In particular text and images looks sharper and clearer.
• More language support. In addition to French, Spanish and English, the Flipbook’s interface will now be available in Portuguese as well
• Zoom-to-point. Users can now zoom-in directly to the spot they clicked. Also, zooming will be instant – there will be no additional content to download on zoom.
• Footer navigation. A series of thumbnails will be available at the bottom of your publication. This introduces another effective way to navigate through your content.
• Tabs. Publishers can include phone book styled tabs to highlight sections and navigate through the publication.
• Integrated archive search. The new reader incorporates archive search.

• New look. Buttons and other elements got an extreme makeover. They’re more icon-based and intuitive, therefore easy to use and language independent.
• Lists. In addition to lists of articles and links, the new Flipbook will feature advertiser lists. Readers will be able to navigate through your ads from a dedicated advertiser index list – accessed under the main menu – you’ll be able to define this list in your account under the INDEXING->LISTS menu.

Come join us at the Publishing Business Conference and Expo March 8-9 2010 At the New York Marriott Marquis 1535 Broadway 10036.
Booth #320

Download this form and get a free pass to the show compliments of Turn-Page

Page-replace is here! Now you can replace individual pages in your publications by navigating through the following tabs:

Indexing-> Power Tools -> Replace page in an issue

Simply select the title, issue and page number you wish to replace. Then select a PDF file from your computer.

Make sure the PDF you upload only consists of the one page you wish to change. Otherwise only the first page in the PDF will be considered.

While our system processes this single page replacement, your issue will be unavailable for reading. The process typically takes only a few seconds, but to be safe, only perform this operation when you don’t expect a lot of viewers.

Once the operation is complete you will be able to see the changes immediately. (note: you may need to clear your browser’s cache)

The page replace feature replaces the individual page you selected as well as updates your original PDF. So, if you enable PDF download, your viewers will see the updated page within the PDF as well.

By default, we allow up to 10% of pages to be replaced. That means if your publication is 50 pages, you will be able to replace up to 5 pages within it. Even if you replace the same page more than once, each time will be counted as a page replacement.

Hi everyone,

We’ve been keeping fairly hush-hush on what’s being developed over here at Turn-Page. Well we’re finally ready to let you know what’s coming…

1. Turn-Page 3.0

As many of you may have already heard, a newly designed flipbook reader is soon on its way. Our  new reader will challenge any existing application on the market – it will be vector based (so no more double-loading when zooming in) as well as more versatile and robust – with all the new devices out on the market, our new Turn-Page 3.0 promises to be adaptable to just about any screen/device that supports Flash.

Expected launch date: late February-March 2010

2. PAGE REPLACEMENT FEATURE

The most requested new feature was the ability to replace individual pages within your publications. We’re happy to announce that this has been in development for a while and should be available when our new e-commerce module is launched. No more having to re-upload an entire issue become of a typo on 1 page!

3. IPHONE/ITOUCH INTERFACE

The second most requested feature has been for an iPhone/iTouch friendly interface for browsing your digital editions. We’re very excited about this one. Development is well under way and so far the results are extremely impressive. Stay tuned for more updates and screen shots as they become available.

Expected launch date: February 2010

It is with great pleasure to announce the release of our new statistics platform.
Right away you’ll notice that Issue and Page level stats have been completely revamped:

The new 3-tier structure has been applied to both Page Level and Issue Level stats:

Tier 1 – compare all your titles to one another

Tier 2 - compare all issues within a particular title to one another

Tier 3 - view details stats on a particular issue

Page Level stats:

• see how many page views each of your issues has received,
• the average time per page,
• which pages were bookmarked or emailed,
• all broken down by a specified date range

Issue Level stats:

• see how many overall views your issues have received,
• overall emails/shares,
• overall bookmarks,
• number of times downloaded,
• all broken down by date range

Take our new stats platform for a spin and let us know what you think!