Why Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Can’t Be Real…

So the childrens’ movie Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs has been released. During one pivotal scene, our heroes are seen flying their car (Rex Hammock will like that!) into a spaghetti tornado, while one of them relaxes with a copy of Broadcast Engineering.

At Nxtbook, we’re firmly convinced that if there were a flying car and someone was reading a copy of Broadcast Engineering, they’d be enjoying the Nxtbook version.

Enjoy the trailer for the movie!

 

Cautiously Optimistic About E-Readers

Harry McCracken has a good post over at FOLIO, suggesting it will be some time before e-reader technology makes them sexy for the magazine crowd.

We don’t necessarily disagree, but think there are two other things to consider:

a. Most times we don’t know the right time until it’s too late. You’re far better off getting your business plan and process in place now than after your competitors do.

b. Those who use the Kindle have embraced simple black and white text. They may be willing to accept the same from you (for the time being).

The biggest issue not discussed by McCracken? The Kindle NOT allowing publishers to give away content. That’s the biggest reason most of our customers aren’t there today.

The Future Isn’t Here, But It’s Closer…

Word comes this week that the first full color flexible e-reader is coming. Soon perhaps. Or maybe not. It’s hard to say.

 

Nxtbook iPhone Version Released

We’re proud to announce the release of our iPhone version for Nxtbook. Our version includes several features uncommon to the digital-magazine-for-the-iPhone market, including:

* Live links on ads. If you’re going to drive readers to the iPhone, don’t you think your advertisers will want clicks? We thought so, too, so all ads have live links.

* Sponsor images. Sponsors pay for premium real estate and we’re all about sponsorship.

* Integrated analytics. As readers move to more and varied devices, publishers will want to know who’s reading their content where. If your readers are on the iPhone, you’ll know it.

* Text or Image Choice. As serious readers of this blog know, our early efforts into the mobile space were with Nxtbook Liberty, a text-based version of our product that enables readers to read without zooming in. For Liberty customers, we’ve integrated the text choice into the iPhone choice, allowing readers to choose a high fidelity version requiring zooming, or a text-based one, requiring none. We firmly believe that it’s this type of user choice that will be paramount to success on these types of devices.

 

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, here’s a short URL you can use to see one done with our text-based Liberty Version incorporated: http://bit.ly/3cofCg

Thinking of Going Digital Only?

You’re not the only one. Our customer Advanstar’s the latest to announce the change, as covered by FOLIO.

Of course, going digital-only means you should look at a lot of things differently, in terms of layout and design. To help ease you into the transition, be sure to check out this cool guide prepared by Nxtbook Design Manager Jeremy Smith.

E-Ink Or Not…

Gawker did a nice job this week bringing you up to speed with all of the e-Reader devices coming (or rumored to come) to market.

Meanwhile a fairly thorough report from Gizmodo says these devices aren’t prepared for the future:

"E-ink is a great digital tool for emulating what books were. But a horse with rollershoes can’t keep up with the automobile, so why should we expect a digital book to keep up with modern media habits?"

In the end, Gizmodo’s probably right, but that doesn’t mean you should be waiting for the technology to catch up. To push the Gizmodo analogy further, did manufacturers stop producing product until trucks were here to ship it? Of course not. They experimented with what was available to them at the time, while keeping a firm eye on the horizon.

In a nutshell: the Kindle won’t revolutionize your magazine’s business plan, but figuring out how to get your content on all of these devices without breaking the bank might. And of course, Nxtbook can help.

Nxtbook, Now 7% More for FREE.

If your Nxtbook seems "bigger" lately, it’s not you. Simply put, we’ve made some enhancements to our interface that "hide" the upper and lower tool bar when they’re not being used. This allows us to boost the real estate on the page as much as 7-10%! The actual number varies, according to both your page ratios and the window size of your browser, but regardless: there’s now more "there there."

Moving forward, the default setting will be to have the auto-hide enabled, though users can turn it off from the options menu. Publishers concerned about users not liking the auto-hide feature (perhaps too much content isn’t good for them?) can have the default turned off.

What Your Readers Really Care About…

Bill Mickey’s written a good article about publishers using web analytics to determine what people are devouring (and not devouring) on your website. The same capability exists in the Nxtbook tracking system, wherein publishers can easily ascertain what’s hot and what’s not within their content.

Here at Nxtbook, our custom media editor reviews her analytics each month and uses it to better formulate content on the lie. It’s simple, fast and more reliable than reader surveys.

Joe Wikert is Impatient

In a blog post lamenting the lack of interactive content on the Kindle, Wikert writes, "The problem with these devices is that they encourage quick print-to-e content conversion and nothing more.  In fact, they even discourage some of the simplest ways of enhancing print-to-e conversions.  Embedded links are a great example.  If you’re a Kindle owner how often do you click on those links?  More specifically, how often do you groan as you click on those links, knowing that the browsing experience ahead is painful at best?  The irony is that although the Kindle was the first to include wireless functionality, that feature is really only good for one thing: buying content from Amazon.  Every other time I’ve used the "experimental" browser I’ve been disappointed."

While we agree with Wikert’s statement, the truth is that both the market and content creators are at the very early edge of this curve. Expect both to improve rapidly in the coming years.

That being said, it does seem like a small step backward that the new international Kindle won’t have any browser at all.

Wayne, the “Wild Man” Metcalfe???

Honestly, until this showed up on YouTube, we had no idea.

 

Along those same lines, is it me or does Martin Hensel look like someone being called to the stage on the Price is Right?

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