eMedia Showcase

Zite

2011-03-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

Personalized magazine for iPad

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Multiple news/info feeds grouped into one reader Visually attractive & highly customizable Content automatically categorized New items added based on personal reading / liking history	Potentially overwhelming with lots of content without clear overview of subscriptions.
	Opportunities	Threats
	Reading experience based on personal preferences Algorithm provides serendipity	User looses overview and control (on initially selected feeds)

Zite is a personalized iPad magazine. The application bundles multiple articles and items from all over the web into a magazine, unique for every user.

Content is selected on basis of ones Twitter and/or Google Reader subscription, and factors such as popularity on the web, among other users and on personal liking / reading history within the app. For each item, the user can indicate whether he/she likes or dislikes it and whether he/she wants more items of this source / topic.

Zite automatically groups articles in specific categories, which the user can turn on or off. There is also a Top Stories section.

Grey's Anatomy Sync

2011-03-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

A richer TV experience

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Application provides extra information about the TV-program one is watching Possibility to interact with other people who are also watching	Requires active attitude while watching TV
	Opportunities	Threats
	iPad as a second screen with meta-functionality Provides a new interactive TV watching experience Broadcasters can engage with viewers	Possibly forms a distraction for the TV

The Grey’s Anatomy Sync app for iPad lets you experience TV program 'Grey’s Anatomy' in a new way. With the application, users can interact with other viewers and get episode-related content delivered in real time while watching Grey’s Anatomy live on ones TV.

The app syncs the iPad to ones TV by literally listening to the audio from the TV (in which an inaudible code is integrated). When synced, users can connect with others, chat about the episode, take polls and quizzes, unlock bonus content, etc.

The app is only available in the US.

The Daily

2011-03-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

An iPad-only news service

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Content produced solely for iPad Interactive and multimedia-rich Sharing possibilities Low price	(Still) based on print navigation styles and formats Only available in US app store No personalization options
	Opportunities	Threats
	Unique digital news experience Digital revenue model for news	Low price-setting requires a lot of subscribers Sharing possibilities makes content semi-public

The Daily is a news application for the iPad. Content is produced specifically for this application; new editions can be downloaded daily for the price of $0.99 .

The app features the sections News, Gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life, Apps & Games and Sports. Every edition is structured like a print magazine with pages, but every article can be reached in different ways.

Content from the app can be shared by users to others via email, Facebook and Twitter.

VI Tablet app

2011-02-16T05:47:00.000-08:00

Dutch soccer news and info on iPad

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Good use of digital possibilities (video, latest news, radio, personlization, push notifications, etc.) Well designed, and looks good Clear and simple navigation Different sorts of content	Links (to video's) don't work in textual articles No (social media) sharing possibilities Digital edition of magazine lacks interactivity
	Opportunities	Threats
	Combination of (basic) free and (in-depth) paid content can boost sales? More integration between free and paid content; e.g. gather and follow stories	Apple restricting free subscription models, based on original print subscriptions

The VI Tablet App is an iPad app of Voetbal International (Dutch football news organization), developed by The Saints, Resoluut and Woodwing.

The application provides different types of content, both free and paid. Sections such as latest football news, video's, popular items, football scores and even VI's radiochannel are integrated into one application. Users can follow news about their favorite football team and receive push notifications with important updates.

On top of that, the app also provides the possibility to read digital editions of VI's magazine. Subscribers to the print magazine get free access, others can also subscribe or buy specific editions.

NewsMix

2011-02-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

Personalized and popular news

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Combination between peronalized and popular news Different item collections for different ways to use Easy & fast navigation, reading and sharing	No possibility to personalize index page (i.e. change categories) Takes time and effort to configure, especially personalized content
	Opportunities	Threats
	Not only popular news, nor only personalized news: room for serendipity	Potentially overwhelming, because of many possibilities to use

NewsMix is an iPad application, developed by sobees, that delivers peronalized news.

The application retrieves both news from the web and news from sources the user has indicated, such as Facebook, Twitter and RSS-feeds. All this information is combined and presented to the user in a tablet-friendly manner, with lots of visual material.

Items can be browsed per category (such as Politics, Sports and Science) and by type of material (photos or videos). There is also a personlized category that presents items based on your history of liking items.

Articles can both be read in a reformatted layout and on the original website, and can be shared from within the app via social media.

News+

2010-12-02T00:27:00.000-08:00

The daily newspaper on a tablet

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Specifically designed for tablets (not a newspaper, not a website) Different use modes for different times and situations Makes use of 'social functions', such as sharing, commenting, saving for later	Requires some effort to introduce into daily rhythm
	Opportunities	Threats
	A personalized newspaper that filters the noise of the Web and delivers content for multiple situations Editing (of content) provides clear value: quality instead of quantity Subscription-based & room for ads; ways to make money	Accessibility of content: Solely via app or also via links and/or recommendations?

Following their earlier concept Mag+, a format for digital magazines on tablets, media company Bonnier has developed News+: a concept for the daily newspaper on tablets.

Bonnier describes its concept as 'a tablet platform for daily newspapers that’s not a printed version in digital format and not a newssite'. The concept aims to deliver content that specifically suits the way people use tablets: it's a mix of news updates, in-depth analysis and rich multimedia.

Also the interaction with the platform is focussed on diverse use: an overview of hot topics at breakfast, news updates throughout the day and the possibility to save subjects for in-depth reading in the evening or the weekend.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter will be the first to make use of the concept in the form of an iPad application.

Intersect

2010-11-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Stories in time and place

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Create storylines rather than individual stories Clever search interface on basis of a combination of time and place Communal approach: highlighting connections between people	Potentially complex and overwhelming in case of many different stories
	Opportunities	Threats
	New way to tell and share stories Connecting / intersecting stories Ordening stories on basis of context	Stories lose relevance after a while Context might not always be key aspect in search

Intersect is a service with which people can share and find stories based on a certain time and place. People can create personal storylines for their lifes, registering all kinds of events that take place.

The service provides ways to look at 'intersections of storylines' which makes it able to highlight connections with other people with stories for similar times and/or places. A clever interface enables people to search for stories within a specific time-range and a specific geographic area.

Although the service seems to focus mainly on personal use, the approach of arranging stories based on time and place can also be interesting for journalism.

Qwiki

2010-10-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

A new information experience

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	A 'human' way to explain topics (in a narrative way) Combines visual with auditory Suits both active and passive use	Spoken information sounds dull and is not always perfect Sometimes difficult to both scan and listen to information
	Opportunities	Threats
	A new and richer information experience Many more use possibilities (educational, news, advertising, etc.) Service can become sort of 'personal assistant'	Requires open sources of information

Qwiki promotes itself as delivering a new richer way to consume information. It's a service ment to run on the web and mobile devices. The tool presents the user with data in a multimodal and interactive way, focusing on both auditory and visual senses.

One way the service can be used, is as a search-engine. A user can enter a query for a certain topic or person, and the service will explain that topic or person in the form of a story with data from different kinds of sources, such as Wikipedia, Google Maps, YouTube, etc. The information is both read out loud and presented on the screen in the form of images, movies, infographics, etc. The user can interact with the information by choosing specific categories or topics during the explanation.

Qwiki is currently in alpha phase; user feedback will be used to improve the service and work towards market implementation.

Google TV

2010-10-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Google plans to combine TV with the Web.

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Simplifies the ever-growing complexity of TV (a lot of channels, shows, etc.) Creates a better viewing experience for Web-entertainment.	Requires more advanced interface than remote control?
	Opportunities	Threats
	Truly interactive TV Combining Web-possibilities with TV-experience	Difficult to change people’s TV watching behavior from passive to active? Risk for less ad revenue for broadcasters because of piracy

24/06/2010Google has announced a concept that combines the relaxed viewing experience of TV with the connectedness and the freedom of the Web: Google TV. This service features ways to easily search, browse and watch TV channels and shows, but also content from the web, such as movies from YouTube. It enables people to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen in an enjoyable manner.

UPDATE 4/10/2010: Google has further developed the concept, and has updated the website with new information about features of Google TV. Google is partnering with different companies, both hardware and content suppliers, to bring its concept to the market. There will be two options to obtain Google TV: 1) with a 'Google TV-enabled' standalone TV, or 2) attaching a Google TV media center to a normal TV.

UPDATE 16/11/2010: The first televisions from Sony with Google TV have become available on the (American) market. Also Samsung has announced it will start producing televions with this concept in 2011.

UPDATE 25/11/2010: Several broadcasters have blocked access to their channels (among others ABC, NBC, CBS, MTV and Comedy Central) via Google TV, because they fear a loss of ad revenue when shows can be watched via the Internet.

The Future of the Book

2010-09-24T03:23:00.000-07:00

A vision by IDEO

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Broadening reading experience Connecting readers Reading becomes more fun	Reading a book becomes more complex Requires effort and participation by users
	Opportunities	Threats
	New (interactive) reading experiences Room for new business models	Requires complex copyright models?

Design consultancy IDEO released a short film exploring the future of the book. It shows three concepts for new reading experiences, called 'Nelson', 'Coupland' and 'Alice'.

Nelson proposes a reading experience that comprises multiple perspectives to let one see the bigger picture, by linking discussions, sources and news stories.

Coupland shows ways to connect readers and gain additional value by creating book clubs and sharing books within a company.

Alice covers an interactive reading experience, in which stories develop through readers' active participation, thereby combining reality and fiction.

eLinea

2010-09-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

Bundling ones favorite information sources

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Determine exactly what you want to read Read wherever, whenever and on any device Personalise not on topic, but on broader categories
	Opportunities	Threats
	New complete digital reading experience Combining paid and free content Room for recommendations based on the databases of several publishers	Restricted amount of publishers Relies mostly on traditional reading formats, also compatible with new formats (interactive, etc.)?

eLinea is an initiative from eReaders Groep (The Netherlands), and concerns a concept (under development) to bundle information from multiple publishers.

With elinea it is possible to subscribe to several different article channels e.g. the sports section of one newspaper and the financial of another, but also to feeds of your favourite writers. These can come from newspapers but also from magazines and blogs. All these subscriptions are combined into one digital document that can be downloaded or read online via all kinds of devices, such as your laptop, mobile phone, ereader or tablet.

eLinea gives customers a new complete (digital) reading experience and provides publishers a whole new business model, in which they determine themselves their branding, price level, for several article streams.

eLinea is currently in beta phase.

myFry

2010-09-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Fry Chronicles book on iPhone

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Different from normal book Quick and easy new way to read a book with short stories Beautiful design and interaction	Loss of overview?
	Opportunities	Threats
	Books that adapt to medium in form and interaction (instead of copy-paste) A fun & beautiful way to read	Not suitable for linear stories

myFry is an iPhone version of Stephen Fry's autobiography "The Fry Chronicles". It distinguishes itself from other eBooks, by providing a unique and innovative way to interact with the content of the book.

The content of the book is summarized in a visual index, in the form of a colored wheel with spines, each of which represents a section of text. The colors in the wheel indicate the theme(s) of each section. With this visual index, the user can explore the content of the book in a fun, personalized, non-linear manner.

Apollo news-app for iPad

2010-09-13T07:52:00.003-07:00

a personalized mobile newspaper

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Personalized through viewing history and preferences Grouping related articles for extra depth / exploration A lot of sources accessible in one application Updated real-time	Personalization algorithms are somewhat vague Takes time to set-up / learn preferences
	Opportunities	Threats
	Providing personally relevant news Combining favorite sources with favorite topics	Loss of serendipity?

Apollo is a personalized newspaper-application for the iPad and iPhone, developed by Hawthorne Labs. It supplies news headlines in real-time, from many different sources, within different categories such as 'Top News', 'Business', 'Sports', etc. A user can also add his/her own favorite sources.

Algorithms within the app personalize the service by learning what sources the user favors and what type of content he/she likes. Articles are presented as headlines linking to the original sources' websites. Related articles are grouped together for quick reference. The user can also share articles through Twitter, Facebook and Email.

Unfortunately, Apollo news applications are only available via the US iTunes store.

Google Reader Play

2010-09-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

A new way to discover content

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	A fun way to discover new content Focused on serendipity experience Quick and easy browsing No set-up required Many ways to personalize	Only useful for short content, not long articles Could be better designed for touch interaction
	Opportunities	Threats
	Ideal for boring moments / mobile use Combination of entertainment with information consumption	Content sometimes needs to be reformed in order to fit

Google Reader Play is an experimental product that offers a new way to browse interesting stuff from the web. It's a variant of Google Reader that is easier to use, requires no set-up and is more focused on quick browsing, rather than intense reading.

In Google Reader Play, items are presented one at a time. Users can flip through items or pick one from a filmstrip bar at the bottom. The service focuses on visual content and features a lot of images and movies (that play directly in the application). Users can indicate which items they like/dislike, and the service adapts itself accordingly. Items can also be shared with others.

Google Reader Play is a web-based application and as such works on practically all devices with internet access, including tablet PC's and mobile phones (although iPhones cannot always show the content provided, because it lacks Flash).

NU.nl for iPad

2010-08-26T03:22:00.000-07:00

News-website brings news-app

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Different navigation styles Good integration of multimedia Not a "website inside an app"; specifically designed for tablet use	Different modes / navigation styles can make it complex
	Opportunities	Threats
	Room for more in-depth background news?	Extra services result in loss of simplicity?

Dutch news website NU.nl has released an iPad app to offer its services in a way that makes optimal use of the iPad's possibilities.

Similar to the website, the app can be used to read up-to-date news for different categories. The app however better combines the textual content with multimedia such as photos, video's and other digital services. Users can share information with others from within the app.

Paper.li

2010-08-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

Read Twitter as a newspaper

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Turns tweets into articles Focuses on the content rather than the message Makes Twitter less volatile Analyses and ranks content	Less dynamic/responsive than Twitter Message (tweet itself) is somewhat lost Not available as feed; only accessible through website
	Opportunities	Threats
	Twitter users as editors Daily consumption of most important/relevant tweets	Power of short messages is lost

paper.li is a web-based service that organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.

Tweets - or actually the content that tweets link to - are analyzed for topic and ranked on probable relevance. The content from the links (text, movies, images) is extracted presented as short articles.

Flipboard

2010-08-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

A personalized social magazine

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	One place for content consumption and response Combining social content with general information	Succesful use depends on friends' interests and sharing activity
	Opportunities	Threats
	Application for daily information consumption Room for more sources?	Privacy issues play a role

Flipboard is an iPad application for a personal magazine. It supplies the user with content he/she (probably) cares about, based on knowledge about who your friends are and what they are reading / recommending.

Friends can share all kinds of content, ranging from articles to personal photos, via their own favorite social media; Flipboard gathers it all in one place, and also makes it able to directly give reactions to content.

Users can also select content from Flipboard's own collections of interesting sources on the web.

BBC iPlayer

2010-07-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

A renewed personalized iPlayer

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Combining TV with the Web Many ways to personalize Social functions, such as watching together	Only available in UK
	Opportunities	Threats
	Provides a new way of watching TV	Requires active attitude from user

BBC has introduced a new (beta) version of its iPlayer, an online service to (re)view television and radio shows. This new version features several enhancements, mostly regarding personalization and social functions.

Users can for example indicate favorite TV shows, obtain recommendations based on viewing history or from friends and they can watch TV shows together online.

Unfortunately the BBC iPlayer is only available in the UK.

TNO Oranje

2010-06-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

Value from media-mining

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Strong visual interaction Good demonstrator for media-mining	Not updated (anymore)
	Opportunities	Threats
	Mining data to create valuable and meaningful information Interactive infographics to add depth to news/information	Requires effort to produce and design

In preparation for the World Cup 2010, TNO (Dutch independent research organisation) designed a tool to retrieve statistics about all players to have played for the Dutch football team since 1905. It represents characteristics such as number of matches played and number of goals scored and visualizes relationships between individual players.

The tool is a demonstrator for possibilities of media-mining, a technique used to disclose lots of complex information from different sources in an orderly and easy-to-grasp manner.

Alice for the iPad

2010-06-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

A fun and interactive eBook

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	A fun reading experience Beautiful interactions (Wonderful) style matches story
	Opportunities	Threats
	Using digital features to create new reading experiences	This example mainly aims at children

Alice for the iPad is an iPad-book version of the story "Alice in Wonderland". The story is brought in text, but enhanced with interactive elements and picture animations, based on the original illustrations.

Pulse news reader

2010-06-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

A visual news reader for the iPad.

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Focus on visual makes it attractive Clear structure gives good overview Different modes for different activities	Not suitable to fully digest a lot of feeds Updating takes time because of many images
	Opportunities	Threats
	Provides new type of information consumption Combining realtime updates and flexibility with visual appeal Personalized information supplier	Violating copyrights by re-using content from others?

Pulse is a visual news reader for the iPad, developed by Alphonso Labs. Whereas most other RSS readers are about consuming as much content as possible, Pulse is focusing on letting the user leisurely enjoy reading the news. Pulse is available for iPad and iPhone.

Pulse lets people browse news from different sources. Horizontal bars represent different sources and are filled with news stories. There are different modes available, also making use of the iPad's orientation, so that a user can distinguish between browsing stories from multiple sources, a single source or reading a single story.

Pulse makes it also easy to search and add new news sources, without using complex terms such as RSS and Atom feeds.

PressReader

2010-06-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

Digitally read over 1500 newspapers and magazines

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Many newspapers are available No costs for publishers Possibilities to customize	Print lay-out doesn't suit use on a screen From the article view you do not get much feedback of where you are in the newspaper
	Opportunities	Threats
	A total reading experience on different devices	Too much focus on similar layout as printed newspapers

PressReader is a service from NewsPaperDirect to digitally consume over 1500 newspapers and magazines. It is available in different formats for different devices, such as eReaders, mobile phones and tablet PC's.

PopSci archives

2010-06-07T01:02:00.000-07:00

PopSci's entire archive free to browse.

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Enormous amount of interesting information It's free Easy to browse (via Google Books)	Overwhelming No clear distinctive value Needs more and better ways for searching and browsing
	Opportunities	Threats
	Provides serendipity experience Educational purposes	Too much information to navigate through Less interesting on long-term?

Popular Science magazine has partnered with Google to offer its entire 137-year archive for free browsing. People can search in the entire archive using keywords, or they can navigate through inidividual issues using Google Books.

The service can be found at http://www.popsci.com/archives.

Spectra visual news

2010-06-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

A visual newsreader by msnbc

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Providing news in a fun and appealing way Different interaction modes Experimental approach	Not suitable for quick and easy reading
	Opportunities	Threats
	Exploring new ways of consuming news / information Suitable for kiosks / museums / etc.	Only fun for a while

In 2008 msnbc developed Spectra Visual Newsreader, an application that delivers news stories in a visual and interactive way: Stories are color-coded based on categories and are represented as blocks flying around the screen.

Spectra has three modes: you can put it on automatic and let the camera fly around your floating news stories, or you can leave the camera in place, watching the stories spin. The third mode lets you use a webcam to manipulate the stories with "human interaction".

UPDATE: Spectra seems to have been a one-time experiment, which hasn't led to any subsequent prototypes or implemented services.

Feedly aggregator

2010-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

An aggregator that bundles multiple sources.

	Strengths	Weaknesses
	Visually very strong Different options for layout and reading style Many functionalities in simple interface	Can be overwhelming Not for "power consumption" with many feeds
	Opportunities	Threats
	Magazine-like reading style combined with RSS-possibilities	Violating copyrights by re-using content from others?

Feedly is an aggregator that bundles multiple information sources, such as RSS feeds, in a stylish way. It aims at organizing ones favorite sites in a fun, magazine-like start page, that can be used to easily consume ones information supply. It currently only works as an extension for Chrome web browser.

Instead of featuring mainly textual information, feedly emphasizes on the visual elements of supplied articles and items, so that the whole website gets a more appealing look and becomes easier to navigate. Different styles can be applied, depending on ones preferences and situation, for example "digest", "at a glance", "latest", etc. One can also view items per information source.

On top of this, Feedly also provides opportunities to process articles, for example by sharing with other, indicating favorites and saving for later.

UPDATE 10/11/2010: Feedly is in beta testing phase for iPhone, and there are plans to make it available for Android mobile phones and iPad as well.