Native apps for mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone 7 and Android devices have received a great deal of attention recently, and for good reason, they represent a new way to interact online and the best apps use device features such as cameras and GPS in ways that you can't easily duplicate on your desktop or laptops. So where does HTML5 fit in the picture?
Both IDG and Gartner are predicting that Windows Phone sales will pass the iPhone by 2015. While Android is predicted to remain the top-dog in the smartphone market, Windows Phone market share is projected to grow while iOS market share is projected to shrink.
Joining Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Sony’s Reader, later this year the Amazon Kindle will support the ability to borrow books from libraries. The books will be checked-out and accessible for a specific time period, and then unavailable after the lending time has expired.
The .99 cent songs exploded in popularity on iTunes, and a recent analysis of the best-selling e-book titles on Amazon.com by the Wall Street Journal shows that 15 of the top 50 titles are priced under $5. This leaves book publishers to consider whether they need to adopt a lower price point per unit with their e-book titles.
Readers are continuing to adopt e-reading devices. This week e-reader company Kobo indicated that they have 3.2 million users, adding 1 million new users in the past 90 days. They announced this number as they indicated that they have received an additional $50 million in funding.
I've been playing with a fun on-line photo editing service, picnik.com, and am impressed with the speed, options, and capabilities. Apparently Google was impressed, too, as they just bought the company. Picnik is an on-line image editing tool you can use to manipulate images that you've put on sites like flickr or facebook.
Headlines make it appear that the creative market is in a freefall. Layoffs at agencies, newspapers and magazines closing their doors, even online advertising has taken a hit. But digging a bit deeper, there are some reasons to be optimistic.
If you design for the Web, or work in UX or UI design, there's a chance to help out a great non-profit organization, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and get $50,000 for your effort thanks to a prize underwritten by Microsoft. It doesn't matter if you are a solo designer or a big design firm. It's your chance to do well by doing some good.
Earlier this week I wrote about the expanded use of e-readers. This growth is good news for publishers, authors, consumers, and the environment. Publishers will have more control over their digital content. Early digital books were often distributed in Adobe’s ebook format, which had many problems that limited the acceptance of ebooks.
If you’re not familiar with e-readers, they are devices that let you read electronic versions of books, magazines, and newspapers. Smaller than a laptop, they let you download the books you want to read or the newspapers and magazines to which you subscribe.
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