More than just an over-sized iPhone, Apple is billing the new iPad as their most technologically advanced device to date. With a 9.7 inch LED backlit IPS display and an impressive Multi-Touch screen, the iPad promises to offer a remarkable new experience. Whether sending emails, browsing the web, viewing photos, watching movies or running one the 140,000 apps available in Apple's library, the new iPad is designed to bring a whole new world of interactivity to the fingertips of it's users. Best of all, the device only weighs 1.5 pounds and is 0.5 inch thin; which equates to amazing portability for such a powerful device.
Could This Be the High-Tech Gadget of the Decade?
If the popularity of the iPod and iPhone are any indication of Apple's ability to impress even the most ardent gadget geeks, then the iPad is poised to be the hottest new tech device of this young decade. Many companies that produce digital media readers, such as Zinio, have already aggressively positioned themselves on the iPad's digital publication front. As mentioned in previous articles like, "Magazines are Going Virtual" and "Online Magazines and Interactive Content", magazines and newspapers alike are migrating in droves to the new digital media format. With a library of over 50,000 digital titles already in production, Zinio apparently holds the lion's share of properties in the digital publishing realm, but there is plenty of room for more major players on this vast new digital frontier.
An Easier Transition From Print to Digital
Before the announcement of the iPad, a major drawback for print publications considering the transition to digital format was the herculean task of transitioning their staff from print production mode to digital production mode. Publishers often found themselves focusing efforts and resources on their online operations in an attempt to provide online reader with a more interactive and media-rich experience than the standard print version. Editors and Art Directors were often forced to learn new web languages such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Languge) or Flash; needless to say, such an on-taking has proven to be costly and technically challenging. Because of Apple's new print publication-friendly apps which primarily uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the iPad should go a long way towards bridging the digital divide.
iPad eReader Apps May Become the New Age Newsstand
Most standard publication production software, such as Adobe InDesign CS4, already comes equipped with the ability to tag documents with XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which is one of the primary source codes used by the iPad's reader apps. Tagging an InDesign Document with XML is far less involved than translating an entire print publication into HTML. Moreover, there are a host of third-party companies available to help publishers negotiate the transition to the vast new digital publishing frontier. It is yet to be seen what the future holds for the print publishing industry, but all signs are pointing to a major transition from print to the digital media reader platform.
Carlos Anderson - With over a decade of professional experience as a Graphic Designer and several years of experience as Art Director for internationally ...
