Saturday, February 28, 2009

BPN 1305 Hearst: large screen ereader this year

Hearst, The American publisher of books, magazines and books, plans to launch its own eReader this year, Fortune reports, citing industry sources. The company will start competing with Amazon and Sony, who are on the market respectively with the Kindle 2 and the Sony eReader PRS 700.

Left: iRex Digital Reader 1000; right Plastic Logic ereader

The difference however is that Hearst will choose for a larger screen than the Kindle 2 and the Sony eReader. It will choose a screen of about the size of a sheet of paper. The screen will be black and white initially, but later versions will also have a colour screen. Presently only the iRex Technologies has a large screen of 10.2 inch as well as Plastic Logic with a screen of 8. x 11 inch. Both screen are still showing black and white. According to Hearst the large screen better approximate the reading experience of print priodicals.

Hearst is the first publisher to take its own future with ereaders in its own hands. So far the book distributor Amazon and the consumer electronic manufacturer Sony have served the market; Amazon has been very succesful so far, while Sony has not been unsuccesful, when competition was lacking. But the succes has a kind of DRM-like problem. Amazon has so far sold eBooks in the Mobipocket format, a format of one of Amazon's subsidiaries, thus forcing publishers, using Amazon's download service, to follow the Amazon format and paying a hefty commission. It has scared off a number of publishers to be part of the Amazon portfolio. Last year, Sony was forced to open up its longstandiong proprietary format policy. Hearst has not said anything yet about formats.

But the announcement is more remarkable as Hearst is also presenting a business plan. The publisher hopes that the large screen will attract advertisers. Besides the sale of the device and the content Hearst hopes to pick up income from selling devices to other publishers and a share of revenue from selling content for these eReaders. Hearst will also license the underlying technology of the e-book reader to other publishers.

Hearst has been flirting with digital paper before. September 2008 the publisher presented its monthly edition with a digital cover. Only 100.000 copies were distributed at th kiosk and the cover could be watched for three months, until the battery died. Esquire picked digital paper as its owner Hearst has been an investor in the e-Ink company, the developer of digital paper. While the Esquire cover looked like an investor’s perk to Hearst, now it looks like it will be serious.

Blog Posting Number: 1305

Tags:

Thursday, February 19, 2009

BPN 1304 Swan Lake adds new category Interactive Movie

In cooperation with Chris Hales, an artist and specialist in the 'interactive moving image', a new category in the Swan Lake competition has been set-up – the "Interactive Movie". By "interactive" we mean that a substantial and integral part of the final piece is the role of the interactivity. The role and use of interactivity will be one of the principal judging criteria of works entered in this category. The result of the user interaction is expected to be more substantial than just mixing/controlling audio tracks or selecting from a menu. Interactive Movies submitted for the Swan Lake competition can be composed either of traditionally filmed or computer generated imagery.

The Swan Lake Moving Image & Music Award (SL:MIMA) has been set up by the Media Department of the University of Applied Sciences in Mittweida. SL:MIMA is an education oriented award programme created to honour the very best in the new age music video clip creation. The award aims to couple educational multimedia teaching programmes with digital art, focusing in discovering and promoting young talents from university environments all over Europe and beyond.

(Just for trivia collectors: The Swan Lake Award is named after the pond near the University)

For more information: Swan Lake Award

Blog Postingh Number: 1304


Tags: , ,

Monday, February 16, 2009

BPN1303 Glassfiber in The Netherlands comes slowly (2)

Glassfiber has been proclaimed as the knowledge promoter in The Netherlands and should be implemented with the assistance of the government and municipalities. In the meantime a mosaic of projects can be seen on the map of The Netherlands. Yet the uptake is meagre in the main cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Rotterdam
Also in Rotterdam, the second city of The Netherlands, a glassfiber network for consumers is being laid and the companies are encountering the same problems as in Amsterdam. But the Rotterdam project is smaller in scale. The neighbourhoods Lloydsquarter and Nesselande aim at 7.000 connections by 2012. Presently some 4.500 connections have been realised. However also in Rotterdam the subscriptions lag: some 500 to 600 subscriptions have been registered. In Rotterdam as well as in Amsterdam BBNed, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia, is the operator of the network.

Rest of the Netherlands
Amsterdam started the discussion on glassfiber years ago and was advised to take the lead in laying a glassfiber network. The argument was that glassfiber was still too expensive for commercial parties and that the municipality had to be the leading party. Cable operator UPC disagreed with this discussion and fought the decision up to the European Commission. It did not see a level playing field for network operators. However the European Commission gave the municipality permission to take an equal share as the commercial partners in the glassfiber network project.

In the meantime the glassfiber scene is changing. The projects have become commercial projects as the costs have gone down dramatically. A connection to the household has come down to 800 euro. Did the project managers formerly put down the condition, that 40 percent of the household should participate, now in the new Amsterdam agreement of 100.000 connections Reggefiber/KPN does not request such a clause in the agreement. Now the glassfiber networks are offered with packages offering internet speeds of 60, 80 and 100 Mbps. In the meantime the cable operator UPC is offering speeds up to 120 Mbps over its own cable network.

However the subscriptions to the packages are not cheap. Triple play subscriptions are more expensive when the speed of internet is higher. Telephone, television and internet with speeds of respectively 50Mbps, 60Mbps, 100Mbps will costs 50, 60 and 80 euro. UPC offers only internet speeds at 60Mbps, 80Mbps and 120Mbps at 60, 80 and 100 euro no telephone and television are included in the subscription.

The commercialisation of glassfiber has seriously started now. In towns like Nuenen and Hillegom, initiatives came from the communities and glassfiber networks are operational already. Then municipalities started projects. Now commercial parties like Reggefiber/KPN offer neighbourhoods glassfiber networks, usually with a guarantee of a minimum of subscribers. In roughly 21 municipalities one or more projects are planned.

In my hometown Almere, the glassfiber project of 70.000 households started in serious last year. By July this year I will have a choice of 60Mbps, 80Mbps and 100Mps. The prices for the subscriptions are officially not known. However it is clear that it will be a big fight between two networks: the glassfiber network of Reggefiber/KPN and the cable network of UPC. So far the two companies keep their cards close to the chest as to the costs of the subscriptions. In the run-up to the fight UPC is already offering personalised subscriptions with internet speeds which are not in the official packages. KPN was only willing to give indications of the packages as they leave an offer to potential subscribers as soon as their glassfiber connection has become available.

Dutch towns and cities, preparing for or having realised fibre net:
Aarle-Rixtel - OnsBrabantNet
Almere - KPN Glasvezel and UNET
Amersfoort - XMS
Amersfoort Hooglanderveen - Community initiative and XMS
Amersfoort Kattenbroek - Community initiative and XMS
Amersfoort Nieuwland - Community initiative and XMS
Amsterdam - Fibre Amsterdam, Citynet, gna, Alice, Concepts ICT, InterNLnet and TweakFiber Amsterdam (Westerdokseiland) - KPN Glasnet
Arnhem - XMS
Bathmen - Glashart and Concepts ICT
Beek and Donk - OnsBrabantNet
Berkel and Rodenrijs - Glashart
Berkelland - B3n-CoopNet
Best - OnsBrabantNet
Biddinghuizen - Solcon
Bronckhorst - B3n-CoopNet
Denekamp - Concepts ICT
Deventer - Concepts ICT and Y-3Net
Diepenveen - Y-3Net
Dijkerhoek - Concepts ICT
Dordrecht - Glashart
Dronten – Community initiative, Glashart and Solcon
Eindhoven - Ons Net
Elburg - KPN Glasvezel and Glashart
Enschede - Glashart, KPN Glasnet, casaNet, Concepts ICT, UNET and Solcon
Etten-leur (Schoenmakershoek) - KPN Glasnet
Geldrop-Mierlo - OnsBrabantNet
Haaksbergen - KPN Glasvezel and Glashart
Helmond - OnsBrabantNet
Hillegom - Lijbrandt telecom Kadaka
Hilversum - XMS, Glashart and KPN
Holten - Glashart, Concepts ICT and Solcon
Hoofddorp - KPN Glasnet
Houten – Community initiative
Laarbeek - OnsBrabantNet
Laren - Solcon
Leiden - XMS
Lieshout - OnsBrabantNet
Lochem - Glashart
Maarheeze – Community initiative
Mariahout - OnsBrabantNet
Nijmegen - Glashart and XMS
Nijmegen Biezen and Hees - Community initiative and XMS
Nijmegen Groenewoud and Galgenveld – Community initiatief
Nijmegen Hazenkamp - Foundation Glazenkamp and XMS
Nijmegen St Anna, Hatertse Hei and de Emanciepatiebuurt – Community initiative
Nijkerk - Glashart
Nuenen - Ons Net
Rijssen - Glashart, Concepts ICT and Solcon
Rotterdam – Foundation Fibre Community Nesselande, Concepts ICT and Luna
Schijndel - Glashart & KPN
Sint Anthonis – Community initiative
Sint Oedenrode - Glashart & KPN
Soest / Soesterberg - XMS
Son and Breugel - Glashart, KPN Glasvezel and Ons Net
Swifterbant - Solcon
Twente - TwenNet
Uden - KPN Glasvezel and Glashart
Utrecht - XMS
Utrecht Lunetten - Community initiative and XMS
Valkenswaard - OnsBrabantNet
Veenendaal - Bewonersinitiatief and XMS
Veghel - KPN Glasvezel and Glashart
Veldhoven - OnsBrabantNet
Vleuterweide - Community initiative and XMS and KPN Glasnet
Wijchen - Foundation Fibre Wijchen ism XMS
Wijk and Aalburg Altena – Community initiative
Zeewolde – Community initiative, Glashart, Solcon and XMS

Blog Posting Number: 1303

Tags:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

BPN 1302 Glassfiber in The Netherlands comes slowly (1)

Glassfiber has been proclaimed as the knowledge promoter in The Netherlands and should be implemented with the assistance of the government and municipalities. In the meantime a mosaic of projects can be seen on the map of The Netherlands. Yet the uptake is meagre in the main cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Amsterdam
In the beginning of February the news broke that the municipality of Amsterdam had concluded an agreement with Reggefiber/KPN for 100.000 more glassfiber connections. It looks impressive, but is it?

After a long battle with UPC and the European Commission went ahead with the first phase of Glassfiber Net Amsterdam (GNA), in which the municipality of Amsterdam, the bank ING and KPN/Reggefiber and housing co operations partook. A first batch of 43.000 households would get access to glassfiber connections.

In the meantime glassfiber has laid to 43.000 households, of these only 8 to 9.000 households have glassfiber behind the front door. But only 3.000 households are active clients and have a subscription to the glassfiber and a package for telephone, television and internet. A representative for the network blamed the first strategy for the low uptake. The glassfiber was laid up to the front door and was only linked up when people took out a subscription. This strategy has now been changed. Glassfiber is now connected up to the front door and immediately packages are offered to the potential subscribers. Presently four providers offer packages: Concepts ICT, InterNLnet, Alice (BBned), Qfast and KPN.

Amsterdam started the discussion on glassfiber years ago and was advised to take the lead in laying a glassfiber network. The argument was that glassfiber was still too expensive for commercial parties and that the municipality had to be the leading party. Cable operator UPC disagreed with this discussion and fought the decision up to the European Commission. It did not see a level playing field for network operators. However the European Commission gave the municipality permission to take an equal share as the commercial partners in the glassfiber network project.

In the meantime the glassfiber scene has changed. The projects have become commercial projects as the costs have gone done dramatically. A connection to the household has come down to 800 euro. Did the project managers formerly put down the condition, that 40 percent of the household should participate, now in the new agreement of 100.000 connections Reggefiber/KPN does not request such a clause in the agreement. Now the glassfiber networks are offered with packages offering internet speeds of 60, 80 and 100 Mbps. In the meantime the cable operator UPC is offering speeds up to 120 Mbps over its own cable network.

Blog Posting Number: 1302

Tags:

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

BPN 1301 Plastic Logic gears up econtent store for launch of its eReader

The digital paper eReader manufacturer Plastic Logic has announced agreements with its first content partners, including the nation’s leading content aggregators and two of the most valued daily newspapers for business readers. The agreements with Ingram Digital (ebooks), LibreDigital (enewspapers), Zinio (emagazines) and a direct relationship with business newspaper, the Financial Times, and the nation’s top selling newspaper, USA TODAY, lay the foundation for the company to sell and distribute a wealth of content for its forthcoming Plastic Logic Reader.

With these partnerships, plus pending deals and currently available econtent on the web, Plastic Logic’s open platform is building the world’s most relevant collection of digital content for business users on any eReader platform.

The Plastic Logic Reader is a electronic reader that features a large, thin, lightweight and robust form factor that is about the size of an 8.5 x 11-in. pad of paper and weighs less than many print magazines. The Reader is differentiated by its unique and industry-leading plastic display that is based on Plastic Logic’s revolutionary plastic electronics technology. Concurrent with the release of its electronic reader, Plastic Logic will launch an econtent store where users can download a rich variety of business and leisure digital content from newspapers, magazines, trade journals, blogs, ebooks, etc. Plastic Logic will work with a wide range of content aggregators, publishers and content creators large and small to ensure a broad variety of content. Today, Plastic Logic is also announcing that a central part of Plastic Logic’s online store is its partnership with Fictionwise Inc. to create and run the econtent store. Fictionwise is the leading independent econtent retailer on the web.

“We want Plastic Logic Reader users to have all the content that they need and want at their fingertips,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta. “With today’s announcements we are amassing one of the largest collections of content available for an eReader and we’re just getting started. We intend to create a large and dynamic marketplace to support the Plastic Logic Reader.”

Plastic Logic plans to make its Reader available in trials and pilots with partners and key customers during the second half of 2009, followed by widespread commercial availability in 2010.

Blog Posting Number: 1301

Tags: ,

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

BPN 1300 Kindle 2 slimmer and smarter

This posting is a milestone, in more than one sense. This posting is numbered 1300; since May 1, 2006 I have logged developments in ICT, new media and journalism. And in this posting I treat the launch of the Kindle 2, which will be a powerful stimulus to the sales of eBooks and specific reading devices for the coming year.





The Kindle 2 is not just a successor with some minor changes to the Kindle 1. The predecessor, which was launched a little over a year ago, was smart, but clumsy. But Kindle 2 is slim and smart. It is just less than 1 cm thick and it weighs only 235 grams. The Kindle 2 can hold 1500 books and without charging it has a battery life of two weeks, if the Wifi is switched off. It includes the New Oxford American Dictionary. And NEW: the Read-to-Me button the Kindle 2 can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you. The 15,2 cm in diameter, 600x800 pixel electronic paper display includes 16 shades of gray, compared to the 4 shades available on the original Kindle. The Kindle 2 is now up to par with the iLiad in screen quality with its 16 gray shades. Like its predecessor, Kindle 2 does not use backlighting.

Kindle 2 uses the same wireless network as the original Kindle: Amazon Whispernet. Customers do not incur a monthly bill for the network costs; Amazon will continue to pay for the wireless network. The new Whispersync technology will sync Kindle 2 and Kindle 1 to help transition, but it will also sync with a range of mobile devices in the future such as iPods, iPhones and Androids.

Last but not least is the portfolio of eBooks. Kindle 1 was launched with 90.000 eBooks in Kindle format (Amazon also owns Mobipocket software and format) . The Kindle store offers now 230.000 eBooks, newspapers, magazines and blogs (an eBook can be downloaded under 60 seconds). The Kindle 2 will cost 359 US dollar, comparable to Kindle 1. Pre-registration has started and delivery will start on February 24, 2009.

The Kindle 2 is still limited to the US. But it will have quite some impact there: the slim line, the better screen, the longer battery life, the greater storage. The eReader fulfils the readability requirement of the success factors. So the eReader combined with the vast portfolio will give a strong stimulus to the new world of eBooks and eReaders. In the US, the Kindle 2 will be a strong competitor to the Sony PRS700 and certainly to the expensive iLiad Book version. In Europe the Sony eReader and the iLiad can still sell on. But what will iRex Technologies do when the Kindle 2 is adapted to the European market?

Blog Posting Number: 1300

Tags: ,

Monday, February 09, 2009

BPN 1299 Science and (digital) art

I was in Bratislava (Slovakia) last week. It was hectic to get there. Czech Airline did not cooperate to be in Bratislava. The plane was late in Prague, but 10 minutes before take-off to Bratislava. But the boarding desk refused me boarding. I had to spend another 6 hours in Prague Airport and missed my meeting for that afternoon. Hospitality is not the DNA of Czech Airlines. The next morning I slipped from a curb stone and was knocked down to the ground. It took my breath. I scratched one of the glasses of my spectacles and the bump left me with a badly bruised shoulder.

But after this bad luck I was able to get down to business. I was in Bratislava to attend the conference Aplimat, a meeting place of mathematicians. Not exactly a place for people with my interests and background (philosophy and theology). But I was there as part of the Scienar project team. The project is an EU funded project (Agreement n. 2008 - 2254 / 001 - 001 CTU MECOAN) and runs for two years, starting from November 2009. At the Aplimat conference the project team presented an afternoon on the theme Maths and Arts. It was most interesting. Marcella Giulia Lorenzi presided the session, while Mauro Francaviglia presented the Scienar (SCIENTIFIC SCIENARIOS in (and for) ART) project.

The project SCIENAR takes into account the common European cultural heritage that is profoundly based on the links existing between Science and Art, from the very beginning of the Greek Culture, through Renaissance, until present time. The project aims to build an interdisciplinary approach using mainly digital technologies to explore the present day interactions of these two facets of our culture, bringing together both communities of “Human Culture” and “Scientific Culture”.
The starting and leading idea is that these two facets are NOT separate entities – as they frequently happen to be considered – but just two facets of the SAME Culture, which encompasses all human endeavours to understand, represent and transcend the whole of our knowledge of “reality” in which we live. These are two facets that share a common past, a common present and a common future; two facets, the mutual interrelationships of which are profound and extremely important.
A further leading idea is that mathematics – the basic language of all science and in fact fundamental for the development of many other fields of human thought – subtly pervades our everyday’s life. In particular we shall be exploring in Scienar – from various viewpoints – the deep interrelations that existed and still exist between Mathematics and Art, basing our work on the continuous and reciprocal benefit that each one of these two disciplines can gain from the other. Mathematics can be more easily understood when it becomes clear that “mathematical structures” provide a description and sometimes a language for the corresponding structures existing, more or less manifestly, in artworks; as well as Art – a creative and imaginative act - can be helped or even inspired by techniques or reasonings that belong to the field of Science and to the constructive and descriptive language of Mathematics.
The declaration of SCIENAR states, that Mathematics has evolved along with our way of conceiving, perceiving, experimenting and representing “reality”; while Art develops the means to harmonise, describe, represent aesthetically, transcend and transfigure the World of our sensations and perception. History of Arts and Science tells us that Mathematics and Figurative Arts (Painting, Sculpting, Carving) have often developed in parallel.
A completely analogous pathway is recognizable in other forms of Visual Art, in Architecture, in Music, in all forms of “modern and contemporary Art”, from Photography to Film, up to Digital Art.

(c) Marcella Giulia Lorenzi

The project SCIENAR is based on the following starting points:
a. The need of visualizing science to better communicate it;
b. Virtual Laboratories as a vehicle to better understand and teach science;
c. The deep interplay between science and art;
d. The digital technologies as a tool to produce new art;
e. Art and digital technologies as tools to produce new science.

The project SCIENAR explicitly aims in particular to:
1. create an interactive environment for both Scientist and Artists;
2. review and analyze the existing scientific environments;
3. formalize and develop three scientific scenarios
SCENARIO # 1: The birth of geometry at the time of Greeks: the role of proportions, the music of cosmos, platonic solids, the golden mean.
SCENARIO # 2: The role of symmetry and prospective in renaissance: the birth of perspective and projective geometry, symmetry in art, the beauty canons in painting, architecture and music.
SCENARIO # 3: The new mathematics and art of xx century: curvature, impressionism, cubism, fractalism, motion and fourth dimension, digital art.
4. produce art installations and exhibitions in the domain of art & science;
5. constitute an international network concerning these (and other) scientific scenarios for art.

Blog Posting Number: 1299

Tags:, , , ,

Thursday, February 05, 2009

BPN 1298 Hyper modern game studio to be realised in Leeuwarden

In the city of Leeuwarden, in the North of The Netherlands, a new games studio is under construction; it will open officially in May. It will be run by the company Gameship and will have the latest devices. The company will offer employment to 50 students. Companies from throughout Europe have shown interest, especially in serious games.

The studio is intended for the students of the NHL University, department of Communication & Multimedia Design, as well as for companies. Dutch companies such as the regional newspaper company NDC, theFactor.E, MOTEK and the Gerrit de Jonge Multimedia have contributed towards the studio, while grants were received from the national government and the European Regional Fund. The studio will cost 4 million euro.

The studio complex will consist of hyper modern games, animation and sound studios, where the students, but also the companies will realise professional productions. One of the eye catchers will be the motion capture studio, in which a series of cameras record the movements of people and animals for animations.

The gaming industry has in the meantime a variety of games such as standard videogames, arcade games, quiz games, sports games. In Gameship special attention will be given to serious games, which can be applied to training and education, but also to health and business.

The NHL University has built up its expertise in games over the years. Recently they finished the first instalment of the project A Perfect World, in which no less than 19 well known companies like Creative Industries, IT Works and the Noordhoff Publishers co-operated. The companies offered 7 different assignments related to gaming. Students could apply to work on the assignments with their instructors and the external creatives. In the framework of the project A Perfect World, a game concept was realised for educational publisher Noordhoff in which high school students can check their subject knowledge. For the internet company theFactor.E the students developed a game for searching proper company offices in the real estate market.

Blog Posting Number: 1298

Tags: ,