lee crane

Do old-media titans Ann Moore, Charles Townsend, Jann Wenner, Cathie Black honestly believe that a Youtube.com video of them sitting in their huge corner offices talking about how important magazines are is going to change the media consuming habits of the world?

Let it go already. The sooner all these CEOs move on, the sooner those same media companies can get on the road to a reasonable digital (and print) future.

And I owe it all to Nick Lipton. Crazy how these things work.

[Link: Quiksilver.com]

Tomorrow, January 27, 2010, Apple will release a tablet computer that will function on its own and/or slide “cassette like” into the back of an all-new iMac style desk computer. The tablet will hold user information and a selection of apps. When it plugs into the screen it will simply act as users settings and the real computing will be done by the chip that is on the desktop machine.

This will allow people to travel and plug their tablet into anyone’s “screen and keyboard” and have their own computer via the onboard storage and a connection to their iDisk via MobileMe. It will allow schools, hospitals, and businesses to purchase monitor/keyboard stations that can be used by anyone with a tablet. The tablet can be the textbook, the chart, the notepad, the portable work station, and when it is plugged in, it becomes a desk top computer.

Oh, and this will also work wirelessly with current and previous versions of Apple iMac computers, but not as well.

That is my guess.

[After thought: Turns out I was completely wrong. . . ]

Former Transworld Snowboarding Editor Eric Blehm’s new book The Only Thing Worth Dying For arrives in bookstores on January 19, 2010.

This latest work from the author of the award winning The Last Season follows a small group of Green Berets on America’s first action in Afghanistan following the events of 911. Not to be a spoiler, but the end result of their brave mission was Afghanistan getting its first democratically elected president in history, but that is only part of the story.

The Only Thing completely rearranged my understanding of modern warfare and the realities of how a small group of committed individuals can make a huge difference in the world. Anyone who believes they have an opinion regarding US foreign policy simply must read The Only Thing Worth Dying For.

That aside, it will be one of the most intense adventure stories you read this decade. (Follow the jump for the official book tour dates and locations)

[Link: The Only Thing Worth Dying For]
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The possible arrival of Apple’s long-rumored iTablet has old media companies scrambling. They all seem to believe that because the tablet is similar in shape to a magazine that it is going to save the magazine business.

A few weeks ago Conde Nast’s Wired magazine presented their vision of what this digital magazine could look like. The video clip (viewable here) shows standard magazine layouts that spring to life with moving pictures, text that zings up from unreadable to readable at the swipe of a finger, slideshows that play fullscreen before magically transforming into video, and pages that turn with a tap. A week later Time Inc. did a very similar thing with a digital version of Sports Illustrated created in collaboration with The Wonder Factory NY. Even Bonnier is getting in on the action. Yesterday, they released a video of “Mag+” a collaboration they’ve been working on with the design firm BERG, according to a story on the LA Times book blog Jacket Copy.

All this talk of digital magazines has even given rise to a new joint venture between old media giants Time Inc., Conde Nast, The Hearst Corporation, Meredith and the News Corporation in which they’re are planning a “digital newsstand” to sell “digital versions” of their publications, according to a story in the New York Times.

The consortium envisions selling these versions of their publications through an online store akin to iTunes. The hope, said Mr. Squires, who has been executive vice president of Time Inc., is to grab not just readers but also advertisers, allowing publishers to charge higher rates for digital ads, which now are much cheaper than print ads.

Sadly, in all of these plans and announcements old media continue to make the same basic mistake. They all use the magazine as metaphor for digital content distribution. We all understand why they do it—they’ve been bringing in billions of dollars with the magazine model for more than 100 years. Unfortunately for them, it is precisely this magazine myopia that is causing old media to miss the major problem currently facing “the magazine” industry.
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This could probably steal a few souls quite nicely (and at $5,000 empty a few wallets). . .

The EOS 1D Mark IV arrives in a body-only kit at the very end of the year, in late December, and should cost $5,000. A companion add-on, the WFT-E2 II A, will give the Mark IV 802.11g Wi-Fi and Ethernet support to share photos over local networks and the Internet, including remote shooting with a live preview; Bluetooth is onboard to add geotagging with a wireless GPS receiver.

[Link: electronista]

In a letter to his readers, URB magazine’s founder and publisher Raymond Roker announced that the magazine is taking a break from the print media world. Roker, who has kept URB independent through out its history, explained his reasons for the change than most:

To simply blame the prevailing conditions on the financial markets is only partially accurate. We’re experiencing an incredible and sweeping shift in consumption and media habits worldwide, especially in the magazine market. It’s affecting giant publishers like Condé Nast as well as niche publishers like us. . . For these are other reasons (read on), effective after Issue 158 (Summer 2009), we have decided to take a hiatus from the print edition of URB so that we can evaluate the landscape, relaunch URB.COM and decide where we fit in the new, new legacy media ecosystem.

I think this is something we’re going to be hearing a lot more in the near future. And it makes sense. Media is digital, print is analog.

[Link: Urb.com]

But it’s going to be well worth it.

[Link: Gizmodo]

Julius Shulman, amazing mid-century photographer and example for a working life lived right, died on July 15, 2009. He was 98 and still taking pictures.

Shulman produced images of buildings — by pioneering architects like Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig — that defined the postwar architecture of Southern California, among other places. The gregarious and seemingly tireless photographer continued to work until shortly before his death.

Makes me wish I would have gotten that book signed when I had the chance. . .

[Link: NY Times]

Don’t know if I could make it back through, or if this is the way I’d like to spend my summer, but the crew at InfiniteSummer.org is doing a group read of David Foster Wallace’s mammoth, best novel ever written, Infinite Jest this summer starting on June 21, 2009.

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

[Link: InfiniteSummer.org]