As we in the United States celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow and through the weekend, there will not be a new blog post until Monday, November 26. Here is wishing everyone a Happy and safe Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and, what’s most important, the company of family and friends.
Here’s a gift you don’t have to wrap!
With the Thanksgiving holiday in the US also comes the opening of the Christmas shopping season, starting Friday with the so called Black Friday—-when shoppers camp out of the stores to get the best prices.
Well, here is a suggestion for someone on your list, the digital book iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet. No need to stand in line, no need to buy wrapping paper. Just send it to someone you think might enjoy a book about this magnificent new platform that is the tablet, and how to maximize its potential for storytelling.
Here is how you can get the book:
The original version of the book is the multitouch textbook version available on the iBookstore for iPad (iOS 5.0 and up):
https://itunes.apple.com/book/ipad-design-lab/id565672822. This version includes video walkthroughs, audio introductions to each chapter, swipeable slideshows, a glossary and a sophisticated look and feel.
Apple only sells multitouch textbooks in certain countries at this time, unfortunately. Copies are available in at least the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and the United States.
For those in other countries and without an iPad, we have made the book available in a basic edition for other platforms. This basic edition includes the full text of the original, along with the images and captions, but lacks the other features such as audio and video. It is available on the following platforms in many countries:
Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/SlPzjZ
Google Books: http://bit.ly/TYKcew
Scribd: http://bit.ly/PQTwla
Time running out for the Financial Times Deutschland?
TAKEAWAY: When the Financial Times Deutschland first appeared in 2000, it captured the attention of business readers in Germany, and prompted editors of competing publications to take notice. Now, 12 years later, rumors tell us that the FT Deutschland may be closed down.
It looks like the German-language edition of the Financial Times—called Financial Times Deutschland—is not going to make it.
While the news is not yet official, the rumors that have been circulating for years about the demise of this well designed and illustrated newspaper seem to be gaining momentum.
It is always a sad day when a newspaper gets ready to say goodbye. This one, particularly, I remember well, as it surprised many when it appeared in 2000. While it printed in the trademark peach colored newsprint of its mother publication, the Financial Times, based in London, but published worldwide, the Financial Times Deutschland, as it was called, appeared with its unique touches: A reversed blue and white logo, a Berliner format and daily front page graphics that would make readers stop to look at that lead story of the day. It also made many in the newsrooms of other financial dailies wonder how the FT Deutschland team managed to sustain that high level of graphics and illustration on a daily basis. But they did, and how! I celebrate the many wonderful front pages that the FT Deutschland published in its 12-year history.
In fact, I happened to be working with two other financial dailies in Europe—-The Wall Street Journal Europe (published in Belgium), and Handelsblatt, the German business newspaper—-when the FT Deutschland appeared. It definitely made the editors and designers of these well established newspapers take note. It made us all strive to do better, as it presented real competition.
As it always happens in our business, editors in the competing newspapers constantly discussed the “real” circulation of the FT Deutschland, versus what it claimed, suggesting that the figures were inflated. These comments were nothing beyond mere speculation, with a touch of jealousy about this new baby wrapped in the funny peach color with the grand illustrations on its page one.
Competition among newspapers is always healthy and fosters improvement. That’s another reason I am sorry to see the FT Deutschland go, if the rumors are correct.
That leaves Handelsblatt, in Germany, as the only true financial daily, except that the Wall Street Journal Europe, the English Financial Times, and all that the digital media have to offer, are there to supply every need a business reader may have.
Another reason that perhaps the FT Deutschland could not find its footing in what is the crowded field of financial and business news.
Of related interest
– Germany: FT Deutschland to close, say staff
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/20/financial-times-deutschland-close
http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINDEE8AG05Q20121117?irpc=932
Take a video tour of iPad Design Lab
“iPad Design Lab” trailer on Vimeo.
Read the Society of Publication Designers’ review of The iPad Design Lab here:
http://www.spd.org/2012/10/must-read-ipad-design-lab.php
Purchase the book on the iBookstore
The EPUB version of book is HERE:
Now available: The EPUB version of iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, ready for download via Amazon.com for Kindle:
http://tinyurl.com/8u99txw.
Keep up with Mario Garcia Jr. via Garcia Interactive: helping transform online news since 1995.
www.garciainteractive.com
WAN IFRA Asia Conference Nov. 27-29
Still time to join the WAN IFRA Asia Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 27-28.
Online & Social Media
27 November
Smart Media Digital Business Innovations
28 November
Mobile & Tablet Publishing
29 November
For more details, please contact:
Ms. Christine Chin, Events Manager Email: christine.chin@shangri-la.com Tel: +60 (3) 2074 3556—¨Fax: +60 (3) 2078 5990