Insights into Innovation

Up until recently, you'd be hard-pressed to find the words "user experience" and "book" in the same sentence. With the Kindle, Amazon was arguably the first company to begin that discussion. Prior to January 27, there was much speculation and anticipation that Apple would open that discussion up more with the introduction of their tablet device, the iPad. Unfortunately, what Apple presented during its much-hyped keynote was more of an incremental step forward in the e-book experience. Why? – The iPad uses the ePub format for books, which doesn't allow for rich media.

Rather than sit idle, publishers are working hard to create custom apps to bring readers the future of the book. Well, that's at least what we were all hoping. This week Penguin Books showcased the first next-gen efforts of the book publishing industry, and all I can say is, "Wow!"

“Surprise” and “delight”: two words that are rarely associated with Microsoft. But that’s just what Microsoft did at the Mobile World Congress this past week in Barcelona. Well, the surprise part, at least.

This week a dark cloud passed over the world of design as the 55-year-old I.D. magazine announced that they were folding.

Forrester released a new survey on consumer attitudes regarding paid content (see their own commentary here: http://bit.ly/x0WDo). Of course, most of the coverage of this report is of the hand-wringing variety, forecasting more doom and gloom. The big news: 80% seem to be against it. The bigger news? 20% are amenable to various methods paying for content. And this is where things start to get interesting.