Digital Media News

Augmented reality as etiquette coach - Alasdair Allan has a practical goal for AR: putting names to faces.

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Mac Slocum) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jul 30, 2010.

Alasdair Allen, author of Programming iPhone Sensors, says real-time facial identification -- the sort that pairs names and faces on the fly -- is closer than you might think. He expands on that topic and a number of others in this video interview.

Which social gaming companies are hiring

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Ben Lorica) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jul 30, 2010.

Disney's announced purchase of Mountain View gaming startup Playdom, follows on the heels of EA's purchase of London-based Playfish last November. Based on active users, Zynga remains by far the biggest online social gaming company. But what other independent companies are growing? To see which companies are expanding, I used our data warehouse of online job postings1 to detect recent...

Tools to Empower a New Kind of Journalism

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jul 30, 2010.

Adapted from an earlier post on paulgillin.com. All of a sudden, “curation” is one of the hottest words in the Web 2.0 world. That’s because it’s an idea that addresses a problem humans have never confronted before: too much information. In the process, it’s creating some compelling new ways to derive value from content. Content [...]

Pressure Cooker Journalism

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jul 27, 2010.

‘When my students come back to visit, they carry the exhaustion of a person who’s been working for a decade, not a couple of years,’ says Duy Linh Tu of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. ‘I worry about burnout.’” He’s talking about the pressure of the new online newsroom. It used to be [...]

Around the Web: Inspiredology, Avatars in Motion, & Quite Strong

By Chrissie Brodigan from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 27, 2010.

By Chrissie Brodigan
Hey there! It’s Monday, so this roundup is devoted to all things web design (ux, photo, illustration, art, graphics, CSS, jQuery, tutorials, and more). Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our “awesomeness” requirement, and regardless we hope you’ll enjoy them. Without further delay: Ever wonder what avatar development looks [...]

Xcode 4 Preview 2 Now Available

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Andrew Trice) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jul 24, 2010.

For those of you fellow iPad and iPhone developers out there, a preview version of Xcode 4 has been released. I'm personally looking forward to the integrated single window in the IDE, as opposed to multiple separate applications, the enhanced debugger, and enhanced code editing and navigation tools. Not to mention, the faster LLVM 2.0 compiler.

How to use UIAutomation to create iPhone UI tests - What's new in O'Reilly Answers: iPhone UI tests, beautiful code, Objective-c, cloud computing, CS5, and much more.

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (O'Reilly Media) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jul 23, 2010.

One of the more useful (from a developer standpoint) features coming in iOS 4 (formerly iPhone OS 4) is the UIAutomation tool. This lets you run an automated set of tests against an application, and test to see if they had the expected results. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, there is minimal documentation for the tool, so here's a quick walkthrough of how to use it. Read more. More from O'Reilly Answers: Examples of Beautiful CodeHow to use protocols in Objective-cOpen source cloud computing with Eucalyptus and UbuntuHow to install Photoshop CS5 Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

CSS3 Transitions Part 1 [Video Tutorial]

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 23, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
It’s Friday and time for our second free weekly helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library. Today we move our attention to CSS3 Transitions. Don’t forget 2 new videos are added to the library every day, to find out more about Think Vitamin membership videos and all the other benefits check out the site.

Think Vitamin Interview: Dan Cederholm at FOWD London 2010

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 22, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
Earlier this year whilst attending Future of Web Design London I recorded a few interviews. First up is my chat with Dan Cederholm, designer, author and co-creator of one of the most popular design focused apps Dribbble. Thanks to Dan for taking the time to chat. You can listen below or download the mp3 directly.

Big Wins with Quick Changes

By Ryan Carson from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 22, 2010.

By Ryan Carson
Once you’ve launched a site, the most important thing to do is be ready and poised to completely change it. Reacting very quickly to real-world feedback can turn unseen problem areas into strengths. I wanted to share a real-world example with you of how we recently did this on a project of ours. I wireframed [...]

jQuery Animation Part 1 [Video Tutorial]

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 21, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
Today our free helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library looks at jQuery Animation. In part 1 of this series Jim will show you how to get started with “show and hide” animations and lead you on to more advanced techniques.

Media Queries, CSS Backgrounds and Vendor Prefixes

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 21, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
Here are three recent CSS related articles that deal with some of the more advanced parts of CSS3 and the debate about vendor prefixes, think -moz-border-radius and -webkit-animation. If you have any examples of where you have used these techniques on live sites feel free to link them up in the comments. Supersize that Background, [...]

Times of London Launches Bold Paywall Test

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jul 21, 2010.

The Times of London set up a paywall on July 2 and has lost 66%, 84%, 90% or 93% of its online traffic as a result, according to the rival Guardian. The Guardian apparently can’t figure out which figure to believe, so it lays them all out in a tedious and self-indulgent exercise that is [...]

Four short links: 20 July 2010 - Hardware Hacking, BI Reporting Tool, Book Recommendations, and Winning the Futurist Lottery

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Nat Torkington) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jul 20, 2010.

Dangerous Prototypes -- "a new open source hardware project every month". Sample project: Flash Destroyer, which writes and verifies EEPROM chips until they blow out. Wabit -- GPLv3 reporting tool. Because No Respectable MBA Programme Would Admit Me (Mike Shaver) -- excellent book recommendations. The Most Prescient Footnote Ever (David Pennock) -- In footnote 14 of Chapter 5 (p....

Nice Paul’s Nice Icons

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 20, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
Freelance user experience designer Paul Annett, formlerly of ClearLeft, has released a rather sweet set of social media icons which he describes as: “…cleaner – simplified without all the bevels, gradients, and rounded corners” For more on the inspiration behind the set and how the BBC News came to use them on their recent redesign [...]

Around the Web: Design is History, jQuery, & Experience

By Chrissie Brodigan from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 19, 2010.

HTML E-mail Design Techniques Part 1 [Video Tutorial]

By Keir Whitaker from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 13, 2010.

By Keir Whitaker
Today’s free helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library looks at what to do and what not to do when designing HTML email. In part 1 of this series, you’ll learn techniques for dealing with e-mail clients that disable images by default.

Around the Web: Type, Humble Pied Inspiration, & Why You Shouldn’t Hire “Me”

By Chrissie Brodigan from Think Vitamin » Design. Published on Jul 12, 2010.

By Chrissie Brodigan
Hey there! I’m back from vacation and visiting San Francisco to celebrate @ciberch and @n2frizbee wedding and marriage! Thank you for sending me so many great projects to link to, expect a surge in the coming days! It’s Monday, so this roundup is devoted to all things web design (ux, photo, illustration, art, graphics, CSS, [...]

Journal Register Rethinks News

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jul 12, 2010.

In case you missed it, the perpetually poverty-stricken Journal Register Co. is doing some pretty gutsy stuff. The company, which was delisted from the NASDAQ New York Stock Exchange two years ago, has a new CEO who’s interested in reinventing publishing. John Paton (right) has a blog and a Twitter Account. He also has the [...]

Old, New Journalists Collide

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jun 30, 2010.

We spent a couple of days in New York earlier this week enjoying the suffocating heat while hearing what other people are saying about the changing media landscape. On Monday, the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit presented a panel of mainstream media veterans from the Wall Street Journal, CBS and Hearst Magazines and one new-media upstart [...]

A Super Simple Sample App for Supersampling on iOS - New in O'Reilly Answers, plus posts about iOS 4, Objective-C, MobileMe email on Android, and much more.

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (O'Reilly Media) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 25, 2010.

Looking for a shortcut to get full-screen anti-aliasing for your iPhone game? It might not be the optimal solution for your needs, but if you're rushing to get something out and need to cut some corners, then this excerpt on supersampling from Philip Rideout's iPhone 3D Programming is for you. Read more. More from O'Reilly Answers: Objective-C: FIXME, TODO and ? A Gentle Introduction to Processing How to Render Anti-Aliased Lines with Textures in iOS 4 How to get push MobileMe email on an Android phone Free Alternative to Apple TV, for your Mac Mini Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

iPhone economics and lower barriers to entry - The power of the App Store is defined by more than direct revenue.

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Andrew Odewahn) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 24, 2010.

The App Store has exposed incumbents in the mobile industry to the same sort of asymmetric competition that has reshaped the media industry over the past decade. Developers are responding in droves to the economic incentives that lower barriers to entry create, as well as the fact that the App Store has generated $1 billion in royalty payments in just a few years.

My Credo

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Peter Drescher) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 21, 2010.

"I Promise Never To Program A Computer To Play Something I Can't"

How to design a unique visual identity for your iPhone app - New in O'Reilly Answers, plus iPhone app design, iPhone UI tests, automation systems, and much more.

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (O'Reilly Media) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 21, 2010.

My new O'Reilly book about iPhone user experience - Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps - hits bookshelves in the next few days (the ebook is already available). I thought it'd be fun to share a few of the book's big-picture design ideas here. For instance, choose a personality for your app. Don't let your app's personality emerge by accident. Before you start designing, choose a personality for your app. The right personality for the right audience and features makes an app irresistible and creates a bonafide emotional connection. Tapworthy designs have the power to charm and beguile. Read more. More from O'Reilly Answers: How to use UIAutomation to create iPhone UI tests How to adjust audio on an iPad How can commenting systems be improved? How to store iPhone app data Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

Knight Foundation Funds Local Innovation

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jun 18, 2010.

If the Knight Foundation didn’t exist, someone would have to invent it. This week the organization that is doing so much to advance the cause of innovation in journalism unveiled its list of a dozen winners of the Knight News Challenge, a contest that “funds ideas that use digital technology to inform specific geographic communities.” [...]

Pew Contrasts Blogger/Journalist Priorities

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on Jun 11, 2010.

Will blogs replace newspapers? If they do, it’ll be with a technie agenda, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Pew gathered a year’s worth of data on the top stories discussed and linked to on blogs and seven months’ worth of comparable data from Twitter. The findings: [...]

Ebook Reseller Wishlist/Scorecard

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Andrew Savikas) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 07, 2010.

I spend a lot of time talking with companies that want to resell O'Reilly ebooks. Some are large companies you've certainly heard of, others are small startups that haven't yet...

Game Audio In The Cloud - Part 3 (Conclusion)

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Peter Drescher) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 04, 2010.

Gameplay parameters are sent up to the server, the application running in the Cloud mixes the appropriate beeps and booms into the audio output buffer, which then streams the game soundtrack to your device. The data being transmitted up is small, the server has all the CPU power, memory storage, and data bandwidth you could ask for, and the download stream is like listening to a digital radio station.

Four short links: 3 June 2010 - Passionate Users, Mail APIs, Phone Hacking, and Patent Data Online

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Nat Torkington) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on Jun 03, 2010.

How to Get Customers Who Love You Even When You Screw Up -- a fantastic reminder of the power of Kathy Sierra's "I Rock" moments. In that moment I understood Tom's motivation: Tom was a hero. (via Hacker News) Yahoo! Mail is Open for Development -- you can write apps that sit in Yahoo! Mail, using and extending the...

‘Fit to Print’ Filmmakers Forge Ahead

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on May 29, 2010.

Last January we told you about Adam Chadwick and Bill Loerch, two filmmakers who are chronicling the decline of the US newspaper industry and the resulting crisis in journalism for a documentary film called Fit to Print. We just got a link to the trailer for their film. Watch it below. The filmmakers have been working [...]

Search-Driven News

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on May 27, 2010.

While Google is busy figuring out how to save journalism, some entrepreneurs are going ahead and doing it on their own using unconventional techniques that may make some traditionalists shudder. Writing in The New York Times magazine, Andrew Rice surveys the landscape of recent media startups that are confronting the reality of plummeting margins by [...]

Google vs Apple: Google Doesn't Need To Win

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Mike Loukides) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on May 24, 2010.

Google does not have to dominate the smartphone business; they just have to make sure that there's an environment in which the business of selling ads thrives. While Apple wants to dominate smartphones, Google undeniably dominates online ad sales--and they clearly see ad placement on mobile as a huge opportunity. Conversely, failure to dominate mobile ad sales would be disastrous. At best, it would limit their potential; at worst, if we're heading for the end of the "desktop/laptop era", it could seriously threaten their core business.

Why Google May Be Industry’s Best Friend

By paulgillin from Newspaper Death Watch. Published on May 17, 2010.

News executives who insist upon seeing Google as the Great Satan would do well to read James Fallows’ 9,000-word analysis in this month’s Atlantic. Fallows is well-equipped to write the story of Google’s tortured romance with the news industry. He is a veteran traditional journalist with a technology bent who is as comfortable writing for [...]

Four short links: 10 May 2010 - Barcodes, Python's Innards, Informed Elections, and Data Literacy

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Nat Torkington) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on May 10, 2010.

zxing -- barcode library for iPhone, Android, Java, and more. Guido's Python -- how the compiler and interpreter see your Python programs. It wasn't until I had this level of knowledge of Perl that I really know what the hell I was doing. (via Hacker News) UK Election Data -- this was posted on the eve of the UK...

Actually, half of all iPad Books are Fiction

By webmaster@oreillynet.com (Ben Lorica) from O'Reilly Digital Media Center. Published on May 10, 2010.

Suggestions to my previous post inspired me to normalize our metadata1 for titles available through the U.S. iBooks app. A comment prompted me to rollup iBooks publishers into publishing conglomerates2: Comments from other readers gave me the idea to map the 100+ iBooks categories to the more familiar BISAC categories. Doing so means over half of all iBooks titles are...