Mobile Content

As bookstores and the printing industry continue to compete with e-books and e-readers, one publishing company  has come up with an alternative strategy by using new media to their advantage. Atria will publish the first print book to be outfitted with a smart chip, one that is read by smartphones and will offer additional information [...]

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

At GigaOm Mobilize 2011 Conference, various experts from telcos, middleware, and infrastructure providers joined in to share their perspective on the evolving mobile ecosystem, the cloud, new opportunities in the space and mobile payments. Despite the complex nature of the space, the panels and fireside chats were thought provoking and gave a unique insight into areas consumers and application developers should be aware of moving forward.

Tennis, everyone? The Family Circle Cup tournament added a fully functional mobile site to its social media arsenal, joining its already existing presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

The leaked images reveal the movie’s stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in bed and were tweeted to the world. The producers removed the primary supplier. But still, the immodest images are floating here and there online, prompting the studio and its creative team to get in touch with the franchise fans.

Shortly after Starbucks (U.S.) started offering free WiFi in 2010, it launched the Starbucks Digital Network (SDN) in partnership with Yahoo. SDN partnered with a number of content developers to provide premium content for free when using Starbucks’ free WiFi service. Content from the Wall Street Journal, Zagat, video from Nick Jr. Boost, documentary films from SnagFilms, and even a free song of the week from iTunes are available from the SDN when you are in a Starbucks.

Starbucks announced this week that more premium content will be available soon through the SDN.

Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!, Debuts New Content Providers: The Economist, ESPN Insider and Mediabistro with Marvel Digital Comics Coming Soon

That’s quite a line-up of normally for-fee content. And, wait, hey! Mediabistro? That’s us! Although ThinkMobile content is always free of charge to its readers, Mediabistro also offers premium content. Here’s what will be available when you are in a Starbucks.

For customers looking to conduct a job search in the media field or plot a career move, Mediabistro brings new resources to the network. It joins the Business & Careers channel to provide complimentary access to its library of how-to career training videos. With topics ranging from how to “Create a Job Search Strategy” to “How to Make Your Resume Work Harder for You,” the instructional videos offer relevance for job seekers and entrepreneurs in all fields.

Audible’s audiobook listening and management app for the iPhone does more that let you listen to audio books. It can download books from your library stored on Audible’s servers. It provides audio book news. And, it can provide statistics about your audio book reading behavior. Just tap My Stats on the options list at the bottom of the screen to learn about your current book listening, past week’s listening, by-month listening, and all-time. I was shocked to learn that I had not listened to any audio books at all in the September and October of last year. Note, however, that the app only provides statistics for audio book use on the specific device. So, if you split Audible audio book reading across, for example, a desktop computer, iPad, iPhone, and Kindle, the iPhone statistics only looks at audio books listened to on the iPhone itself.

The Audible for iPhone app is available for free in the iTunes App Store.

Audible 1.5.1 (iTunes App Store)

Writers think of their work appearing in books, magazines, newspapers, or online, but have you thought of your writing appearing in apps? Mobile applications are another avenue for writers to get paid for what they do, and get their work published. An article titled “How To Make Money Writing For Mobile Apps,” available in its entirety to AvantGuild members, includes two examples of mobile app developing companies that sought people to write content for apps, ranging from self-guided tour maps to an interactive encyclopedia of spices. Also included in the article are tips for writers interested in writing for mobile applications.

The article is one of the benefits of AvantGuild membership, which costs $55 per year. Membership in AvantGuild provides you access to all sorts of content for media professionals such as discounted access to LexisNexis, how to pitch guides, and discounts on courses. Also included with the membership is a one year subscription to either New York, Wired, W, or The Atlantic magazines.

During the process of downloading and installing an iPad app, Apple presented me with a notification that there were changes to in-app subscriptions. I have the 36 page agreement emailed to me and pulled out the section about in-app subscriptions. You can find it below in its entirety.

IN-APP SUBSCRIPTIONS

Certain App Store Products may include functionality that enables you to purchase content on a subscription basis (“Paid Subscriptions”). Paid Subscriptions are non-refundable. Paid Subscriptions will automatically renew for the applicable time period you have selected, and your Account will be charged no more than 24 hours prior to the expiration of the current Paid Subscription. You may cancel automatic renewal by selecting Manage App Subscriptions in your Account and selecting the subscription you want to modify. The auto-renew feature of the subscription will be turned off if the Licensor increases the price of the subscription. Certain Paid Subscriptions may offer a free trial prior to purchase. If you decide to purchase a Paid Subscription prior to the end of the free trial period, your Paid Subscription will start immediately. Also see additional information about the Paid Subscription offer at the point of sale within the App Store Product. We may ask for your permission to provide the name, email address and zip code listed in your Account to the Licensor so that it can send you marketing messages about its own products in accordance with its publicly posted privacy policy. Once the Licensor has this information, it will be treated in accordance with the Licensor’s privacy policy. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of the Licensor before agreeing to give it your personal information. For more information, please review the Licensor’s privacy policy or contact the Licensor directly.

Here are the items that drew my attention:
- Paid Subscriptions are non-refundable
- Paid Subscriptions will automatically renew for the applicable time period you have selected
- Apple will ask for your permission to share your name, email address, and ZIP code with the firm involved with your subscription.

I suspect that many (if not most or even all) of you reading this are familiar with the concept of network content filtering. A simple example is a single PC with “net nanny” type software to prevent children from accessing inappropriate sites. At the other end of the scale are enterprise policies which might prevent the use of certain network services (Skype, for example) or access to certain websites (like the net nanny).

Mobile Active Defense (MAD) has created a twist for enterprise policy management for mobile devices.

Mobile Active Defense launches GeoLocation Based Firewall and Content Filtering for Smartphones and Tablet Devices

The GeoLocation controls for MAD’s Mobile Enterprise Compliance and Security Server (MECS). It provides the ability to set smartphone access policy based on the location of the smartphone. You might not, for example, be able to access Facebook while in the office but could from a nearby coffee shop. On a more global scale, some websites might be blocked while visiting specific countries but accessible in your home country. The idea is to provide automatic policy activation to deal with political or cultural sensitivities.

Via GeoCommunity: Mobile Active Defense Launches GeoLocation-Based Firewall and Content Filtering for iPhones

I could not understand how Playboy would be able to provide their uncensored content in an iPad app while reading Engadget’s original blog item.

Playboy Magazine coming to iPad in its uncensored form in March, including full back catalog (Engadget)

Engadget later updated it with a link to a Fox News item that clarified the matter.

Playboy’s Pics Are Coming to iPad, Despite Apple’s Anti-Porn Rules

“We are releasing a web-based subscription service with Bondi Digital Publishing that will give users access to every issue of Playboy both past and present. The service will be iPad-compatible and will utilize iPad functions,” Hennessey said.

By providing a web-based service, Playboy gets around two issues related to iOS apps:
1. Censoring of mature content (as judged by Apple)
2. Content subscriptions for in-app purchases.

Note that Apple places warning on nearly all apps that provide web access. The alternative Atomic Web Browser, for example, features the warning in the screenshot seen on the left.