The publishing revolution.

If you believe the hype, tomorrow will see the start of a revolution... a revolution I believe is inevitable and will change the way read.

When Apple created the ipod, it wasn't the first mp3 player, it wasn't the best sounding mp3 player, and in fact, it technically wasn't even an mp3 player. But it struck a chord with a large part of the population and flew off the shelves. It pushed the concept of a digital music player into the public spotlight (as opposed to just the geeky gadget buying section of it) and revolutionised the way we buy and listen to music.

However, Apple's ipod did something far greater than than just revolutionise music....it also made apple cool. the majority of people who have bought a macbook or imac in the last 5 years would never have considered a mac with out the halo that the ipod provided. This brand awareness makes any launch of a new apple product a big deal.

It happened for a second time three years ago apple announced and launched the iphone. It changed the way people use their mobile phones and access the internet when they are out and about. As with the ipod, before the iphone there were touchscreen smartphones. Most with more features and for a much cheaper price. But, the iphone had two things going for it: the magical Apple brand and the benefit Apple's user interface design.

Tomorrow we are going to see the new apple tablet. If we don't millions of people will be very surprised and very disappointed. And while it won't -yet again- be the first, cheapest or most powerful, it is going to have a huge impact and change the way we interact with the internet, video and especially the written word.

E-readers have been trying to change the way we buy and read books for a number of years, but small black and white screens have limited their usefulness when it comes to colourful magazines, large format newspapers or just the familiarity of turning pages.The Apple Tablet will gradually integrate into peoples everyday way of thinking that their information -be it from any of the traditional forms of publishing- can be just as successful and user friendly as traditional routes. Just cooler, more accessible and more fun. The key to this is the user experience.

The iphone plays host to an number of reader apps such as amazons Kindle and the New York times which provide a custom interface for reading content from a certain provider. While these work reasonably well, each is unique with different layouts, interfaces, and more importantly payment models. This could be all about to change

Apple are all about the interface. You don't -and can't- revolutionise the publishing industry by providing a large hand held screen for publishers to use as they wish. What would be the point in investing so much in development of new interface? What is more than likely to happen is that they will create a new format, telling publishers "that's the way its going to be" and put themselves in the middle claiming their 30%.

Apple's new e-publishing format will provide a quick and easy way to adapt written content for the digital age. Apple's book store will provide a way to get that content in front of users and more importantly, get paid for it. Advertising revenues are falling and few websites have found a good model for charging for online content. Even major publishers such as News corp and Conde Naste and suffering from falling profits. So are they going to sell their souls to Steve Jobs -like music industry has- and sit back and ride the revolution?

Of course they are.

Bonus's as a way out the financial crisis

There's been a lot of outrage in the past week over banks plans to hand out bonus's to employee's even though they have made huge losses and are in the middle of the biggest banking crisis the world has seen since the 1930's.

The problem with cutting the bonus's is that the people it's going to affect most are those at the bottom of the tree, the one's most likely to be in desperate need of their annual bonus. In most cases these aren't the people responsible for the huge losses, there the one's who have worked hard for the last year, met all their targets and done everything they can for the company. They're not the one's who've handed out loans to people who should never have got them or decided to merge with a company on it's last legs in the hope of bigger profits.

But that's not the point of my post. My point is, if these banks are determined to pay out huge amounts of money to their staff at these times why not impose some rules and use it to give the economy a bit of a kick.

Tell them they can have their bonus, but they have to spend most of it. £150mil of Loyd's money may not drag us out of recession  but a few dozen managers buying British built Jaguars will give the car industry a (small) kick in the right direction and get some people back to work. 

Splashing out a a new kitchen might not seem like the best way to deal with a recession but it's a weeks work for a fitter not to mention electricians and plumbers. I'm not sure of how it multiply's but every pound put into the economy is worth a lot more as it trickles down.

There was a suggestion a few weeks back (might have been Robert X. Cringley) that Tax dodgers be given an amnesty as long as they spend the equivalent amount on new products. Getting people spending could be the way out of this crisis but it looks like we're going to have to force people to do it. So why not force the people who are partly to blame to do their bit towards a solution