Both Yahoo and Google are set to release digital newsstands akin to Flipboard and Pulse shortly.

According to the Livestand landing page, Livestand is a personalized digital newsstand app that combines visually stunning design with personalized content from leading third-party publishers and Yahoo!’s global media network.

Google will follow Yahoo with the launch of its own product, code-named Propeller. It may stick with the brand, but it very well could debut with the name Currents, according to All Things D. It will likely roll out a week or two following Livestand.

Both apps are entering into a crowded space, with the likes of Flipboard, Pulse, CNN’s Zite, and AOL’s Editions. Apple just recently launched Newsstand, an app which consolidates digital magazines and newspapers into one location, with iOS 5.

Google Propeller is an HTML5-based reader with versions for the iPad and Android-based tablets. It is being touted as an enhanced version of Flipboard, which will also feature deep integration with Google’s social network, Google+.

Speculation about a Google digital newsstand began in January when the Wall Street Journal claimed that Google would unveil such a service with partnerships with major publishers including Time Inc, Hearst, Conde Nast, and others. These publishers could soon be joined by a plethora of media partners.

Swisher, K. Yahoo’s Livestand and Google’s Propeller Set to Launch Next Week. AllThingsD. Retrieved October 28, 2011, from http://allthingsd.com/20111028/news-reader-traffic-jam-yahoos-livestand-and-googles-propeller-set-to-launch-aiming-at-flipboard/

Eighteen months after the introduction of the iPad, 11% of U.S. adults now own a tablet computer of some kind. Nearly half (53%) get news on their tablet every day and read long articles as well as get headlines. However, a majority say they would be unwilling to pay for news content on these devices, according to a comprehensive study on tablet users and how they interact with this new technology.

The study, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism in collaboration with The Economist Group, has found that the vast majority of tablet owners (77%) use their tablet every day and average about 90 minutes a day on them. Consuming news (everything from the latest headlines to in-depth articles and commentary) ranks as one of the most popular activities on the tablet, about as popular as sending and receiving email (54% email daily on their tablet), and more popular than social networking (39%), gaming (30%), reading books (17%) or watching movies and videos (13%). The only activity that people indicated they were more likely to do on their tablet daily is general web browsing (67%). The survey also found that 30% of those who consume news on their tablets (out of the 77% of all tablet users who get news at least weekly) indicated they spend more time getting news than they did before they had their tablet. Just 4% say they spend less time while two-thirds (65%) spend about the same amount of time. Nearly a third of tablet news users say they are turning to new sources for news on their tablet, sources they had not turned to on other platforms such as television or their desktop computer. And, more than four in ten (42%) say they regularly read in-depth news articles and analysis on their tablet. Tablet news users also say they now prefer their new devices over traditional computers, print publications or television as a way both to get quick news headlines and to read long-form pieces.

Sources

Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. (2011, October 25). The Tablet Revolution | Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) | Understanding News in the Information Age. Retrieved October 26, 2011, from http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/tablet

Volkswagen Canada has recently launched a large-scale augmented reality campaign to reintroduce a fully redesigned model of the Beetle to Canada. The campaign represents one of the most ambitious implementations of augmented reality for an advertising campaign ever created.

The campaign consists of a series of billboards in Toronto’s Dundas Square in addition to posters on transit shelters throughout Toronto and Vancouver. Once a passersby downloads the free app, they can then point their iPhone or iPad at the billboard or poster to watch the car ads come to life.

The animations in Dundas Square feature the car leaping from one billboard to the next. In the transit shelters, the posters drop away to reveal the car racing along a tunnel, then crashing through the shelter itself.

The ‘big idea’ of the campaign is to emphasize the performance aspect of the new Beetle. Volkswagen wanted to reposition it from the last version of the car, which was more feminine and design-focused. They want it to hearken back to the original Beetle, to bring out innovation, which is central to the brand personality.

Currently, the app is only available for Apple products. Red Urban, a digital shop in Toronto, created the augmented reality aspect of the campaign.

Macleod, D. (2011, October 25). Volkswagen Beetle Juiced Up with AR | The Inspiration Room. The Inspiration Room | Advertising creativity from around the world. Retrieved October 25, 2011, from http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/volkswagen-beetle-juiced-up-with-ar/

Blippar is an image-scanning and augmented reality app, based in the U.K. and launched in June, and has been used for ad campaigns for Cadbury, Jack Daniels, and Tesco. The advantages of using this new tech rather than QR codes for marketers is largely a matter of aesthetics. Rather than marring creative with images that resemble Rorschach inkblots, agencies and brands can use ads or brand logos to point smartphones toward additional information.

Proponents argue it’s not just about creating prettier mobile URLs, but also fostering wider applications. “We don’t want to be pigeonholed as a QR code killer,” says Jessica Butcher, Blippar’s marketing manager. “We really want to show that image recognition can do a lot more than that.”

Still, Blippar and similar AR startups face some of the same obstacles that have hobbled QR codes, chiefly that users have to actually know they can interact with a picture in a glossy mag or bus shelter poster (Blippar addresses this with thumbnails indicating an image can be scanned). They also need the right stuff on heir phones to do so. It is estimated that 14 million U.S. adults have scanned QR codes, that’s only 6.2 percent of the mobile audience, although the number of users continues to grow rapidly.

Beltrone, G. (2011, October 5). Building a Better QR Code | Tech Startups Develop Alternatives … But Will People Know They’re There? | Adweek. Adweek – Breaking News in Advertising, Media and Technology. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/building-better-qr-code-135460

QR Code Killers On the Horizon – [a]listdaily. (2011, October 6). [a]listdaily. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.thealistdaily.com/news/qr-code-killers-on-the-horizon/

Aurasma describes itself as “the world’s first visual browser.” Aurasma offers a never before seen level of interactivity and is a great mass-market platform for augmented reality.

Aurasma combines the portable application processing power, camera, touch screen and Internet connection of an Apple or Android smart device with backend image recognition and multimedia content management software to let you literally bring images you see to life.

The user points the camera at an image (billboard, magazine ad, product package, etc.) Aurasma then detects the image and enhances it with a field of interactive features and rich multimedia adding sharing information and enabling online transactions regarding what you are viewing. This interaction is “stateful”, that is once image recognition has been achieved, you can walk away from the picture, product or billboard and continue to explore and interact with the application.

When an Omega watch advertisement featuring actor Daniel Craig is scanned, the user is able to interact with the watch and learn more information about it. The user can even try on the watch, along with different models, as the app augments watch images onto the user’s wrist.

Haughwout, J. (2011, October 16). Aurasma: Augmented Reality on Your iPad, iPhone or Android. Technorati. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://technorati.com/technology/article/aurasma-augmented-reality-on-your-ipad/

Trout, C. (2011, April 9). Aurasma’s AR iPhone app to turn everyday objects into multimedia triggers (video) — Engadget. Engadget. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/09/aurasmas-ar-iphone-app-to-turn-everyday-objects-into-multimedia/

Apple’s Newsstand feature is driving up digital media subscriptions, drawing attention to the impact mobile devices are making on the publishing world.

Digital subscribers are flocking to several of publisher Conde Nast’s magazines on Apple devices, including “The New Yorker” and “GQ,” which generated a reported 268 percent increase in subscriptions since Newsstand launched two weeks ago. The publisher has nine offerings in Newsstand.

Apple’s Newsstand appears on the Apple iOS 5 home screen and is available for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users. It displays a user’s digital media apps in one, easy-to-access spot and updates them automatically in the background when new issues become available.

Newsstand includes a store where users can shop for paid subscriptions to magazines and newspapers, besides putting digital media apps in a separate location rather than burying them among apps for social media, games and photos. This high-visibility feature has publishers celebrating.

Apple’s relationship with publishers has at times been contentious, with media outlets complaining about what they called the “Apple tax,” a 30-percent cut Apple takes from App Store purchases. Publishers have also tried and failed to press Apple into sharing subscriber demographic information, which publishers depend on to sell ads.

But publishers have eased up some of these concerns in their quest for a different model, now that people increasingly choose to click rather than turn a paper page, and advertisers pull out of expensive glossies with declining circulation. As a result, Apple’s Newsstand may have launched at a particularly vulnerable moment in the publishing industry.

Condé Nast and Time were among the first publishers to strike deals with Apple, allowing print subscribers access to digital versions of some publications at no additional charge. This move may have opened the door for an increased interest in paid, digital-only subscriptions like the ones Newsstand offers.

As mobile media becomes more pervasive, publishers will likely see digital subscriptions continue to climb, creating a need for balance between the desire for new readership and the need to fund a revenue stream driven by one-off print issue sales and advertising.

Kaplan, D. (2011, October 19). Publishers See Apple Newsstand Sales Surge, But Ad Sales Slow To Follow. The Economics of Digital Content | paidContent. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from http://paidcontent.org/article/419-publishers-see-apple-newsstand-sales-surge-as-ad-sales-slow-to-follow/

While it is recognized that digital mediums are currently driving content consumption, the points of entry for where readers are accessing material-applications or Web browsers-are still up in the air. But recent analyses are suggesting it’s worth noting whether readers are spending more time with their apps or with browsers in the mobile environment.

Flurry, an analytics company for mobile applications, finds that individuals are spending more time-about seven more minutes-per day with mobile apps than on the Web for an average of 81 minutes and 74 minutes, respectively. The group also contends that use of mobile apps has surpassed desktop, notebook and mobile Web consumption by about nine percent.

The amount of time users spend with mobile apps increased by 91 percent from June 2010 to 2011, according to Flurry. “This growth has come primarily from more sessions per user, per day rather than a large growth in session lengths,” the Flurry study finds.

While it seems users are spending more time with mobile apps, the Online Publishers Association finds that only 12 percent of the U.S. Internet user population own tablet devices and that the average user downloads just 20 apps. About 79 percent of app downloaders have paid for apps in the last 12 months, though only 26 percent of all apps downloaded are paid.

About 66 percent of responding tablet users, in which 2,482 individuals aged 8-64 were polled online (though it is hard to imagine how many 8-year-olds have a tablet), say they prefer reading on a tablet device than a computer. The survey also finds that 65 percent of tablet users prefer reading on a tablet to a mobile phone. Only about 31 percent of tablet users, according to OPA, are reading magazines on these devices and about 20 percent of tablet users interact with magazine apps regularly.

A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User. (June 2011). Online Publishers Association. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://onlinepubs.ehclients.com/images/pdf/MMF-OPA_–_Portait_of_Todays_Tablet_User_–_Jun2211_%28Final-Public%29.pdf

Newark-French, C. (2011, June 20). Mobile Apps Put the Web in Their Rear-view Mirror. The Flurry Blog. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://blog.flurry.com/bid/63907/Mobile-Apps-Put-the-Web-in-Their-Rear-view-Mirror

HP and Condé Nast are partnering in an on-demand, digital-to-print pilot program that will allow readers to, via a desktop printer widget, download selected content and print it from home.

At this point, says a Condé Nast spokesperson, the publisher is determining the kinds of content that would be appropriate for this delivery mechanism. Recipes from Epicurious, for example, might make sense, but the publisher is still trying to figure out how content from, say, Glamour might work in this setting.

In announcing the program, HP says Allure, Details, Epicurious, Glamour, Golf Digest, Self and Wired will participate in the pilot.

HP is trying to position itself as a way for content publishers to reach end users. With this digital-to-print effort, readers will see a downloadable widget on a brand’s website.

The widget allows readers to schedule when they want their content printed.

The widget works with any Web-enabled printer, not just HP brands—a point that content publishers made clear with HP in order to open up the program to a wider segment of customers.

According to Annette Friskopp, HP’s head of IWS strategic account management, there are two other paths of discovery to the content. HP’s ePrintCenter has an apps page that showcases the various print-on-demand content options; and the HP printer itself—content brands will display on the printer’s panel.

It may seem like a strange nook for Condé Nast to be exploring, but these days who knows what might stick with consumers. Nevertheless, Friskopp notes that HP customer research says people still like printing out content for reference, sharing and, she says, “once you’ve printed it you can find it again.” Take that, digital information overload.

Condé Nast will initially roll out with an ad-based revenue model, but that might change if the project catches on.

Mickey, B. (2011, October 13). Condé Nast Partners with HP for Print-On-Demand Content. Foliomag. Retrieved October 14, 2011, from http://www.foliomag.com/2011/cond-nast-partners-hp-print-demand-content

Zappar is a new mobile app that “zaps” specially designed images and allows the user to play video games or interact with an advertisement. The augmented reality application was introduced at GAMESCOM Expo in Cologne, Germany, promoting the videogame All Zombies Must Die!. The app has also been used in movie promotions by Warner Brothers Pictures for the films The Green Lantern and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2

The Zappar technology allows consumers and brands to access a “new world of entertainment and visual excitement” just by pointing their iPhone or Android device at any Zappar activated image.

Zappar – You’re Seeing Things. (n.d.). Zappar. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from http://www.zappar.com/