Have you been following O’Reilly’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference?  Well if you have and you are also  a Twitterer, then you’ve probably seen a ton of tweets flashing by – all with their #TOC tags. 

Well, today you’ll probably see our press release announcing our new our new iPhone Application that will soon been released and  this article by Robert Ivan of Metaprinter.  Robert wrote a post saying that the coolest gadget he saw at the show was not the hyped-up Plastic Logic Reader (he said every working model had terrible verticle lines on the screens), but the Readius device our own Igor Smirnoff was demonstrating at the PressDisplay booth.

He said as soon as Igor pulled it out, within seconds people started to gather round. I’m not surprised, its foldable screen is pretty amazing.

Anyway, check out the post.  Robert gives you a lot more details about the device and even a video.

Gayle

It’s been 7 years since Stephen Spielberg introduced movie goers to e-ink in his sci-fi thriller, “Minority Report”. Back then it seemed a bit far fetched to think that people would ever read a newspaper on an e-Reader. But some pioneers took heart and we started to see e-Readers (in primitive form) hit the market a few years later.

Today, everyone seems to be in the game. And the excitement has fueled publishers of books, magazines and newspapers all over the world to get their content on these hot new devices as fast as they can.

This week O’Reilly is sponsoring a conference called Tools of Change for Publishers and the buzz  is all about e-Readers. Amazon announced a new release of Kindle, but it’s still limited by its primitive RSS interface.  It’s really too bad – they just don’t seem to get it.  Kindle is fine for books I guess, but it sure can’t give readers what they want from the news.  Website RSS feed content doesn’t cut it – people want all of the newspaper content in the palm of their hands. 

Meanwhile, other folks are trying to get on the bandwagon by announcing they will support devices that won’t hit the market for another 12-18 months!   They have nothing to offer but hope, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from  making a lot of noise.  

However, despite the fact that some manufacturers are struggling to get their devices out the door, today, we are already seeing some pretty amazing technology being used by people who want all the paper without all the paper.

Take the iRex for example.  We announced support of the iRex DR 1000 before it hit the market last year and we just announced new features on it.  And then there is PolymerVision’s Readius device – we are demonstrating PressDisplay on it this week in NYC.  Our iPhone Application will be released in a matter of weeks.

NewspaperDirect has seen an incredible shift in the attitudes of publishers who once thought e-ink was a fad, but now understand that this technology is the way of the future.   They also understand that people really do want to read their publications on small devices like the iPhone.   The numbers speak for themselves and are growing monthly.  We have thousands of subscribers accessing PressDisplay on their iPhones and iPod Touch devices everyday.

Yes, the tipping point in e-reading technology is just around the corner, if it’s not already here.  And at NewspaperDirect, we’re ready for it.  We have engineered our PressDisplay and SmartEdition ePaper technology so that the moment a device is announced in the market, we’re already on it!  

We’ve made a promise to newspaper, magazine and book publishers that we will continue to offer their full-content publications on devices that are designed to support what people really want – all the content anywhere, anytime, any way.  And what that means is that their content will be monetizable AND it won’t cost our publishers a dime!  Our “zero cost” business model makes it all possible.

Yes, there is so much exciting news in the publishing market today.  They key thing is to know what’s real and what’s vaporware.   But let me clearly state right here, “The buzz at NewspaperDirect is not just noise – we’re the real deal.”

If you are a publisher and want to learn more, contact us at digital@newspaperdirect.com.  And if you want to try PressDisplay.com to learn what all the buzz is about and enjoy your favorite publications anywhere, anytime, any way,  just register here using offer code e-Reader for a full month FREE, compliments of NewspaperDirect.

Gayle

Lately I’ve noticed that a number of PressDisplay users are having problems with their alerts.  They set up monitors to search for a keyword or phrase and then panic when their inbox fills up with dozens, if not hundreds, of email alerts saying their keywords were found in all these publications.

Monitors are a double-edged sword.  They are amazingly powerful in that they allow you to monitor printed media with just a few clicks. But if you don’t use them wisely, they’ll bite you in the butt by sending you tons of emails that you really didn’t expect. 

So I thought I’d do a quick review on Monitors and how to use them effectively.  I hope this helps…

Optimize monitoring in PressDisplay

▶

So remember…

Monitors are good.   But there is a saying that holds true, “You can have too much of a good thing.” 

Choose your keywords and search criteria wisely and remember to turn off or delete monitors you no longer need through My Monitors interface.

One thing I do to manage alerts I still want active is set up a folder in my inbox based on the rule.  See the example on the right. 

If an email arrives from ND PressDisplay (which for you would be pressdisplay@newspaperdirect.com), the email goes into a special folder that I call “monitors”. 

This allows me to keep them separate from my inbox when I’m doing research and expect to receive a lot of hits on my keywords.

Hope that helps you.  Let me know what you think.

Gayle

For all of you lucky people who have treated yourself to (or were given) a new iRex Digital Reader, you’re probably wondering how to get your favorite papers from PressDisplay.com to your iRex.  Well, it’s actually very easy.  Just follow these steps…

1. First, if you haven’t already, you need to download the latest version of  PressReader (version 5.0.8.1216) to your PC.  You can read about that here, or watch a demo of it in an earlier post on this blog. 
2. Once you have PressReader installed and authorized, just download as many publications as you like from PressDisplay.com using the Save icon next to the front page of the publication.
3. Connect your iRex to your laptop.
4. Now open PressReader and the My Library folder on the left of the application.  It will show your downloaded publications.  Click on the one you want to transfer to the iRex Digital Reader and then click on  File‐>Export to iRex
5. In the Save As dialog, choose the DR1000S disk (e.g. E:) and browse to your ‘PressReader’ folder.  Choose Save.  Note that depending on the size of the publication, this step could take a few minutes – please be patient.
6. Once the transfer is complete, you can continue to transfer publications to your iRex DR1000 one at a time.
7. When you are finished, remember to close the PressReader application so you can safely un-mount the iRex Digital Reader.
8. Now, turn on your iRex Digital Reader and tap on the PressReader icon on the Home screen. This will take you to the PressReader folder on your SD card where you will find all your newspapers and
   magazines.
9.  Tap on the title you wish to read, and in a few seconds, you’ll have the entire publication at your
   fingertips, to read at your leisure.

Optimize your publications for readability and/or filesize

The latest version of the PressReader (Windows only), version 5.0.8.1216, allows you to select the resolution of the newspaper that you want to export to the iRex DR1000S e-reader.

Note, in the default view, the exported publications (these are *.np files on your SD card) are optimized for a small file size and faster transfer.  For some publications, this can result in degradation in readability.

To improve the readability of the exported publication:

1. Open the newspaper in the PressReader application on your PC
2. Zoom in on the newspaper using the zoom lens at the bottom of the page.
3. Export the newspaper to your DR1000S
4. Open the newspaper on your DR1000S

Please note that the actual file size of your preferred / subscribed newspaper will vary, depending on the edition, number of pages and images. We cannot predict the most optimal settings that will satisfy you. You might want to spend some time finding the zoom level that’s right for you before exporting.

Figure 1 Left Above: A newspaper is opened in the default view which minimizes the file size but provides for a lower resolution image. Right: When you first zoom in and then export the newspaper to your DR1000S, the file will be bigger, but readability is improved, because the resolution is higher.

Figure 2 Above: Here is the same newspaper exported at different zoom levels. On the DR1000S the newspaper was opened and zoomed in once, by tapping the same area.

I hope this helps you with any questions you might have had.  Now…enjoy your new iRex Digital Reader and the over 850 newspapers and magazines offered on PressDisplay.com!

Gayle