Video to Appear in Paper Magazines [Worlds First] | Hacker News Reader

Video to Appear in Paper Magazines [Worlds First]

thenextweb.com

35 pointsmgcreed30 comments

I wonder how difficult it will be to reload the thing with your own video.

Oh, it will be hacked for sure.

I am given to understand that it is designed to be reloaded with end-user content. I don't know if that will be a feature of this initial rollout, though.

I'm hoping the micro-usb for charging can also be used for reprogramming. Esquire had an open invitation to hack their eink display, I hope this one has a similar open approach.

I like the integration with HN comments. Seems like the level of the discussion found here is growing in reputation. Wonder what will happen when more blogs begin doing this.

I don't think the quality of comments will drop because people avoid saying something stupid. What do you think PG?

There's a problem with that, though. The context provided by the tree structure is lost. I intentionally worded this to be an example.

looks like it caught your comment both before and after you edited it

How is this the world's first? Esquire's version:

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/e-ink-cover-video

That's not video.

Esquire was animated eink, this is video on lcd.

So, eventually, do we just throw away the magazine like all others?!

You save it as a collectors item. This is the first of it's kind.

According to a friend of mine who works at EW, this will only be available in NY and LA, and only to _some_ subscribers in those markets.

So, really, this is a metamarketing event. Pepsi and CBS can't possibly expect to see any benefit from sending such an expensive ad to a miniscule amount of subscribers.

This seems more about the message ABOUT the message. The large amount of web coverage over the little video player is really the expected payoff to the advertisers.

This isn't going to do my attention deficit any favors when it becomes widespread.

If this is really possible, why don't we see this technology in more places?

perhaps because it is expencive

It would be much cheaper to have a pattern and an iPhone app that displays a video in place of the pattern when you point it at the page.

You could have a whole virtual world , a kind of 'augmented reality' that way. :-/

Wouldn't that be like a CueCat?

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000037.html

Though granted, as an iPhone app it would not have the barriers to entry that CueCat faced.

ha! I still have my CueCat, from radioshack days. They were all about "convergence" then.. yeah, that failed.

Don't the Japanese have those special barcodes everywhere? I'm sure something like that will eventually make it here, and an iPhone app would be a very quick, easy way to get it out there.

Yes, Japan has QR codes all around, and there are QR code readers for the iPhone, but (until recently) it lacked the macro focusing camera to be able to use it well.

I was more thinking of the recent augmented reality webcam demonstrations where the camera looks at patterned paper on a table, and draws 3D game characters on them, and tracks them as they move and rotate.

Sounds unlikely, but not impossible.

Esquire already have run with an eink magazine cover that was animated.

This technology is going to get irritating. Imagine browsing a newsagent with all the magazines flickering images trying to compete for attention, like myspace spilt into the real world.

If I recall correctly, the movie Children of Men had several scenes with animated newsstands in the background. I highly recommend seeing the film, if only for the background environment.

Here's a short of video of some of the advertisements and interfaces created for the film: http://www.foreignoffice.com/projekts/movies/movie_com.htm

One step closer into the world of Harry Potter. Well, almost

"Magic as a Metaphor for Ubiquitous Computing" - http://www.orangecone.com/ambidextrous_i6p36_37.pdf [pdf]

and

"Wizard School" - http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/07/wizard-school.html

may be of interest to you.

This is indeed interesting and amusing. Thanks.

Hm, link? I thought eink would be prohibitively expensive?

Edit - found one: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/09/video-esquire-e/

I don't think it is that bad, probably Wired only bashes it because they are envious.

When people ask me about 'traditional media dying' I try and explain that traditional media is 'influx' and that there will always be advertising offline... hence companies like www.tapinko.com and Eclipse Systems can/will be ok.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com