Apple dangles tablet lure in Oz
Media censorship?
Today's Apple-tablet rumeur du jour is that Cupertino is shopping its not-so-secret "print redefiner" to Australian media companies, trolling for content partners.
According to a Tuesday report from The Sydney Morning Herald, Apple has sent specs of the device to Oz-based content creators, in the hopes of enticing them to provide content for it.
This latest revelation comes on the heels of yesterday's slip of the New York Times exec editor's lip, when he said that his paper was "actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that."
The Herald claims that "It is understood" that Apple has been talking with media companies down under in preparation for the device's launch, offering them the opportunity to pick up a chunk of change by charging for their content when it's distributed for the device.
Exactly how big a chunk of change is anyone's guess, but as the Herald notes, Apple current scheme gives developers 70 per cent of content revenue, keeping 30 per cent for itself.
If this latest rumor is, indeed, accurate, it remains to be seen how active Australian censors will be in vetting content destined for the "impending Apple slate." After all, those worthies have recently expressed "concern" over content in apps and games destined for mobile phones such as the iPhone.
If the Australian Classification Board can insert itself between media creators and the iTunes App Store, its lengthy and expensive approval process might throw a spanner into the content-delivery works. ®
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
COMMENTS
Evolution
Off topic slightly but,
Newspapers whip up hysteria about child safety and peados
Parents discourage children form having paper rounds
News papers don't get delivered
News Papers become less popular and dissapear
Children once again play in the streets?
No wait BBC RSS feeds take over the mantle.
@ Scott Earle
Totally, totally agree. I actually had a rep from the local paper door knocking last night offering me half price and delivery until the end of January. I simply don't have the space in my daily commute on the train to read a normal newspaper, let alone a broadsheet, and don't have the time when I'm home to read. I actually said last night if they produced an e-ink version I'd happily pay for it every day and read it.
Your closing comment... I think you've hit the nail on the head.
Newspapers are probably drooling at the prospect
Perhaps this will breathe life back into the almost-dead newspapers?
It's been well documented (especially of late) that newspapers are basically all going down the toilet - and fast.
If Apple bring out an iTunes/podcast subscription-based (or micro-payment based) model to this tablet thingy, the newspaper companies will all be gagging to get their content onto it. Fair frothing, in fact.
In fact - in order for them to stay alive, this could be their last chance.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
