Technology
08.21.09
EW: The (Really) Small Screen
The Wall Street Journal reports that Entertainment Weekly will run ads from CBS this fall that feature video. The TFT LCD screens will be able to play 40 minutes of video clips.ÂThis is another attempt at taking the printed paper into the 21st century (whether it wants to or not). Esquire took a shot at E-ink recently with mixed results.
Read the full article at WSJ.com.
Is this a good thing for print-based publishing?
...one step closer to the USA Today from Back to the Future Part II.
Personally, I think this is good for novelty purposes once or twice but that's it. But more important in the long run; this just reinforces the advantages of another medium (TV and the web) over print. Why would magazines want to do that? Also, printed words really fall flat when next to a motion video.
Minority Report might predict the future. Remember the newspaper?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1HBizg0Yk
Watch the first 15 seconds of this clip
It's a long way from Minority Report though, isn't it? I'm now imagining a dystopian future where committees identify the strengths of two different media, then discard them all in favour of underwhelming novelty advertising.
WIRED posts a video of the ad in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJ6DA50thw
Am I the only one whose screen didn't work? I tried charging it (there's a little port inside to plug into your computer) and nothing happened...I wound up tearing the whole thing out because I couldn't read the issue properly! Interesting idea I guess but make it work next time!?
At least you got one! The mailman stole my copy, again. (squints at USPS )