Seattle P-I To Print Last Edition

Seattle Post-Intelligencer to Publish Its Last Print Edition Tuesday

This will be the second daily newspaper to stop publishing and do a web-only version. This is the possible beginning of a trend that has been sparked by both the current recession and the digital transition.

Newspapers are one of the oldest forms of broadcasted information. I believe the problem with it is the time it takes to get information. The newspaper is printed once daily, which just cannot compete with the internet which is updated every second.

There are a few other daily papers that have announced that they are trying to sell or are going to close in the near future. Some of the big names like the LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Philadelphia Inquirer have all sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Both advertising and distribution trends in newspapers have been falling while they have been rising in web based news. Web-only news outlets also can work with a much lower staff which means job lay-offs are in the near future. Manovich talks about the first shift of telecommunication on page 162 saying "Telecommunication was used for distribution, as with broadcasting, which enabled a twentieth century radio listener or television viewer to recieve a transmission in real time." Now with the internet users can access this real time information anytime they want.

Apple Tablet

Apple netbook? Apple tablet? Neither? Both?

Apple has apparently purchased some specially made touch screens from the company Wintek and since then there has been speculation as to what these are going to be used for. For this article I am going to focus more on the aspect of the HCI as was talked about in Manovich's chapter 2.

I believe that an apple tablet computer is the next step for apple. They already have the technology to do so and it would closer knit people to their computers and allow for better user interface with the computer. Apple has always been on the fore front of interfacing and a tablet is more of a question of when not if.

Apple has been reluctant in the past to enter such a market because they refuse to produce poor quality products and that is what a tablet would have meant because cheap parts would have meant that the product is in a consumer price range. With the launch of the iPhone and iPod touch, apple has proved that it is capable of seamlessly integrating multiple touch functions and better usablitiy for consumers. As Manovich said "We are witnessing the emergence of a new cultural metalanguage, somthing that will be at least as significant as the printed word and cinema before it."