The USA Today is the top-selling print newspaper in the country. Today, they announced that the USA Today app for the iPad will be available beginning tomorrow. Access will be completely free until July 4th, thanks to Courtyard by Marriott. Once Independence Day has passed, the app will only be available by paying a subscription fee.

Newspaper officials say that the app will provide a rich news experience which include graphics and photos. Matt Jones, VP of mobile strategy and operations, said this morning: “Our team is very excited to see the launch of the USA TODAY app for iPad. With its sleek format and vivid touch screen, the iPad is the perfect device to display USA TODAY’s signature design and content. We think we’ve delivered a very high quality product and I can’t wait to see people explore and interact with our news and information in a whole new way.”

The popular paper has been downloaded by millions of people using the iPhone or Android devices. The app looks much like the physical news source you would pick up off of your doorstep in the morning. The layout and design are virtually the same, and using your finger to “turn” pages should make it feel similar, as well.

Maybe if we all switch to reading our newspaper in this manner, a few trees can be saved!

USA Today Delivers News Right to Your iPad

There’s a discussion on Geeks where they are trying to guess what the future of computers will hold. Will we see mind-controlled hardware? Could we see a 500-bit notebook? The possibilities are nearly endless, and it’s so hard to figure out what’s in store.

I know we all have dreams of what we would like to see in regards to our computing experience “someday”. Some of us even keep waiting on specific technologies to be developed. What are we waiting around for, though? If we can dream it, we may be able to create it. If you don’t have the know-how to code or design something, there are others out there who do. Don’t just sit on those magical ideas. Share them with someone who can help bring them to the marketplace. Companies like Apple and Microsoft are always on the lookout for the hottest new ideas. Their next one could be yours!

What do you think we’ll see in our lifetime when it comes to computers? What types of technologies do you wish would be developed?

• Signal processing made easy: Developing optimized software on Cortex-M Processors
• The rise of the app entrepreneur is astronomical. Are you getting in the game?
• A national identity card would focus on residents and immigrants.
• The Windows Phone 7 series won’t be released with cut and paste functionality.
• According to CrunchGear, one of our own community members is the new “King of YouTube”.
• Would you fly in a build-it-yourself airplane? I know I wouldn’t.
• Watch out for Caller-ID spoofing.
• Mafia II will hit Playstation 3 in August.
• Who do you feel is (or was) the most brilliant human ever?
• How strong is your booze?
• Could ninety-nine cents change the print industry?
• RankSpeed searches social media networks in a whole new way.
• Where will you get your news when the papers are gone?

Don’t forget to stop by the software center to see what’s new today.

What is the Future of Computing?

How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

I had to embed this on my blog… it’s fabulous!

With so many newspapers struggling financially, some people fear for their future. However, if print media dies, what will old loons do with all of their hoarded papers? Where will they go? Will our landfills overflow with useless paper, or will our air become toxic due to all of the burning?!

Let’s hear your thoughts. What should the pack-rats do with all that paper?!

How Will the End of Print Journalism Affect Pack Rats?

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I graduated high school many years ago, and first got online in 1992. The Internet was there, but not the World Wide Web at that point. I wrote a series of articles for the newspaper at my university about the Internet. Chris wrote me with a question about his college newspaper, and getting it online. Specifically, he is confused about them needing something simple to update with an easy interface. The reason is, they won’t always have a tech guy around. Chris feels that buying their own domain name is just too much for them, and they aren’t happy with the free WordPress package, as they don’t like the templates. Additionally, they have almost no budget. So, he turned to me for help.

I will agree that the templates available for WP aren’t very much to your liking. If you like WordPress itself, spend just a little bit of money and buy a more professional one. I’m sure you have some kind of campus IT department. They could host the site for you. You may be able to approach a local business and get hosting from them, maybe in exchange for free advertising. With WordPress, you can find a good template that will allow you to make it look very much like the professional online papers.

Any money you might have to spend would be quickly offset with advertising, local businesses, or even time donated by other students to help. The sooner you can get the paper into a system that will work for them and grow with them, the better.

A blog is just one level. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many social features in WordPress. There’s no profile management, certainly not like Facebook or MySpace. While you’ll still be somewhat limited on themes, you could take a look at having a Ning community. Ning is basically a large network of free communities. I paid for a few extra options, including the ability to use my own domain and to run ads. There are features for Ning including photo albums, profiles, videos and forums. You can turn features on or off, as well. It’s certainly going to offer you a lot more than just a simple blog would.

I don’t know what all is out there, but I would certainly want to point you in the direction of open-source options. This way, you have freedom to make any changes you feel you may need. If anyone in our community has better recommendations, I’m sure that they will write and let me know.

FirstRSS ERROR: "http://shop.tagjag.com/products/newspaper" NOT FOUND!

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iMsOp2Lktw0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iMsOp2Lktw0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

How Should a College Newspaper Publish on the Web?

On Friday, i played devil’s advocate in front of a group of newspaper editors, journalists, and professional wordsmiths. What are newspapers doing right? What are newspapers doing wrong? I thought I hit the “Record” button on my live stream, but that turned out not to be the case (at least, there’s no record of it in “My Stuff”). No matter, it seems the video and audio flaked out halfway through the presentation. I was only able to caputre the relevant portions from our chat room backchannel (which was also projected on the screen behind me):

• <@LordKaT> What are they doing right or wrong? They’ve got the content down to a T, but they really fail to grasp the concept of “the conversation” and allowing that conversation to grow and expand.
• <+crypticsamurai> srry old media is dead
• <+CryptoVenom> killing trees
• <+Genuine> we loved the coupons on Sunday
• <+KtecK> old media kills nature… when you take your newspapers online dont do it NY times style.
• <+MissM> I like newspapers for local news the best.
• <+Pirillotron984> ignoring the third world suffering
• <+Universal> Newspapers are better for local news
• <+Universal> Newspapers don’t update themselfs
• <+KtecK> yea… internet is better for international news
• <+Universal> Digg killed the newspaper :-)
• <+crypticsamurai> digg hasn’t killed the newspaper, but it is killing it
• <+im_a_pickle> to many kids on sites like digg
• <+KtecK> digg is not that bad… it is kinda crude at times but its the future of media
• <+KtecK> id rather listen to twit.tv rather than old media
• <+KtecK> podcasts have helped kill old media
• <+MissM> I totally agree KtecK, and broadcast media.
• <+MissM> I was impressed about the hd-dvd code coverage, I look forward to seeing Calcanis cast 26, he talks to Jay and EFF
• <+Pirillotron984> Media outlets can be bought blogs can not
• <+Universal> Digg killed tv news, etc
• <@LordKaT> StumbleUpon drives an insane amount of traffic. Especially for a humor site
• <+crypticsamurai> I have 487 rss feads and I still use stumble upon
• <+KtecK> old media had its place pre web but the web has gradually pushed out the old media sources in favor of new controlable sources
• <+Universal> All the news you will ever need is 600 RSS feeds and digg.
• <@LordKaT> It allows for greater interaction with the audience. It creates a closer connection between the reader and the producer, and even blurrs the lines between reader and producer.
• <+KtecK> yea… i got a full google reader
• <+MissM> It democratizes media, in one respect. I believe
• <+crypticsamurai> yea but it boils down to how much can you trust digg
• <+Genuine0> I read about 1300 feeds a day
• <+KtecK> i always take every digg story with a grain of salt
• <+KtecK> I monitor 59 feeds in my google reader it has replaced tv and newspapers
• <+Universal> Digg gets news faster than tv and print
• <@LordKaT> Eventually, the newspapers are going to have to acknowledge that the users are the ones who are going to define what the content is, not their editors/beat writers/etc
• <+crypticsamurai> well yes that’s true but common sense is not common
• <+Genuine0> diggnation has too much control over the stuff that gets popular
• <+Genuine0> they can bury and promote too easily
• <+KtecK> * /. in some ways is more trust worthy
• <+Pirillotron984> old media is corrupt check out o 2019reilly & fox
• <+Universal> You have to use common sense when using digg
• <+KtecK> Newspaper is a hard to read format…. big sheets of paper are not easy to hold
• <+Universal> If users on digg aren’t trustworthy, they are simply buried
• <@LordKaT> Genuine, there’s a link there called “Reload video” hit that
• <@LordKaT> im_a_pickle, copyright infringment is not stealing
• <@LordKaT> you don’t need to constantly reload the page.
• <+crypticsamurai> no I think digg is much more trust worthy than wikipedia
• <+im_a_pickle> i got a ? why do people think stealing stuff off the net is not stealing
• <+im_a_pickle> like stealing software instead of paying for it
• <+KtecK> but the way that the new york times has taken is kinda low… forcing registration to get access to old stores
• <+Universal> Digg is a lot like wikipedia when users submit content, the good stuff gets buried and the worthy stuff gets promoted
• <+Universal> There are a lot of dedicated users on digg, just like wikipedia
• <@LordKaT> The conversaton happens because it’s what people want, but it’s nutured and grown because it helps build a brand and build a business.
• <+crypticsamurai> yes but on wikipedia it only takes one user to rune a hole page
• <+Universal> crypic: but 5 seconds later the content is restored by dedicated users
• <@LordKaT> im_a_pickle, please stop calling it stealing. It’s copyright infringment ;)
• <+crypticsamurai> yea but what about the times it isn’t and you know that happens
• <+im_a_pickle> like if you steal software can i come into your house and steal frome u same thing
• <+KtecK> user posts wrong news… it gets dugg down to nothing
• <+MoeLassus> digg may not be perfect but the contribution it has made toward the democratization of news content cannot be understated
• <+crypticsamurai> I never said digg was bad all i’m saying is you must use common sence
• <+im_a_pickle> as a kid i was told stealing is rong
• <+im_a_pickle> same thing with dl dvds and not paying for them its stealing
• <+KtecK> i use common sense on all news sources
• <+KtecK> in the hd dvd war digg played a major role
• <+MissM> tech content more, I’d say MoeLassus
• <+MissM> the news part is too new, imo
• <+MoeLassus> A lot of the content is still crap. =)
• <+MoeLassus> more so in the way it’s done, not in the content itself
• <+crypticsamurai> well anymore you have to, but common sense is not always ” common”
• <+MissM> http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ Girl Blog from Iraq… let’s talk war, politics and occupation.
• <+crypticsamurai> but in websites like wikipedia all it takes is a few people to talk it as the truth and it is off
• <+Pirillotron984> Journalism is dead the public are the reporters
• <+Universal> There have been bad content on the front page of digg, but only to be buried quickly
• <+crypticsamurai> well that is why there is “justice” on digg unlike wikipedia
• <+KtecK> The users are the new press sources
• <+MissM> I thought digg’s system was supposed to bury it long before it hit the front page
• <+MoeLassus> Problem with Digg is that very little of the content is original, it’s a regurgitation of other people’s content
• <@LordKaT> MoeLassus, Digg is just really an aggregator. The real problem is the blogspam on digg.
• <+crypticsamurai> let’s just agree there is bad in both wikipedia and digg
• <+MissM> no 984, reporting is a skill. Anybody can contribute (tip line vs. email), but the real skill is research and communication.
• <+im_a_pickle> the internet is making people lazy
• <+CharlieM> internet is destroying the social fabric of society…..Long Live the Internet
• <+im_a_pickle> when i was a kid i played out side every day the kids today only sit on the computer
• <+Universal> most serious digg users utilize digg’s reporting features to keep th content good
• <+MissM> Is there a market out of the top 10 that has more than two newspapers?
• <+MissM> more than one, I mean.
• <+Universal> If Microsoft buys Yahoo, Apple should buy Google :-)

So, it seems these geeks were comparing newspapers to Digg – which isn’t a surprise. I wish some of the professionals from my session would comment on this post, because they’re the ones living in the thick of an industry that’s undergoing a metamorphosis. However, I’m not expecting anything other than comments from bloggers or journalists who also blog.

Newspaper Industry Problems