LuLu - self-publish en eBook

Original Post from October 9th 2007.

This MobileRead forum article on LuLu caught my eye as I'm in the processing of self-publishing a small book of Memoirs I convinced my mother to write (I'll post on that experience when I do it and get printed copies!). It states:

"Do-it-yourself publisher Lulu.com has introduced an ebook optimisation service. With the new service, users can optimise their digital works for the Apple iPhone and the Sony Reader. Lulu's eBook Optimization reformats existing PDF files for viewing on an iPhone or Sony Reader for USD 25 per project. Lulu is an online service allows users to publish and sell their works in print-on-demand or digital format, with over 31 million registered users, 300,000 recently published titles and more than 4,000 new titles added each week, the company says."

So, now it's one step easier to self-publish en eBook. LuLu have a digital book content delivery and purchase supply chain.

Volantis BuzzCast

Original Post from September 28th 2007.

Here's what I've learned about BuzzCast from Volantis, from their web site.

"BuzzCast accelerates information access for mobile devices, enabling greater context, immediacy, and personalization to drive broader mobile data usage."

"BuzzCast pushes compelling information to any device, regardless of network or device type, personalized according to the unique preferences of each subscriber. BuzzCast ensures that mobile data is easy to access and visually appealing: favorite news, entertainment and other information is provided to the subscriber, personalizing the device according to their unique preferences. "

So, they take news feeds in, organize them into channels that you can subscribe to, format content in the feeds appropriately for your mobile device, transfer that content into the mobile operators' servers. They then "push" (OK, device pulls it, but without you having to ask it to) the content to your phone, you can view it when you want, even if off-line or without coverage with a "rich media" display of the information.

They have a customer story with Financial Times (FT.com). You can download the PDF here:

"BuzzCast provides for the creation of subscriber UIs in a range of technologies to suit any carrier's device strategy including support for Ajax, RSS Client, Flash, J2ME and native Symbian."

That enables them to reach a lot of compatible handsets, including all those Flash enabled ones I mentioned in my earlier post on FlashCast from Adobe.

I'm not sure how the RSS feeds get "sexed-up" to be nice Rich Media displays, or how that is "authored". I guess it must be via the "Partner Web Pages" where they describe that transcoding and provide graphics, design etc.

FlashCast

Original Post from September 28th 2007.

I've been investigating the possibility of the delivery of electronic content for reading (not audio or video) using mobile networks or broadcast technologies. This includes the various mobile phone networks, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and it's international equivalents, Wi-Fi, WiMax and some digital radio technologies.

I'm far from done, but I plan to document here what I find along the way. Comments and contributions are welcome.

I start by taking a look at FlashCast from Adobe, and BuzzCast.

Apparently FlashCast is deployed on the Verizon network in North America.

• Any end-user experience out there from US or Canadian viewers?

From the Adobe web I also see it has been deployed by KDDI (Japan), NTT DoCoMo (Japan) and SoftBank (Japan).

Here is a description of FlashCast, gleaned from the Adobe web on the subject:

"Adobe® Flash® Cast™ enables you to provide easily discoverable, engaging, and personalized data services—virtually anytime, anywhere. Differentiate and protect your brand, increase data revenues, and leverage existing network investments."

Off course this leverages the Adobe (ex-Macromedia) Flash format and Adobe's associated creation tools and user base although focused for mobile devices such as phones etc and is part of their "Mobile Experience Suite".

Adobe state there are over 250Million Flash-enabled devices shipped and 300 Flash-enabled device models

"Flash Cast enables consumers to subscribe to the "channels" of their choice, such as news, sports, music, and more. Content is delivered proactively so it is always available on the device regardless of network coverage."

Key Features include:
* Data-enabled channels of engaging content
* Multiplatform support across open and closed operating system platforms
* On-device catalog for easy discovery and management of content and services
* Support for rich media, including inline video, and native codecs
* Over-the-air updates of branded user interfaces
* Powerful mobile authoring capabilities

They push heavily on the message of its ability to protect your brand (by rendering it well I assume, and maybe with similar graphics to those seen on web and tv?).

It's not clear to me to what extent this adapts to the capabilities (screen size, resolution, color depth in particular) of the end device, and if that is done intelligently or you have to design multiple versions for different viewing devices. They do provide an emulator for mobile devices and update it with profiles when new devices are releases - so at least you can try out your content without buying heaps of mobile phones.

As always, Flash is designed to provide literally "Flashy" moving, colorful graphics (and includes a video player) and so that limits the types of screen that a device can have to really take advantage of it. But there's nothing to prevent you designing slower moving, purely textual, or greyscale graphical content with it.

There's not much information on the mechanisms for delivery of the content

Download the PDF datasheet on FlashCast here: