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  • The Big Lebowski (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray Book + Digital Copy]
    The Big Lebowski (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray Book + Digital Copy]
    starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman
  • The Big Lebowski (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
    The Big Lebowski (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
    starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston
  • The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary Limited Edition
    The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary Limited Edition
    starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston
Friday
Nov142008

The End of Tangible Media is Clearly in Sight

AuthorYoung Urban Professional

I want to make a bet with you today. By January 2014 I will wager that in the US almost all forms of tangible media will either be in sharp decline or completely extinct. I am not just talking about print, but all tangible forms of media - newspapers, magazines, books, DVDs, boxed software and video games.

Don't believe me? Consider the following news items, all of which broke in the last month ...

Finally, if you need further proof, when was the last time you bought a CD? Exactly. For me it was back in 2003. I haven't purchased a newspaper in at least two years and the number of people who I see toting them on my morning train have declined too. I canceled my last print subscription this month and I am now living 100% "media green." Also I recently signed up for Safari Books Online and I am liking it a lot, though it's pricey and their iPhone client needs a lot of work.

We're moving fast toward becoming a society that consumes media entirely in digital format. Part of it is environmental, but a lot of it is because of broadband and connected devices. Now of course it will take a long long time for this to become a global phenomenon. But in the US at least, the pace has picked up a lot just in the last few months. Further, with the very green-aware millennials set to become the dominant demographic in the US by 2010 I would expect you will see even more of this.

So what do you think? Participate in the poll below. (Feed readers will need to click through)

Comment40 Comments
Friday
Nov072008

links for 2008-11-07

AuthorYoung Urban Professional

Comment4 Comments
Monday
Nov032008

links for 2008-11-03

AuthorYoung Urban Professional

Comment1 Comment
Saturday
Nov012008

Tabbloid Turns Feeds into a Personal Magazine

AuthorYoung Urban Professional

I actually found this one through an Adwords link in my Gmail and it's a gem.

Tabbloid is a "hatchling" project from Hewlett-Packard that turns your favorite feeds into a personal magazine (HP's personal systems group is an Edelman client). All you need to do is point it at one or more feeds and set up a delivery time and you will get a nicely formatted PDF by email. You can also generate a PDF on the fly from one or more feeds.

Below is what a sample magazine issue looks like. I simply pointed Tabbloid at my favorite feeds from Google Reader and generated this PDF.

Comment14 Comments
Saturday
Nov012008

New App Brings the Cloud to Your iPhone

AuthorYoung Urban Professional

I am a big believer in cloud computing. It's the wave of the future. Work is transitioning from the desktop to web applications, albeit slowly and not without challenges. But make no mistake, it's coming. The success of the netbook market is a great sign of things to come. However, I believe smartphones will give this category a run for their money.

Earlier this week Alex Wolfe at InformationWeek published an interview with me about how I use my iPhone as the fulcrum of my productivity system. I want to share with you one part of the interview here since it summarizes my thoughts on how cloud computing and smartphones are going to change the game...

Wolfe: Do you foresee additional uptake of tasks by smartphones?

Rubel: I believe we're in a great era of transition. Ten
years from now, we will laugh at people who still take laptops on
business trips. The reason is that smartphones will be the center of
everyone's computing experience and they will blend
personal/professional lives.


Our data will be stored on the cloud. The devices will connect
wirelessly to LCD monitors and keyboards/mice and utilize the full
Windows or OS X experience. Once detached, they will adopt a more
mobile-centric paradigm like the iPhone or Windows Mobile operating
system. The same thing will apply at home. Hotel rooms will even have
these peripherals. People will have one device that does it all, but
these will leverage the cloud and peripherals for tasks that require
it, and adopt different personalities based on context.

While others like my friend James Kendrick disagree, the future is coming a lot quicker than I imagined. In fact, it sort of arrived today. This morning a brand new iPhone app from Quickoffice called MobileFiles hit the App Store. You can get it on iTunes here and it's free. I downloaded it and boy it is sweet.

With MobileFiles you can access your entire Apple MobileMe file cloud, which works on both Macs and PCs. You can view files, download them so they are stored locally and even manage the documents. Integration with Google Docs, Microsoft Sharepoint (wow!) and WebDav services like Box.net is next. And document editing isn't far behind. QuickOffice is also available on lots of other platforms too, by the way.

While others like James disagree, I see smartphones coupled with the cloud allowing us to manage a lot of basic PC tasks on the go. These devices will become your sole computer in a few years as they start connecting to other peripherals. There are also signs that the entire category is recession-proof. comScore reports that lower income consumers maybe replacing other devices with iPhones.

It's early but if you squint you can begin to see how smartphones and web apps could one day replace PCs and software for a lot of what we do today.

Comment10 Comments
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