Publisher Bonnier has worked with design agency BERG to come up with the Mag+ tablet, which has the magazine pages run vertically, rather than on the next screen like we've always seen so far. It actually replicates the experience of reading a magazine really well, as pages can be flipped like you would with a normal magazine, and when you encounter an article you'd like to read, you scroll down to view it.

If this is the future for the magazine industry, suddenly I feel a lot more hopeful. [BERG via SlashGear]

Take a gander at the video of BERG talking through the concept here:

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

And video footage of the prototype here:

Mag+ (video prototype footage only) from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Today's initiative has been variously billed as "iTunes for Magazines" (correct philosophically, but wildly overstated) and "Hulu for Magazines" (incorrect, since Hulu is free). Basically you can now go to this digital storefront and buy all your favorite Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst, Time Inc., and News Corp publications, to read on your "portable digital device" of choice. Your crappy mobile phone, or iPhone, or upcoming Apple tablet, or, hey, Time Inc. is making its very own tablet, & ad infinitum.

And, of course, this is not the only "digital storefront" thing—Hearst, a partner in this venture, is also going forward with its own personal digital storefront called Skiff , and there are similar services already operating, although, hey, there's not dominant iTunes-type player yet, so you never know.

This could be a successful venture. Then again, it could fade into irrelevance in months. Somebody will make the dominant digital storefront for content like this, just like someone will make the dominant digital reader. Magazine publishing companies, one would think, are likely to get smoked by someone like Apple in this particular sector. But they think it's worth the gamble, after watching what happened to the music industry.

But it'll take a few years. How much would you pay to read Sports Illustrated on your E-reader right now? You don't have an E-reader. And you can read Deadspin for free. So, you'd pay nothing. Changing that dynamic is what media companies need to worry about.

And here's Time Inc's announcement to employees, just because we have it:

December 8, 2009
To: Time Inc. Employees
From: Ann Moore
Re: New Digital Venture

Today, five leading publishers including Time Inc., Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst and News Corporation announced the formation of a new venture to develop a digital storefront and a common reading application that will allow consumers to enjoy their favorite magazine and newspaper content on any platform they choose.

We already know that the next generation of mobile devices will be loaded with color touchscreens, flexible displays, video capabilities and other features that will make them ideal for consuming rich content and an appealing environment for advertisers. These devices will allow us to combine the best of what consumers love about magazines – quality, curated journalism, engaging content and beautiful photography – with the speed, convenience and portability of the latest technology.

While Time Inc. is pursuing a number of initiatives that will help us expand our current digital businesses and develop new products and revenue streams, our participation in this venture is an important part of our efforts. You'll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, for a look at some of the work Time Inc. is doing around portable devices, check out the demo Sports Illustrated developed, which will give you an idea of how our digital content might be enjoyed in the near future.

www.si.com/tablet

A.M.

The New York Observer reports that the company formed by publishing's Superfriends—perhaps Legion of Doom is more appropriate—will format and publish rags that "work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices," though they're not developing their own reader hardware.

Which is where it gets a little sticky, says one of the Observer's sources: "The really, really hard part is that you've got so many different kinds of devices running on different operating systems. And how do you handle that? The consortium provides one point of contact for the consumer. When you come to the main store, you can get the content any way you want."

In one sense, the venture will be very much like Hulu—a separate company from the publishers, run by Time's John Squires, who's been behind the whole initiative, as All Things D originally reported. It's like Hulu for another reason, in that it's more like a disjointed confederation whose motto is hanging together or hanging separately since every publisher clearly rolling their own, separate gambit as well: We've got the tabletized version of Wired (Conde); Heart was planning its very own ereader at one point; and Time too.

It feels like the early, disjointed days of digital music, at best. There's a good chance stuff you buy now (well, soon) isn't going to work forever. Time's thing. Maybe Apple's thing. Some kind of Adobe formatted thing. Amazon and Barnes & Noble's thing. One of them will stick and we'll have our digital magazines preserving an old print format in a digital way—hey, the publishing industry might even save itself—but I'm just going to cower in a corner with free stuff in my web browser until this all gets sorted out. [Observer]

The device was described as a larger iPhone, "small enough to carry in a handbag but too big to fit in a pocket."

This makes the tablet smaller than a breadbox, right? [Apple Insider]

According to AdAge, the "issue" will show every actual page of the print mag, plus have text optimized for iPhone. There will be related videos and audio, and an opportunity for you, the paying customer, to visit advertisers' websites without quitting the app. Aren't you lucky?

Regardless of whether or not you'll bite, Conde believes this is the only logical stepping stone across the stream towards tablets and ebook readers. "If you can get here, you're ready to go there," AdAge quotes President-CEO Charles H. Townsend as saying. Logistically true or not, the statement certainly supports our recent report that the Apple Tablet is going to be the place where magazines and other publications go to redefine themselves. Well, they gotta go somewhere, cuz standing still sure ain't working. [AdAge via Romenesko]

The important part of Gawker's memo is here:

In the coming weeks, we hope to announce initiatives to develop digital versions of our brands that will make use of new devices and distribution channels.

New devices makes it seem like it's not just moving those four publications online—a move that would have succeeded already if just going online would save magazines. It's that new devices bit that's intriguing. [Gawker]

Is this what the future of publishing looks like? Well, I'd be pretty surprised if these techs became anywhere close to disposable anytime soon. Instead, we'll be seeing things like the Apple Tablet and Microsoft Courier coming along to load up stuff like this. But despite the packaging differences, the finished product loaded on these next-gen displays could be pretty similar to this. And it looks pretty badass. [Living Art Media]

Here's how it'd work: There'd be a new company running a digital store for all of the publishers where people could buy and manage their magazine subscriptions that would be delivered on "any" device. Supposedly, Time Inc's gotten Conde Nast (publisher of Wired, Vanity Fair, etc.) and Hearst (Popular Mechanics, Esquire, etc.) ramped up about the idea as well, which would launch in 2010.

Great, except that it's not going to work. As Peter Kafka points out, they have to convince people to sign up for another service—not an easy feat if they're already tangled up with a Kindle or Apple. Especially if this new service will be just magazines, and not include newspapers. And there's no way Amazon or Apple will let the publishers tie a separate service into their devices, pissing in their pool. The whole point of the Kindle is that Amazon controls the delivery method, and that's likely how Apple's tablet will work—downloading magazines and newspapers and textbooks through iTunes, just like iPhone apps or iTunes music.

Which basically leaves the the publishers with a handful of generic readers they could get their goods on, meaning they're screwed. At this point it looks like all roads to ereaders people will actually buy to pass through Amazon or soon, Apple. Sorry magazine dudes: Give in, give up or get out. [All Things D]

Several years ago, a modified version of OS X was presented to Steve Jobs, running on a multitouch tablet. When the question "what would people do with this?" couldn't be answered, they shelved it. Long having established music, movie and TV content, Apple is working hard to load up iTunes with print content from several major publishing houses across several media.

Two people related to the NYTimes have separately told me that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a "new device." The R&D labs have long worked on versions of the paper meant to be navigated without a keyboard or mouse, showing up on Windows tablets and on multiple formats using Adobe Air. The NYTimes, of course, also publishes via their iPhone application. Jobs has, during past keynotes, called the NYTimes the "best newspaper in the world."

A person close to a VP in textbook publishing mentioned to me in July that McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press are working with Apple to move textbooks to iTunes. There was no mention of any more detail than that, but it does link back to a private Apple intern idea competition held on campus, in their Town Hall meeting area in 2008, where the winning presentation selected by executives was one focused on textbook distribution through iTunes. The logic here is that textbooks are sold new at a few hundred dollars, and resold by local stores without any kickbacks to publishers. A DRM'd one-time-use book would not only be attractive because publishers would earn more money, but electronic text books would be able to be sold for a fraction of the cost, cutting out book stores and creating a landslide marketshare shift by means of that huge price differential. (If that device were a tablet, the savings on books could pay for the device, and save students a lot of back pain.)

Apple also recently had several executives from one of the largest magazine groups at their Cupertino's campus, where they were asked to present their ideas on the future of publishing. Several mockups of magazines were present in interactive form. It is presumed that more talks took place after the introduction and investigatory meeting. Some magazine company is also considering Adobe Air as a competing option for digital magazines, but without a revenue/distribution system that iTunes has, it seems unlikely.

I haven't heard anything about traditional book publishers being approached yet, but given the scope of the rest of the publishing industry's involvement, it's not hard to imagine they're on board as well. (If you know something, please drop me a line.) Update: Reader Tom reminds me of this Andy Ihnatko rumor, from several sources, that Apple is receiving truckloads of books at its HQ. It's a thin line to draw, but its something.

Another source corroborates that the January announce date others have reported is correct within the month, with this information heard from a high level.

Some I've talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it's nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn't do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft's Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it'll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.

I'm guessing the editors of the magazine saw some kind of weighty symbolism in such a stunt, but landing a New Yorker cover is the kind of honor that would define an entire career for many illustrators. That's not to say this kind of thing isn't impressive—it really, really is—but I can't help imagining some dusty, 93-year-old editor at the top floor of the Conde Nast building seeing his first iPhone in the hands of an intern, losing his monocle over this amazing new tech-nol-o-gee, and impulsively ordering something, anything to do with this MAGICKAL DEE-VICE to be put on the cover, now.

Also odd: for quite a few weeks now, the magazine has been running full-page iPhone App Store ads on its back cover, making this issue a probable iPhone sandwich. Conspiracy!?!? (No.)

Anyway, back to the point: this is pretty neat. You can actually see how Colombo painted his scene, start to finish, in the video below, recorded using Brushes companion app Brushes Viewer. [New Yorker]

Essentially, the magazine hoped to bridge the gap between print and web media by using an RFID chip to link related online content. By using a USB RFID reader, the Violet mir:ror, I was able to scan the chip and access additional content through my browser.

The general effect? I'd be lying to say it was much more than a novelty, but that doesn't mean the idea is bad. Amusement linked about 5 pieces of online content, including media clips and even a flash game, through the RFID chip. This part works pretty well. Going instantly between a magazine and a playable game is pretty neat.

What didn't work for me was that the RFID signal isn't really tied to individual stories. You can't just flick a page and have related content pop up. You wave the chip by the mir:ror (I obviously ripped it out for convenience), then a link pops up. You wave it again, and another link pops up. There's not much rhyme or reason to it, which is probably more a limitation of the technology than a flaw with Amusement's design, but it made the experience ever so less futuristicy than I'd hoped.

Still, Amsuement is on to a decent idea here if publishers are able to iron out the kinks. And as for the magazine itself, I wish it were reprinted in English. The inspired layout and design more than rival my favorite gaming magazine, Edge. [Amusement and Violet]

Captured on the 4K RedOne (that's a frame resolution of 4096x2304, or 9.4 megapixels), the video-sourced cover image is thought to be a first in the magazine industry, challenging traditional SLR photography and the distinctions of photo vs video.

In other good news, there's a pile of leftover Megan Fox footage that's up at Esquire now. But in one of humanity's great travesties, the clips have been downrezzed for web streaming. [Esquire]

Rather than click and endless series of stills, photographer Greg Williams shot the cover with the 4K Red ONE video camera. Fox essentially acted out a scene for 10 minutes, the best moment of which will appear on the June 2009 cover. (Not to be wasteful of Megan Fox footage, the video will also be uploaded to Esquire's site, of course.)

It's fascinating that as digital cameras evolve, so will the roles of photographers, models and publications. I can't see traditional photography ever dying, but whether photos will always be captured in photographs is another question. [Esquire]

The issue itself was formed, I'd guess, from the time Chris Anderson, Wired editor, saw JJ Abrams speak at TED about his mystery box. I was happy to have been able to contribute a small idea used in the TEST section, executed by Chris Hardwick, on snake oil gadgets. I got this idea from my mom and some of lisa's relatives who use plenty of these new age devices, supposedly able to heal miraculously and transform the "vibrational energy" of water, and clean bad EM out of the air without stopping your Wi-fi or cellphone from working. I thought that this is the kind of technology the Dharma institute would have been testing in Lost, and so it became very clear to me that this is exactly the kind of thing that would fit in the magazine.

I also love the theme because mystery is another aspect of Gizmodo that separates us from traditional tech journalism. We don't bury our ledes, but its very clear that Rumors—stories before facts— are indeed one of the most tantalizing and popular pieces of writing that we do. Because knowing is often not as powerful as longing or wishing for the unknown and unconfirmed.

1) Too Slow: Most Computer magazines will write reviews of product you've already bought or read about on blogs 2 months before. With the exception of Laptop Mag and a few others. How are they catching up in speed? Surprise: blogs.

2) They sometimes ignore the things companies want you to ignore: Magazines need to cover the unofficial topics that are important, even if it involves illegal activity like IP theft. Like BitTorrent. Even if the sponsoring companies don't agree with how the technology is used, its important to educate the public and industry to its benefits and problems. And rumors are clearly useful to warn people not to buy the stuff that's just about to become outdated. Without news that corporations don't sanction, magazines might as well reprint press releases.

3) They charge: So much info on the web is free and ad subsidized, including the blogs. They've got ads. So why are they still charging when its costing them readership? The magazine model of getting people to pay for copies is dying a slow death. See: The difference in subscription and cover prices and Chris Anderson's Free.

4) The websites sometimes suck: In the worst cases, you can't tell where the new content is. It's all over the place, nested in a field of links that mean nothing to anyone but advertisers and industry wonks. In the best cases, they make you click through 10 times for every feature: Come on. Pageviews are a dead competitive metric, and you're just annoying everyone.

5) Their columns are written by people I can't relate to: The most prestigious print columnists today are at least a decade away from 35. The age is not the issue — but there are economic, social and generational gaps that can't be bridged.

6) They cover a whole lot of stuff no one cares about: Just because a company puts something out or writes a press release, and it's on a publication's beat, doesn't mean anyone actually cares about it. Market share is not indicative of success. Porsche sells fewer cars than Toyota. More tech journalists should learn to follow their gut instincts, because as tech lovers, you get a great sense of what people are also excited about.

7) They review products without the bigger picture: Most trade mags do a fantastic job of explaining the specs and the benchmark results, without the overall real world effect (usually a small delta of improvement) and social context (see: iPod shuffle's tiny buttons). Most tech pubs fail at this, blog or mag. Exception: The big columnists at the papers do a great job of this, especially the four horsemen, Pogue, Moss, Levy, and Baig.

8) They presume to be error-free: Last year, right before I canceled my subscription, I read a computer trade with more errors than I'd seen in any magazine. It included typos, but also factual F-ups like mention of "Pioneer LCDs TVs". (Pioneer doesn't make them here.) Magazines have copy editors, fact checkers and 2 months to deliver this content. And you can't retract paper.

9) The writing is often boring: OK, not every article has to be funny or Shakespeare, but it shouldn't make you want to tear your eyes out or go to sleep, either. Tech is inherently a left brain topic; making it an easy and enjoyable thing to learn about and digest is critical and something many trade pubs fail to do! This is increasingly critical as tech and gadgets go more and more mainstream and the average joe comes looking for information.

10) They fail to realize news is collaborative: Mike criticized the gadget blogs for rehashing reviews. First off, aggregation is a service. If someone can check one site, instead of 400, that's useful. This attitude also seems to ignore the fact that news is collaborative. Sites send each other tips and in return, send links and readers back to the source. That's how we give credit to our peers online and grow together, as a network. You can't do that in print.

Bonus 11) Paper: They kill trees and give you papercuts. They cost money to mail. They are heavy and take up space. And they can catch on fire and burn your entire house down! And after all these years, the subscription cards are still annoying. And you can't search through old print as easily as you can search through old online content.

[image by Mannobhai]

I also found it interesting that the magazine does its own one of a kind ads for the companies for placement in the mag. A worthy read on how tech editorial can and will advance into more sophisticated, and less trade-like publications. [Amusement Mag Pingmag]

Just as vague questions of cosmology and consciousness make up just about every other cover of New Scientist today, fantastical futurist gadgets were at one point the safe default for the covers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Like lots of the other cover staples, the monowheel has to some degree come to pass, but hardly to the extent that you might have been led to believe it might in 1917. Or 1923. Or 1938. You get the idea. [RoadsideResort]

Behold, the "Mechanical Maid." It "cleans the floors at the push of a button, returns to niche, readies itself for next job." And while its shape is a boxier than a Roomba, they got the height part right. It's not jut vacuum cleaner with a Lost in Space Robot head/gumball machine stuck on top. [Modern Mechanix Thanks Charles!]

There really is nothing quite like geeking out on the past's vision of the future, and PopSci and PopMech are among the best for that, from the fantastic covers to the equally fantastic cigarette ads. Google's growing magazine collection also features New York Magazine, Ebony, the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences and more. Each page has its own URL, so it's a blogger's paradise. Say goodbye to doing work for the rest of the afternoon. [Official Google Blog]