“Media insiders” in Australia are reporting that Apple has approached them to produce content for a device “larger than the iPhone.” The Sydney Morning Herald puts another shrimp on the barbie by saying:
Apple has sent specifications of the device to Australian media companies in an effort to sound out whether they would be interested in delivering their content to the tablet. None would speak about the device on the record.
This follows Bill Keller’s offhand remark that the paper was working for content on an “Apple Slate.”
I call bull.
My thought is this: if Apple was going around looking for content for its “slate,” I doubt they’d be going to newspapers first. Newspapers are the low-hanging fruit of this equation – a text feed is all you need to churn out pages and pages of content. They’d really be talking to app and game programmers and none of those folks have mentioned anything about anything. When you want to launch something super secret you don’t go to the people who will tell your secrets.
Media partnerships are the least of Apple’s concern. Media needs Apple and I’m sure once the TabletPadiPad comes out they can just waltz in, lay down a contract, and Keller and everyone else will sign all night long. These are the people who need the least lead time.
The SMH also mentions a forthcoming new album format which has already been released in iTunes, a revelation that suggests the paper isn’t quite up to speed on what’s going down in the Interlands.
Bigger than an iPhone smaller than a bread box?
just about the same size as a breadbox.
Nice one
Occam’s Razor. What would they gain by lying?
I think they need lead time if Jobs wants not just streaming text, but editions of their newspaper formatted perfectly for reading on the device.
Crunchpad might be cool with streams of text, bit we’re talking about a perfectionist.
No need to start slashing with your razor. The SMH is a whore. They’ll say anything about anyone to get a reader. Move along, nothing to see here!
I agree. Newspaper would be the last to be approached.
Im also slightly annoyed at your typical aussie saying.. no one here says that at all!!
I recently returned from Australia and found it a wonderful nation. The “shrimp on the barbie” line was said to me repeatedly. I heard it from the hotel concierge, a cab driver, and the proprietor of a furniture business. I was surpised that people actually said it so much.
I tried it in a bar on a couple of very attractive women and they looked at me like I was touched in the head.
I think that Australians tend to say “shrimp on the barbie” often but they do not like to hear it from interlopers.
Actually, no one says that in Australia, especially considering we use the word ‘prawn’ instead of ’shrimp’.
I think what you came across was a slew of Aussies who used the famous slang phrase known to the rest of the world on a foreigner as a way of having fun or their attempt to use it, something they see as familiar to you, as a greeting.
If any one used it as a common phrase, it would have been ‘throw another prawn on the barbie’, and it would have been in use many, many years ago. Because as an Australian, I have never heard anyone use it in their life.
All I know is that I heard it from people in the tourism industry as well as everyday folks. I had a tee shirt with that particular phrase on it so perhaps that played a part in my hearing it so often. I wore it often in the hope that it would keep me from looking too much like a tourist and that may have been a mistake on my part.
Regardless, everyone was very friendly which has made me want to return as soon as possible.
hahaha lol!! what does shrimp on the barbie mean??? isnt that like barbecued shrimp???
Actually, “Shrimp on the barbie” was a visual joke for Aussies. In Australia “shrimp” are tiny little prawns, where as “prawns” are rather large. So by calling a prawn a shrimp, it implied that everything in Australia was big, like the country itself. But don’t worry, not only did it go over every non-australians head, it seemed to go over most aussies heads too.
Not many people barbeque prawns in Australia anyway. But, we all do throw another snag on the barbie. :)
Mate, NO ONE says it in Australia unless they are talking to someone from the USA or somewhere who brings it up first.
Just like we don’t drink Fosters beer – it’s the shit that we export to you.
Speaking of tablets.. cough.. crunchpad cough
vaporware at this point.
Agreed, total BS. Where do I send the card? http://tinyurl.com/yju4o6g
In an interview with German magazine “Der Spiegel” James Murchdoch (Rupert Murdoch’s son) talked about a Kindle-like product Apple is going to launch soon. So I would expect that the Apple tablet is imminent, and that Apple is involving media very seriously in their launch strategy.
Why shouldn’t they? Content is not the “low-hanging fruit”, but rather the reason why I would even think about turning on a device like that.
They approach the newspaper, because they want rumors to come out and people to get super excited about their upcoming product. Apparently.
That’s how it’s always been, a rumor comes out, Apple is working on a top secret project, while some “news” people know about it and so we hear some news about it every day and then it’s released.
did anyone say crunchpad?
The more I hear about it, the more I’m starting to think this isn’t just going to be about getting the “feed” of text from the newspapers.
I’m betting there’s a subscription service of digital magazines/newspapers with videos and interactive info graphics embedded in the text articles. Getting the newspapers onboard to support this will require the papers to learn about whatever tools apple is going to make available to create these.
Think Wall Street Journal, but slideshows, interactive charts and graphs, live polls, streaming video clips, etc– like all the digital newspapers we see in the scifi movies…
Exactly correct! Publishing is an entirely different beast that requires process and workflow. More importantly, I believe that the iTablet is going to be successful because it will take web technologies and return them to a more print-oriented, visual approach. This is also one reason I am not thrilled with the LP format. WebKit has to advance a touch for the product to be tighter and more sophisticated.
Actually paper news (and magazines) have a unique opportunity with the new wave of tablets to deliver content in a recognizable way but enhanced by a digital experience. This will be far more lucrative than any game or app and it makes sense that Apple sees this.
What’s going to be frustrating (and perhaps why they may have approached Australian media) is that American papers are to bloated with ego and poor foresight to see this as an opportunity for them to save their business.
This is why we created a CMS for feeding iPhone applications. Ultimately the products will arrive.
A senior exec at BN told me they have a deal with Apple to deliver their format of eBooks on the new Apple tablet.
HE’S LOOKING OFF THE SAFETY!! PAAAASSSS!!
Classic ploy – you don’t want to announce your product just yet but you also don’t want people going off buying competitor products. So you release a few rumours, let some hype and chatter build and suddenly everyone becomes buyer reluctant just in case the next big thing is right around the corner.
If the fabled Crunchpad or any other tablet came out between now and March I’d certainly hold off to see what Apple were up to.
Looks like somone took the name to heart! They bought the URL.
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: APPLESLATE.COM
Created on: 26-Oct-09
Expires on: 26-Oct-10
Last Updated on: 26-Oct-09
apple’s late once again. (get it? “appleslate”)