Penguin

‘The iPad, the Kindle, and the Future of Books’ —

Terrific piece by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker from a few weeks ago on the state of the book publishing industry. Auletta covers the shift to e-books mostly from the publishers’ perspective, which is illuminating:

Tim O’Reilly, the founder and C.E.O. of O’Reilly Media, which publishes about two hundred e-books per year, thinks that the old publishers’ model is fundamentally flawed. “They think their customer is the bookstore,” he says. “Publishers never built the infrastructure to respond to customers.” Without bookstores, it would take years for publishers to learn how to sell books directly to consumers. They do no market research, have little data on their customers, and have no experience in direct retailing. With the possible exception of Harlequin Romance and Penguin paperbacks, readers have no particular association with any given publisher; in books, the author is the brand name.

That the publishers view bookstores — rather than readers — as their customers explains much of what ails the industry. And that Tim O’Reilly has always seen the reader as his customer explains why O’Reilly Media, which was once as print-centric as any other book publisher, is thriving today.

Another choice observation, from Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti:

In Grandinetti’s view, book publishers — like executives in other media — are making the same mistake the railroad companies made more than a century ago: thinking they were in the train business rather than the transportation business.

(Think about that observation as applied to Microsoft’s executive leadership: Do they think they’re in the software business, or the Windows business?)

When we first showed a video of Penguin Books’ iPad concepts last month, observers got pretty excited about the possibilities. Now, we are told, the first “book” - if you can call it that - Penguin will release from the line-up will be a title about little puppy Spot.

At a group briefing together with Penguin UK’s digital MD Anna Rafferty, parent Pearson’s digital strategy director Genevieve Shore explained that her commercial approach to tablets, like many digital forms, can be deliberately iterative...

“The interesting thing about pricing on iPad is,” Shore said, “I’m trying to get everybody over the idea that we’ll be right first time. With static content, we spend a lot of time thinking about the right price, and then have to stick with that price. The beauty of these platforms is, we can change it.

“It allows us to think about extension services - it’s not about trying to jam a service in to a small device.”

Speaking about mobile, Shore said: “It’s sort of a phony war. Once you dig down beneath wallpapers and ringtones, the myth of mobile content revenue has been exposed over the last couple of years. But I really think this is going to be the year we’ll see that change.”

More broadly, she said: “We are very focused on M&A digitally. We’re definitely looking to make investments in external startups.” Pearson (NYSE: PSO) has previously partnered with the LiveMocha language learning startup and formed a Mobiledu JV with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to deliver e-learning to Chinese mobile phones.

Now Pearson has been forming “internal startups” recently, Shore said. “Traditionally, we’ve been allowed to develop things with longer lead times, over 24 months. We’ve got a number of startups in play which you’ll hear about over the next couple of years, where we take people out of their normal jobs and let them work in a more classic startup environment.”

But Shore wouldn’t detail the “NewCos” further. Pearson recently became a founder sponsor of TechHub, the Silicon Roundabout, London, co-working environment for digital entrepreneurs.

Pearson took £1.7 billion revenue from digital products in 2009 - that’s 31 percent of group income and growing 19 percent a year. It claims 35 million children playing its games daily, while Penguin is turning its Spinebreakers teen bookreaders’ community in to a “full social network”. “It’s about future-proofing our business because we don’t want to stop our readers from reading,” Rafferty said.

We write frequently on how Pearson’s Financial Times is faring in these regards. “Too many people are talking about surviving and we think they should be talking about thriving,” FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw said. “If you are a producer of text content and you have a new channel available, there ought to be an advantage to your business - there should be a very bright future. We can create a bigger, better more profitable FT than we’ve ever had before on the internet. The odd model with somthing to prove is actually the free model.”

It could be the biggest thing from the UK to hit American shores since the British Invasion -- or at the very least it could do more harm to a teenager than a Beatles song. A Scottish brewery is slowly unleashing a beer on the former colonies that contains an astounding 32% alcohol by volume.

The beer, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin and made by Scottish microbrewery BrewDog, has shipped a small amount of their potent potable to a handful of stores in California and New York. Additionally, stateside folks are also buying bottles of the beefed-up beer through the BrewDog site.

Reads the label on the bottle:

This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. It is exactly the same manner you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.

BrewDog has already faced opposition to their high-alcohol beverages on their own soil. Regulators ordered their Toyko beer, with an 18.2% alcohol content, be pulled from shelves over the company's marketing of the product. BrewDog responded by releasing a 1.1% alcohol beer they dubbed Nanny State.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin isn't even the strongest beer made by BrewDog. A few months ago, after German brewer Schorschbrau unveiled a beer with a hefty 40% alcohol content, the Scots one-upped them, literally with their 41% offering Sink the Bismarck!.

One thing that will keep people from throwing back a 32% beer like it's a Bud Lite is the price. One bottle of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin will set you back around $53... per bottle.

Super-High-Alcohol Beer Heads to the U.S. [Time]

Linux MPX Multi-Touch Table —

Linux MPX Multi-Touch Table is a post from Chris Pirillo

The Linux MPX Multi-Touch table may not be as sexy as Microsoft’s Surface, but it does show the huge advancements being made in penguin-land. MPX (or Multi-Pointer X) is a modification of the X Windows Server that allows multiple input devices to be used at the same time. All you need to make it work is a normal computer, a keyboard and a mouse. This system will let multiple users work together on an application at the same time. The software is still under development, and the developer states that there are (of course) still bugs and kinks to be worked out. However, this video gives you an excellent insight as to what you can expect in the future.

Important to note: DiamondTouch is completely different that Microsoft TouchLight. Yet the end result is actually a better thing for all of us. DiamondTouch will recognize four different unique people. Surface allows multiple users to interact, but doesn’t recognize them (yet) as separate people. Therefore, the MPX is a large step ahead of Microsoft in this department.

Peter Hutterer, PhD Student Wearable Computers Lab at the University of South Australia and MPX developer, granted an interview with Gizmodo recently. Peter discussed the technology more in-depth and explained many of the features (and bugs) that exist.

This is definitely something to keep your eye on as development progresses. It will be interesting to watch how it evolves.

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Peeps! —

Peeps! is a post from Chris Pirillo

I’m not a huge fan of marshmallow Peeps. As such, I decided to find a way to put 10 of them out of their misery:

You wanna know the spookiest part of it all? I only used one Peeps in this production. It was THAT f*cking resilient.

If you would like to remix these scenes for your own video, please be my guest:

1. Peeps Death by Car
2. Peeps Death by Door
3. Peeps Death by Grater
4. Peeps Death by Pounding
5. Peeps Death by Toilet
6. Peeps Death by Chew
7. Peeps Death by Fire
8. Peeps Death by Microwave
9. Peeps Death by Press
10. Peeps Death by Water

Just be sure to give attribution where it’s due.

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Advanced OOP & PHP5 —

This post follows on from my first article “Getting Started with OOP & PHP5” which introduced the basics of Object Orientated Programming and what that looks like in PHP.

This time around we’ll look at some more advanced concepts and some more practical examples of building code, covering use of constructors and how to add access modifiers in to control how calling code can operate on your objects.

We’ll also show off how to create static methods and properties and, perhaps more importantly, illustrate applications of these features.

Constructors

Let’s start at the very beginning, and look at what happens when we create an object. When a class is instantiated and used to create an object, a particular function is run and this is called the constructor. The way this is done changed between PHP version and so can be a bit confusing.

In PHP 4, the constructor was a function with the same name as the class itself – and although PHP 4 is dead and gone (deprecated and no longer supported even for security fixes), that behaviour has been preserved in PHP 5 to preserve backwards compatibility, and you will still see it in code which transitioned between the language versions. Here is an example:

class Penguin {

public function penguin($name) {
$this->name = $name;
$this->type = "penguin";
return true;
}

}

penguin_deprecated.php

So in PHP 5, this would still work, but really we want to use the magic methods introduced in that version, where the constructor is called __construct() and our class would then look like this:

class Penguin {

public function __construct($name) {
$this->name = $name;
$this->type = "penguin";
return true;
}

}

penguin.php

The PHP 5 version makes more sense because the method can then be inherited, rather than having to redeclare a same-named function and call the function which matches the name of the extending class? Confused? Me too :) Always use __construct() is the main message here.

The Static Keyword

So far we’ve looked at fairly classic OO concepts, but to take full advantage of the functionality on offer, there are some more tricks we can learn. One of my favourites (in fact I probably use it too much!) is the static keyword.

The static keyword can be applied to both properties and methods, and we literally mean “static” in this case as to mean “the opposite of dynamic”. When we use static properties and methods, we use the class as it stands, without instantiating it. Sounds a bit strange so let’s take a look at some examples.

Static Properties

A static property is something we can set on an object, either from inside it or from outside, and retrieve it later. It is almost like a constant, something we use for reference, except that it isn’t constant and we can change it at any time.

If you are familiar with using static variables in procedural PHP, then this is a concept that will come easily to you. An example:

class Message {
public static $system_name = 'Default';
}

message.php

This is a very simple class, with a single static property declared. As with all class properties, these can be created and used on the fly since there is no requirement to declare these in PHP.

To access this property, we do not need to instantiate an object of this type. Instead we use the class name followed by the “scope resolution operator” which is two colons, and then the usual dollar sign and variable name we want, like this:

include('message.php');

echo Message::$system_name;

We can modify this variable from outside as shown in the following example, which also illustrates that this property is NOT set on an object instantiated from this class definition:

include('message.php');

Message::$system_name = 'Social Network Messaging';

$msg = new Message();
var_dump($msg->system_name);

echo Message::$system_name;

This script outputs NULL followed by “Social Network Messaging”, as we’d expect.

Static Methods

Static methods follow the same sort of ideas as static properties. They are declared using the static keyword alongside the access modifier (traditionally after it but either order is valid), and they do not require the class to be instantiated.

Static methods are useful for situations where you don’t need any other information to perform the task. For example they are common in the search methods on an object; “findItemByProductId” could be a static method that retrieves some data and then instantiates an object and returns it.

Here’s an example of a simple inflector method; we might want to keep a bunch of these methods together but we don’t need an instantiated object to use them:

class Inflector {
public static function pluralise($word) {
if($word == "sheep") {
$plural = "sheep";
} elseif (substr($word, -1) == 'y') {
$plural = substr($word,0,-1) . 'ies';
} else {
$plural = $word . 's';
}

return $plural;
}
}

inflector.php

When we use this static method we once again use the scope resolution operator:

include('inflector.php');

echo Inflector::pluralise('tree') . "\n";
echo Inflector::pluralise('story') . "\n";
echo Inflector::pluralise('sheep') . "\n";

This script outputs “trees”, “stories” and “sheep” as we’d expect – we don’t need any settings on the objects itself so we never use $this, which is why this makes a good example of using a static class.

Objects, Storage and References

A big change between earlier versions of PHP and PHP 5 is that objects are always passed by reference now, in fact every object is stored simply as a pointer.

This is useful since any changes made to an object passed into a function will persist without us having to pass it back, but it does mean that we can sometimes be tripped up when working with objects and particularly copying them.

Using Clone

So look at this example, what would you expect the output to be?

$a = new stdClass();
$a->name = 'Alice';
$b = $a;
$b->name = 'Beatrice';

echo $a->name;

In fact this example prints “Beatrice”. This is because when we do $b = $a we aren’t copying the values. We’re telling $b that it should point to the same collection of data that $a is pointing to, because objects are just references.

If we want $b to be separate from $a then we will need to make use of the clone keyword, as shown here, only the line where we create $b changes.

$a = new stdClass();
$a->name = 'Alice';
$b = clone($a);
$b->name = 'Beatrice';

echo $a->name;

This time the script outputs “Alice” – our changes to $b don’t affect the values in $a.

As I mentioned before, this change of handling happened between PHP 4 and PHP 5 – and certainly caused some headaches for those that upgraded. However the current behaviour really does work well so it was a good decision in the longer term.

Comparing Objects

Having just said that objects are purely references, we need to bear this in mind when we compare objects – because objects with the same properties set to the same values evaluate differently to two variables pointing to the same object.

For two objects that are of the same types and have all the same property values, we can use the comparison operator “==“. To identify where the same object is being referred to, we can use a strict comparison “===” to evaluate this.

A Question of Class

If you have an object and you want to assess what kind of an object it is, you can do this using the InstanceOf operator. If we go back and use our penguin class from earlier, we can try this out:

include('penguin.php');

$tux = new Penguin("Tux");

if($tux InstanceOf Penguin) {
echo "I'm a penguin\n";
} else {
echo "I don't know what I am\n";
}

Note that since it is an operator, it goes between the object we are assessing and what we want it to be, just like the other operators, such as the less than. Objects will return true to InstanceOf evaluation if they are of that class, implement that class, or extend that class – a very powerful way of identifying if a class will match your needs.

In Conclusion

This article has covered some tools for use of OOP in PHP which I hope will bring you to a point where you feel ready to use this in applications of your own.

A lot of the concepts covered here you might not need every day – but they might catch you out so bookmark this article for reference and refer back any time you need a quick reminder. If you’re using these techniques then do share your tips with other readers in the comments!

The Cutest Photobomb You Ever Did See — I wasn't going to post this because it isn't old enough for my taste, but people won't stop sending it to me so I figured I'd go ahead and put it up. That way I'll only get the tip a couple more times in the next few days. Anyway, this is a seal photobombing (to absolute perfection) a group of penguins. And yes, it's real. Which reminds me: remember in 'March of the Penguins' when that one penguin lost its egg and tried incubating a rock instead? That was f***ing sad. Oh great, now I'm depressed. I swear you are such a jerk for bringing that up. Seal Photobomb [todaysbigthing] Thanks to everyone who sent this in, I'll be making faces in the background when you least expect it. Also, babies.

Apple iPad Available For Pre-Order From March 12, On Sale From April 3 —

Apple just announced that its tablet device, the iPad, will be available in the U.S. on April 3. See announcement below.

When Apple unveiled the device a few months ago, we were told it would be available by March. Rumors began to swirl recently that shipment of the devices was delayed until April. According to the release, the Wi-Fi models of the iPad will be available starting April 3, with the Wi-Fi and 3G models rolled out by late April. Starting on March 12, U.S. customers can pre-order the device either online or at their local Apple retail store. The device will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Pricing has remained the same, with the basic Wi-Fi enabled model starting at $499. Pricing is as follows: $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

Apple is launching with 12 apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the 150,000 apps on the App Store. The supposed Kindle-killer will debut with an iBooks app, which will be available for free download from the App Store in the US on April 3. Apple’s partnered witha number of publishers including the Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds–thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook–and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch(TM) interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.

The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

As the race to be be ebook format of choice hots up, Penguin is making some bold, experimental bets. These first-look demos of forthcoming books from iPad’s iBook Store, presented by Penguin Books’ CEO John Makinson in London on Tuesday, give an idea how publishers might approach Apple’s tablet…

Much of Penguin’s iPad books seem hardly to resemble “books” at all, but rather very interactive learning experiences, from its Dorling Kindersley and kids imprints - the Vampire Academy “book” is “an online community for vampire lovers” with live chat between readers, and the Paris travel guide switches to street map view when placed on a table.

“The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers,” an excited Makinson told FT’s Digital Media & Broadcasting Conference. “The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.”

But Penguin’s thinking bigger than just the one device. Makinson said he sees ebooks hitting 10 percent of book sales next year (it’s currently four percent in the U.S. and Penguin’s ebook sales)...

“We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we’re now talking about.

“So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs.

“We don’t know whether a video introduction will be valuable to a consumer. We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error.”

Mackinson’s hardly retiring in negotiation with the key players - says he met Apple, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) last week. But he views the key issue of revenue share with each as an opportunity...

Asked if he wasn’t about to give away 30 percent of Penguin sales to Apple (as is the split with apps), Makinson told paidContent:U, during Q&A, this is better than the equivalent print agency model, in which publishers let retailers keep 50 percent.

Record labels are now lamenting having given Apple so much control of their industry, but Penguin appears to be relishing trying out all these new ebook formats, seeing “the opportunity to test pricing and access to consumer data”.

Not that Makinson wouldn’t take more from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). “There is an argument for saying Apple needs the content, that they should be paying us for our content,” he said. But that argument hasn’t worked.

A copy of Pride And Prejucide might conceivably come with videos of Keira Knightly and Colin Firth (the movie adaptation’s cast), he said, but: “We need to understand how much the consumer will pay for that, we need to engage in dynamic pricing.

Yesterday I shut down the 9 year old url shortening service qwer.org. I pointed all traffic from qwer.org to a penguin flash game with a banner ad at the bottom.

Scandal! Uproar! Mea Culpa! The kind of scandal that lead a social media pundit to email me this morning asking me to explain the series of events that led me to turn a link shortening service into a profit vehicle. The kind of uproar that causes a person to make an anonymous Twitter account for the sole purpose of asking me to explain my path to the dark side.

It all sounds pretty nefarious and nasty until you discover that the site was shut down because it had only two users: one a black-hat SEO driving traffic and pagerank to illegal pharma sites and a person who used the content-hosting features of Qwer to host Second Life patterns in a way that could be accessed in-game, and that his pages have been whitelisted for 4 weeks until I shut down stuff completely.

Average number of daily visitors to qwer.org? 11. Average number coming from somewhere other than Second Life? 3.

I hate being such a boring scandal.