Newspapers Gaining Consumers Through Tablets

A new PEW study suggests that newspapers are drawing tablet users to their products.

"Tablet users are more likely to pay for content than general news consumers," said Julie Moos in her article about CNN and USA Today gaining new readers.

The phone survey of 1,159 tablet users showed that a new audience of tablet users are being drawn to newspapers.

"Of the 894 respondents who read news on their tablets weekly, 40 percent said they are getting news from newspapers that they did not rely on as a source before," continued Moos.

New technology like the tablet is thought to be killing off newspaper companies, but as seen here it is actually helping them by providing them more consumers.

10 percent of the tablet users in the survey said they get news from USA Today on their tablets and they did not use that source for news before. 10 percent said the same thing about CNN.

The survey also showed that the tablet users were also using other types of media like cable TV channels and online sources now with their tablets when they weren't using those sources before.

19 percent of the users now watch a new cable TV news station, and 18 percent use a new online news source.

The tablet has opened a window for consumers to get their news in a new way.

Photo via Creative Commons

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Smart Phone or Tablet?

The days of journalists using paper and pencil to communicate news are long gone. Now journalists can use smart phones and tablet computers to get news out when it happens.

My question is which tool is more effective for journalists to use?

In my opinion a smart phone is the best choice for the job.

Smart phones can go anywhere because they fit so nicely in a person's pocket.

When news breaks the phone can be whipped out. Using the Internet a story can be upload to Twitter, another social networking site and a website. This works well with a touch smart phone.

I understand that tablets like the Galaxy Tab and the iPad are becoming a tool more and more journalists are using but I wonder what is the benefit over smart phones?

On one hand more notes can be taken than with a phone and tablets are lighter than a laptop. But on the other hand it would seem inconvenient to take a tablet everywhere.

To me I can't justify a tablet when all I see it as is another computer.

My vote is for a smart phone that can go any and everywhere.

What about you?



Photo Credit:www.cellhut.com via Creative Commons

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Benefits of E-books

Electronics run the world today, and with the latest creation, tablets, the world will change even more. Tablets such as the iPad, Nook Color, Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle are changing our world drastically by one simple feature, e-books.

E-books are books that can be read electronically on digital devices like computers or tablets in this case. These can be very helpful in the fact that a person doesn't have to carry around all of his or her books.

By downloading the books legally online a person can have hundreds or even thousands of books with them at once. This not only saves space, but it also allows a person to search for topics within the books.

For example, if a person needs to find a specific section in his or her textbook, he or she can search key words to help narrow the search down. This saves a great amount of time.

Another great thing about e-books is the bookmarking feature. A person can bookmark certain parts of an e-book to come back to. Whether it's where he or she left off in the book, or he or she wants to share it with another person.

For my second semester here at Simpson College I had to purchase 15 books. I spent nearly $300 on these books. Which brings me to another great benefit of e-books, cost. E-books are much cheaper than buying actual books and textbooks. There are even times when you can download the books for free.

My final point about e-books is the immediacy. When purchasing a book you have to go to the store or even buy it online, but with e-books it's only a click away. You can purchase all you're textbooks necessary for classes and any other reading materials that may interest you at your home.

I believe e-books are the next big thing in today's world. I think in the next five years if you look into a classroom you won't see textbooks sitting on students' desks, you will see e-books.

Photo Credit: Livia Iacolare, via Creative Commons

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What's a Five Letter Word for Ingenuity?

Apple isn't scheduled to announce anything until sometime on Jan. 27, but developer Stand Alone Inc. has already come up with first official application for the Tablet: Crosswords.

The Crosswords game is currently being used on the iPhone and lets users download and work on the crossword puzzles from more than 30 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Onion. Stand Alone is currently working to reformat the program to fit the 10-inch screen of the still questioned Tablet.

Stand Alone claims that Apple has given them no specifications on anything about the Tablet. While the existence of a game doesn't give us proof that the Tablet is real, Brian Alaska, a PR representative from Stand Alone, said that "the tablet device is almost guaranteed in our opinion. Thus, the developer has prudently begun work on a new design for the game..."

What's interesting to me is that by using Crosswords, many print media sources already have a jump on this new product from Apple. People that download this may also want to subscribe to the New York Times or other online newspapers.

Many people are skeptical about this new product though, including blogger Barb Dybwad, and are wondering if this is just hype. With everything that has been said about the Tablet, how can Apple ever hope to live up to what consumers already expect out of this product?

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