It’s an impossible standard I asked my writers to live up to. I asked my reporters to try to report their stories so they understood those worlds as completely as fiction writers understand the worlds they’ve imagined. Details emerge only when writers do 101 interviews. The bulk of writers in the internet age accept rumors as fact, but reporting triumphs. For a writer to assume he has something to say in an audacious act… it’s an amazing responsibility, and it’s a privilege. - Keynote speech from David Granger, Editor-in-Chief of Esquire at the “Future of Freelancing” conference.
branchmagazine:

I’m alive! Come visit and see our first issue! Featuring artist Wendy Walgate (Toronto, ON) and writer David McGimpsey (Montreal, QC) plus much, much, more!

The loveliness that is Branch. I’m obsessed, click and see why!

branchmagazine:

I’m alive! Come visit and see our first issue! Featuring artist Wendy Walgate (Toronto, ON) and writer David McGimpsey (Montreal, QC) plus much, much, more!

The loveliness that is Branch. I’m obsessed, click and see why!

Yes, okay, i like the ipad

ipad

I have so many iPad thoughts. Here’s one that I agree with, from the magCulture blog:

After so much hype it was always going to be difficult to impress people, and there’s already signs of a backlash online, not least about that name. But… I want one. Have a look at the pictures online and tell me you don’t want one. If still unsure, look at it being used here. Yum yum.

People have commented it’s ‘just a big iPhone’, as if there was something wrong with that. Was it ever going to be anything else? A big iPhone will do me. I’ve been using my iPhone increasingly for reading content, enjoying excellent apps like the Guardian’s, and I can easily imagine doing the same with more space for design and presentation.

Exactly. Eventually, we have to let it go that the iPad isn’t something completely different. Not everything has to be, and it’s a symptom of our ever-evolving tech culture that makes us think we deserve a camera, and an e-reader, and the Internet and a word processor all in one - oh, and we want to use them all at the same time…

The iPad is an excellent way to consume online content on a bigger screen than the iPhone, but in a mobile form outside the laptop. It puts netbooks to shame - lets face it, netbooks kinda suck.

Many commentators complained that, when the New York Times demo was put on the screen, it wasn’t that impressive. Herein lies the problem with our Apple affair: They’re not in charge of saving newspapers. They’ve created the vessel, now we have to create the content to put on it. So now the New York Times, and the New Yorker, and Wired etc., will need to step it up. It’s up to them to make the iPad worth having.

Have you ever taken a look at FLYP? This magazine is practically made for the iPad, and should be the inspiration for all other traditional print pubs herein.

In general, my response to iPad complaints can be best witnessed through this video. “Everything is amazing, and nobody is happy.” Isn’t it amazing that you can read a magazine or book with embedded video on this thing? Isn’t it amazing that you can carry as many newspapers as you want on the train through it? And you can check your email with it too!

Oh… you want a camera? Ugh.