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Newspapers and magazines are reportedly in talks with Apple about repurposing their content onto a “new device,” presumably the rumored touchscreen tablet Apple will deliver in early 2010. Numerous reports suggest an Apple tablet would have a strong focus on redefining print media. Enabling in-app commerce through free apps was a crucial move to help make this goal a reality.

"Apple is expected to announce soon a new subscription plan for newspapers, which hope tablets like the iPad will eventually provide a new source of profits as media companies struggle with declining print circulation and advertising revenue."

"Publishers wanted to pay Apple a fee rather than a cut of subscription and advertising revenue, and are not happy with Apple's terms, he said. They had hoped to offer app editions as part of subscription bundles that include print versions of the paper. Instead, they must use Apple as an intermediary with subscribers,"

If Apple cut the price of each TV episode in half — to 99 cents, from $1.99 — would sales on iTunes increase enough to offset the price drop?

Separately, Apple has proposed to some networks that the store sell a subscription package of popular TV shows. At a price some reports have set at $30 a month, the subscription service would be a direct threat to entrenched cable and satellite providers.

Pricing is coming up now in part because Apple is keen — some TV executives privately say desperate — to line up content for the iPad, the tablet computer to be available in March.

If Ron Wayne, now 76, weren't one of the most luckless men in the history of Silicon Valley, it wouldn't have turned out like this.He was present at the birth of cool on April Fool's Day, 1976: Co-founder — along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — of the Apple Computer Inc., Wayne designed the company's original logo, wrote the manual for the Apple I computer, and drafted the fledgling company's partnership agreement.That agreement gave him a 10 percent ownership stake in Apple, a position that would be worth about $22 billion today if Wayne had held onto it.

With the new terms, developers will be able to create apps in Flash after Apple publicly restricted the creative tool widely used by the design community.

Apple has plateaued in U.S. smartphone market share in recent months at more than 20% -- it's slowly bleeding percentage points, according to comScore. So getting more apps in the store might be a play to increase iAd inventory when its user base is stagnant. Apple still leads in the app market -- with more than 250,000 apps in the App Store, versus Android's 80,000.

But the more book publishers, more magazine publishers, more newspapers, the more video game creators, and textbook companies Apple can pull on board, the more attractive the iPad will become as a one-stop shop for media.

There’s more to a gadget than just good hardware. An elegantly designed user interface can put a gadget head and shoulders above its peers. That’s where most e-readers have fallen short. E-reader manufacturers’ focus on hardware design means their user interfaces often feel like an afterthought.

Another way to enhance the experience may be through opening up e-readers to third-party apps, as Amazon has done with the Kindle. That could bring additional features to the devices and maybe even alternate readers with more elegant interfaces.

"Apple wants to be an advertising company, too. Now we have a company that wants to be GE, NBC and Omnicom -- that's mind-boggling."

"If you were a newspaper publisher, you knew where your customer lived," he said. "Steve Jobs is taking that relationship away like [he] did with the music industry. Steve wants a bigger piece of that action: intimacy with the consumer."

Devices are incredibly exciting, he said, but they're also just shiny objects that distract marketers from the real issue: content.

The devices seem to be spurring deeper interest in wine and empowering bolder, more confident selections, they say, potentially revolutionizing the psychology of dining’s most intimidating passage.

Interactive wine lists began appearing at a smattering of restaurants as early as 2001, and leading wine analysts have for several years offered recommendations via smartphone applications. But Apple’s introduction in April of the iPad, which approximates a conventional wine list in size, shape and weight, has substantially accelerated the trend.

“It stuns me, but they seem to trust the device more than they trust me, and these are people I’ve waited on for 10 years.”

With the release of the iPad, companies with dedicate Apps Powered by PixelMags will be able to offer full-sized, digital versions of their publications, complete with interactive components like video and streaming media, at a fraction of the cost of the hard copy paper versions of their magazines and newspapers. The Apps will be compatible with the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Minutes after Apple unveiled its widely anticipated iPad on Jan. 27, ACU's student-run Optimist declared it would be the first collegiate newspaper to publish on the new device.

The Optimist app now appears in the Apple store and is downloadable on the first wave of the devices.

"The students were doing the coding, the students were doing the planning, students were doing the design," said Dr. Kenneth Pybus, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication and faculty adviser for The Optimist. "It might have gone smoother it if were top-down, but smooth is not what we're going for – education is what we're going for, and education isn't always smooth."

Hottest Apps used by Apple Distinguished Educators

May 29, 2013 · Raleigh County Schools will be the first in the state to adopt district-wide one-on-one technology in every classroom.   Raleigh County Superintendent of Schools Jim Brown is marking his first year on the job with the announcement of a multi-million dollar contract with Apple that will supply every student with either a 4th generation iPad or access to an iPad Mini.   There are 12,000 students in the county. Brown said the investment for the initiative called iRaleigh comes to $135.48 per pupil.