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We’ve witnessed publishers drooling over the Apple iPad’s form factor before the darn thing was even announced, with Time Inc. showing off a concept for Sports Illustrated and Condé Nast prepping a version of Wired for a tablet as early as November of last year.

First came Wired’s official iPad demo, and now there’s a new inspirational vision of the future of digital magazines, courtesy of the following video.

Alexx Henry Photography collaborated with co-directors Cory Strassburger and Ming Hsiung to produce the following cover and feature spread interactive animation for all-digital magazine Viv Mag.

The concept is to envision the interactive publishing potential allowed by the iPad and other tablets coming onto the market in the near, near future. You can check out a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was put together in the second clip below.

Let us know what you think: Are tablets the ultimate savior of print publishing? Would you be interested in checking out a digital magazine like the one depicted in the video?

Behind the Scenes

Tags: apple, digital magazine, ipad, publishing, tablets, video, Viv Mag

Earlier today, FTC commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour cited Google Buzz’s “irresponsible conduct” at launch as an example of how companies are being too careless with consumer privacy and online data.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the remarks were made at a public roundtable on privacy-related matters hosted by the FTC, where Harbour made it clear that the FTC can and will take an active interest in protecting consumer privacy.

“The Commission will unfailingly step in to protect consumers where we believe the law has been violated, and that includes violations relating to privacy promises,” she said.

The commissioner’s remarks echo the sentiments of researcher Danah Boyd during her SXSW keynote, and the infuriated Gmail users who felt exposed when they were involuntarily following or being followed by their frequent e-mail contacts per the algorithm of Google Buzz’s original auto-follow feature.

Google has since made major tweaks to Buzz, but Harbour believes the misfire is a symptom of a greater problem. She says: “This is turning into a dangerous game of ‘copycat’ behavior … Unlike a lot of tech products, consumer privacy cannot be run in beta.”

Obviously Harbour’s strong words were directed beyond Google and could apply to all Internet companies that store personally identifiable information on consumers and their online behaviors. As users we tend to forget about the implications of our online actions and naively place our trust in the cloud by storing information, files and communication online. Hopefully the FTC’s agenda around privacy will help to ensure that our trust is not abused in the future.

[img credit: iSerg, iStockphoto]

Tags: FTC, google buzz, privacy

YouTube has just announced that it has surpassed yet another milestone, and this one’s a doozy: 24 hours of video is now uploaded to the social video site every sixty seconds. Every second you are browsing YouTube, a full 24 minutes of video is uploaded to the site.

On May 20, 2009, YouTube announced that its users were uploading 20 hours of video per minute. That means in a 10-month time frame, YouTube uploading has increased by more than 17%. The feat’s incredibly impressive by almost any standard. More than two million minutes of video (or 34,560 hours) is now uploaded onto YouTube per day.

The Google-owned video site even provided a graph depicting its growth:

Around April or May 2008, users were “only” uploading 12 hours of video per minute. In less than two years, YouTube has doubled that influx of content. There’s no sign of it stopping

Tags: ONLINE VIDEO, video, youtube

From the time we wake up in the morning to the moment we call it a day, and every moment in between (think bedroom, bathroom and dinner table), we’re checking in on our favorite social media sites.

This conclusion comes from data gathered by an independent study (commissioned by Retrevo), which surveyed 1,000 online individuals.

Per the report, our Facebook and Twitter activities continue even after we’ve hit the hay, with 48% of respondents checking in on activity when they wake up in the middle of the night or as soon as they wake up in the morning. Unsurprisingly, these night owl social media behaviors skew heavily toward those under the age of 25.

iPhone users are the most social of the respondent pool and were significantly more likely to check or update Twitter or Facebook from bed — many before turning on the TV in the morning. Several also use these sites to consume their morning news. The iPhone’s app and web experience is clearly making it even easier for the young socialites to maintain their Internet presence regardless of their physical station in life.

The study also found that 56% of social media users check Facebook once a day, 32% don’t mind being interrupted by an electronic message while eating and 24% of respondents under the age of the 25 have no problem with digital communication while on the pot.

A few other interesting data points from the study include:

- 12% of respondents check/use Facebook every couple of hours

- 62% of individuals over the age of 25 see electronic communications during a meeting, meal, sex or bathroom act as unwanted interruptions

- 23% of iPhone owners primarily get their morning news from Twitter and Facebook

While we can’t verify that the data is representative of the entire population, most of these stats — which might be surprising on first look — should be expected. Now that smartphones with apps are ubiquitous, it’s quite logical that these devices would accompany their owners even in the most private or intimate of scenarios.

[img credit: Markus Bollingmo]

Tags: facebook, social media, stats, trending, twitter

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Apple’s iPhone wasn’t originally conceived as a business-focused device; however, the advent of the App Store and the rapid rise in usage and adoption has really given the platform — and the phone — some pretty great use cases for business users. The iPhone App Store has more than 150,000 applications and separating the wheat from the chaff, especially when you have a specific goal or task in mind can be difficult. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of some of the best applications for the iPhone for the small business user.

Access to Files and Folders

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Something that really sets this generation of smartphone devices apart from devices of even five years ago is the rise in cloud computing and ubiquitous connectivity. While accessing e-mail from multiple devices with full message history intact is old-hat, that capability has now extended to many other types of files.

Using programs like FileMagnet (.99) and Air Sharing (.99 for the regular version, .99 for Pro) you can easily transfer PDF, Microsoft Office and iWork files to your iPhone from your Mac or PC over WiFi.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, services like Box.net and Dropbox can be really great tools for small business owners. Both Box.net and Dropbox have free iPhone applications that let you access your files on those clouds directly from your phone.

If you’re a user of Apple’s MobileMe service, there is also a free MobileMe iDisk app that lets you access those files, folders and images directly from your iPhone.

Document Viewing and Editing

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Accessing files and folders is great, but what about when you want to get some serious work done? There are a number of full-fledged productivity applications that make it possible to not only view, but also edit documents, even on cloud-based services.

QuickOffice Connect Suite for the iPhone (.99) is a great app because it not only lets you view your Microsoft Office documents, but also edit and create those documents — both stored locally on your phone, and on cloud services like Google Docs, MobileMe, Box.net and Dropbox.

This means you can view a file shared with you on Box.net or in your Dropbox folder, make some changes and save it back. Likewise, you can create a new document or spreadsheet and save it to a cloud service of your choice.

Documents To Go Premium (.99) also lets you view and edit Microsoft Office docs on your iPhone, but it only supports Google Docs right now.

If you really need to view documents more than edit, GoodReader ({rss}http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F13389852362065321506%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Fbroadcast{/rss}.99) is not only the best PDF viewer on the iPhone (you can view files up to 1GB in size without having issues), you can access files from WebDAV servers (including MobileMe), Box.net, Dropbox and for a {rss}http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F13389852362065321506%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Fbroadcast{/rss}.99 in-app purchase, you can also access GoogleDocs.

File editing is limited to text files for right now, but the viewing capabilities, the ability to transfer files over WiFi, download PDF files from a URL directly to the iPhone and support for stuff like zipping and unzipping of files make this app really fantastic. If you ever find yourself needing to deal with exceptionally large PDF files, GET THIS APP.

Scan, Fax, Print

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That camera on your iPhone is for more than just quick snapshots and Facebook uploads. Believe it or not, it’s also a really good document scanner. This goes double for iPhone 3GS owners, as the improved lens and built-in auto-focus and stabilization features make it a real asset for document capture.

While the iPhone camera might not displace a high-quality document or business-card scanner, you might be surprised at how well it can work, especially when paired with the right software.

JotNot Scanner (.99) is a solid document scanner that lets you scan multiple page PDF files and then save them to MobileMe, Evernote, Dropbox. Box.net or Google Docs. If you upload to Google Docs you can even take advantage of Google’s OCR engine for better document processing. The app is really optimized for the iPhone 3GS but older iPhones can still utilize its featureset.

Scanner Pro (.99) is another solid scanning option. It also can upload to Box.net, Dropbox, Mobile Me (or any WebDAV service). It also lets you do custom-page sizes, send scans by e-mail and if you also have the Print n Share (.99), seamlessly send a document to your printer.

For users who need to send faxes from the iPhone, there are a number of faxing-specific apps but most of them charge a high per-fax (and sometimes per-document) fee in addition to the price of the app itself. That’s why, if you plan on doing any serious faxing, I recommend spending the .99 and getting the ScanR Business Center app because not only does it let you capture files as PDF and do OCR processing (with desktop web access too), you can send unlimited faxes from the app itself.

If you already have an e-mail to fax solution like eFax or Maxemail, check out Mobile Phax (.99) which will do document capture to PDF and easily integrate with lots of e-mail to fax programs. Of course, you can conceivably use any image to PDF app to send faxes as an attachment with your existing e-mail to fax subscription plans, Mobile Phax just makes the process a bit more seamless.

If business card scanning is what you are after, check out ScanBizCards (.99 or try the free Lite version).

Which are most useful to you?

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Which iPhone apps do you find most useful for your small business? Tell us about your favorites in the comments, and look out for my next post, where I’ll discuss the best productivity apps for the iPhone for your small business.

More business resources from Mashable:

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- 7 Essential Online HR Resources for Your Small Business
- Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses
- 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online
- 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence
- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
- HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Tags: business, iphone, iphone apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business

iPhone/iPod touch: You're settling up a restaurant tab for three. One eater has no cash, the other only twenty-dollar bills, and you're left wondering. If at least two of you have iPhones, PayPal 2.0 lets you "bump" the balance between phones.

Of course, if all of you have PayPal accounts, you don't all need iPhones to "bump" your money—you can still send money the traditional way by loading up the app and entering an email address, or drawing from a recent contact. But with two iPhones running PayPal, it's easier to set a dollar amount, move them into proximity, then confirm that the "bump" means you're transferring that cash to the sucke—er, person who picked up the tab.

Beyond that proximity feature, PayPal 2.0 also adds a means of splitting up a restaurant check or other group purchases and "billing" other PayPal users for the amounts due. Bill reminders, money withdrawals, and other features you'd expect from the online payment system are still in place, too.

PayPal 2.0 is a free download for iPhones and iPod touch models running at least the 3.0 firmware. If you've got a killer use for PayPal on iPhones that we didn't cover, do tell us in the comments.

Venezuela, already under watch from the likes of Reporters Sans Frontieres for jeopardizing press freedom, appears to be edging closer toward the type of restrictive governmental Internet interference as seen in Cuba, China and Iran.

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has called for greater regulation of the Internet this weekend, with the following statement, as reported by Reuters:

“The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. Every country has to apply its own rules and norms.”

Chavez is said to have singled out one website as an example where such an “open” policy has troubled him. Noticierodigital had a post up for two days suggesting that Diosdado Cabello, a senior minister and close aide of Chavez, had been assassinated.

“We have to act. We are going to ask the attorney general for help, because this is a crime. I have information that this page periodically publishes stories calling for a coup d’etat. That cannot be permitted,” Chavez said.

Twitter and Facebook are also said to have come under criticism from Chavez, with the president reported to have complained “that people use such sites to spread unfounded rumors.” Recently, he called Twitter messages a “tool of terror.”

Chavez has already moved to control TV and radio networks in the country — in August last year 34 broadcasters were closed down on “administrative grounds” while Chavez’s own lengthy presidential broadcasts are now aired compulsorily across both terrestrial and cable TV stations.

Chavez expressing such negative interest in the online world will no doubt be met with great concern by those who oppose him, as well as in the wider world.

Chavez’s comments serves to remind all of us — regardless of nationality — about the importance of a free and open Internet. When it ceases to be such, it’s no longer the world wide web but a poor imitation propagated by repressive regimes.

Tags: Hugo Chavez, Venezuela

With legions of mobile, tech-savvy individuals invading Austin, Texas, for SXSW, Foursquare experienced an extraordinary day yesterday, recording a record-breaking 347,000 checkins.

In response to the boom in usage, the developers added a new badge called Super Swarm. There was already a badge called Swarm; it was awarded when 50 people checked in at the same location at the same time. Super Swarm is achieved when 250 people check in.

Foursquare guru Harry H. said: “Know what you call a 50 person swarm at SXSW? The Hilton Lobby. So we upped the ante to 250 and you still nailed it. Well played!” So yes, the badge has already been won, but it’s not a zero-sum game; head to a huge event like SXSW and you might get it, too.

Foursquare just turned one year old a few days ago, and its usage has shot up over the past three months. Very worthy competitors like Gowalla and Yelp may be putting up a fight, but as far as checkins are concerned, Foursquare is on top right now. Only time will tell if it stays that way.

Tags: android, blackberry, foursquare, iphone, News, sxsw, sxsw-2010

This iPhone typist/possible woodpecker earns today's Holy Shit YouTube Moment of the Day Award. I'm positive I couldn't beat him on my Droid—hell, he'd put up a good fight against me on my laptop.

The app he's using, iTextSpeed, tests WPM (words per minute) typing speed, and given his insane speed, this guy's got to be one of the fastest iPhone typists in the world. At 83 WPM, he's as fast on the iPhone as most secretaries are on full-sized keyboards (and even sounds sort of out of breath after the test—watch out for iPhone thumb, friend). Congratulations to today's winner: I present you with a full minute and a half of my time, as a reward. [148Apps]

Adrian Chan is a Sr Fellow with SNCR.org and is a social interaction design consultant and strategist. You can follow him on Twitter @gravity7 and at his blog: gravity7.com/blog/media.

In designing for social participation, we can consider user goals and needs — even interests, features, functionality, adoption and scaling issues. Best practices and popular ways of using social media guide us in our decisions. But there’s a basic concern we seem to often overlook: “What is the user good at?”

We each differ in what we’re good at socially, so asking this question raises other interesting questions that can be useful in mapping the social design objectives for tools, services, social brand campaigns and more. In the answers lie a rich set of possibilities.

If we really take the user experience to heart, we ought to think about user competencies. Users have different competencies in social media applications, just as they have different social skills in the real world. How users socialize, and what they are good at — these are their competencies. In the case of social media, this is as much social and interpersonal as it is technical.

Using Human Insight

When we think about user competencies we might first recognize that we need to know more about the user’s experience with social media, but we have little research upon which to draw solid distinctions.

Researching this is hard, and methods are imperfect. Qualitative approaches are difficult to scale, and users do not always describe what they do online with the honest insight we want. Quantitative studies can scale better, but they rely on limited interpretations of user behavior.

Let’s instead do a series of thought experiments using assumptions about some basic and essential insights and principles.

What We Can Presume About People and Social Media

If we start with the assumption that people on social media are good at social media, then the following are also true to varying degrees:

• People are good at using social media.
• People are good at interacting with others on social media.
• People are good at making themselves look good on social media.
• People are good at making others feel and look good on social media.
• People are good at making things happen on social media.
• People are good at these things over time, not just once.

From there, we can continue with the notion that people are good at using social media, which means we can presume that people also enjoy using it, because people generally enjoy things they are good at. So:

• People enjoy using social media.
• People enjoy interacting with others on social media.
• People enjoy making themselves look good on social media.
• …and so on for everything people are good at.

It follows that if people enjoy what they are good at on social media, their enjoyment is a reason for using social media. Their enjoyment would vary according to their own habits and practices, which would include their competencies with social interaction, their presence and self-image online, their relationships and their activities.

• People have a reason to be on social media.
• People are motivated to interact with others on social media.
• People are interested in how they appear on social media.
• People are motivated to help or make others look good on social media.
• People are interested in making things happen on social media.
• People sustain their interest for some period of time.

Fleshing Out User Motives

If the above statements ring true and resonate, we can see how easily the user experience on social media might be fleshed out. We can address personal motives, interests, and reasons relating to the user’s sense of self, and reasons related to his or her social status, positions, relationships and activities in social media.

We can easily see that a user’s competencies with social interaction might involve varying degrees of self-reference, attention to and interest in others, sustained engagement through interaction, relationship maintenance, social awareness of activities and practices, and much more.

Designing the Social

Much of social media is designed within the context of its own use. Once they’re established and populated, we redesign applications incrementally. We do this in part to avoid upsetting conventions and practices that have taken hold, and also because wholesale redesigns of social tools can be impractical or even counter-productive. Application design and architecture become limiting factors and shape many design considerations.

But if we approach social design from the perspective of what users are good at, we might be better able to think outside our own box.

Goals and rewards – Consider the kinds of goals you might set within your social application and the rewards that may be earned by users who reach them. These might be personal goals and rewards, like game levels, tasks, challenges, or points. Or social goals and rewards, resulting in status, ranking, visibility, lists, features and spotlighting members.

Moods and feelings – Give expressive users ways in which to communicate their moods and feelings. For example, emoticons and gifts, or icons to be used and exchanged with friends or attached to messages and content. These small gestures, while small, can be curiously compelling.

Knowledge and learning – For users interested in research, information, bookmarking, and more search and browse-related activities, provide ways to share discoveries. Capture those learned moments and make them visible — perhaps surface and validate experts and top contributors.

Giving and receiving – For users who enjoy social transactions provide gifts and a means of passing them around privately and publicly. Gifting is a highly social form of communication, and besides being kind, engages a sense of reciprocity in most of us. So it’s naturally contagious.

Helping and assisting – Some users are just naturally good at paying attention to others, and enjoy helping and assisting those with needs or questions. Design ways to surface these needs and create channels by which helpers can pitch in.

Reviewing, recommending, and rating – Users equipped with opinions and a sense of taste can make valuable reviewers and recommenders. Design ways to capture their contributions as social content. This can be designed then into lists, favorite, trends, news and more.

Asking and answering – In a world of search, there are still many occasions when users want to ask questions and get personal answers. And in a world of search results, there are those who enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and help. But questions disappear if they are not captured and paid attention to.

Announcing and sharing – There are users so on top of news that furnishing them with means to announce their discoveries makes for an easy and effective way to keep social content fresh and interaction active. Topical organization, along with trends, help users sort and filter what’s relevant to them.

These suggestions may seem obvious and familiar, but in the context of a particular social service the manner in which they will scale socially will be unique. Unique to the site’s population, and unique to its existing activities and social practices.

So, for example, Foursquare may have many users whose competency is an inclination to recommend little-known discoveries or best-kept secrets associated with places they frequently check in to. Foursquare could capture and reward their interest in recommendations (i.e., what they’re good at) with a different set of badges. Or, instead of points, these users might be featured in a Q/A forum tied to locations or even regions. These users might then become local area experts, and their weekly checkins could be published along with recommended discoveries and social votes provided by users who tried out the recommendations.

Foursquare would then benefit not only by expanding the social incentives and rewards it uses to engage users, but would be doing so for a different type of user. Social practices then become more diverse, new kinds of communication and connection open up, and the experience becomes richer for all when you pay more attention to the things at which your users excel.

Conclusion

So I offer this as a supplementary consideration: take an interest in what your users are good at. Take an interest in how they are good at being social with and through your service or application. Learn how to observe what users are doing and how their social habits vary. Think outside yourself and from the perspectives of other people.

Their behaviors may not give them away entirely, but if you develop a palette of personal and social skills that you can use to relate to people different from you, your design insights will be that much smarter.

[img credit: kooklanekookla, flawedartist]

Tags: social design, social media, user experience, user experience design, UX, web design