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Can You Hear Me Up the Back?
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Posts Tagged ‘magazines’

Screens in Your Magazines

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

For an audiovisual company blog, we don’t run much material about audiovisual technology, because our clients and presenters aren’t really interested in the technical detail of our projectors.

But wait for it, here’s something interesting about screens!

Americhip, a US company that does ’sensory’ marketing tools like those scratch & sniff strips in magazines, has developed a tiny video screen that can sit inside a magazine and play your client’s ads. They’ve just launched it with a campaign for Pepsi. Yes, a working video screen stuck into the pages of an entire run of magazines.

Is there nothing they can’t do now?

It can hold 90 minutes of video. The battery lasts for 65-70 minutes, and it’s rechargeable via a mini USB cable. Check it out here:

Via Mediascope.

Everyone’s A Fact Checker Now

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

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Photo: Harvard Magazine

How impressive is Amelia Lester, a 26 year old Australian who has just been appointed managing editor of the New Yorker? Go Australian expats!

She started as a fact checker, a junior but indispensable role behind the scenes at any major magazine. Their job is to verify whatever the writers submit, make sure names and dates are correct, and generally make sure the publication isn’t held up to ridicule once they publish.

The fact checking urge has spread beyond the magazine world.

I was watching a presentation the other day, and the speaker was doing pretty well, making each point with breezy confidence. Then a voice from the back:

“Um… no it isn’t.”

This was the voice of an amateur audience fact checker, armed with an iPhone. He’d checked something, found it to be wrong, and brought it up mid-speech. Not in a “you’re wrong, fool” sort of fashion, but more in an attempt to be helpful.

He wasn’t the only one stroking an iPhone back there, either.

So be warned. Whatever facts you’re planning to present, you’d better check them beforehand, at least to a basic Wikipedia level. Or risk an embarrassing interruption from the iPhone fact vigilantes.