idiomag

I never blog about general tech news here, because most of our readers are pretty up-to-date from other sources, but I thought this one was worth it.

I have been chatting with loads of people recently about mobile app development, and with idiomag in mind, the restriction of mobile phone screens have often been quoted. The iPhone obviously moved things forward in terms of screen format, bringing the laptop and mobile formats closer together, but there seems to be a perception that mobile browsing will always mean squinting and peering close to the screen. I have been keeping an eye on the development of mobile projectors, and over the weekend I saw that the NYT picked up on this innovation, and ran a good article explaining it.

Basically, there are already 16 manufacturers working on tiny projectors for mobile phones, and by 2012 the market is predicted to be $2.5bn for companion projectors, and $1bn for projectors built in to phones in the same way that cameras are now. So very soon, you will be able to get a big-screen experience from a small-screen device by pointing it at any flat surface. With this in mind, mobile app developers should totally change their thinking about interface design constraints.Fast bad credit personal loan
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We have now launched what has been one of the most-requested features for idiomag - a personalised mp3 player to accompany the magazine. You will now receive a playlist of suggested tracks, based on the selection of articles that you are reading.

Previously, relevant music was targeted to each article, but there were few playback controls. This independent player now allows you to have complete control whilst reading the magazine, with integrated click-to-buy links, and optional intelligent-skip functionality: to fast forward the playlist to the relevant track when the page is turned.

Hope you like it as much as we do. Please let us know how we can improve it - and it goes without saying that we will be increasing coverage of artists and improving the quality of selected tracks over the next month or so.

Just realised that I never made a post about our redesign… It went live a while ago, and if you like or loathe it, please let us know so we can keep improving it. Based on feedback and traffic stats, we could see that the interaction buttons weren’t entirely useful or understandable previously, so we have cleaned everything up a bit. Hopefully it is easier to use now!

We also added in loads of new contributors, and more content types such as the funky photogalleries. idiomag is now running about 6000 articles a month!  And growing…

A month or two ago, I found myself on stage at Oxford’s Carling Academy, giving away an award in the Top of the Ox awards gig. It was a great evening, with 4 support acts, three main acts, and an awards ceremony thrown in. The artists were very diverse, encompassing slightly random, but likeable, electronica, all the way through piano pop, funk rock, and metal. It was also great to see a range of experience on show, with some bands clearly having a very well-worked set, and others (most remarkably, Sarah Warne, who won the competition) having hardly never performed live before! My personal favourites during the evening were Stornaway, Dan Hammersley, and Helium Soul. And everyone seemed to enjoy our idiomag balloons. Or was it just the helium they were enjoying…

Many thanks to the Top of the Ox team for getting us involved. Within idiomag, there are several reviews of bands who competed in the last battle of the bands competition - so in case you haven’t seen them, here are some links:

Sarah Warne
Helium Soul
John Miller
Daniel Hammersley

For all our readers that love Karl Pilkington (Ricky Gervais’ producer), and who wish to get a daily quote from the aforementioned comic genius/dunce, you can add the KP Facebook app here.

There are only two apps I use on Facebook: idiomag and Karl Pilkington. ‘Nuff said.

Just a quick post for now…

We have signed up loads of new contributors over the past week. These include the (self-proclaimed) “world’s premier music publication” - Billboard.com. Well, perhaps we are the “universe’s premier music publication”… ha.

The web design tyrannosaur, .net magazine, who have featured us on no less than 3 occasions, are holding their annual Awards. So please click here and vote for “www.idiomag.com” in the following categories:

Best New Site
Web App of the Year
Interactive Award
Innovation Award

If you are feeling suitably generous and want to go the extra mile, you could also vote for “www.thrusites.com” as the best Design Agency of the year. They have done a great job helping idiomag develop.

Now relax with that warm fuzzy feeling, knowing you have helped us. Thanks!

In the last 2 weeks we have driven 3000 miles, visited 16 universities, and talked to over 100 representatives from student music and journalism societies across the country. Lots of fun!

We had a superb response, with almost 200 students signing up to be associate journalists with idiomag. So now, in addition to the great content we are syndicating from top publications, we will soon have local articles about your local music scene.

So now the fun stops and the hard work begins (yeah right!)…

If you want to get involved, whether contributing some articles, or helping us get the word out about idiomag, just drop us an email. Our new about page has those. And I have been warned that team photos will be uploaded there soon. Ouch.

We’ve been keeping our heads down for the last month - lots of stuff happening though. You can now see the new homepage at http//www.idiomag.com - very sexy. There’s lots more behind it which will be announced next week.

Anyway, so back to the post. We are in the running for a People’s Choice Award at the Digital Music Awards. We’d very much appreciate your vote! Just click on the image below to do it. Easy!

Most people agree that the online experience will increasingly involve personalisation, as content becomes almost infinite and therefore the process of filtering becomes paramount. Some companies (eg Digg) have approached this from a social perspective, relying on friend networks or crowd wisdom to help us find what we want. Others (eg Matchmine or indeed idiomag so far) have approached this from an algorithmic perspective, mapping user interests and developing systems that make the selection decision. Since both have strengths (the social approach is able to incorporate emotional and other tacit factors, whereas algorithms can lead to a greater degree of individual accuracy and scalability), it is likely that they will be almost always used in combination.

Since we are already developing a solid algorithmic approach, I have had a think about the social side of things. There are three key social filters that are helpful in my search for content. 

Firstly, I want experts to inform me. These are people I trust, because they have positions of credibility (Mossberg @ the WSJ), expertise based on experience and success (Paul Graham), or a reputation formed from a large following (Michael Arrington). They provide a first-level filter for more important coverage, and they provide a knowledgeable opinion on the subject as well as a brief factual overview. However, they don’t provide an all-encompassing view and they can’t provide all the relevant information on the topics I am most interested in.

Secondly, I want friends to help me form my own opinions on the issue. These are people I trust, like or am interested in, but they aren’t necessarily experts. Their reaction to coverage is important, as it fleshes out the story and provides a wider perspective. I also listen when these friends recommend content to me, as they know my interests or we share similar interests.

Thirdly, I want crowd wisdom to highlight coverage of interest to me. Beyond the bounds of my friends’ recommendations, I am interested in reading what everybody rates as good. Two examples are that when I want a funny video or quirky story, I see what the popular vote at Digg gives me, and when I want to buy a new laptop, the crowds’ opinion via eBuyer is more important to me than advertising, brand or even price. Crowd wisdom is not only useful for recommendations, it also creates an incredible depth of further information about any topic (Wikipedia, Blogsearch etc). This all-encompassing viewpoint allows me to explore topics of interest in more depth.

All three are important and provide different functions to ensure I receive a broad but interesting outlook, and can explore in-depth when required. A system that can effectively combine these filters in the areas in which they are strong, would be very powerful indeed.