Newspapers are having a though time. Circulation is declining , ads are declining and worst of all there seems to be less and less audience. Needless to say it’s time for something new. In this post I will introduce a system combining existing technologies which, in my opinion, is the new newspaper.

The device

Paper is a good medium. It’s easy to read articles on paper and it’s very portable. But it is a bitch to update. Newspapers have to put out a new version almost daily. Currently there are devices on the market which are easy on the eyes and portable as well. Such as the Amazon Kindle. Although the reviews aren’t great this device offers the basic functionality needed for the New Newspaper (the more costly iRex Illiad could do the trick as well). It’s portable, easy to read and updating the content is simple, which I will get to next.

The content

The user needs to decide when the content will be updated. This could be every minute, hour, day, week, etcetera. This is possible through the Wireless internet access which is available on the Kindle as well as on the iRex Illiad. Making use of RSS Feeds the user can select all the news sites he or she wants to follow.

For example: I want to follow at least 100 websites posting around 5 posts a day. I add the feeds to a newsreader like Google Reader. But I don’t have time to read 500 articles a day. I only want the most valuable news and not waste any time on uninteresting articles. This is where AideRSS comes in. By implementing AideRSS in your Google Reader I’m able to filter posts. I can set my own filter level if I want more or less articles. The same way as traditional newspapers filter all the incoming news and only publish the best. Only this time I’ve selected my own sources, the news is specified to my own taste. All you have to do is hook up your Kindle to Google Reader.

Bonus: The Form

And, if you are a bit nostalgic, you can even use the traditional form. The application Times takes your feeds and puts them in a traditional newspaper format. This enhances scanning articles and makes it easier to read. Too bad it’s only available for the Mac at the moment. So it’s waiting for someone to port it to the Kindle or Iliad.

The Problem:

I’m watching a DVD with my girlfriend. An actor enters the scene and my brain wakes up. I know this guy from another movie but for the love of god I can’t remember which one. For the next couple of minutes I’m wreckhing my brain ignoring the plot of the movie. Eventually I give in, pause the movie, dodge the evil eye of my girlfriend, boot my computer and go to IMDB. The “AHA” moment is satasfying but now I have to rewind the movie.

The Solution:

An integration of a DVD with IMDB. As soon as this mystery actor or actress appears you can retrieve their IMDB details with the push of a button. You don’t have to pause the movie because you get a simple overview in a small seperate screen which you can easily turn off. Of course you want your DVD player to be connected to the tubes of the interweb delivering real-time data, but for now I think settling for (static) data to be retrieved from the DVD a more realistic option.

How it could work:

Below I have made some screens detailing the way it could work.
You see an actor you want to know more about and you hit the IMDB button:

And when you click on Robert Downey Jr.: