idiomag's blog

idiomag?s API goes live

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:00:43 -0800

Over the last year, we’ve had many requests for an API to allow partner sites and independent developers to use idiomag’s data in other applications. We have been working hard with key partners over the last few months, but as of today we are excited to open up access to everyone. Details below…

idiomag’s API provides access to the core capabilities behind idiomag’s personalized publishing platform. We have several partners already using it, including TheFilter, MO ...

Full-text RSS

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:31:19 -0800

Quick update: we have just enabled full-text RSS feeds for all user magazines. This means that if you use an RSS reader, like Google Reader, then you will be able to read the full text of the articles selected just for you through that reader.

You can grab your RSS feed from your “Profile” section on idiomag.

Enjoy!

Get the whole story here: Full-text RSS.
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New splash page

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:32:03 -0800

So our new splash page has gone live at idiomag. We’ve moved to a much more open approach, which allows visitors to immediately jump into reading about the most popular artists right now. The articles and artists featured on the homepage are all chosen based on idiomag’s assessment of the current hottest artists.

Enjoy

Get the whole story here: New splash page.
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idiomag on mobile?

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:41:23 -0700

Last week we ran a survey to find out whether you would use idiomag on your mobile handset, and what suggestions and comments you have about this. It was great to get so many responses, and to hear how interested you are in mobile!

As a summary of the results…

The vast majority of people were interested in the fundamentals - getting news, reviews and recommendations based on your favourite artists. I guess that’s obvious.

It was great to hear the huge range of mobile sites/apps th ...

Our response to your responses

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:11:36 -0700

Just a quick update…

After the last release, we did a survey to find out what you thought. Based on that we made the following changes:

1. We have removed the article abstracts. Many people said they found them useful, but it was generally agreed that they cluttered the articles.

2. The music player now only plays music specific to each article, as many respondents found that playing music from the whole magazine was confusing. However have no fear, if you still wish to listen to the wh ...

idiomag, rollingstone.com, and a great big mullet-of-a-release

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:20:17 -0700

Over the last week or so, we have released a whole load of improvements which have been in development for months. Most of the improvements were suggested or requested by you, and all of them were only built after a testing group of users gave them the thumbs up. I’d like to compare this release to a mullet. Smart at the front, but a real party happening at the back.

Smart at the front:

So, most obviously we have a completely new version of the interface. We?ve transformed every arti ...

BMI distributes more royalties than ever before

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:40:57 -0700

Record labels and performance-rights groups have spent the last few years going bezerk about ?lost revenue? due to illicit sharing and performance of copyrighted works. They?ve been blaming everyone from P2P networks to Girl Scouts for the steady decline in their profits (which probably has more to do with the ever-growing market for music downloads � la iTunes). It?s funny, then, amidst all these panicking businesspeople, that BMI, one of the USA?s largest performance-rights organisations, has ...

The future of print is here? almost.

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:40:57 -0700

In case you have missed the buzz around this, Esquire are celebrating their 75th anniversary by including an E-ink cover on their October edition. It doesn’t look as incredible as you might expect, but at least the technology is nearing the point of adoption by publishing houses.

You can see a video of it here

It basically consists of a few flashing panels announcing that the “future is here”, and you can see what it looks like when taken apart at Make magazine’s blog
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Survey result visualisations

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:40:57 -0700

Although I have already posted (twice) with a few details about the survey results, I just came across wordle - a great little tool for creating “text cloud” visualisations from data. So I ran our survey response data through it, to give an idea of what the responses are.

Obviously there are a few issues like 1) separation of key phrases into single words, and 2) the inclusion of frequently-repeating words that are incidental to the meaning of the answer. But given that it took me a ...

New York, New York

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:20:26 -0700

idiomag has been chosen as one of several top UK startups to participate in a UKTI-sponsored “Digital Mission” to NYC in September. There are some great companies going, including our friends at Huddle, and some really interesting media startups.

We will be at the Web 2.0 Expo as well as meeting lots of potential partners throughout the week. Do let us know if you are in the vicinity and would like to meet up.

Get the whole story here: New York, New York.
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New dashboard - what d?ya think?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:41:36 -0700

We are looking at changing the current “cover-page” (what you see when you log in) to a dashboard of your music taste. This aims to give you a better overview of the content in your magazine, so you can immediately jump off into whatever interests you most.

We have done a mockup here - see what you think, and click on the new features to add comments.

Thanks!

Get the whole story here: New dashboard - what d?ya think?.
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More survey results?

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:43:36 -0700

As I mentioned in the last post, we recently conducted a large-scale user survey (approx 1000 respondents), and the results are proving very interesting. Here are some snippets…

idiomag users are very active on the major social networks

The vast majority of you liked the “page-turn” magazine format.

The proposed new features (search bar, related article links, video playlists etc) were very well received (and as a result they will be released shortly).

It was interesting to ...

We are listening :)

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:50:06 -0700

Over the last two weeks you will have likely seen an insert in your idiomag, asking you to complete a survey about our current service and what we can improve. We have had over 1000 responses, with loads of very detailed and interesting suggestions.

We will be sharing the results of the survey over the next week or so, but some interesting trends are already emerging…

The personalised music playlists, our last sizable feature addition, has become a fundamental part of your experience, wi ...

Presenting? The Uberwidget

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:40:35 -0700

The few thousand of you that installed idiomag’s Facebook app will have noticed that over the last few months it has experienced problems as the number of users have grown. So, we have rebuilt our embedded magazine, and it is now available as a widget on all the major social networks, startpages and blogging platforms, and as a full application on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and Orkut.

Click here to get yours and find out more.

And let us know what you think. For your viewin ...

Is that a digital projector in your pocket?

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:20:17 -0700

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 browsi ...