So I finally manage to get my hands on the latest October issue of the American version of Esquire Magazine that hosts the world’s first eInk cover, with moving words and flashing images.
The 75th Anniversary limited edition issue of Esquire Magazine seems to be as rare as hen’s teeth as my colleague scoured the streets of New York to apprehend me a copy and then FedEx it over to me.
Electronic Ink (eInk) is what this is apparently called and the cover has a couple of little paper thin screens, along with a circuit board and battery between the fold. Apparently they cost about $12 each to produce, but this will dramatically fall in price very soon as production ramps up. You can find out more here.
Ford chose to be the first advertiser to take advantage of this new medium and have an animated lightshow behind a photograph of their Flex vehicle on the inside cover.
In truth it looks more like an animated gif then full-on video, but you can imagine a box of Frosties have Tony the Tiger screaming ‘They’re great’ from cereal boxes in Tesco’s before long.
No doubt full on video and audio followed by wireless connectivity will enable us to have magazines of the future fully animated and updateable and will offer a whole new concept for online publishers. One thing’s for sure, our world is changing at an alarming rate.
Whilst we wait for that, and for the rest of you unable to get your hands on a copy, here’s a short video overview of my latest prize possession that you can fully expect will accompany me to every presentation here forth… well, until the battery runs out (in 90 days!)
Hmmm, maybe I should keep it in the fridge to preserve it?!
Colleague just pointed out these are selling on eBay!!!
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZesquireQ20eQ2dinkQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZR40QQ_mdoZ
[…] Apparently Apple are already considering things like eComics, complementing eBooks with iTunes becoming the central hub for all digital media sales; you can just see it can’t you – log in to iTunes to download a copy of Wall Street Journal’s ePrint edition and pull down Harepr Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, alternate between the latest TED’s videos or lose yourself in collecting Batman eComic’s, play Kylie Minogue tunes whilst browsing Vogue Magazines, or pretend to watch the latest episode of 24 whilst secretly thumbing through an interactive version of Playboy Magazine… I dread to see the ads in ePorn – but I guarantee they will be a lot more interesting then Esquire’s Ford ad! […]