ADOBE FLAUNTS ITS NEW VOICE CONTROLLED PHOTOSHOP UPDATES AND MORE..!!
- Publishers say 2017 World Book Fair a profitable affair. As the New Delhi World Book Fair ends today, the nine-day long event was an "excellent" experience with leading publishing houses making significant profit on sales compared to previous years. Vimal Kumar, General Manager at Speaking Tiger said they had “unexpected sales”, despite facing several technical glitches in the aftermath of demonetization. “Due to demonetization, we faced several problems since many a times card machines didn’t work due to lack of signals. But, it has been an excellent experience, rather unexpected sales for Speaking Tiger. Our sales have almost doubled this year,” he said. Some of the top publishers at the stall included ‘Himalaya: Adventures, Meditations, Life’ edited by Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale, and ‘Murderer in Mahim’ by Jerry Pinto among others. (Full Report: https://goo.gl/Pvepx8 )
- Adobe this week showed off a prototype of a virtual reality version of the PDF, the portable document format that has become ubiquitous for storing and sharing pages of text, photos, and graphics in their original form. The company says there are about 3 billion PDFs out in the world. If anything, that number seems low. In an exclusive demonstration for The Chronicle, principal scientist Walter Chang showed how a PDF report on the abandoned Cold War-era Teufelsberg spy station in Berlin could be turned into a tour that makes you feel like you’re standing in the decrepit, graffiti-filled buildings. The experience starts with a giant wall of three standard-looking PDFs. However, the virtual visitor can tap the photo on one PDF and be virtually transported into the old building. The photo captured a 360-degree view, with icons to tap using the VR interface. Those icons reveal pertinent historical notes and social media comments about various points within the building. There are also virtual doors that let the tourist jump to other 360-degree photos inside the old spy center. (Full Report: https://goo.gl/C3wD5X )
- Although Adobe is mostly known for its line of software products like Photoshop, the controversial Flash player, and its popular Adobe PDF Reader, the company does have bigger ambition than that. As such, it isn’t willing to fall behind other companies in bringing their services to next level and decided to invest in AI research. Last year saw several digital assistants brought to live by AI systems and made popular by smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home. Adobe decided to unveil its digital assistant through a video in which a man issues several voice commands to the assistant to make several basic edits to a phone on his tablet. The software is able then to crop and flip an image. Adobe considers this to be the first step in a future of voice-controlled edits in various design apps which even beginners can use efficiently. (Full Report: https://goo.gl/7mVXZ0 )
- Paper Boat markets its range of traditional drinks on the strength of warm and fuzzy feelings evoked by childhood memories. And now it has made a foray into publishing a book that aligns with its positioning. Half Pants Full Pants by Anand Suspi, co-founder of an ad agency called AndAnd Brand Partners, is a collection of real-life tales about growing up in Shimoga. It costs Rs.195 and is listed on Flipkart. This is Paper Boat’s first new book. Since 2015, it had published reprints of a few books including Three Men in a Boat and Jungle Book which were given away as part of sales offers. Parvesh Debuka, Head (Marketing), says the idea came up during a discussion on what next at Paper Boat. “A lot of us at the office are readers. Reading is the best way to learn and grow and we hit upon the idea of publishing old classics. Then we thought, what about a new book? We could be a quasi-publishing house, and the author gets encouragement as well.” (Full Report: https://goo.gl/QcvU14 )
- The Proposed IDPF/W3C Merger: A Significant Move That Warrants More Time for Consideration. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) was formed 16 years ago, (as the Open eBook Forum) to “promote the development of a thriving ePublishing market.” The IDPF has announced its intent to merge with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The merger (also being referred to as a “membership exchange”) will eliminate the IDPF as a standalone organization. A vote by the membership of the IDPF on the proposed merger is underway. Many of you may be thinking “So what?” and “Why should I care?” The W3C (led by Tim Berners-Lee) is the overseer of the Web. The W3C’s mission is to “lead the Web to its full potential.” I have tremendous respect for the leadership of the W3C and their accomplishments. The mission of the IDPF is to promote publishing, not to promote the Web. The IDPF has always been open— “open” was in our name (the Open eBook Forum) at the inception of the organization. (Full Discussion here: https://goo.gl/7tR90E )