14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced that a number of media companies have begun leveraging Windows Vista technology in order to better reach readers. Associated Newspapers, Forbes and Hearst have all released digital reader applications with full support for Windows Vista. The three unique software applications are illustrative of the efforts of the media companies designed to increase their audiences. Microsoft has referred to the applications as new steps in a new territory in the publishing industry.
"We believe we're seeing the publishing industry changing. Publishers today want to take advantage of increasing digital consumer demand, which is reflected by patterns of online readership and, in some cases, the loss of print readership. Until now, publishers have been reliant on continuous connectivity. In other words, if you wanted to read a newspaper on-screen, you had to be online, and that was tied directly to the capabilities of Web technology. Now, with a media reader application you can be offline but still have an on-screen reading experience. And because that experience is more like a traditional newspaper experience, it becomes more and more appealing," revealed Dave Wascha, director of Windows Client Partner Marketing at Microsoft.
Microsoft revealed that the applications made available by Associated Newspapers, Forbes and Hearst together with The New York Times are based on the Windows Presentation Foundation, the innovative graphics technology made available in Windows Vista. Via the WPF applications, Vista users will be able to benefit from a complex experience that bundles the "look and feel" of traditional media with the interactivity of the web.
Associated Newspapers will offer the Mail eReader for electronic version of its Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday tabloid, Forbes has made available the "Forbes.com Reader," Hearst the publisher P-I Reader and The New York Times rolled out its TimesReader since 2006.
"The applications are designed to run on Windows Vista, so anyone who has Windows Vista installed can enjoy the benefits available in these new applications as soon as they're downloaded. WPF is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 application development platform, which is available at no charge from the Microsoft Update Service. Users can install the .NET Framework 3.0 on a system running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), and the same applications will run on that system," Wascha added.