The MAZ Blog

The Road to Android: Development

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:31:00 -0400

Earlier this year we announced that MAZ Android Apps are coming soon. You can read more about our announcement here. Follow along here at the MAZ blog as we offer a glimpse behind our curtain to show you all of the thinking, design, and development that has gone into our Android launch.

In setting out to expand MAZ to the Android platform, there were a lot of development considerations to be made. The joy/bane of developing for iOS is that it’s a very closed ecosystem with rigid regulations/rules/standards. While it’s easy for some developers to gripe about this approach, it does help keep iOS apps consistent and in-check. Google takes a more ‘hands-off’ approach with the Android OS, and as such it was up to us to make a lot of the key decisions for an Android release, even though we had never developed for Android before.

The first thing we needed to determine was which devices we wanted to support. Android is the operating system for hundreds of products, which can make compatibility and quality control very challenging (compared to under 10 variations for iOS). We decided to launch on the most popular Android tablet and smartphones, and the Amazon Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. The devices we chose to concentrate on cover 90% of all Android installations, and will allow us to deliver an incredible MAZ experience across the board.

Once we determined which devices to support, we needed to get started on the Android software development itself. Because iOS and Android are written in two completely different programming languages, we had to rewrite every last line of code for MAZ apps on Android. We expanded our development team to accomplish this, hiring 3 new Android developers and testers. They were tasked with building the equivalent of what took us years to build for the iPad in only a few months.

We also realized that the MAZ experience on iPad would not translate properly to Android. What has always set MAZ apart from our competitors is that we design our apps from the point of view of our consumers, and we design our publishing tools from the point of view of our publishers. Android users have different user interface (UI) expectations - there are conventions that the ecosystem and the apps that came before ours have worked hard to define. Making an Android app that looks and feels like iOS is not really making an Android app at all. In a lot of ways this was less of a technical challenge and more of a cultural shift. We consulted with a leading NYC Android development and design agency, TouchLab, to provide a more authentic look and feel (more on that in a future post), so that our apps feel consistent with the device you are using them on.

With the app design and development strategy in place, it was time to think about the MAZ Control backend. How would we build in the option to output to the Google Play store and the Amazon App Store, without increasing the work load for our publishers? Our publishers have come to expect that MAZ provides them with the simplest solution possible. They don’t want to use their valuable resources on repetitive tasks like multiple outputs. With the new version of MAZ Control, we will give publishers the ability to publish across multiple ecosystems with just a few extra clicks and without needing to do anything extra to their content.

As engineers, our goal is to always increase efficiency while reducing the amount of time/energy it takes to complete a task, fulfilling the very promise of technological innovation! We’re happy to take on these complex development challenges so that our publishers don’t have to. We can’t wait to see all of the amazing content on all of these new platforms.

MAZ 3.0 is almost here. Stay tuned!

The Road to Android: Strategy and Planning

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:41:00 -0400

Last month we announced that MAZ Android Apps are coming soon. You can read more about our announcement here. Follow along here at the MAZ blog as we offer a glimpse behind our curtain to show you all of the thinking, design, and development that has gone into our Android launch.

Deciding to launch MAZ Android Apps was a BIG decision. We’re still a lean startup, and projects like this require the whole team to put in a huge amount of time, attention, and effort to make them happen. Our growth depends on us addressing compelling demands when they hit a crescendo, and that time for Android has finally come.

So why Android tablets? Why now? Well, the answer comes from one simple truth: people have started to buy the things. Consumers are demanding content from their favorite publishers, and “your operating system hasn’t historically been a profitable platform” doesn’t cut it anymore.

We’ve heard the strongest calls from our clients with paid content. Nobody is expecting the same level of profits they’re making from iOS, but there is money to be made. It doesn’t matter which platform is “winning,” we’ve crossed a tipping point where there are enough interested readers using Android to make it worthwhile.

Let’s be clear, though: Android is still a riskier venture than iOS for paid content. There is even more of a reason not to invest too much time and energy into it until you have tested the waters a bit. We want to make sure that publishing to Android is easy. And fast. Really, really easy, and really, really fast.

So that’s what we’ve built - a multi-platform solution that doesn’t put any more work on the publisher’s plate. You do the same work going in, but you get more going out.

Readers are going to love their favorite publications on Android, our publishers are going to love the newfound revenue and ease of publishing across multiple platforms, and we at MAZ are going to learn a whole lot in the process.

The time has come for Android at MAZ. Here we go!

MAZ Featured On Lang & O'Leary Exchange on CBC TV

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:48:00 -0400

MAZ Featured On Lang & O'Leary Exchange on CBC TV:

The TV appearances continue with Paul being interviewed on CBC all about MAZ. Start watching around 13:30. Watch now!

Watch video from the latest MAZ webinar, “Navigating Your...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:23:35 -0400

Watch video from the latest MAZ webinar, “Navigating Your App.”

MAZ on Bloomberg TV

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:29:00 -0400

Paul was a panelist on Bloomberg TV’s “Bloomberg Surveillance” earlier today. Check out what he had to say about Samsung, Apple, and the future of mobile devices.

32% of traffic to The Wall Street Journal’s website comes...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:00:53 -0500

32% of traffic to The Wall Street Journal’s website comes from mobile devices.

Source: http://bit.ly/WSJ32

Register Now for the Next Free MAZ Webinar: Navigating Your App

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:46:00 -0500

Register for the Next Free MAZ Webinar: Navigating Your App
Effortless navigation makes it easier for readers to enjoy more of your quality content. In the March webinar, MAZ Founder and CEO Paul Canetti will show you the best ways to make your magazines easier to navigate. You’ll learn how to create your own interactive table of contents, tips and tricks for incorporating website content, and see examples of the best navigation strategies.

Navigating Your App
Tuesday, March 12 at 1pm EST
Hosted by Paul Canetti, Founder and CEO of MAZ
FREE - Registration Required

Tumblr's David Karp On Native Advertising Or What I Like To Call Content Amplification

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:20:26 -0500

Tumblr's David Karp On Native Advertising Or What I Like To Call Content Amplification:

MAZ Founder and CEO paulcanetti:

Mashable:Do you consider what you’re doing ‘Native Advertising’? What do you think of that term?

DK:I absolutely think it’s native advertising. It’s important to qualify that with native inside Tumblr is real creative content. Tumblr is a really creative platform. It’s not a social platform, it’s not a chat platform, it’s not an embed, compartmentalized experience. It’s about people come here really hungry for content and if you can create a piece of content that’s got a marketing message behind it, even if it’s branded content, if you show up with great content that surprises people, inspires people, moves people, challenges people, whatever it is, that can be hugely successful inside Tumblr. It can get a hugely positive reaction.

I prefer the term “content amplification”. It separates it from advertising. This is taking content, that already exists, and amplifying its reach. And that amplification can (and in this case is) be a paid product.

It’s the least intrusive model for paid marketing within social media (even though Tumblr says it’s not a social platform), and it forces marketers to actually create high quality content instead of annoying and terrible banner ads that everyone hates.

The advertiser becomes a participant instead of a foreign body (see: fall of MySpace).

This is a Big Announcement

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:52:00 -0500

MAZ is coming to Android.

Phew! That wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be.

Okay, a little backstory. Here at MAZ, we love Apple. Our CEO is a former Apple employee, and the entire company was founded on the endless possibilities that iPad and the App Store provide to publishers.

Over the last two years, though, our vision for what MAZ can be has expanded beyond the iWorld. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to experience dynamic digital content from publishers, regardless of which gadget they purchased.

The next step towards delivering on this grand vision is the launch of MAZ Android Apps. In just a few weeks every MAZ customer will have the ability to launch their publication on the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store.

We have spent a lot of time and attention on this new endeavor. MAZ Android Apps will provide the high quality user experience you’ve come to expect from our iPad apps, including zoomable pages, speedy downloads, and web content integration, but with an Android twist. Just as our iOS apps feel “Apple-y”, we want to make sure that our Android apps feel “Android-y”.

Stay tuned for more details about this release, but know that MAZ Android Apps are coming.

It’s an exciting time at MAZ, and we can’t wait for you to see and use the new technologies we have in store over the next year.

P.S. You may have noticed that “Digital Publishing for (Smart) Dummies” has transformed into “The MAZ Blog.” Here you’ll find company announcements, best practices for digital publishing, and the occasional hilarious viral video. If you’re looking for the personal insights of MAZ Founder and CEO Paul Canetti, head on over to paulthewizard.com and subscribe to his brand new blog.

Introducing MAZ Webinars Is your publication ready for 2013? Join MAZ Founder and CEO Paul Canetti...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:26:05 -0500

Introducing MAZ Webinars

Is your publication ready for 2013? Join MAZ Founder and CEO Paul Canetti for a free webinar as he forecasts what the next year has in store for digital publishing. You’ll learn about the newest trends, technologies, and marketing strategies that will change the way your publication will do business.

Registration is free, but limited. Sign up today to guarantee a spot.

2013 Digital Publishing Trends
Tuesday, February 12 at 1pm EST
Hosted by Paul Canetti, Founder and CEO of MAZ
FREE - Registration Required

Publishers! Stop Flirting With Pinterest

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:25:55 -0400

Publishers! Stop Flirting With Pinterest:

Awesome write-up about our new Clippings feature. =)

There’s a new tool out there that falls squarely in the what-took-‘em-so-long category. Digital publishing platform MAZ has introduced a “clippings” feature that lets iPad readers use their fingers like digital scissors, cutting bits of pages to post and share.

The Difference Between Steve Jobs And Tim Cook Is Software

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:59:00 -0400

First off, know that like every other tech blogger in the world, everything I say should be taken with a grain of speculation salt. Of course I have no idea what actually happens in the high level meetings at One Infinite Loop, but I have been following Apple for over 20 years now in various ways as a consumer, an employee, a consultant, and as a developer. These are my thoughts after thinking about the Maps debacle and what it says about the state of Apple overall.

The core of Apple (pun intended) is the seamless integration of hardware and software. Whereas Microsoft’s play in personal computing was purely software and companies like IBM, Dell, and HP were purely hardware, Apple wanted to control the entire process. As a result, the integration is tighter, everything work betters, and the lines are blurred between the two.

While Apple at its most iconic is the sleek, instantly recognizable form of its beautiful hardware, I would argue that the real magic of Apple is the software. The devices are stunning both aesthetically and technically, but they really exist to serve the software.

This is truer than ever with iOS devices, where the consumer-facing hardware is almost all screen. The giant screen is a window for the user into the world of software.

The user interacts almost entirely with the software. The iPhone is really iOS, not the physical phone itself. Thought experiment: Install iOS on a Nokia device - any iPhone user would have no problem using it. Now install Windows Mobile on an iPhone - it would seem entirely foreign and nothing like an iPhone.

Steve Jobs understood this. He labored over the user experience of Apple’s software and made sure that it was flawless. Of course he also paid great attention to the hardware as well; he did both. He married the two, and made sure that one did not trump the other. It was a true balance.

Jobs was able to execute so well because he had such amazing people working with him. His team filled in the gaps. I believe Jobs skewed toward the software side himself, and he could do that because he had an especially strong hardware ally in Tim Cook.

For iOS, I imagine this is what it looked like at the top. I’m using the terms “planning” and “execution” to simplify the roles:

[ Overall: Steve Jobs (CEO) ]

Hardware Planning: Jonny Ive (SVP Industrial Design)

Hardware Execution: Tim Cook (COO)

Software Planning: Scott Forstall (SVP iOS Software)

Software Execution: Steve Jobs

I think at the end of the day, it was Jobs himself that was micro-managing on the software side, pushing people to the limit, demanding perfection, making deadlines, ensuring that the user experience was so polished that it was not just great, but beyond our wildest dreams.

I’m sure he got involved on hardware execution too, but Tim Cook was doing the lion’s share. And while the COO should be responsible for all the day-to-day, the truth is that Cook leaned heavily toward hardware because that was Cook’s strong suit coming from Compaq and IBM. And he had Jobs to rely on to oversee the software.

It’s almost as if Cook was the COO of hardware, and Jobs himself was the COO of software.

Apple’s leadership has generally tended to weigh on the hardware side as far as high profile execs- Cook (CEO, former COO), Jonny Ive (SVP Industrial Design), Bob Mansfield’s role now being transitioned to Dan Riccio (SVP Hardware Engineering). When a new product is released, the videos on the website are mostly about the hardware design and engineering process. “MacBooks made of alu-men-ium!”

The current software leadership is Scott Forstall (iOS), Eddy Cue (Internet Software and Services i.e. iTunes, App Store, iBooks, iCloud), and newly minted SVP Craig Federighi (Mac Software Engineering). A strong team for sure, but perhaps one without a quarterback.

With Tim Cook at the helm, there is a gaping hole for unified software leadership, and even more alarming, there is now a gaping cole in another vital role: COO. Apple has no COO. I assume that Cook is continuing his COO duties to some degree, but at the same time, he must be neglecting them as his CEO duties take more and more of his time.

So here we have a CEO with a strictly hardware background, no COO, and no champion for software execution.

For iOS, the full software burden has now fallen onto the shoulders of Scott Forstall. Say what you will about the rumors of other execs not getting along with Forstall, his staff disliking him and calling him arrogant (sounds familiar, no?) - he has done a great job overall throughout his years at Apple from his work on OS X and of course iOS.

But his best work was under the gun of Steve Jobs.

Left to own devices (no pun intended), can he really succeed? Can he be the Tim Cook of software?

I wonder if Cook took the time to play with Maps or just sat through a presentation at a Board Meeting, said, “This looks great!” (it did look great in the demo), and just trusted Forstall that it actually was great.

Whereas Jobs would have said, “Give me that!” and would have done his own quality assurance.

Sidenote: Where the hell is Apple’s QA team? Forget Cook not giving it a proper run-through, but what about official QA? Truly bizarre.

To be fair to Cook though, shouldn’t the CEO be able to trust his SVP when he claims that something is ready? And did Forstall really think that it was ready? It’s hard to imagine.

I think one of the biggest strengths (and some would argue weaknesses) of Steve Jobs was that he didn’t trust anyone. He had his paws in everything whether they were wanted or not, and as a result, no detail was left unnoticed.

When it comes to buggy software, I like to broadly categorize bugs into two types: the kind only developers would notice, or someone specifically looking for bugs, and the kind that anyone with a pair of eyes would notice almost immediately.

The second type is more maddening to a product manager, because when it does sneak into a production release, you can’t help but wonder, “How did I not see this?!”

As to the future, inevitably Maps will clean up its act, and longterm it is a smart move for Apple to become independent of its competitors, blah blah blah.

But this issue is much larger than Maps, or Siri, or any other single problem. The future of Apple’s success depends on that perfectly matched integration of strong hardware and strong software. I just hope they get the right people in place to make sure they keep their software at the level we’ve all come to expect.

What iOS 6 Tells Us About The Future Of Apple

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:23:42 -0400

What iOS 6 Tells Us About The Future Of Apple:

My recent guest post on Business2Community.com

Book Business Magazine: Inside the Ebook Test Kitchen

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:25:02 -0400

Book Business Magazine: Inside the Ebook Test Kitchen:

At the heart of this new wave of ebook technology is the idea that the ebook is not, actually, a book at all. Rather, it’s a program, albeit one built around what we understand to be a book—text and pictures arranged to tell a story or communicate facts. Springing from that, the program theory goes, anything should be possible.

This is the credo of New York’s MAZ.

The Value Of Philosophy In Entrepreneurship

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:40:26 -0400

The Value Of Philosophy In Entrepreneurship:

I’m mentioned in this article!

Heavy Hitters In Publishing And Digital Media Industry Join MAZ Advisory Board

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:08:47 -0400

Heavy Hitters In Publishing And Digital Media Industry Join MAZ Advisory Board:

Excited to have such amazing advisors!!!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48911821

I'm Speaking At MediaBistro's Media App Summit In December!

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:32:32 -0400

I'm Speaking At MediaBistro's Media App Summit In December!:

I’ll be on a panel called Multi-Platform Publishing for Mobile News and Magazine Content

A Video Interview With Me! Part Of The Economist's Lean Back 2.0 Digital Disruptors Series

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:35:27 -0400

A Video Interview With Me! Part Of The Economist's Lean Back 2.0 Digital Disruptors Series:

Indian Blackout Sheds Light On Larger Problems

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:22:01 -0400

Indian Blackout Sheds Light On Larger Problems:

This sentence is not about the blackout, just in general:

What is more, about 300 million people in India have no access to power at all.

That is a population the size of all of the US, not having electricity, all the time.

Now add another US-sized chunk for the 600 million that were powerless for 2 days. Can’t even comprehend the numbers.

Android Tablet Market Share Still So So Small

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:41:32 -0400

Android Tablet Market Share Still So So Small:

From the fourth quarter of 2010 through the middle of 2012, Samsung sold 1.4 million Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets, generating $644 million in revenue. Over the same time period, Apple sold 29.7 million iPads, generating $14.8 billion.

Put another way, Samsung sold fewer tablets over that entire seven-quarter period than Apple did in its worst quarter. Its revenue over that time period was less than 5 percent of what Apple generated.

Do I still need to justify why publishers should be concentrating on the iPad, at least in the US?