Our Superficial Review of Surface: It Works with Tizra!

The new Microsoft Surface tablet was on the doorstep at Tizra HQ this morning, and we took a little time to run it through some basic tests. Overall, our feeling was in line with the reviews: Nice hardware, and potentially attractive for those looking for a more mobile way to use MS Office. Still a ways to go on software, though.

We tried the Windows RT version of Internet Explorer 10 on a few Tizra sites, and overall they worked as expected, though interactions with the new reading interface we've just developed (more on this soon) were sluggish. Part of it may be incompatibility with some underlying scripts, which will be tuned as IE 10 becomes more of a factor. Part of it was probably just our unfamiliarity with new Metro interface.

So for now, our minds are open on Surface as a device, but more importantly, we're thrilled to see another major player striving mightily to develop better ways for users to interact with the great content our customers deliver through Tizra.

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What Einstein Taught Us About Searching Inside Publications

When the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein went live on Tizra a few years ago, it was a huge step forward. Suddenly, anyone anywhere could search and access the output of one of the 20th Century’s great minds…from love letters to breakthrough articles that changed how we think about the nature of time and space. But the project also showed the limits of traditional tools for searching within large, complex publications. These limits sparked a collaboration with Princeton University Press and Einstein Papers Project editors, which this year resulted in a dynamic new search interface, which we’ll be demonstrating in a Webcast Friday, December 15 at 1pm ET. The interface not only makes it easier for Einstein researchers to home in on relevant content on both mobile devices and desktops, it points the way toward faster, better searching within a wide range of publication types, from reference books to periodicals, technical documentation and standards to textbooks. Click To Register for…

New Mobile-Optimized Template Simplifies Site Design

Pre-designed templates are increasingly popular as a quick way to get new Tizra sites launched, or to refresh the design of an existing site. A key driver in both cases is keeping up with increasingly high user expectations for ease of use and visual appeal, particularly on mobile devices. To address these needs, we’ve released a major upgrade to our Bootstrap-based responsive design template. The new version makes it much easier to customize with your own colors and logo, improves mobile interaction with the latest version of the Bootstrap framework, and adds numerous other visual and usability refinements.

Existing Tizra customers can try it out now by selecting the “Bootstrap Responsive Template” in the PRESENTATION area. Or if you’d like to see a quick preview, take a look at this demo site… https://abedemo.tizrapublisher.com

How Big Is the iPad Opportunity? Let's Look at the Stats

We recently took a closer look at the analytics for publications delivered through Tizra, and were not surprised to see that mobile usage continues to rise sharply. But what did surprise us was just how quickly one particular mobile device—the iPad—is driving a fundamental change in the way people consume content.

Apple's iOS mobile operating system is now second only to Windows in popularity, mostly because of the rapid rise in iPad use. Compared to a year ago, iPad traffic is up 277 percent, and now represents 21 percent of total user sessions on Tizra-powered sites.

It's hard to think of a better opportunity for publishers of eBooks and other long-form content. If you'd like to know more about how publishers like the International Association for the Study of Pain, LAB-AIDS and others are working with Tizra, please drop us a line.

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