But what will it really look like? Here’s a more informed guess, via Condé Nast’s Wired magazine, which has been working on an iPad-compatible version of the title for many months.

Wired, which has been building the iPad-version of the magazine with Adobe (ADBE), began previewing a rough version of the tabletized title last fall, but that was mainly conceptual. The newest demo, though, ought to be fairly close to the way Wired will actually appear when it makes it onto Apple’s (AAPL) device.

Last month, Wired showed off a brief demo to a small industry gathering. And over the weekend, it showed it off the to the invitation-only crowd at the TED conference. Now here’s a glimpse for you (it’s not free, of course–you’re going to get a good dose of promotional chatter on behalf of both Wired and Adobe):

So when will you actually be able to buy/see this thing in person? “Midsummer,” Condé Nast says, which means it won’t be ready for the device’s official launch in a couple of months. Condé will make a less glitzy version of some of its titles, a la GQ’s iPhone app, available before that, though.

And what about the fact that this thing was built by Adobe, which Apple is doing its best to freeze out of the iPhone/iPod/iPad ecosystem it is building? No problem, says Adobe.

That will come as a surprise to lots of tech pundits, but here’s Adobe’s explanation, via Jeremy Clark, the guy you see in the video above:

What was shown at TED, and is featured in the video, is an Adobe AIR application. This means it is compatible on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android (as of our announcement at Mobile World Congress yesterday), and it will run on the iPad as a native application. It is possible to develop applications leveraging a common ActionScript 3 codebase that can be converted at compile-time into a native .ipa (iPhone App) package instead of an AIR app installer (see [this post] for more information)

The English-language translation, if I have it right, is that Adobe says it’s no big deal to port apps built with its code into an iPad-friendly format. And Clark says Adobe is tracking at least 30 applications in which that has happened with the iPhone.

This is different, by the way, from Web sites using Adobe’s Flash, which are still S.O.L. on the iPhone and iPad. So for now, let’s assume that Adobe and Wired will indeed be able to get this stuff onto the iPad, until we hear differently.

A few other quick thoughts:

• There’s no mention of price for this. But note Wired editor Chris Anderson’s reference to “resetting the economics” with tablet magazines. He’s talking about the Web, of course, which has trained readers not to pay for content, and advertisers not to pay much either. That’s a heady goal, but Anderson and his cohorts want to do more than that. They also want to reset print economics, by which readers have been trained to pay almost nothing for magazines. (A current Wired promotion gets you a subscription for 83 cents an issue. You get a free hat, too). So if you’re the kind of person who thinks digital goods should be supercheap because the marginal cost of each new item is basically zero, you and Condé Nast aren’t going to get along well.
• Also note the cool picture of a bear, somewhere around the 2.40 mark–the one that changes as the tablet gets flipped from portrait to landscape mode. It’s actually two different images, which means Condé has to pay twice for that particular spread. So going forward, Condé is either going to have budget for that additional expense or figure out how to use images that work for both the print magazine and the digital version. Which gives you a little sense of the kind of thinking, and work, involved in producing a flashy product like this.

Google’s Sergey Brin took the stage at the TED conference this morning for a brief discussion about the search giant’s recent declaration that it will pull out of the country if it has to continue to censor results.

Google has been quiet about its plans in China since it said a month ago that it was contemplating leaving the country over a range of issues centered on onerous censorship laws there.

Explaining Google’s “new approach” to China in a Jan. 12 blog post, chief legal officer David Drummond wrote:

“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

While not adding a lot more to what has been said, Brin did shed some light on his own and Google’s thinking.

While the Google (GOOG) co-founder would not directly blame the Chinese government for the security attacks on his company, or for others, he did note that the entity was so huge that there was no telling where they came from.

“It might represent a fragment” of the government, he said, although he did not give any specifics, in a short Q&A interview with curator Chris Anderson at TED, which has been taking place this week in Long Beach, Calif.

Brin also noted that he wished all those who underwent cyberattacks, as Google claims it has, would go public.

“If all companies came forward, we’d all be better,” he said.

As to where Google goes from here, after declaring its “intent” to withdraw from China, Brin said the company would definitely not censor political results in the future.

That said–nearly a month after the original statement, Google does continue to censor search results in China.

This will end, Brin seemed to indicate, although he did allow that other kinds of censorship around porn or gambling barred by Chinese law, similar to what Google does in other countries, would remain in place.

Brin said he did not know how the situation would turn out or if Google would come to some kind of compromise.

But he said he is “always optimistic” about some kind of detente with China.

“We want to find a way to work within the Chinese system,” said Brin, but without having to censor political results. “A lot of people might think I am naive and that might be true.”

What is it about TED, the iconic conference founded an astonishing 25 years ago, that gets so many people who don’t go in a lather?

Read one tweet from Mathew Ingram of GigaOm, for example: “and so it begins–all the pretentious and annoying tweets from people at TED, just to prove that they are that special :-)”

Yes, that’s it! Maybe because they did not get enough hugs as kids! (Personally, I would tweet from, like, a fist-pumping party with the “Jersey Shore” cast to prove I was special.)

All kidding aside and back to TED, I suppose it could be the high cost of the ticket or the fact that it is hard to get in at all for any price, since it sells out so quickly, or that the presentations from the stage by some of the world’s top thinkers are so incredibly highbrow.

All true. Nonetheless, TED still represents one of the best venues for deep and varied thinking on a wide range of important issues, even if there are moments that might seem twee and elitist to some.

TED2010 officially opens tomorrow morning in Long Beach, Calif., although events at the conference actually began last night. Speakers run the gamut and will talk on a wide range of topics, from poverty to clean tech to global warming to ukulele playing.

There are celebrities and billionaires in the crowd too, which also includes a lot of Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers. All that Davos-in-California vibe is what probably irks people, but it is a lot less annoying than you might imagine.

In fact, as someone who runs another conference–D: All Things Digital–with Walt Mossberg, I can appreciate how well TED is managed, run and presented.

To the naysayers, I would also have to point out this: The entire content of TED–as well as other TED events across the globe–pretty quickly gets put up on the Web, on one of the better designed and more innovative Web sites out there, for all to experience. Embeddable and free.

While it might not be the same as schmoozing real time, if it is quality content you care about–and I do–then anyone with Internet access can eventually see it.

And it is indeed well worth exploring that nonprofit conference–originally created by Richard Saul Wurman, using the acronym for “Technology, Entertainment and Design,” and now run by Chris Anderson–digitally.

So even if you are overly annoyed that you aren’t there–Chris, you might want to invite Sarah stat anyway to stop her from writing another heartbreaking diatribe next year–see it for yourself online from the TEDTalks site.

Here is one video of activist Eve Ensler, for example, talking about “girl cells” at TEDIndia, which is just amazing to hear–and there are plenty like it to choose from:

Last week, BoomTown traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to attend the TED conference, a longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program.

TED–which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design–on its 25th anniversary moved here from Monterey this year for the first time, in order to accommodate its growing audience.

First held in 1984, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation bought TED in 2001 from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. TED has since grown to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize.

The four-day TED2009, titled “The Great Unveiling,” included Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates unleashing a small swarm of mosquitoes in the hall, a long list of varied speakers and a whole lot of schmoozing.

Here is my belated video of the event. It features my All Things Digital partner Walt Mossberg, scenes from inside and outside the event (including “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert onstage talking about genius), interviews with TED organizers Tom Rielly and Anderson, as well as my kids trying to steal entrepreneur Bill Gross’s futuristic car.

Here’s the video:

And here is another video, where some TED attendees tell me what presentation blew their heads off with knowledge.

The well-known Technology, Entertainment, Design conference–better known to its techie fans as TED–will make its move from Monterey to Long Beach, in California, starting tomorrow night.

It’s a big change for the longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

First held in 1984, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation bought TED in 2001 from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. TED has since grown to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize.

TED2009 is titled “The Great Unveiling.” And BoomTown is glad to be attending after several years away, especially since I always learn something new at TED (and I have a lot to learn).

It certainly has a varied lineup of speakers again this year, such as Microsoft (MSFT) Co-Founder Bill Gates, neurological anthropologist Oliver Sacks, writer Elizabeth Gilbert, tree researcher Nalini Nadkarni, Web political phenom Nate Silver and many others.

But I am perhaps even more intrigued by the introduction this year of the TED Fellows program, initially 50 individuals picked because of the “world-changing potential of their work.”

They will be invited to participate in the TED community each year, and some of the fellows will come for longer stints to future conferences.

The fellows program is supported by the Bezos family, the Harnisch Foundation, private donors and Nokia (NOK), with additional in-kind support from Kodak (EK), Lightscribe and One.org.

According to the press release, the fellows program was inspired by TED’s Africa program in 2007:

“The TED Fellows program will focus on attracting applicants living or working in five parts of the globe: the Asia/Pacific region, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East, with consideration given to applicants from the rest of the world….The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits.”

Said Tom Rielly, TED Community Director, who is responsible for the program: “TED will help them communicate their ‘ideas worth spreading’ to a much larger audience.”

Given the troubles all over the world these days, we could all use a much broader perspective.

You can read the longer list of fellows, who seem to deliver just that here, but some of the first participants include:

• Erik Hersman and Juliana Rotich, co-founders of Ushahidi.com, a Web site for citizen journalism, covering crises such as the Kenyan post-election violence

• Faisal Chohan, CEO of Cogilent Solutions and founder of BrightSpyre.com, the leading job portal in Pakistan

• Juliana Machado Ferreira, Brazilian CSI: Wildlife biologist who uses genetic markers to track, interdict and convict illegal songbird traffickers

• Gerry Douglas, founder of Malawi’s Baobab Health Partnership, which builds touchscreen terminals that allow non-doctors to diagnose, treat and correctly prescribe drugs for people with HIV

Earlier this year, the Harvard Business Review tried to refute Anderson in a well-argued piece. Now comes a set of British researchers trying to do the same thing. From the U.K. Times:

The idea that niche markets were the key to the future for internet sellers was described as one of the most important economic models of the 21st century when it was spelt out by Chris Anderson in his book, ‘The Long Tail,’ in 2006. He used data from an American online music retailer to predict that the internet economy would shift from a relatively small number of ‘hits’–mainstream products–at the head of the demand curve toward a ‘huge number of niches in the tail’.

A new study by Will Page, chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the not-for-profit royalty collection society, suggests that the niche market is not an untapped goldmine and that online sales success still relies on big hits. They found that, for the online singles market, 80 per cent of all revenue came from around 52,000 tracks. For albums, the figures were even more stark. Of the 1.23 million available, only 173,000 were ever bought, meaning 85 per cent did not sell a single copy all year.”

Anderson, who has been a good sport about jousting with his critics on his blog, tells the Times that he needs to see more data before weighing in on this newest salvo. But I don’t have that compunction. My two cents–or at least, my two sort-of related points:

• The Long Tail is a useful way to think about back catalogs. The Web means you can extend the reach of a product once it has had an initial run, and it allows aggregators like Amazon (AMZN) to make money by assembling lots of niche products at one storefront. It’s less useful for people who are creating albums, books, movies, etc., and need to get compensated for their work in the present tense.
• One area where the Long Tail holds up just fine: Web publishing. The awesome power of Google (GOOG) means that stuff you publish once on the Internet will continue to find new audiences in the future, more or less without any additional effort on your part. Any Web publisher invariably finds that a large chunk of its audience tends to come to its site to consume stuff they produced weeks, months or years ago. Of course, consumers don’t want to pay anything in order to consume that stuff, which means it’s only useful if you can sell Web advertising against it. But that’s a different post.

BoomTown just got to Paris, as in France, to attend and moderate sessions for the third annual Le Web conference.

Le Web is organized by Loïc and Geraldine Le Meur, with 1,500 people signed up to hear a range of Internet players, many of whom are from the U.S., tomorrow and Wednesday.

U.S. speakers include TED’s Chris Anderson, News Corp. (NWS) social-networking site MySpace’s Amit Kapur, Marissa Mayer of Google (GOOG), Linda Avey of 23andMe, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, and Dan’l Lewin of Microsoft (MSFT).

And some interesting European execs include France Telecom Orange Chairman and CEO Didier Lombard, and Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and co-founder of a very interesting fashion sale site, Vente-Privee.com.

Of course, there’s a passel of bloggers here like BoomTown. I’ll be interviewing Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon (AMZN) and well-known Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi.

Besides this conference, Loïc Le Meur has been trying to make a go of it with his San Francisco-based start-up Seesmic, which–like a lot of Web 2.0 companies–has recently made cutbacks. See my video interview below with him in better times, when I visited Seesmic in February.

You can also watch the conference streamed live from its site. More shaky–but Frenchtastic, although no lip-synching extravaganzas for me!–videos from me at Le Web to come, of course.

[Full disclosure: My partner, Google exec Megan Smith (you can read all about it here in detail), is judging a start-up competition at Le Web on Wednesday. But I am trying to find an excuse not to go to that panel, because I always nod off at those things, even if the crazy version of Britney Spears were a judge. Instead, I hopefully will be enjoying the lovely artwork at the Louvre right then.]

Nonetheless, here are two for the price of one (and, by price, we mean free) for your techie enjoyment.

Last month, Om Malik and his co-host, Joyce Kim, interviewed a bunch of folks while attending the TechCrunch40 conference, including the tracksuit-wearing, shaved-head-sporting Marc Andreessen (don’t get us wrong, we like the look). Also, extreme wonkery with Engadget guys and Chris Anderson of Wired on his book-worthy newest theory.

Then, it’s onto Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s go-to guy in Silicon Valley.

I have always thought Lewin was quite a charmer comparatively speaking (to most at Microsoft, that is, and not bad in general).

Watch carefully, as he is working as hard as he can to brush off the GoogleFacebookYouTube mindshare monster. Also, Lewin says exactly zero about Microsoft’s intentions toward Facebook.

Is it just me or does it seem exactly one million years ago when Microsoft was considered the scary Bigfoot?