Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

What Does an iAd Look Like on an iPad? It Looks Pretty Awesome (Of Course)

Apple’s iAd program was supposed to make its way to iPads in 2010. Instead, it won’t make an official rollout till next year. But Apple is offering a preview of what an iAd will look like right now, via a campaign for Disney’s upcoming “Tron” sequel.

The best way to see it is by downloading the TV Guide iPad app, where you’ll find it prominently displayed. It’s like any other “in-app” ad you’ve seen before–click on a banner, and you get a barrage of multimedia–except that in this case it’s intensely fun.

It helps that the ad is for a movie, which translates perfectly on the iPad. And that the movie fuses action, nerddom and nostalgia. And Jeff Bridges!

And note that Apple has always understood the appeal of movie trailers and the Web: Remember when Apple’s movie trailers site was one of the most novel and well-trafficked places on the Internet?

So if you’re wondering if the iPad is a great place to advertise movies via iAds, that question should be answered. The real question is how the format will fare for other products: So far, Apple’s pricing and control issues have made iAds on iPhones and iPods less than a resounding success.

But that’s business talk! Ignore that for now! Get your iPad out and go look at the pretty moving pictures!

No iPad? Then you’re going to have to imagine. Here’s a screenshot:

And here’s a shakycam video:

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald