.KEYWORD ceeditorial0499
.FLYINGHEAD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
.TITLE Welcome to Windows CE Power Magazine
.DEPT
.SUMMARY Welcome to our newest publication: Windows CE Power Magazine. In his opening editorial, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz takes you inside the publication and answers many of the tough questions he’s gotten from Windows CE enthusiasts during the months prior to launching the journal.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
This is so cool!
I love it when we start a new journal, especially if there are new toys. And you’ve got to admit that when it comes to slick new toys, it’s going to be hard to beat Windows CE. After all, not only are there the colorful new Palm-sized PCs and not only are there the nearly full-size laptop devices like the Jornada, there’s even the AutoPC, the Sega Dreamcast, and a whole host of embedded systems. Plus, we’re told, soon WebTV will be Windows CE based.
That’s exciting to me. What’s also exciting is the spirit and enthusiasm of the Windows CE users I’ve met in the months prior to launching this journal. The people who are dedicated to this platform are very enthusiastic proponents of Windows CE and Windows CE devices.
We’ve been in the journal publishing business for a whole bunch of years. I’ve been involved as an editor for Ziff-Davis (a large technical magazine publisher) throughout most of my professional career (since 1980, in fact). In the past five years, Denise Amrich (our managing editor) and I have founded two journals for the Cobb Group division of Ziff-Davis (Workspace for Lotus Notes and the Insider for Lotus cc:Mail), produced a CD-ROM based journal for IBM/Lotus (The Notes Enthusiast) and were then asked to take over editorial responsibility for The Notes Report (a print journal originally from IDG, then acquired by Ziff). For a variety of reasons (not the least of which being that readers were more inclined to read free, online content than pay $50-$150 for a print subscription), these publications are no longer active.
In January 1998, we went independent and launched PalmPower Magazine, a highly successful Web-based publication on the Palm organizer and in August we launched DominoPower, our Notes and Domino publication.
Whenever we start a new journal, there are a couple of getting-ready phases. The first, of course, is deciding on the topic for a new publication. After that, we approach the company who’s the primary market maker (i.e., Microsoft for Windows CE, 3Com for Palm computers, and IBM’s Lotus division for Notes and Domino) and negotiate all the marketing and business elements necessary for making a publication work. These typically include the appropriate license for use of the trademark (this is how we’re able to use Windows CE as part of our publication’s title) and a "reader feed" from the market maker’s Web site to our new journal.
Once we’re sure we have an agreement in place, it’s time to put the journal itself together. This is the real preparation phase. Our sales team starts looking for advertisers and the editorial team starts recruiting authors. We also do the logo design, the journal layout, and all of the technical work necessary to create a new publication Web site.
It’s really during this pre-launch preparation phase that we begin to meet the product’s community. We get the chance to talk with enthusiastic users, with developers who’ve invested their sweat into producing cool add-on products, and with the key people at the market maker’s company. It’s at this time that we really start to get a feel for the people behind the products.
When it comes to the Windows CE community, our publishing of PalmPower Magazine has given us some great advantages and generated some important questions. One advantage, of course, is that with the leading publication for the Palm organizer, we’ve got the credibility necessary to move into new markets and platforms. Plus, we’ve got the experience in dealing with a small-computer market and the special issues involved in making that work.
I’ve also been asked some questions. Here’s an example, written by Microsoft Windows CE MVP Frank McPherson, who’s also got an article in this issue:
.QUOTE When I read your editorials at PalmPower, I get the sense that you are a Palm user and that you like the platform. There isn’t a sense that you are just reporting on the Palm Computing platform, but that you have personal stake in it. If you are going to be writing the editorial column for Windows CE Power I think you have to address the question of how well you support Windows CE. Do you use Windows CE? I think people are going to want more than just the fact that the target audience has grown to the point where it justifies a publication. They will want to feel connected to the writers. That will bring people back to the publication.
It’s a very fair question.
Honestly, I’ve used so many computers on so many platforms that I just don’t have much of what you’d call a religious bias to any of them. On my desk at the office I have Macs, Windows 98 machines, Windows NT and Linux boxes and I jump between them without blinking. I’ve used everything from punch cards to paper tape to Jaz drives. I’ve gone from the classic Altair 8800 that I built myself (and hand-wired all the S-100 bus leads, wire-by-wire and hand toggled in the boot program), to VAXen, to old Data General Novas up through Crays. It just doesn’t matter to me from a "this is better than that basis". Without question, there are cool aspects of the Palm platform and similarly cool aspects of the Windows CE platform. Likewise, there are problematic aspects. My job is to be impartial and reflect reader concerns and needs.
When it comes to handhelds, I really haven’t had that much of a religious bias, again because I’ve used so many. I had one of the original TI-59 programmable calculators. At the time, it was amazingly cool because it had a magnetic card reader (with "cards" about the height and width of your pinky). You could mount the TI-59 on a special printer platform and it would print (in very thin strips). You could program it to do almost anything as long as you didn’t mind a one-line bright-red LED display. I had the original Sharp Wizard as well as later Wizard models. I also owned the original, nasty, Doonsbury-pickin’-on Newton, and then finally the way cool, but highly under-rated MessagePad 2000 (MP2K) and, of course, the Palm devices.
Here’s a funny story. When we started PalmPower, I was an active Newton user. I had the MP2K, which had an amazingly clear screen, great handwriting recognition, and cool software. In fact, for the first few months of PalmPower, I didn’t own a PalmPilot (I would have, but our managing editor swiped it within minutes of its arrival). I’d also written one of the best-known reviews of the MP2K just months before we started PalmPower. As we all know, Apple killed the Newton and so none of us ever got a chance to see if that OS would have been a winner with the right nurturing.
To me, it’s not the individual device or OS that’s important. It’s what you do with it. And since our business is publishing, our job is to make it possible for you to do more with your device. Since Windows CE Power Magazine is dedicated to Windows CE, we’re absolutely committed to bringing you a great Windows CE resource.
Oh, and speaking of platforms, it’s our understanding that WebTV will become Windows CE based. If there’s any bias whatsoever, it’s that Managing Editor Denise Amrich and I are both hard-core fans of WebTV. I’m on my second box and it’s been, literally, a godsend to me. I’ll talk more about it in future issues, though I have to say it’s one of my most prized (and useful) possessions.
Let me clarify something here. We are completely impartial in each of our publications. Our stake is not in the individual OS or product. We’re not in the software or hardware sales business. We don’t do consulting on the side. Our company’s entire income is derived from ad revenues from our publications. So we have every reason to be impartial — and that’s something you need to be able to count on from a publication like Windows CE Power Magazine.
.BEGIN_KEEP
I’ve gotta laugh because I regularly get letters from PalmPower readers asking me why I don’t have a personal stake in the Palm platform. It’s funny. Other readers seem to think we’re part of 3Com. The same dichotomy is true with DominoPower. There are such strong sets of religious beliefs and yet it’s just computer software and hardware. Because we use these tools so much, we literally become almost intimate with them.
In any case, you’ll love Windows CE Power Magazine. If I’m doing my job right, some things will thrill you and other things will annoy you. We’re a fully independent publication which means we calls ’em likes we sees ’em. But worry not. We’re going to build a wonderful resource you, one you can rely on for in-depth information on this very cool connected, compact, configurable, capable, classy, classic OS.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Feel free to check out PalmPower Magazine at http://www.palmpower.com and DominoPower at http://www.dominopower.com.
If you have comments about Windows CE Power, you can always send me email at david@windowscepower.com. One request though: please don’t send me your press releases or promotions. Instead, send your announcements to our News Editor, Heather McDaniel, at news@windowscepower.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO David Gewirtz is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing. With the fine ZATZ team, he publishes PalmPower, DominoPower, and Windows CE Power Magazines. He’s also the author of The Flexible Enterprise and Lotus Notes Revealed! When not editing journals, he
