Episode 165: 3 iPad Magazine Apps [Discussion]

[jackierulesall]

24,000 Wired apps were downloaded in one day? What's up with the hype? We'll show you!

Watch or download now!

[dcefrance]

You mention some of the best magazine apps out there. I am a big fan, and user, of Zinio for example. I believe you may have incorrectly said that Zinio doesn't offer subscriptions. However I have subscriptions to several magazines with them: Esquire, MacUser, PC Magazine, Rolling Stone, Vogue and National Geographic.

I realise you can't possibly mention all of the magazine apps out there. But some of the others I use include Time Magazine and Le Monde as well as a couple of other French newspapers...

An important point with most of these in-app purchased magazine apps is that their are linked to one device. We don't know yet how Wired is going to deal with more than one magazine in the app as there's only one issue out.

When I buy and download an issue of Time Magazine, for example, on my WiFi iPad it is only on that one iPad. Although the app synchronises with iTunes the individual magazines do not. When I want that same issue of Time on my 3G iPad I have to buy and download it one that device effectively paying twice for the same issue. This is true for the newspaper apps as well, such as Le Monde but also The Wall Street Journal and others, and I have to buy and download each issue on to each device paying extra for each device.

Zinio is the exception in that the magazines are synched with their servers. When I buy a magazine on Zinio it is downloaded from Zinio on to each of my devices. Pay once - read on multiple devices.

Another point which none of the magazine/newspapers seemed to have developed yet is online reading synchronisation. They all need to take a lesson from the Kindle app. When I read a book on my Kindle and then open the same book on my iPad, in the Kindle app, it goes to where I least read on my Kindle and vice-versa. My reading locations are synchronised amongst my devices by Amazon's servers. ALL electronic reading (books, magazines, newspapers, ...) should work this way.

I think electronic versions and distribution are the future of magazines and newspapers. But they are going to need to work out the distribution kinks some time soon as I do not see the majority of the population willing to pay per issue per device.

Thank for another excellent episode.

A loyal AppJudgment fan.

[omikron]

Hey, you made a lot of great points that I wasn't even thinking about dcefrance. I think because magazines have articles that are usually only a few pages long, losing my place is less of an issue for me. I do have an issue with the magazines not being able to sync to multiple devices. I feel like once I buy it, I should be able to put it on any ipad I own.

As far as the large amounts on ads are concerned, I have a feeling this is to cover the initial R&D costs of creating a digital magazine. Both the number ads and the addition of subscription services will likely be improved as the digital distribution of magazines catches on.

I do have a serious problem with the overall size of the download. 500MB is a LOT of space just for one magazine, especially if you have the 16GB iPad. It would mean I would probably have to delete the app after reading it. Hopefully they come up with a better compression scheme in the future. Not being able to get the mags over 3G due to the size is a bummer if I am on the road and don't have internet access.

Great and informative episode by the way!

[alphaman]

I agree with dcefrance - Zinio is by far the best magazine app out there. Unlike the Wired app (which I personally don't count in the same category as it is only one issue of one magazine), you can read just the text of an article, copy it, email it, and more; the articles in the Wired app, from what I hear, are just useless static images. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Zinio also supports additional digital content, like in-magazine slideshows and videos, but by far the best feature is the ability to buy an annual subscription to a magazine, often for less than the price of two individual issues! (Suck on that, Wired!) Zinio also offers free samples of articles from featured magazines, and the list of featured magazines is updated very frequently, if not daily.

So, for the price of about 3 issues of Wired, I've got annual subscriptions to National Geographic and MacWorld, and a couple single issues of Car And Driver and Islands. And I can read them all on more than just my iPad. Oh, and I can re-download any issue at any time that I want, unlike the standalone magazine apps, which allows me to control the content and space usage on my devices.