The iPad as a Magazine Reader

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.applematters.com/article/the-ipad-a-great-magazine-reader/' target='_blank'>http://www.applematters.com/article...agazine-reader/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"If I had to say which is my number one reason for liking and using the iPad, I would give two thumbs up for magazine and web-based article reading. I've written about article and PDF reader apps, and now I want to point out some fairly good magazine apps for the iPad. There's simply no better device on the market that I know of for full-color, quality display of digital magazines and newspapers."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1276789170.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Like the author, I use my iPad to read several magazines through Zinio, a <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zinio-magazine-newsstand-reader/id364297166?mt=8" target="_blank">free iPad app</a>. I've replaced several of the ones that normally came via snail mail, so I'm doing my part to stay green yes? That isn't the reason I did it though, I really just like the fact it takes care of a lot of clutter and weight that I used to pack in my bag for work. It usually had several issues of various magazines, all replaced with my iPad. In fact, I've scaled down the size of bag I normally carry for work so my back thanks me too. I have yet to try the magazine specific apps available, but I see a couple that interest me. Do you use your iPad for magazines, and if so, what app(s) do you use?&nbsp;</p>

[Michael Knutson]

Zinio for me as well. I've even started getting National Geographic on my iPad. Pretty spectacular. I like the iPad so much as a reader that I traded my Kindle for an espresso machine. I like the "green" idea. I can't remember the last time I read a newspaper - it's so 20th century!

[Jason Dunn]

I'm very DRM-adverse, so the idea of paying just as much for a paper magazine yet having all the disadvantages of DRM'd digital content - can't share it, can't loan it, can't archive it unless I forever keep the devices, etc. - rubs me the wrong way. They'll have to work much harder to make it more appealing until I'm willing to go digital with my magazines - and the price of whatever slate device I'm using will have to be so low, and have such great battery life, that I can leave them in various rooms around my house (including the bathroom) so I know I'll always have the magazine I want to read within easy reach.

This is a good first step, but many more steps are needed...

[jgrnt1]

I'm very DRM-adverse, so the idea of paying just as much for a paper magazine yet having all the disadvantages of DRM'd digital content - can't share it, can't loan it, can't archive it unless I forever keep the devices, etc. - rubs me the wrong way. They'll have to work much harder to make it more appealing until I'm willing to go digital with my magazines - and the price of whatever slate device I'm using will have to be so low, and have such great battery life, that I can leave them in various rooms around my house (including the bathroom) so I know I'll always have the magazine I want to read within easy reach.
Jason, though Zinio is DRM'ed, you can load it on several devices and read your magazines from all of them -- desktop or laptop (Windows or OSX), iPad, iPhone. You can redownload your library from Zinio at any time and, in Windows at least, it saves a copy in My Documents. I had Zinio on a laptop a few years ago, but it was not all that convenient -- lug the laptop around and then wait for it to boot before you could load the program and open the magazine. I dropped Zinio after about a year. I could not read where and when I wanted (you mentioned the bathroom). Even a netbook isn't convenient in the bathroom.

With the iPad, the inconveniences have disappeared. I have no issues taking the iPad with me to read books or magazines, even in the bathroom.

Though many of the magazines are not much more than big pdfs of the print versions, they are easy to read, and having active links in the articles is actually very useful. I can't tell you how many times I would read an article in a PC magazine and tell myself I needed to remember to check out the referenced website, software, or additional article next time I was at my computer. Now I just click the link. The interactive magazines are great (though there aren't a lot of them yet). In addition to the print versions' articles, you get slideshows and videos.

Unlike the individual iPad app magazines, the subscriptions in Zinio are about the same price as the print versions. I have six magazine subscriptions on my iPad. All current and past issues are always with me when I travel. I could not do that with print magazines. I used to try to take several print magazines on the road with me. It was just too cumbersome.

....And to set the record straight, I'm not a Mac guy. I like to build my own PCs, so I will never own a Mac, but I find my iPhone and iPad indispensable. If there was a great Windows tablet, I probably would have bought it instead, but I suspect that to compete with the iPad, a great Windows-based tablet will need to be XP Embedded, WinCE or a scaled up version of Windows Phone 7. Either that or, like HP, competitors will abandon Windows altogether for their tablets.

[crimsonsky]

IIRC, Zinio is pretty generous in the number of devices you can read your magazines on. I believe it's 25, so that's not really an issue.

And I'm as anti-DRM as the next guy, but the reality is that it is something we'll have to deal with for non-music content for the foreseeable future. I don't see the publishing industry or the movie industry giving up on DRM as easily as the music industry did. And given that Zinio is so generous with the number of devices you can load it on, I can live with the DRM for now.

I'm still holding out for V2 of the iPad, but this is a compelling reason for getting one!

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, though Zinio is DRM'ed, you can load it on several devices and read your magazines from all of them -- desktop or laptop (Windows or OSX), iPad, iPhone...

Thanks for the info on Zinio - it sounds quite reasonable when you put it that way. :)