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I really love having my magazines on a tablet. Gone are the stacks of backlogged magazines that I eventually get around to. That said, those unread issues become a little easier to forget on the iPad. Especially when surrounded by addictive time-killers like Fruit Ninja.
But when housed in Newsstand, those issues jump out at you a little more. In theory, it’s just a folder with a special skin slapped over it. But it feels like more. That’s mostly because you aren’t just looking at a static icon anymore. When you tap the Newsstand photo, you’re greeted by the latest covers of of the magazines you have in your stable. It grabs your attention and reminds you that there’s new stuff to read.
And then there are the automatic downloads which make the entire process of getting these issues more frictionless. Unfortunately, not a lot of pubs are supporting this full functionality quite yet. PopSci and PopPhoto will let you download issues in the background one at a time. The Conde Nast mags, like Wired, GQ and the New Yorker… not so much (for now, at least). But the functionality on display so far is promising.
And yeah, there’s Zinio, but when a mag is built around the iPad, it comes to life. Videos, interactive sidebars and soundclips are all woven into the design of the mag. Zinio’s static pages are fine, but it’s not quite the same. I’m just hoping the majority of the magazine world embraces newsstand. [iOS 5 on Gizmodo]
MotorMouth
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 3:09 PMHow much are Apple paying for this infomercial krap? Whatever it is, they are sure getting their money’s worth.
Ozoneocean
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 3:18 PMNot a cent, I imagine.
This is a tech review site, this is what it does.
Unfortunately the writers of this sort of thing tend to be more fannish over the product than journalistically objective, removed or reserved, which colours things badly, but you just have to accept that.
light487
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 3:32 PMAlso a bunch of it, from what I can tell, comes through from the US Gizmodo site.
In regards to the article.. I wonder how relevant the magazine titles are to the Aussie market. The iBooks app was atrociously poor.. nothing there I ever heard of let alone wanted to buy. What made matters worse in that regard was that Apple changed their terms and conditions to disallow their competitors to have direct links, within their apps, to their own bookstores. For example, prior to iBooks, the Kindle app for iPhone/iPad allowed you to directly purchase Kindle eBooks from the Amazon store from WITHIN the Kindle app; after the change, the app had to be updated to remove that functionality.
So.. forgive me for being skeptical.
d
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 5:53 PMiBook app is amazing. If you make even the slightest effor you can find books online for free. There are torrents of NYTs bestseller list every week as well as tons of other stuff. The iPad can read most of the formats.
d
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 5:54 PMThat said, newstand appears to suck.
reyanimator
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 8:10 PMHell yes, Imagine FX!!!! I dont care what else is there, they have my favourite magazine for less than half price, this is awesome!
Pork Chop Sandwiches
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:11 AMImagineFX has been on zinio for many months for only seven dollars and something cents per issue, I have purchased most of them, but if the article is right that there is more interactive elements woven into the newsstand version then I would be keen to check it out, looks to be the same price too.
markd
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 9:04 PMYou really are a negative kind of guy MotorMouth. Do you assume that all reviews are paid for if they are not negative? You should get on the bandwagon and make some $.
Joe
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 2:59 AMSorry Markd, MotorMouth is spot on. This “review” is simply one big infoblog for Apple. Newsstand is nothing short of bait and switch.
Bekir
Friday, March 30, 2012 at 2:34 PMGreat blog post Matt. Apple Newsstand really has heepld the publishing industry a lot. It’s allowing magazines to reach new and younger audiences that are more adapt to tablet devices and computer screens, and also the older generation and young adults that are always on the go. The world is not paperless, but being a magazine doesn’t mean you have to be in tangible print form anymore, allowing more great content to reach a more global audience. For example, you can by Esquire UK on your iPad from the United States store in Itunes. Like your closing statement, publishing is not dead, it’s just exploring new roads and paths to reach new audiences and readers.-Collin Willardson
Tristan
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 6:06 PMLooking in the Australian App Store I can see over 100 magazines in the Newstand Category.
This is going to work perfectly for my mum, I think it is a really good implementation!
Nothing to see here
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 12:52 PMIt needs more work. I’ll still use zinio for while, because it at least organises the magazines in categories like a um, news stand.
This suffers from the normal app store issue that if you use it on the device, you have to keep going “Next 25″ and if you search you get bounced out of the category… and end up seeing other apps.
Cameron
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 6:55 PMI’m hoping that mX (the free commuter paper) will put out a free Newsstand edition daily!
Cameron
Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 9:48 AMmX on Newsstand anyone??