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Magazines Photography Technology

LIFE for iPad

If you’re a fan of The Guardian Eyewitness app or event the “Photo” section of the NYT app, then you’ll probably find a lot to like from the new LIFE app for iPad. Available as a free download, it’s basically an interface to LIFE magazine’s amazing photo archives.

There are a few different ways to explore the collections, starting from an “Explorer” page that lets you dig in geographically, and then a few themed sections.

It’s not perfect though, and the biggest annoyance is the ad for LIFE services (pictured above) that pops up every few photos — it’s especially annoying because when it comes it actually moves the regular interface elements away, which makes for a jarring transition. There’s also a slight load time for every single photo you view, so it seems that they should have paid a bit more attention at keeping file sizes manageable.

But hey, it’s a free app, and there’s more to like here than to not like, so well worth a download.

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Magazines Technology

Newsweek for iPad Isn’t Much More Than a PDF

Remember how I was all excited the other day about the news that the iPad edition of Newsweek was now offering in-app subscriptions at very attractive prices? I mentioned I’d give an issue a try (which I bought at the regular price of $3), and it’s definitely something I regret doing.

Newsweek for iPad isn’t much more than a glorified PDF reader, so don’t expect anything more than what you get with Zinio editions of magazines, and maybe even less so. Sure, the pages are all formatted so that everything is readable without having to zoom in (which is the only interaction you are allowed), but that’s it.

I even found plenty of horrible low-res images (pictured above), and I can’t stand that any page that features full-bleed photos have a thin white frame around them.

The one thing the Newsweek app does have going for it is that it offers a section with breaking news — an NYT-esque formatting of news that appears on its website — and there’s a page full of photo galleries. But as far as the magazine itself, I expect more from an iPad edition.

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Magazines Technology

Newsweek for iPad Introduces Subscriptions

It’s about time! Newsweek has just updated its iPad app to introduce subscriptions, which means that we’re finally seeing some interesting pricing on iPad magazines. Newsweek was already offering cheaper prices than the competition at $3 per issue (the Time Inc. weeklies are all $5 an issue), but with the two new available subscription options things are getting VERY cheap. Right now you can get a 12-week subscription for $10, so 80 cents an issue, or a 24-week subscription for $15, at about 60 cents an issue.

The only thing for me is that I’d much rather read Time at this price, but I’ll probably buy at least one issue of Newsweek to sample it. I do hope that subscription options start popping up more though — over to you Condé Nast and Time Inc.

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Magazines Technology

Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite

So we’ve known for a while that Adobe would be releasing the tools they created for use in the Wired and New Yorker iPad apps, and now we finally have a few more details on what to expect. First thing, it’s going to be pricey. There are going to be two editions, Professional and Enterprise, and the latter is “expected” to be $700 per month, and add to that a per-issue fee.

Definitely not the kind of news I wanted to hear, hoping that they were going to be offering tools that would make sense for indie publishers. Let’s first wait and see what the pricing on the Professional edition will be though.

You can read the full press release here for more details on what the suite will have to offer. (via @magculture)

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Magazines Technology

Wired Now Updates Like a Normal Magazine App

The November 2010 issue of Wired is out on iPad, and once you get past the giant breasts on the cover, the first think you notice — or that you may not have noticed unless you accessed the app — is that new issues are now just added in-app, and you can set notifications to tell you when a new issue comes out. It’s about time.

You’ll also notice that it’s another big issues in terms of MB size — I say this because last month was a bit slimmer, but now we’re back in the 400-500MB range.

And if you’re wondering why there are two cover images in this post, that’s just the portrait/landscape variations you get depending on how you hold your device. Which one’s your favorite?

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Magazines

New York Magazine

A funny thing about my love this year for New York Magazine. I’ve seen some terrific covers thanks to blogs like NAS CAPAS and Fuck Yeah, Magazines, I’ve read some great profiles that were hosted on its website (which I then read through Instapaper), and I’ve even seen the occasional interior spread. One thing I have not done is actually have a physical copy in my hands to read/browse through. Funny that.

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Magazines Technology

Coasting on 30,000

The sort of big news today in the digital publishing world — although not entirely surprising — is that Wired creative director Scott Dadich has left the magazine to focus entirely on his other gig, that of leading parent company Condé Nast’s digital publishing development.

But the most interesting thing to come out of the announcement (via MagCulture) is that we find out how well Wired has been selling on iPad after that initial blockbuster release — to recap, on its first month it sold 100,000 copies, which is well over the magazine’s average 76,000 in print. Since then, it has settled at around 30,000 copies per month, which is not bad at all.

I do hope we start getting digital circulation numbers for other magazines, because right now it’s hard to say what is working and what isn’t when you don’t really know the level of mainstream acceptance (i.e. sales) titles are getting.

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Magazines Technology

Another Portrait/Landscape Mistake

Wired isn’t the only magazine that needs to be more careful about text that refers to images in a dual mode reading environment. I rather like Entertainment Weekly‘s The Must List app for iPad, and check out their 10 picks every week — I like how you can watch trailers and sample tracks from within the app. But today I spotted another lazy mistake, as the text above refers to a photo on the left, which only works when reading in landscape. Unlike Wired, this is not a case of using text destined for print, so it’s really a matter of having designed for one orientation, and forgetting about the other.

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Magazines Technology

Portrait Is Winning Over Landscape

At least according to a survey done by Condé Nast on what the preferred reading position is on iPad. From Folio (via Magtastic Blogsplosion):

Condé Nast also noted that users preferred to read the magazines in portrait mode, but to watch video in landscape.

Not that this is particularly surprising — when interacting with a digital magazine, it’s natural to read it like you would in print — but this just gives more publishers an excuse to forego support for dual modes. And something else to come out of the survey (and something I keep harping about):

Not surprising, the publisher said there also was an expectation among users for flexibility in buying options, including a single copy purchase, a digital subscription or supplement to their print subscription.

I know that the lack of progression on this point is really due to Apple, but let’s hope that something happens sooner than later, because now’s the time to hook a lot of readers — from an already generous pool of 8 million iPad owners — who are excited about all these new digital publications, but are maybe turned off by the high prices.

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Magazines

Mogu Takahashi’s Chotto Omoshiroi Zine

I just posted this on SNOW Magazine, but thought it would make sense to have it here too — a new little zine by illustrator Mogu Takahashi called Chotto Omoshiroi, that comes with a fold-out poster.