Posted on May 18th, 2010 by Chris Brennan

Apple iPad in depth: the magazine-reading experience

From the outset Apple has been pushing publishers towards the iPad. Steve Jobs himself took an iPad to the New York Times to show off what it could do. Clearly, Apple sees its new slate as the potential future of newspapers and magazines.

Since my iPad arrived I’ve been downloading and reading as many of the magazines and newspapers as I could find. It’s an incredibly compelling and eye-opening experience. There have been a few false dawns in the publishing industry with the CD-ROM and then the internet supposedly one step from killing off magazines and newspapers. The iPad might just succeed where they failed.

The interesting thing for me is that, although some of the magazines designed to give an “experience” are indeed very good, a plain PDF can be just as compelling. For instance, MacUser is available on the iPad and it’s essentially a copy of the print version with some page-turning trickery. It works and reads just like a paper magazine and that’s great.

The screen is a real boon for magazine reading too. Unlike the iBooks application (which Stuart Turton covered in a separate blog), where it’s just the printed word vs your eyeballs, the magazines and newspapers mix things up a bit. This not only makes them easier on the eye, but also much more compelling and, to borrow a phrase from marketeers the world over, “adds value”.

Some of the PC Pro staff have complained that the iPad is just too heavy to use comfortably, and this issue was brought up in the Apple iPad review as well. Personally, I’d suggest they eat more crusts and work on their wrists the next time they’re down the gym. However, iPad magazines may just be the right format for them. A magazine is much more of a visual treat than a book and takes much less reading than one. Hence, the time holding the iPad is reduced so it’s less of a pain. I don’t find the iPad too weighty, but perhaps I’m made of sterner stuff.

Being able to sit in a coffee shop and buy a range of magazines is also a “game-changing” experience. No longer do you have to shlep to WHSmith to buy your favourite titles. Better still, if you get bored you just get something else without leaving your seat. It might sound minor but if you get fed up looking at the pictures in National Geographic you’re not stuck with it, simply download the latest GQ and read the articles (they’ll be glad of your custom, as they’ve only sold 365 so far).

Buying magazines is easy: download the app and tap, tap, donk. The charge is then debited through your iTunes account. Some of the newspapers are free and others offer a selection of free articles with a subscription required for more content. It’s the very model of a working and profitable paywall. No forms to fill in, no email sign-ups to which you must reply, no credit card details to enter. Simple, easy and bank-account-emptying.

I’m not sure the printed word is doomed even with the iPad and the many competitors about to be launched. However, this is the best digital magazine experience I’ve ever had. I fully expect to see a host of iPad magazines and newspapers soon available.

Tags: apple, digital magazines, iPad

Posted in: Hardware, Random

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20 Responses to “ Apple iPad in depth: the magazine-reading experience ”

Ohhhhh Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I’d much rather be sitting on the bog with a magazine than an iPad anyday.
colsmith Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
On the bog? iPad is perfect for that because it has no pages to stick together.
James Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
So… When will PC Pro follow MacUser into this new digital domain?
Pete Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
“There have been a few false dawns in the publishing industry with the CD-ROM and then the internet supposedly one step from killing off magazines and newspapers. The iPad might just succeed where they failed.”

Yes at £500 a piece I’m sure everyone will be ditching their newspapers for one of these…
Kane Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Yes it might be better that a paper mag to read on the bog, but when you realise the Andrex has run out………!-(
stokegabriel Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
It would appear to be more of a fashion accessory, I noticed Jake Humphrey had one in his hand throughout the F1 race in Monaco,although he never looked at it once, although I did notice what looked like several semi deliberate attempts to flash the Apple logo. Perhaps it was a freebie, looked a right dork though, can imagine soon some people are going to be pulling these out on the train and shouting into them “I’m on the train” Great.
I notice that it also has a welded in battery, another great Apple rip off.
Can’t help wondering if this is produced by child labour in China.
stonee Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 3:45 am
Hi, stokegabriel
” By the end of 2000, a nine-year compulsory education has been made universal by and large, and illiteracy among young and middle-aged people has been basically eliminated”, maybe you can learn more about China.
Daniel Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 7:52 am
“A magazine is much more of a visual treat than a book and takes mush less reading than one.”

Should that not be “much less reading”?
Lomskij Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:13 am
To stonee:
Do you really believe that it supposed to eliminate child labour in China? Children work there because they need money, it has nothing to do with literacy. By the way:
“Apple admits using child labour”, telegraph.co.uk, today’s article.
Merseymal Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Unless either Marvel create an app for those of us who pay a subscription for the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited or the iPad gets Flash, no sale.
Dan Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Yes, Jake Humphrey had one in his hand, but prior to that he always had a clipboard and he didn’t often look at that when the camera was on him; with notes this sparse – http://twitpic.com/1m55vx – I assume he checks it in between pieces to camera.

As for toilet reading: if by “sticky pages” you mean what I think you mean, I’m afraid you’ll be very much disappointed on that front. The iPad is a *family* device, and even magazines like Dazed & Confused have been forced by Apple to go nipple-free: http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/05/apples_itunes_censors_fashion_magazines.html
Steve Cassidy Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:51 am
The thing about weight and wrists hides a subtlety. I have been typing all day, pretty much every day, since I was 18. while my forearms are like Popeye’s, my wrists are infamously weak – can’t ride a bike for all that long, can’t rockclimb, etc. I suspect there may be a problem that relates to RSI in nerds holding tablet PCs, where everyone else doesn’t have an issue…
filigeo Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
But I still dont understand why you need to buy a £500 iPad to read a PDF?

You could just read the digital Mag (PDF) on your laptop.
Josefov Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
‘Being able to sit in a coffee shop and buy a range of magazines is also a “game-changing” experience.’

It certainly would be for me since so far I just used to go to a bookstore with a caffeteria inside and have a look at the magazines while drinking coffee even without having to buy them. I mean, how very lame indeed.
Jenny Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Jake Humphrey has an iPad during the Monaco coverage for his script – he said so on his blog – and for the red button coverage that they do after the race. He was accessing emails and Twitter stuff, something he used to do from a phone, the iPad seemed to distract him less from the general conversation and be easier to use.
Tom Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Having owned an iPad for a little while now, I’m personally much happier using it for reading the latest news and weather while I’m waiting for a car repair, a doctor’s appointment, or out at lunch someplace, than I am interested in reading magazines on it. I’m not against the idea of digital magazines, but I think the publishers still don’t really grasp the “value proposition”.

They’re all trying to charge by the issue, vs. offering a discounted 1 or 2 year subscription price … and the prices are just too high. Traditional print magazines always have a disadvantage because the lead time required to produce one means the articles you read are already outdated, if they’re covering current events. If they’d do something unique with a digital version, such as dynamically updated articles throughout the time-period between isssues? Now THAT would add real value and justify the price!
tahrey Says:
May 20th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Well done, you discovered something I did 4 years ago on buying a tablet PC. It’s still quite neat to be able to read PDFs portrait without any extra hardware in the way, just using the scroll up/down toggle.

Do still prefer my everyday magazines to be paper though. It just works better that way. For a start, they’re lighter, it doesn’t matter if you have greasy fingers, the battery never runs out, and the resolution’s better (my tablet is also XGA. Zoom is sometimes needed. For full pages you really want 1280×1024 or better, like my workplace secondary portrait monitor)
Michael Says:
May 20th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
It was obvious to me from the beginning that the iPad will transform the reading of magazines. In fact that may turn out to be its primary use. I have subscribed to The Economist and The Atlantic for many years and am fed up with occasional copies getting delayed or going astray in the post. There will also be no need in future to find space for back copies or, horror of horrors, to throw out magazines you have read.

When I hear that my favourite magazines will be availabe on the iPad, then (and only then) will I buy one.
Mark G Says:
May 29th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
iFad. I see no use for this whatsoever.

Tablet PC’s have already failed when Microsoft tried them, Apple have a small but hardcore brainwashed audience.

If a tabletPC can’t make it with the might of being to run ANY windows software, an iFad certainly can’t with it’s locked down Apple approved content.

Also, the number of idiots that think the iFad is a e-book reader. They really need to discover what e-ink is, and why it’s important (although reading an iFad for more than an hour, I think they will then understand)
Alex McKenna Says:
July 24th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Mark G – what a bufoon! Brainwashed himself quite outrageously, he points the finger at Apple customers! If he took at glance at owners “satisfaction rating” of Apple products versus the others, he’d realise why we buy Apple.