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The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

itunes.apple.com

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Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#21

Post by Osmium »

It doesn't surprise me that it takes an AAA iOS developer to finally make a good iOS magazine. It always struck me that Newsstand was a wasted potential: full of good publications trying to squeeze their paper format into an app instead of releasing the same content in a better format.

Does anybody know of "good" Newsstand apps? This might be the first.

I personally think Apple should release a more aggressive Newsstand API and a best practices guide: e.g. by all means customise your design and experience but that doesn't mean you should release an app crammed full of pngs that weighs half a gig. Newsstand apps should be low bandwidth and text-centric. Why can't I search all my magazines from a central location? Why can't I see a central list of articles I've favourited from a variety of publications? As it stands, the only way to do this is with an RSS reader or Instapaper. I'd be happy to pay for quality journalism if it was in a format that's convenient and sensible.

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#23

Post by k-mcgrady »

ZanderEarth32 wrote: post #22

I'd really like to give this a shot but am only interested in trying it on my iPad which can't get iOS6, so unfortunately, rather than passing on this, I am being left behind.

It's worth trying on your iPhone (if you have one). It uses the text-only approach of Instapaper so screen-size doesn't affect usability the way it does in standard magazine apps.

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#24

Post by reaganing »

s_henry_paulson wrote: post #15
noirman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, iPad 1 supports iOS6 no?

No, but I can't for the life of me figure out what technical reason is preventing Apple from allowing this. If an iPhone 3GS can run iOS6, I am perplexed why the same can't be true for the iPad 1.

They were still selling the 3GS until just a few weeks ago; it would have annoyed many customers if iOS 6 wasn't released for the device. The first-gen iPad, on the other hand, stopped being sold when the iPad 2 was released in March 2011.

iOS 5 also doesn't run all that great on the iPad, so I'm sure that played into the decision not to offer iOS 6 as well. The 256MB of RAM paired with the large screen seems to be the biggest cause for this. The 3GS' hardware isn't great, but it's only powering a 320*480 display

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#25

Post by smackfu »

navs wrote: post #5

I'd love to see this as a webapp. I'm one of those folks that just doesn't use apps or even sign in to my apple account. I'm sure more of my kind exist. EDIT: Whoops I see this has paid in-app purchases. I wonder if there's something out there that can offer as seamless an experience as iTunes in-app purchases for webapps.

Yeah, it's pretty depressing when the only reason a magazine is iOS only is because it uses Apple payments.

I guess that was Apple's end goal, but it's just a sad state of affairs. And even if they wanted to use some other option... Apple would block it on iOS.

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#28

Post by regomodo »

shortformblog wrote: post #27
squarecat wrote: post #19

Another victim is seduced by a leading "The", causing any attempt to reference this publication to become a tragedy of grammar.

The Strokes, The Walkmen and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs would like to have a word with you.

The Beatles?

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#29

Post by andycroll »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #9

Interesting. First of all it's very nicely designed and after reading the introduction I like the philosophy behind it. Taking the Instapaper approach of focussing on text is interesting. While images and graphics can often enhance content having nice, plain text on a device the size of the iPhone makes much more sense. So first impressions of it are good. Hopefully the content is just as good. Update: After reading…

The Guardian UK have a lovely iPad app, but the iPhone app isn't nearly as good.

Re: The Magazine: For geeks like us. By Marco Arment

#30

Post by tstegart »

Osmium wrote: post #21

It doesn't surprise me that it takes an AAA iOS developer to finally make a good iOS magazine. It always struck me that Newsstand was a wasted potential: full of good publications trying to squeeze their paper format into an app instead of releasing the same content in a better format. Does anybody know of "good" Newsstand apps? This might be the first. I personally think Apple should release a more aggressive Newsst…

Not all of us magazine makers are coders. For a lot of us, its all about the words, not the format. My little iPad-only travel magazine isn't even in Newsstand because I have no idea how to code it, but our articles have won awards. The technology is not as important as the content. I wish I could do all those things you mentioned, but the fact is I have no idea how. A big magazine might be able to do them, but it requires a total revamp of business practices and a restructuring of workflow. And that's hard when a magazine is staffed by people who will lose their jobs when digital magazines take off.
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