The New Magazine
Yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Ipad. It’s a tablet (think smartphone meets laptop) that has been touted by some as a game changer in the publishing world. I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it if my boss had not sent an e-mail around the office a couple of weeks ago entitled, “Once again, the future is here?”
As an editor at a magazine, your ears sort of perk up at a statement like that. You’re not sure if it means to start clearing out your desk, if the death of the printed page has finally arrived, or both. Well, I’m still here and print as I know it is still kicking…at least for now.
His e-mail contained this video, which made me think a lot about the future of magazines and how all of you, our readers, would greet the Ipad. The video was a collaboration between The Wonderfactory and Time Inc.
On one hand, I’m not sure our readers would like a digital issue like this. I like to envision our magazine living on the job site, tacked to a scrap 2×10 with finish nails to keep the pages from flipping in the wind—a resource that our readers can turn to whether they’re high atop a ridge figuring out how to flash a chimney correctly or down in the dirt trying to dig a proper footing for their new deck.
On the other hand, this latest development is both interesting and impressive. So what are your thoughts? Are any of you off to pick up the new Ipad? If so, are you hoping to read magazines and newspapers on it? Are you hoping that Fine Homebuilding will one day come out with a digital issue? Post your thoughts below.
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I can understand why the folks at Taunton would dislike this new product. After all, they would then have to fit the same size screen as all the other magazines - no more 10% size advantage!
I am definitely interested in the Ipad as an alternative to the Kindle and using my laptop around the house for web surfing, including catching up on news, hobbies, etc. I subscribe to both Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking, and I often go back to old issues to revisit some woodworking technique, or tackle a new project. So I think the Ipad would have limited value when wanting to access archived material. But for reading newspapers, and magazines that are only of interest in the short term (e.g. SI or Time, etc) I think the Ipad is a gamechanger.
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Amish Electrician writes: I can understand why the folks at Taunton would dislike this new product
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And the fact that apple does NOT support flash on mobile devices.
I don't use twitter or Facebook, but I do own an iPhone and I do know that devices like the iPad are going to change the world of publishing, like it or not. I don't own a Kindle but we know the impact it is making on book publishing. It is not the perfect device for magazines, mainly due to it's B&W display, this is were the iPad will be revolutionary.
The iPad is the device that may stop me from hauling around my laptop as much, I'd love to get on a plane with my iPad that allows me to work, entertains me and lets me read my favorite magazines with out hauling around a couple copies of Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking
I have been faithfully reading your magazine for years, I keep every issue and can't wait for the next one to arrive. I'm not ready to give up on the print version. My hope is that you will be ahead of the curve and offer us subscribers both the print version and the iPad version.
The iPad is a classy product and dare I say, Taunton is a classy publisher. Print journalism is changing, those that don't jeep up will be left behind.
I would love to see Taunton publish to the iPad... I have a subscription to three of the four "Fine" magazines. If I could read, search, and bookmark them on my iPad using zinio or something. That would be fantastic.
I think it is a wonderful idea, oftentimes, whether on the train, or laying back for an afternoon being able to read on a device such as a kindle or ipad would save time in searching for articles and make archived issues accessible on the fly, even on the job site. I am waiting anxiously for it
You can actually read this on the ipad,There are two ways to do this but first you will need to sign up for an account at Issuu.com. After sign up go back to your PC and select the FWW digital issue that you would like to view on the ipad and bring it up to the viewer,then right click and click on read on Issuu,this then takes you to the Issuu web site which will automatically open the FWW issue. Below the FWW cover you will see various options but the one at the far right allows you to download this issue of FWW as a PDF which can then be dragged into I tunes books section which will open in Ibooks on the ipad when you sync.
Option 2
Locate the issue of FWW that you would like to read on your PC and right click to read on Issuu,when it has opened on Issuu note the web address for this page,then type the same address into safari on your ipad. You will now be presented with the cover page of FWW,again at the bottom of the cover you will see at the far right a download icon,tap this and safari will open a new page where you will be presented with FWW as a full page,just tap this page anywhere and at the top of the screen you should see the open in ibooks button,just tap this and FWW will open up in ibooks under PDF's. I have done this both ways and it works fine.
One other point that I should make is that when you search on Issuu for Fine Woodworking you get over 100 pages which suggests to me that they have loaded every issue from no1 to the current issue on the site. The above also works for Fine Homebuilding
I would love to see my FWW and FHB on the IPAD. It would be nice to be able to carry all my favorite references with me wherever I go. Let's do it.