Why I Love The Wired iPad App

I resisted purchasing the first issue of Wired magazine for the iPad. I bought the June print edition for $5.99 CDN instead. I heard all of the negative criticism about the magazine app - URLs don’t open up in a web browser, email addresses aren’t clickable, you can’t copy and paste text and so on.

I didn’t think the iPad Edition of Wired was worth the $5.99 CDN. So I took a pass.

Wired dropped the price to $3.99 CDN and I decided to take a second look. I really enjoyed the experience of reading the magazine on the iPad. Given a choice, I would prefer to read the iPad edition of Wired.

Clicking on an email link at the end of a story will now open up Mail and allow you to email the writer of the story. I still found that links didn’t work in the stories and ads but I didn’t care. It’s almost like reading the print addition - no hyperlinks and no copy/paste of text. I’d rather focus on reading one of the articles instead of getting sidetracked with another website anyway.

There are a few neat features such as embedded video and multiple charts. In some cases the video is used perfectly but I found the charts to be a little gimmicky, although, they are efficient in terms of saving space in the layout.

I don’t know if it is the novelty of a new app but I find that I’m reading more of the magazine in the iPad edition of Wired. The layout is beautifully customized for the iPad screen in portrait or landscape view. So far, I’m very impressed and look forward to next month’s issue and the new features that Wired plans to to introduce.

Posted in iPad at 9:39 PM