The Magazine: For geeks like us. 1.0.1

by Perry Orne There are still quite a few useful iPad1s around. I`m sure, or guessing, that IOS5 support wouldn`t be that difficult. Please consider.

by Michael Moody I have been an Instapaper user and fan for years now (one of my first Apps on my iPhone 3G), and the developer, Marco Arment, has worked his magic again.

Just look at how small the App is: 2.0 MB. Issues are & will be small, as well, because this App and The Magazine are all about reading the content. No ads (as of now), no "Library" "Store" "FAQ" "Settings" or any of the other garbage that one sees in many Newsstand Apps. App review guidelines say one should praise an App on its own merits, not at the expense of others, but what happens when most of the others are so different (and stuck in the paper-edition world of the past) that one can`t help but draw contrasts to those dinosaurs? I love the content of my other Newsstand Apps, but some of them are straight up grating to read, as the text is packaged as a non-retina image, making the anti-aliased text look grainy and pixelated. If you`ve been put off by Newsstand Apps in the past because they do a poor job of trying to recreate a paper-based magazine, but you really want to read interesting articles on your iDevice, The Magazine is for you.

I want to READ. I want to read stories that are interesting to me. The Magazine allows me to do this. To enjoy and contemplate and absorb and focus on what the author has written. Not to have little swirly things dance around every time I go to a new page. Not to have ads distract me, and essentially turn me, the reader and user, the product sold to the advertiser, instead of the content being sold to me. And not to spend 7 minutes downloading a 500+MB issue. I want to read.

If I want to look up the definition of a word that I don`t know (and as I`m always trying to expand my vocabulary, I want to read articles that use such words), I want to be able to look it up by selecting the text. If I want to copy some text from an article, to put in a tweet, or an email, or a note, I want to be able to select that text. And I want my visually-impaired friends to be able to use voice-over on their iDevice to get the content as well. All these things are possible with The Magazine.

I want a pleasurable reading experience; The Magazine, and the content it serves up, delivers.

by Hendy Liemanto This app offers a brand new fresh concept. I`m sure there will be more and more writers coming on board. Give it some time!