So, Apple finally unveiled their ‘next big thing’ today after years of speculation: the iPad. All told, the 9.3″ touchscreen device looks … interesting. As expected, the device is a beautiful piece of hardware, perfectly crafted to make me want one, and with a $499 price-tag, it isn’t even that far out of reach.
Web-browsing looks fantastic, and I’m even a little excited by the custom tailored version of the iWork suite, already my preferred ‘productivity suite’ on the desktop. Though Apple has said that their bookstore will only be available to US customers at launch, it too looks nice, and will likely make its way to the international market with a little patience, just like the movie and TV stores before it.
The one thing that Jobs and company didn’t really seem to touch on was the magazine market. Prior to the launch event, the internet was abuzz with talk of Condé Nast executives swinging by Cupertino, presumably to get their library onto the tablet. This had me excited. I love magazines, and have spent many hours leafing through the pages of Vanity Fair, Edge, Harpers … but not recently. In the past couple of years I have only rarely picked up the latest issue of any of these.
Why not? I’m not entirely sure, honestly. Perhaps it has a little to do with the slight feeling of silliness I feel picking up the latest Vanity Fair, Meryl Streep looking out from the cover, declaring to the world that she is still sexy at 60. As though as a mid-twenties male I need some sort of permission slip to pick up the magazine.
When I do buy magazines, often as not, they sit barely read. I might riffle through once, pick out a couple of articles, but life seems to be such that the time and inclination to read a magazine rarely coincides with the magazine actually being accessible to me. With the iPad, I hoped all this might change. I could order a subscription to magazines x, y and z and have them delivered straight to my computer, sync them to the tablet, and away I go. There they would be, sitting right there on the device I already (sadly) spend such a large chunk of my day glued in front of.
The idea of this lightweight tablet as the viewport leading to these magazines seemed perfect. A device that I could legitimately work on, but in a second flip over to read this month’s New Yorker. But come the unveiling, Condé Nast was a no-show. Is my dream not to be? Where are the magazines? Did I miss something?
The internet is all well and good, but I miss the carefully laid-out design of print. I guess I’ll just have to hope for another announcement in the coming months….
And one more thing? Please?
27 01 2010So, Apple finally unveiled their ‘next big thing’ today after years of speculation: the iPad. All told, the 9.3″ touchscreen device looks … interesting. As expected, the device is a beautiful piece of hardware, perfectly crafted to make me want one, and with a $499 price-tag, it isn’t even that far out of reach.
Web-browsing looks fantastic, and I’m even a little excited by the custom tailored version of the iWork suite, already my preferred ‘productivity suite’ on the desktop. Though Apple has said that their bookstore will only be available to US customers at launch, it too looks nice, and will likely make its way to the international market with a little patience, just like the movie and TV stores before it.
The one thing that Jobs and company didn’t really seem to touch on was the magazine market. Prior to the launch event, the internet was abuzz with talk of Condé Nast executives swinging by Cupertino, presumably to get their library onto the tablet. This had me excited. I love magazines, and have spent many hours leafing through the pages of Vanity Fair, Edge, Harpers … but not recently. In the past couple of years I have only rarely picked up the latest issue of any of these.
Why not? I’m not entirely sure, honestly. Perhaps it has a little to do with the slight feeling of silliness I feel picking up the latest Vanity Fair, Meryl Streep looking out from the cover, declaring to the world that she is still sexy at 60. As though as a mid-twenties male I need some sort of permission slip to pick up the magazine.
When I do buy magazines, often as not, they sit barely read. I might riffle through once, pick out a couple of articles, but life seems to be such that the time and inclination to read a magazine rarely coincides with the magazine actually being accessible to me. With the iPad, I hoped all this might change. I could order a subscription to magazines x, y and z and have them delivered straight to my computer, sync them to the tablet, and away I go. There they would be, sitting right there on the device I already (sadly) spend such a large chunk of my day glued in front of.
The idea of this lightweight tablet as the viewport leading to these magazines seemed perfect. A device that I could legitimately work on, but in a second flip over to read this month’s New Yorker. But come the unveiling, Condé Nast was a no-show. Is my dream not to be? Where are the magazines? Did I miss something?
The internet is all well and good, but I miss the carefully laid-out design of print. I guess I’ll just have to hope for another announcement in the coming months….
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Tags: Apple, iPad, Magazines
Categories : commentary