A day after the big Apple announcements coming out of San Francisco, one major newspaper publisher has decided to declare war on Apple and its app policy for the iPad.
Tag Archives: Apps
Globe and Mail’s new iPad app rocks
Last year, soon after the Canadian launch of iPad1, the Globe and Mail was the first Canadian newspaper to release an app for the tablet. But it was a big disappointment.
The roller-coaster that is today’s technology
When the first iPad was released, several commentators were quick to arrange a funeral for browser-based sites and apps. The future, they said, belonged to standalone apps.
Is Apple charging too much?
Amazon and Apple share the same compensation plan for developers and publishers: the two Big A’s pocket 30 per cent of sales, and the other 70 per cent goes to the developer or publisher. Apple recently launched a new subscription feature for companies wishing to publish their newspapers and magazines over the iPad, and again, Apple gets to keep 30 per cent of subscriptions sold and – even more crucially for publishers – refuses to share too much information on subscribers.
Greatest iPad apps around
I was among the first Canadians to get the iPad on May 28, the day this great device was released in this Canada. For me, the iPad is mostly an e-reader that allows me to read all my favourite newspapers and magazines in style (while cancelling all my print subscriptions). I also use it for my various social media activities, and it has served me extremely well. No Android tablet (especially the overpriced Galaxy Tab), Playbook or whatever else comes down the pipeline can hold a candle to the quality of Apple’s iPad. It’s so great that I have already decided to get the iPad2 too when it comes out in the spring 2011.
For those who are still stuck in the Stone Age and read their books, newspapers or magazines on paper, I strongly urge you to get the iPad and join the rest of us in the future. For that matter, anyone who still predominantly tweets or posts to Facebook from an old-fashioned desktop computer is a loser. That’s right: a loser.
Globe and Mail application is an utter failure
As I always say, leave it to a Canadian company to mess up where others, especially American or British companies, have already excelled. I’m talking about the Globe and Mail’s standalone application for the iPad.
From the first day I got my iPad, I changed my print subscriptions to e-paper, and I have been reading them (Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, National Post and many others) via the Press Reader application. This works beautifully and absolutely obviates the need for old-fashioned newspapers printed on dead trees.
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Problems with Globe2Go app?
There seems to be quite an interest in the Globe2Go app, the iPad application of the Globe and Mail newspaper, judging from my visitor stats. So, I have decided to shed some light for those who are interested.
The Globe2Go app is a way for subscribers to read the e-paper version of Canada’s national newspaper. It is produced by NewspaperDirect, a company that handles the e-paper editions of most newspapers around the world. Initially, I installed the app on my iPad and was impressed. But now I don’t use it anymore, because I read the paper, and several others, using the Press Reader app, by the same company, instead.
Time to bid adieu to the World Wide Web?
One of the most popular and successful iPad apps: The Wall Street Journal
Growing up I spent a lot of time reading. I’d read anything and everything I could get my hands on: books, newspapers, magazines, comics … . And I didn’t limit myself to just one language, reading widely in English, German, Spanish, Greek or any other language that would strike my fancy. To me, reading was all about learning about the world and getting information, lots of it. It’s true what they say, that information is power, not necessarily in the sense of controlling others, but rather as a way to have the necessary tools to navigate through and succeed in life.
The iPad really is the saviour of newspapers
The Wall Street Journal has generated more than $2 million in ad revenue from its iPad application, the Austrian daily Die Presse reports.
The WSJ was among the first newspapers to come out with a professional app for the iPad, and it seems to have paid off. Users get access to the full content of the newspaper every day, and best of all, it combines the look and feel of a real newspaper with the capabilities of the iPad.
The ads on the WSJ app are hardly noticeable, so for the company to earn over $2 million from its ads, that is a major accomplishment – and proves that subscription-based access to news content combined with some ads really does work.
Yesterday, Canada’s own Globe and Mail came out with its easy-to-use app, which also allows users to post interesting articles to Twitter or Facebook right from within the app. This new app is in addition to the newspaper’s e-paper edition (“Globe2Go”) for the iPad. Both are most wonderful applications, and any long-time newspaper reader must be wondering now why they ever bothered with old-fashioned newspaper printed on dead trees.
Other great newspaper apps that one simply must have are: The Times of London, New York Times and USA Today. All other newspapers from around the world are currently available via the magnificent app Press Reader.
Die Presse also reports that soon all (yes, all) Austrian newspapers and magazines will be launching their respective apps.
Over here in North America, we can surely expect more to come online as well.
The iPad: a renaissance for newspapers and magazines?
One of the main reasons I got an iPad was to switch my many different subscriptions to newspapers and magazines away from paper. After celebrating my iPad’s first-month “birthday”, I can now say that the “experiment” has been nothing if not a full success.
I think Steve Jobs was right: the iPad will change the way we approach computing, and it certainly will change the way we use and consume news.
Let me start by introducing you to PressDisplay. This is the brainchild of a company in Vancouver, Newspaper Direct. The company got its start in the news business about eleven years ago, supplying business people with foreign and often hard-to-get newspapers from around the world – with same-day delivery thanks to the company printing its own copy of the requested newspaper and delivering it to the customer’s doorstep.
For several years, the company has supplied most of Canada’s major newspapers with a “digital newspaper” platform, allowing readers to access their favourite newspaper from their computers, where it’s displayed in its original “printed” format. More recently, an option has been added to download the digital newspaper to most e-readers available today (Amazon Kindle, Sony e-reader, etc.).