First Impressions of Wired’s iPad App

Wired’s new iPad version (iTunes Link) of the magazine has finally hit the iTunes Store, beginning with the current June issue. Macworld has a good rundown of the basics here. As a subscriber to the print edition, I was particularly curious to see how the content was translated to the new tablet medium. 

To date, most magazine-to-iPad transitions have been pretty underwhelming. Popular Science made a splash at launch with their highly interactive edition, and Time magazine’s effort has been generally well received (save for the annoyance of each issue being packaged as an individual app — particularly egregious for a weekly publication). Most other attempts at iPad magazine publication has honestly been nothing more than PDF viewers. Dwell (iTunes Link), Zinio, and other apps are fine as simple direct ports of the publications, but they bring absolutely nothing new to the table. It’s akin to watching a VHS tape on a HDTV. 

Overall, I really like what Wired’s done here with the iPad edition. Their format seems to share a lot in common with Time’s, in that both strike a nice balance of some of the best aspects of what print offers for copy and image presentation, while slickly working in expanded multimedia content for many of the featured pieces, including audio, video, image galleries, and more. 

The current issue features a great (albeit too brief) piece on Pixar, focusing on their design/development process for each film, and includes a neat walkthrough of the work involved in developing a single scene. This is well done, even in the print edition, but the iPad version is able to offer the added feature of actually showing you the finished scene. Yes, it’s a bit of a no-brainer, but it’s still a new feature for a new medium very much in its infancy. And it’s really well integrated. 

Some of the advertisers are getting in on the interactivity as well. While this first issue features plenty of static display ads (ported over directly from the print version), a few others do stand out. Cameron Moll mentioned one in particular, and posted a quick video of the ad in action.

I’d gladly jettison the print edition (and feel better about the environmental benefits of utilizing less print) if it wasn’t for one factor — price. When I can get the print edition sent to my door for $20 (or often less, depending on special subscription offers), there’s just no way I’m going to pay 3x that ($5 per issue) for each month’s Wired. I understand $5 as a single issue price (comparable to the existing newsstand price for the print version), but publishers need to move quickly toward a subscription model for this content. 

Whether that’s achieved via the iTunes Season Pass model, or through in-app purchases, I don’t really know or particularly care. But my hunch is that there will be few people who are going to buy more than an occasional issue at this price. Sure, the first issue will probably do well, as folks check out the new format and buy it for the shear novelty of it (it is a great demo for folks new to the iPad).

But that novelty won’t last for long at $60 per year.

Wired Magazine iPad App (iTunes Link)

Please Pardon the Mess…

For those of you who may be stumbling across this new version of the Bainbridge Studios blog for the first time, welcome. This blog has seen it’s share of fits and starts over the past four years and today’s post is the beginning of a significant revamping I’m undertaking to get the blog relaunched, following by an expanded completely redesigned version of the Bainbridge Studios company/portfolio site (the current single page format will make way for a new website this summer). Previously housed in a WordPress setup hosted locally on our own server, I’ve decided to shift the blog over to Tumblr. There was a number of reasons for doing so, but primary among those was the added advantage of the active Tumblr community (which ultimately will help some of these posts get a bit more notice), and the ease-of-use of the Tumblr platform. From the desktop to iPhone to iPad, Tumblr’s easy, friendly browser-based interface makes it a joy to quickly and easily post. And given that the time and hassle of crafting posts has, in the past, been one of my biggest deterrents from properly maintaining this blog, I’m hoping the removal of at least some of those obstacles will make it easier for me to post on a regular basis.

Overall, I’m really excited about where this blog is headed in the coming months. I want to be able to provide a unique perspective on the small business experience (the ups and downs, warts and all), alongside design happenings, updates on our latest work, and more.

I hope you’ll find what we’ll be offering to be of value.

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