The Next Web Magazine (for iPad)

Image taken from The Next Web

I probably haven't mentioned this before, but one of my favourite sites to read now a days would be The Next Web (TNW). It's a social media site, but it has loads of other interesting things involving entrepreneurship, and even humour (look at this page about Internet predictions!)

And one great thing about The Next Web is that they publish a free monthly magazine for the iPad app Newsstand. Yes, free! You can support them with a subscription, but you can also get the articles free. This means I can finally use my Newsstand app (considering I have no way/money to get subscriptions :p). Yippee!

So, every month, I can download a new issue. And each issue is wonderful! I'll have them permanently stored in my iPad if it weren't for the fact that I tried this once and ran out of space.

Each issue just gets better and better, as the magazine team turns each issue to a new and better version. Examples are like how the movie recommendations change from a simple blurb to a blurb with a trailer that you can watch in the magazine! Another example is how the music recommendations have added tracks that you can actually listen to!

As much as I love the printed word, I must say I can't imagine this magazine as anything but a digital copy. TNW has used the functions in the iPad to make reading this magazine a new and enjoyable experience! It's one thing to read music reviews, and another to listen to a demo track! I haven't bought anything while reading the app (There are links, especially for books) since I tend to read while offline, so I can't comment on the buying function.

Content-wise, the magazine is excellent. Each month has a topic, like Valentines Day (it's not always related to social media ;) ). This month's topic is Monetize and the feature articles, books and movies are planned around it. What results is that your knowledge in that category improves, plus you get recommendations on what to watch/read if you want more! So it's educational and entertaining! (Sorry, I have this thing about stuff being educational. I know, I'm a nerd :O )

If you have an iPad, you definitely have to get this. And if you can, please support those who made this magazine by subscribing.

PressReader App

Alright so today, I'm going to review something that's not a book!

-cue the gasps of horror-

But it's related to reading though

-audible sighs of relief (with everyone thinking "we don't have to listen to more of her life")-

You see, a few weeks ago, Caleb from PressReader contacted me about their app. Since I arrived in Japan, I haven't really been reading the papers, and I was actually craving the papers back home. Naturally, I was interested in reviewing this app. And the clincher was the fact that you could read offline. Since I only have wifi during school hours (where I can't read), the availability of offline reading was very appealing.

I've been using the app for about a month now, and I'm dreading the thought of life without it. The folks at PressReader gave me a pretty cool account for the time being, and I've been able to read The Star and Today newspapers everyday (and now, Guardian Review every Saturday).

Obviously, I love the app for the offline reading. That means you have to download the issues, but I didn't have any space problems with it. For papers that you want to read everyday, you can actually subscribe, and have it "automatically" download everyday. The only caveat is that you have to open the app for the download to start.

And, there are a lot of newspapers to read. While there wasn't The Straits Times or The New York Times(I suspect it's because they have their own iPad app), there are many many newspapers. I made quite a lot of people happy by letting them read their home papers (like The Cape Times, or this Korean paper). So I suppose for most people, they could find their favourite newspaper here. And, if you really love to read the papers like me, you can actually browse and try a lot of different papers from around the world.

Navigation-wise, it's pretty obvious. I had some problems figuring out how to delete the papers I didn't want, but it turns out I overlooked the "edit" button at the bottom left-hand side. You can search for the paper by Country or Language, which I thought was quite useful.

Apart from a few times when the app crashed (I suspect that's because my iPad is pretty old and starting to have some hardware issues), the app runs perfectly. I don't have any complaints in this department.

Oh, and before I forget, this is really like a newspaper. There are a few times, where the feature/comic is cut of halfway because it's printed in the middle. You can view two pages at a time, but the pictures still look a little strange (As though someone printed a picture in the middle, then folded it like a book), and the text becomes really small. You can zoom in, but I like the font size on the single page option (in landscape mode).

The bottom line is that this app is really cool. If you love the papers like me (or you know, need to read them for school/research), then it's worth paying money for this (And I saw a few, like one or two papers, which was free and didn't cost money; so the poor students like me can stick to those). But if you read only one paper and pretty much ignore the rest, you might as well stick to the app made by the publisher of that company (like The Straits Times), which might have better formatting and extra content.

Disclaimer: I received a free trial account from the company in exchange for a free and honest review.

Nintendo DS - 100 Classic Books

I've always wished that I could read on my DS, because strangely, it's my favourite device (sorry Apple). So when I heard of the 100 Classic Books catridge, I was floored. I mean, I need to save money and find this catridge fast. Ok, maybe not so fast because I bought 2 new books today and so, the cycle of saving must start (again).

Me being me, I think 100 books is plenty. Even if it's all classics. But apparently, there are other catridges, such as those by FLIPS, which is an interactive book game thing that has more recent books like Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, Enid Blyton. I'm actually most tempted to just get the Enid Blyton, since that was basically what I read growing up.

I'm a bit hestitant though, as to whether it's physically feasible to read on the small DS screen. But I won't know until I try it(:

Zite vs Flipboard

There are many news-aggregating apps for the iPad, the two of which are Zite and Flipboard. It's actually a really effective tool to read on the iPad, because of the pretty quality, and of course, the fact that the news are up-to-date. But after having both apps for awhile, I eventually deleted Flipboard yesterday.

This is actually in interests of space (I'm running out), and I realised that once I downloaded Zite, I gradually stopped using Flipboard. What I liked about Flipboard was the face that I could look at my twitter feed and facebook (although I use it mainly for facebook).

However, it seemed harder to get the content I wanted, and by-and-by, I got tired of those same few sections. Plus, while the format is pretty, the grid-like boxes were annoying because they updated individually and it took a really long time, especially if I didn't go onto Flipboard for a time.

The nice thing I like about Zite was how it can personalise content, which led me to spend more time reading it. The way the sections are arranged are also convenient, and it's easy to add or delete a section. In fact, the reason why I got a delicious account was because I wanted to save some of the articles I read. And this is the main "flaw" of Zite, that unlike Flipboard, the articles 'disappear' much faster. There was this recipe of a s'mores pie I forgot to copy, and now it's gone ):

Another difference between the two was that while they both need the Internet to update their content, at the very least, I could browse through the previews of the different articles on Flipboard. With Zite, I can't even go to the main page (perhaps that's something they could improve on?)

But ultimately, I think I choose Zite because of it's user-friendliness, and the fact that I prefer the content it offers (I'm not sure how they choose the content, but in the Japan section of Zite, I found all the things that I liked, while Flipboard only had a Tsunami section, which was mainly twitter posts).