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Wired has hit the iPad.
For $4.99, you can now buy the Wired Magazine iPad app (link opens iTunes) in the AppStore. As early as November of last year, Wired was showing off an "iTablet concept app". This morning their iPad app officially hit the AppStore, and it's awesome. Check out a video here where Wired shows it off.
Says Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired, in a letter written to Wired readers this morning,
Until now, the best magazine app on the iPad has been Popular Science, but this is even better. Wired has set the bar here on how print media will be re-envisioned as Apple has changed how it will be consumed. The entire edition is as much app as is magazine, as much website as it is print. From the front cover, tap any story to be brought right to it. Tap anywhere on the screen to bring up the menu (which hovers over top and bottom of the screen). You can choose any article you'd like from the popup menu, scroll through the articles or each page individually, and swipe pages left and right.The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznor’s recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.
Within each story, the elements are interactive. Click and drag over a picture of a popup book, and see a hand turning pages - and watch how the book works. Tap and hold on Iron Man, and slide him back and forth to spin around a 360 degree view of him. Listen to audio clips, and play video.
Here's a quick video I took of Iron Man spinning.
Advertising as well is a whole new level here. Wired mentions "nine advertisers took advantage of premium sponsorships in Wired’s June digital edition, allowing them to incorporate interactivity and enhancements including 360º images, slide shows and videos." When you see the new Infiniti M, if you're interested in it, just tap the video on the top and you'll actually be able to watch a commercial of it right in the app. Advertisers are going to love this.
There's no word anywhere about how new issues will work. The app is a little over 500MB, and opens up the June edition of Wired. It would be nice to be able to have multiple issues (hey - I've got 64GB on here) in my iPad, but I imagine Wired is still working on their subscription model, or at least aren't making it public yet. We'll figure that out when they announce.
Either way - grab this app. Whether you're a Wired fan or not, this is a brilliant example of how print media and the iPad are made for each other.2010-05-26 03:40 PM
