Wired is bringing its technology-magazine goodness to the iPad thanks to a little help from Adobe.
The magazine has worked with Adobe on a new digital publishing technology that enables it to create the print and digital version simultaneously. It didn’t dive into the specifics of the technology but it skirts around the banning of Flash as a creation tool on the iPad. Apple may hate Flash on its products but it knows it has to play nice with major publishers like Conde Nast, which publishes Wired, so don’t look for Adobe’s digital publishing tools to be banned any time soon.
As for the app itself, it appears to leverage the advantages tablets have over ordinary paper by including rich-media content. The first edition of the digital magazine includes slide shows, each page has been optimized for the iPad’s interface and there are embedded HD videos that can be played without an Internet connection. These expanded capabilities will also be available to advertisers – end users may not care about how fancy the ads are but magazines, in particular, live an die by the interest of its advertisers.
“There is no finish line,” said Wired’s editor Chris Anderson, in a blog post. “Wired will be digital from now on, designed from the start as a compelling interactive experience, in parallel with our print edition. Wired is finally, well, wired.”
Each iPad edition will cost about $5, which could be a bit pricey when you consider a yearly subscription to the print version can cost as little as $10. The company may eventually work in a digital and print bundle package like other publishers are experimenting with.
I’m still not quite convinced simply porting the magazine format to tablets will help save the old-school publishing industry but this one seems to add enough value to make it worth the price, at least for an issue or two. If you’re so inclined, you can check out the video below for a demonstration of what to expect from the digital version of the magazine.
Wired for the iPad ($4.99) – [iTunes Link]
[Via Wired]