NewspaperDirect will once again update its PressReader application for the iPhone and iPad. Aside from the support for iOS5, the main new thing of the upcoming version 2.5.11 is the new SmartZoom option that, according to the official press release, “makes reading digital replicas of newspapers in high resolution a snap.” When you double-tap on an article, PressReader will instantly zoom in to the beginning of the story, rather than the touch point. Then, as you scroll down the article, the application will automatically align the columns for optimum viewing.
You may think “well that’s what Safari already does with web pages” — and honestly that was my thinking as well — but apparently it’s not that simple. SmartZoom is said to “understand the structure of every page and every article,” relying on recognition algorithms and artificial intelligence to reconstruct missing semantic structures for over 2,000 publishers’ PDF documents every day.
Unfortunately the updated application (with this new feature included) is still not available, but will be released soon — not sure how soon, though. In the meantime, NewspaperDirect released the following video to demonstrate SmartZoom in action. Here comes…
Finally, in case you don’t know, the PressReader app is available as a free download while most individual newspapers and magazines can be purchased for $0.99 per issue…
PressReader (FREE) [iTunes link]