As companies get better using the tools to develop content for the iPad, new product models are appearing. We mentioned the Distro Magazine that is a weekly tech magazine with full length articles like you would expect out of a monthly magazine, but appearing on your iPad weekly.
Now, for Photographers, is Photography Week. While shorter than other monthly Photography iPad Magazine offerings, it isn’t just a rehash of a blog’s recent posts. Instead, the publication carries in depth reviews as well as quick equipment highlights via hot spot photos. Everything your used to seeing in the high dollar digital magazine, just a bit shorter and updated every week.
Each week, a new issue of Photography Week is delivered to the library within the overall app (Newsstand). After selecting the cover to launch the magazine, swiping up on the lower ‘Open’ tab gives you access to the many areas of content as well as thumbnails of articles which can be selected for jumping directly to the content.
The photographs within Photography Week are at the level you expect from the years of reading similar print publications. Throughout are photographs to inspire, submitted photos, product photos and article example photographs.
Selecting ‘hot spot’ markers around the page results in pop over boxes of more detail. This may not work for other subject magazines, but for photography it works very well. You are still able to see the photo being discussed while reading about technique for photographing or tuning of the photo afterwards. It is a nice way that digital magazines like Photography Week can do a better job of delivering the message and content than possible in a print publication.
Swiping up on content pages can take you to another page below or open the content over the top of the original view. Within these area can be boxes of text on the same subject that can be swiped from side-to-side to view more. This is nice when the article is on subject A, and the lower area can be related products or techniques. Everything in Photography Week appears to be tied together nicely.
A different use of hot spotting content is the weekly hardware review. Selecting each of the outer circles changes the center display’s information. Better than just scrolling through a couple page article? We like it as it really is easier to follow the information provided when your not having to flip pages.
Generally, your iPad is connected to the Internet, so some features use that connection to pull in the latest data or insert updates. Below is Facebook and Twitter responses to a question that could change every time you view Photography Week.
If you like getting a ‘magazine’ style view of the latest news and reviews in the area of Photography, the free 5 week trial is worth the quick download. It will be interesting to watch how publications re-invent themselves to merge the just-in-time features of a blog yet have the feel of having a paper magazine in a person’s hands. Photography Week is producing a nice product which we can image will continue to changes as new ideas come out for the best ‘print’ experience in a iPad digital world.
