I was surprised this Christmas with an iPad from Santa, shocked actually because I would have never bought one for myself. When the iPad first came out it seemed to me nothing more than a big iPhone from which I have and had gotten quite good at getting all that I could out of it - phone, multi media, internet, ect. I have watched as devices like the Kindle (ereaders) have had good sales over the year and was baffled at how heavy readers were finding this an apealing way to interact with print. I was sceptical to say the least but now that I had the holley grail of ereaders I was determined to be open minded. When I discovered that the feel of the iPad was light to hold - very much like a book in size and shape and the way that apps presented material was very much like a book. Most pages need to be expanded as the standard type is still a bit small for my eyes but the simple two finger move acomplishes this - amazing. The primary app for books seems to be iBooks which presents books as close to the real thing that a cold digital screen can provide, pages are a bit warped at the spin where bound and you flip the next page just like a real book. I would have expected pages to slide like you see in a word processor but no these pages visually flip to the next and back again if you want. I have not read much in quite some time and was now very excited about the benefits that the iPad were going to give me. Books are cheaper, a lot cheaper, in digital format and then are not piling up around the house. But wait, I love magazines more than books - what about my favorite magazine Coral? Amazingly, just recently the magazine released its own app for its magazine especially designed for the iPad and its currently free. How can that be, well the magazine created the app. itself rather than going to other apps like iBooks or Zinio to publish its magazine. Zinio is a popular app that has the largest selection of digital magazines to purchase, but the feel of the presentation is not near as appealing as Zinio and iBooks does not currently offer magazines to my noledge, only books. The Coral mazine app in a true winner and I have yet to find any downfall. The book comes up in full screen view which really is stunning when you consider that the magazine has always been known for their eye popping images of marine animals. The interface in very simple, tap the screen and a horizontal ribbon comes up with images of future and past pages allowing to to quickly go to anywhere in the magazine. This ribbon is navigated with your finger as a slidder - amazingly simple. There are several icons that come up at the top of the screen that allow you to go to other issues (currently only the initial one Nov/Dec 2010) and search that will become more useful as more issues are available in time. That is all there is to the app and all that is needed. I applaude Coral magazine for their investment in creating the iPad app and the ability to make it available free. Even if you do not have an iPad you can purchase the digital version of the magazine that currently has 6 issues available over the past year to view for $22.00 ($15.00 less than hard copies) on any computer. I new that these were available but never purchased them as reading on a computer was never appealing to me, that is why I was so sceptical about what the iPad could offer. I was 100% wrong about my initial impressions of the iPad without using one, its experience is nothing like a computer and I anticipate reading much more, especially Coral magazine. My only critisim that I shared with the editor of Coral was that there website is very rich with content and it is a bit difficult to understand just what is offered with different subscriptions offered. For the record their is the hard copy which is $37.00 mailed to you (I don't know how much they are in a fish store), $22.00 for the digial version which allows you to get the a year of digital pdf type files of the magazine viewable on computers but not much fun and then there is the iPad app which is currently free. I must say that I sold my soul to Apple some years ago as all of my computers and devices are Apple's but was pretty sure that the iPad was one that I would not need or use - I was wrong. The iPad has very much enhanced my pleasure in reading Coral magazine with the benefits of accessing information in it at the tap of a screen. I strongly recommend this way of experiencing the magazine.
Aww man... I thought this was the announcment of my winning the winter pic contest prize being how I wasnt able to make it to the meeting... LOL
I found it last night, a little more difficult due it being such a small screen, but I can get over that easily enough.
