Zinio | Michael Weening: a few pictures

My favourite app for the iPad is Zinio, the magazine reader. I don’t have a single paper magazine subscription left (living in Tokyo killed that). Flipboard is a close second, but the content is hit or miss and I enjoy paying for this content.

With a hectic travel, work and family schedule I find myself reading more and more magazine content as it allows me to dive in and out. The content is very targeted, allowing me to read based upon my particular mood. Feel like learning, HBR. Gadget minded … T3. Love the application.

The interesting thing is that in the era of massive decline of the print industry, I have never had so many magazine subscriptions or spent so much money in my life. In the past, I was maxed out at 2 or 3 – now I have 12. A testament to usability and digital convenience.

Here is my Zinio list, in no particular order:

Harvard Business Review
Wired
Mental Floss
Esquire
Men’s Journal
Inc.
Fast Company
GEO
PC Magazine
geek
Popular Science
T3

My only gripe? I wish I was reading it on a Samsung Android 10 inch Note, not our corporate standard … The iPad.

I miss my Samsung tablet.

This weekend I took the next step in my quest to get my carry on luggage weight dropped, signing up for a digital magazine service. Seems like there are a number of ways to go after this one, buying single magazines on sites such as Amazon Kindle or iTunes (As long as you are Apple centric) or signing up for a service like Zinio.

After reading through the pro’s and con’s, I am starting on Zinio as it has a large selection of magazines, it is easy to share right from the app if I want to send someone a clip, the text only mode is a fantastic way to strip out the ads and I can subscribe once and read it on any device (PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad …..). That being said it isn’t perfect, for example, Wired, Fast Company, Strategy+Business and a number of others are no where to be found.

My first subscription? Macworld. This ex-Microsoftie is still figuring that beast out. It isn’t quite as easy as people say ….