Although I don't read books very often, I do love to read magazines when I travel. One of my favorite magazines is Macworld. It's one of the few that I look forward to each month. I have a subscription to the printed version, but I'm excited to see it now on my iPad via the Zinio App. I tried out the Free issue first and now I'm hooked. I'm seriously considering subscribing to this electronic version. One advantage the electronic version would have is that I would't have to wait until I got home to get the latest issues. As soon as its available I could download it no matter where I am in the world and start reading it.
Navigation and zooming
Navigating the pages is done by swiping and you can pinch to zoom in and out just as you would expect. The screen refresh is really fast and responsive on the iPad. The pages also auto adjust for either portrait and landscape viewing. It also remembers where you left off if you leave the app. Definitely a GREAT experience for reading.
Buy one issue or subscribe
Just like in the printed world, you can use Zinio to buy or try a single issue of a magazine or you can subscribe and have it delivered electronically each time its published.
There are two things that will keep Zinio from being a total smash hit. One is the number of available titles. They're bringing on more titles all the time, but it may be hard finding some of your favorite magazines. The second and probably bigger problem is the price. As you can see above Zinio charges $6.99 for a single issue of Macworld and $19.97 for a subscription. The subscription price is not bad at all (it's the same as the printed version though), but the single issue price is killer. Keep in mind that there is no printing here, yet they are charging as much as a printed issue. You do get the entire issue including the Ads. But wait, aren't the Ads supposed to pay for the printing? Don't get me wrong, I actually would rather have the exact same layout as I get in print, but you're paying the same price as you would for the printed issue, so it would almost seem that the advertisers are getting a bonus here. Perhaps they price their advertising accordingly. However, it would be nice to have an option to turn off the ads if you didn't want to see them.
You can get Zinio here from the App Store: 
Switch your Macworld subscription over to Digital
I idid a little more research on this topic and as it turns out MacWorld in particular does allow you to convert your existing subscription over from Print to Digital (Zinio). So I'll be doing that for sure! Here's the info from their site:
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Zinio
Zinio lets you read some of the most popular magazines on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. You can read some for free or subscribe to others. Buy one issue or do an annual subscription
- Zinio LLC
- Get on App Store
- Free
All info was collected on 27th May, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
Thanks for the revue, I have downloaded the app onto my iPhone 3gs it works a treat. Now I can read my copy of photoshop user magazine. great stuff Terry
I subscribe to MacWorld via the Zinio app on the iPad, and it’s dreadful! The insane landscape view, displaying two pages is totally unreadable. Portrait view is only barely legible. You can tap on the page to zoom in and pan around, but that’s silly, and the optional text mode (which is easily readable) is a clear admission that the app has serious issues. Viewing a single page zoomed in landscape mode is nice…until you move to the next page and lose the zoom.
Even at the subscription price, this app fails badly, easily outclassed in every conceivable way by it’s paper counterpart. Sorry Terry, but the Zinio reader for iPad is a real stinker and it doesn’t remotely approach Time or Wired on the iPad.
I’d have top agree with the previous post. The ipad version could have been something much better, but they seem to have rushed it out the door. Also, the program does not give you access to most if not all of your online library. (previous purchases)
Really surprised to hear complaints. I’ve been a Zinio user, as a paperless option, on my laptops for years. I’ve migrated a half dozen long term subscriptions to it. That version of their reader has seen constant improvements and I find the current version really strong. That’s why I checked out the article. I’ll check out the app and return with my own opinion.
Zinio, in my personal experience, is a strong reason not to subscribe to a magazine.
As a former electronic subscriber to two magazines from two different publishers using the Zino application on my Mac, I would greet any PR hoo-hah from Zinio with extreme skepticism.
The magazines would read fine on my 24″ iMac, BUT… Zino’s foul, ****ed-up copy protection scheme gave me nothing but headaches. Far too often, I could read one magazine, but not the other. To switch magazines, I had to re-register the application. Following Zinio’s tech support suggestions, I did countless re-installs trying to fix the problem, but finally gave up. Zinio would not help me. I let one subscription expire, and cancelled the other.
Never again, Zinio!
I too just discovered Zinio and love it! The weight of my magazines in my backpack when I travel on business was too much with all of my magazines. I am opting for the e-versions like this whenever possible! They look perfect on the iPad.
I vented above my frustration with the awful Zinio Reader for iPad. Here are some suggestions:
1) Abandon the unreadable two page spread and zoom a single scrollable page instead.
2) Remove the text only mode (which screams failure), since doing #1 makes the page perfectly readable.
3) Use the “gallery” view, where 24 postage stamp size pages are displayed for viewing two page spreads. Offer optional 8 and 24 page views.
4) Remove the ugly boxes around links and urge publishers to expend a little effort to style clickable text.
5) Lean on publishers to develop an alternate style sheet for the electronic version–in particular use larger fonts for our diminutive displays and their inherent lower resolution.
6) Add the search feature of the desktop app to the iPad.
These suggestions won’t make magazines on the Zinio app near as good as Time or Wired on the iPad, but as a floor for the bare minimum, this might be sufficient.
I was actually intrigued by the Zinio app until Terry and a whole bunch of other reviewers gave it an average to poor showing. I guess I’ll be sticking to my print subscriptions for a while longer.
As an aside, I came across this website after I googled your name after I saw your bit on the CS5 launch. All I can say is: “Excellent blog.” Love your reviews and the readers here give great advise too.
Don’t just depend on the reviews here-go ahead and try it with some single issues where there is not much loss if there is a failure and quite a boost if it works well. This is what I am trying right now. One purchase was just fine, the other I had to use a web browser to make the purchase as the iPad app doesn’t seem to understand how to let me buy back issues.
Why is it worth the test? I don’t know about you but being able to read the same magazine on my laptops (work and home), phone, and the iPad I am using on my train commute is pretty compelling. The Mac angle is nice as well, if I turn that direction a bit…