Zinio Magazine Newsstand & Reader review

Magazines have been suffering of late, as we all take to the web to get our news, information and features quicker, and for free.

It’s a shame to see the newsstands dwindle, but times have been changing for ages now and if the print-and-paper world can’t keep up, it’s headed for disaster.

Fortunately, it does seem to be making some kind of effort to give its words to readers the way we want them - on a screen. Zinio has come along to try and facilitate that transition from glossy paper to touchscreens, and offers you a virtual WH Smiths in your pocket.

This free iPhone app is a gateway to magazine subscriptions and individual issue purchases of digitised newsstand periodicals. Sure, most of these mags now have websites, but the point of Zinio is to try and offer those ‘zines in a format you recognise from the paper shop shelves.

It’s easy to see how well this would work on the iPad, but there’s an obvious stumbling block on the iPhone; it’s very small screen. The miniature touchscreen doesn’t easily lend itself to large, glossy double-page spreads, but a lot of the magazines have taken this into account.

Naturally you’ve got pinch and pull for zooming, which is the primary method by which this obstacle is circumvented. But compatible mags also offer the option to shed the fancy layouts, coloured backdrops and massive pictures, and just read the text of the article you’re looking at.

You might ask why you need to buy a full priced magazine and spend 10 minutes downloading it, if you just wind up looking at the basic text, and there’s no immediate answer to that query. It’s not a perfect transition from paper to LCD, but it’s a start.

Zinio also needs to address some of its own foibles, as well as the difficulties of the digital transition. The app is constantly dropping out to Safari, whenever you try to look at a new magazine, or browse the virtual shelves.

Purchases are also made outside of the application, which feels rather antiquated, and all prices are displayed in dollars.

These aren’t major issues, but it feels clumsy and limited always having to switch between the application and the web browser, when there’s actually no need (with a bit of proper software development). Thank god for background apps in iOS4, that’s all I can say.

But if web pages aren’t your preferred reading format, and you pine for the days of fancy layouts and picture-heavy articles, Zinio could be just the magazine subscription alternative you’re looking for. Try before you buy, though.