Moving to strength

It’s never a bad idea to look at more photographs. I get ideas and enjoyment and education in equal measure and the iPad is just one more handy viewing tool, and a very capable one.

Publishers of magazines are proving their usual slow selves in getting with it and some still don’t understand that only a fool will pay $5 an eIssue when an annual paper subscription can be had for 20% of the cost but patience is called for. After all, the magazine publishing business has never been inundated with grey matter, and things take time. I may love trees, but I’m not that dumb.

The Zinio app for the iPad is a work in progress but I have found the maker responsive to problem reports and the app keeps moving to strength. Their magazine inventory grows daily and includes lots of European and Asian content. It’s never bad to broaden one’s views.

Here are my current subscriptions, all geared to good photography with the exception of Macworld, which is focused on great software and lousy hardware which they love without exception (can you say ‘conflict of interest’?):

National Geographic speaks for itself, containing some of the best photography on the planet (any decade now expect them to release all their back issues for the iPad) and if you have never seen Arizona Highways you are in for a landscape photography treat. US Vogue seems unaware of the iPad’s existence (duh!), Harper’s Bazaar seems to think that subscription pricing is not called for (double duh!) and Vanity Fair, which really should know better, is in the same camp. Rolling Stone gets it and contains great photography not to mention the only credible investigative reporting in the US (can you say recent exposés of the evil that is Goldman Sucks and a dumb-as-a-brick US Army general?). It’s where Annie Leibovitz got her start and she seems to have done OK.

Check Zinio out – it’s worth it.