The Wrap Reviews Print Apps for iPad

As predicted, more print magazines and newspapers are releasing iPad apps. How good are they?

Lew Harris, managing editor of The Wrap, has tested a batch of them, in a roundup review: Print Apps for iPad: What Works, What Doesn't. He says the results so far are "pretty encouraging."

Harris brings to the task the eyes and sensibility of a guy who's been a veteran of both print magazines (Los Angeles, People, Us) and Web-only publications (E! Online, Movies.com).

"The monthlies are doing a far better job of it than the dailies, for obvious reasons – they have the time to invest. And for the most part, they not only look damn good, but some are taking full advantage of the interactive possibilities.

Cleverly, most of the apps are free -- but downloading individual issues costs $3-5 (about the same as their newsstand price, but more expensive than a print subscription -- neither of which includes multimedia features such as video).

Harris walks us through all the tapping and swiping, and provides brief reviews of the top ten, which he ranks in order of best to least impressive:

* Men's Health
* Wired
* Vanity Fair
* GQ
* Popular Science
* Time Magazine
* USA Today
* New York Times
* Wall Street Journal
* The Nation

Which iPad apps have you downloaded and used? Please share your experience and thoughts in the comments section below, or on KobreGuide's Facebook Group discussion forum.

Is Your Website Ready for the iPad?

What do CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Vimeo, Time, Major League Baseball, the White House, Virgin America, Sports Illustrated, Flickr, People Magazine, and TED have in common?

These are some of the leading Websites that will work seamlessly on the iPad, or what Apple calls "iPad ready."

"iPad features Safari, a mobile web browser that supports the latest web standards — including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript."

Translation: If you're using Adobe Flash, you're screwed. As we've previously noted, Steve Jobs refuses to support Flash, so on Apple's mobile devices (iPhones, iPods, iPads), ubiquitous Flash videos and animations appear as broken icons or empty spaces.

Given the iPad's enthusiastic reception by influential reviewers, and pre-release customer demand, we suspect most savvy Websites will start marching to Apple's drumbeat and customize their Websites accordingly, using native HTML5 tags instead of third-party software plug-ins.

Learn how to test and prepare your Website content for iPad readiness here.

Meanwhile, take an early look at iPad's top newspaper apps (pictured), courtesy of Nieman Lab. See the variety of ways that USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Associated Press, and other major media organizations are taking advantage of iPad's screen size and touch-screen functionality. Note that these paid apps are different than their respective Websites.

Any more questions about the iPad? New York Times tech guru David Pogue is here to answer them for you.

And strictly for your weekend amusement, here's David Letterman playing with his new iPad:



Be sure to let us know what you think of your iPad ... and, more importantly, its customized content.