You can now download the new Apple iPad app for Wired magazine. The tech magazine offered the iPad app on the iTunes store on Wednesday, an interactive version of the popular technology publication for five dollars a month, the same price as the print edition. “Wired is finally, well, wired,” editor-in-chief Chris Anderson said in a statement on the Wired.com website.
Anderson added that the Wired editorial team appreciated the irony that a “magazine founded to chronicle the digital revolution” was now available on something other than “the smooshed atoms of dead trees.”
Anderson, an influential technology writer and author of the books about the Internet “The Long Tail” and “Free,” said the arrival of tablet computers like the iPad represent “a grand experiment in the future of media.”
“The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of,” he said. “It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics.”
The magazine’s June edition includes an interactive Mars map, a video tour of the recording studio of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Pixar’s “Toy Story 3.”
Readers browse stories and photos in the digital Wired, which is available through Apple’s online iTunes store and contains advertising, by swiping the iPad touchscreen with a finger or pinching to zoom in or out.
US newspapers and magazines have been grappling with a steady decline in print advertising revenue and circulation and Wired is one of a number of US publications which have turned to the iPad as an avenue for new revenue.
Wired owner Conde Nast has also released iPad applications for two other magazines in its stable, GQ and Vanity Fair.
To produce the iPad application, Wired teamed up with Adobe Systems, whose popular Flash video software has been banned from Apple products.
Anderson said the Wired iPad application was created in a yearlong effort using “new digital publishing technology developed by Adobe.”
Here’s Anderson’s full post on the new Wired iPad app:
The irony that Wired, a magazine founded to chronicle the digital revolution, has traditionally come to you each month on the smooshed atoms of dead trees is not lost on us. Let’s just say the medium is not always the message.
Except that now it is. I’m delighted to announce that Wired’s first digital edition is now available for the iPad and soon for nearly all other tablets. We have always made our stories accessible online at Wired.com, but as successful as the site is, it is not a magazine.
The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznor’s recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.
To deliver this rich reading environment, we’re using new digital publishing technology developed by Adobe. The yearlong effort, spearheaded by Wired creative director Scott Dadich, will allow us to simultaneously create both the print magazine and the enhanced digital version with the same set of authoring and design tools.
The arrival of the tablet represents a grand experiment in the future of media. Over the next few months, we’ll integrate social media and offer a variety of versions and ways to subscribe in digital form. We’ll learn through experimentation, and we will watch closely as our readers teach us how they want to use tablets.
There is no finish line. Wired magazine will be digital from now on, designed from the start as a compelling interactive experience, in parallel with our print edition. Wired is finally, well, wired.
Description:
Download WIRED and be the first to experience this groundbreaking magazine with exclusive iPad content. Go behind the scenes of Pixar’s Toy Story 3. Spin our interactive Mars map to see the human impact on the Red Planet. Hang out in the recording studio with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. See the greatest special effects in modern film—all in one reel. It’s the WIRED vision of how technology is changing the world—and it’s only on the iPad.
In the June issue of WIRED, you’ll find:
• The inside scoop on how a commando team rescues hostages, how Cheetos are made, and how great jokes get written.
• The definitive guide to gardening for geeks.
• The story of Charles Komanoff, whose spreadsheet could eliminate traffic jams.
• The best new LED TVs, tested and rated.
You’ll also get more iPad extras like:
• A video journey aboard a real Con Air flight.
• A behind-the-scenes tour of a biobank—a warehouse of frozen medical tissue samples.
• Expanded slide shows, video, music, and more
WIRED: It’s a look into the future of science, culture, business, and entertainment. Get connected. Get WIRED.