iPad NYTimes: Slate Enters the iPad World

[kjk]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...he-ipad-world/

Earlier this year, Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, the Washington Post Co. unit that owns Slate.com, wrote an article titled “Apple’s Way: Why publishers should beware the App Store.” Mr. Weisberg offers words of caution to publishers optimistically believing applications built exclusively for the iPad will offer windfalls of money and in a sense, save the publishing industry.

Was he right? Although some magazine apps have made considerable strides with sales, it would seem the bets are still on the table about their ultimate fate. But to be sure Mr. Weisberg isn’t wrong, Slate offered its own free iPad application Wednesday.

Free for now (Marriott is sponsoring).

Love the comments that Weisberg made about Apple apps back in May:

They're claustrophobic walled gardens within Apple's walled garden, lacking the basic functionality we now expect with electronic journalism: the opportunity to comment, the integration of social media, the ability to select text and paste it elsewhere, and finally the most basic function of all: links to other sources. Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, brutally describes them as "a step back to the era of CD-ROMS."

[HarryT]

That's a load of dingo's kidneys. Properly written apps certainly support copy and paste, and you can certainly have hyperlinks. (Eg, hyperlinks in ePub books work just fine in iBooks). It really makes you wonder if people who write articles like this have actually used the product!

[kjk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's a load of dingo's kidneys. Properly written apps certainly support copy and paste, and you can certainly have hyperlinks. (Eg, hyperlinks in ePub books work just fine in iBooks). It really makes you wonder if people who write articles like this have actually used the product!

lol...well, he was referring to previous magazine/newspaper apps-but, surprise surprise, I can't seem to copy-paste from the Slate app. Hyperlinks work.

Some weird type rendering too.

[nick101]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's a load of dingo's kidneys. Properly written apps certainly support copy and paste, and you can certainly have hyperlinks. (Eg, hyperlinks in ePub books work just fine in iBooks). It really makes you wonder if people who write articles like this have actually used the product!

He probably based it on the Wired app, which is pretty much nothing more than a linked list of images.