I was amazed when Inquirer first introduced their digital version distribution through PressReader last June 6, 2010. I immediately downloaded it through iTunes and enjoyed a trial subscription with 7 free issues. I actually saved PhP140 pesos (7 days of Inquirer). (After that, each issue will cost you 99 cents–or $9.95/month for 31 issues or $29.95/month for unlimited.)
Pressreader, an application developed by NewspaperDirect, supports all of its 1,500 newspaper and magazine titles wordwide. The partnership of NewspaperDirect and Inquirer made the most read newspaper in the Philippines available digitally all over the world.
Using the application and downloading digital newspaper is very easy. I simply loaded the application, selected a country, chose Inquirer and downloaded the current issue.
Once the current issue (or even recent ones) is downloaded, internet connection is not anymore required. You now have the complete issue right in your iPad.
“Readers can hold a digital edition in their hands and read it from front to back, just the way the title was printed – with no compromises in quality, fidelity or content,” said Alex Kroogman, ND’s COO.
The picture you see above is basically how PressReader shows a newspaper on the iPad screen. You can zoom in and out, and scroll and pan to anywhere you want. Some contents of Inquirer feature text-views, which allows you to read the complete news/article through a pop-up by simply tapping the headline.
Surprisingly, this application also features a “digital reader”. You can access it by tapping the headphone icon on the text-view. Enabling it will prompt the application to read the whole article.
Overall, PressReader is cool application that takes your news-reading pleasure to the next level. My officemates were amazed when I showed them that I’ve got Inquirer on my iPad. Now, give it a try too. Besides, this application is free and available for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
