REVIEW: Tap! On Newsstand

If you've not used Newsstand on an iOS5 device yet you really don't know what you're missing (obviously).

In the same way as the iTunes store revolutionised online music sales, Apple hopes that Newsstand will revolutionise the newspaper and magazine market. It is both an online newsagents and a library for your purchases - so far I love it. I've felt guilty for a while that I hadn't given up paper magazines in the same way as I've stopped buying CDs, books and DVDs (unless they're offered very cheaply in a sale!).

I've never bought a lot of magazines, and early attempts at e-magazines were awful... Just PDFs of the physical product that you flipped through. Newsstand takes magazines into the 21st century - at last!

It's like the newspapers from Harry Potter - the pages come alive!

Tap! is a magazine I've bought since it launched a couple of years back. It gives information and reviews about apps, devices, etc. for iPhones, iPods and iPads. It's always been a good read but the Newsstand version takes things on and makes it a much more enjoyable experience.

But it's not just a web site - it's a completely different experience!

The writing is good, informative and not too techy. There's always a celeb part (in the latest edition Graham Linehan discusses his iPhones home screen) and there used to be a column by Caitlin Moran but that seems have gone. I guess it was unnecessary puff.

Via the Newsstand version you can not only read a review of, say, an new app, scan through various images of it in use but, from with within the magazine, click straight to the app store so that you can download it. You can purchase individual issues or subscribe too.

Genius!

The other publication I love is the Guardian newspaper Newsstand edition. Currently it's free (due to a sponsorship from Channel 4) - then it will become become about £10 per month.

Yes, yes, I'm sure I'm going to be called a Fanboy again but, really, you should try it out or, at least, get someone to show you how good it is.

The one thing Newsstand needs is a bigger range of magazines but, surely, this both heralds the end of print media whilst giving a lifeline to the same publications.