Calling iPad users

[avevale_intelligencer]

Of whom I know there are plenty among my flist...

Jan has been trying the Newsstand app, and downloaded a sample of National Geographic, which happened to be an issue she'd bought and been unable to read due to tiny print. Unfortunately, in order to get the print on the sample large enough to read, we had to use the Zoom function, which proved impossible for her to manage. As soon as she positioned the text where she could read some of it, the screen zoomed off sideways and she found herself on another page, or several times in the App Store looking at something totally unrelated. Pages disappeared completely, scrollable text wouldn't scroll till she unZoomed it, it was horribly frustrating for her and a sharp contrast to her very pleasurable experiences with iBooks and other apps.

Does anyone know a way round this? If you actually buy an issue of a magazine, is it more co-operative, or just as bad? Apple Support seems strangely elusive on this kind of problem.

Comments

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually tried zooming text in the magazines available yet- but I can certainly understand why the experience might be less than Apple-stunning:

The Newsstand is only a specialized folder that helps to sort and maintain magazine content, and provide a marketplace where you can purchase magazines. That's all Apple has to do with it. The actual magazines that are in the Newsstand (like National Geographic) are apps- not ebooks. They have ebook-like functions; but due to the subscription nature of mags and other bells and whistles they want to put in they are not actually ebooks.

This means that each magazine is *coded* by each publisher- just like each app is written by each developer. So, Apple actually has nothing to do with whether the National Geographic can be zoomed reliably or not.

G may have better actual recommendations...

[bardling.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.
I read "Der Spiegel", which doesn't have a zoom function at all, only a choice between small and large print. That works very nicely, it is coded to scale the text size up around the pictures, which appear not to be scaled at all, but ife the "large" print is not big enough for you, tough luck, apparently. Another magazine, "Phantast", is in pdf format and zooms beautifully, without messing up the navigation, using the two-finger spread/pinch gesture to control zoom level. (I have/read that in iBooks.) haven't tested any others yet, although I was planning on doing sowith the National Geographic.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Let me know how it goes. I've sent them an email pointing out the problem.

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

I use Newstand for a couple of things, but what everybody else here is saying is true. Newstand is not a real app. It's as smac says a folder that keeps your newsy apps tidy. Over and above that, newsy apps do whatever they want. There aren't any standards. It is very unlikely that National Geographic will be any different if you buy an issue. It is worth checking out who publishes it and sending them a note to let them know how their lack of a proper zoom feature affects Jan and her experience.

Screen Zoom is usable, if you are careful with scrolling and make sure to keep those three fingers on the screen at once. Otherwise, you could find yourself, yes in all sorts of odd places.

Sorry this isn't a more positive solution, but periodicals by and large have either created their own apps or gone with publishing companies that create publication apps. You'll find some very good ones (The Guardian) and some that really deserve to be poked with a sharp stick....

sorry to say...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine who is blind and uses her iPad a LOT (w/ VoiceOver or whatever is equivalent) says:

Newsstand just sucks. I don't even attempt to use it anymore. There's no standard that forces the publishers to make their materials accessible, unlike with iBooks. She's better to just go to the web site.