07 Apr 2010 at 2:10 PM / News
Interview’s iPad App May Blow Your Mind
By BRITT ABOUTALEB
I couldn’t be less interested in the iPad.
It’s like an iPhone on steroids, and I already have a laptop. But
Interview invited a few editors to play with their app over breakfast this morning and I have to say that while I won’t be buying an iPad (not when I want
these), I will be borrowing Lauren’s monthly to flip through the newest
Interview.
Francis Malone, Interview’s CEO walked us through the app’s development, and explained the various features. Why he made me care about the iPad, after the jump.
1. Almost everything on the app has a video component. Eighty percent of the advertisers link directly back to their e-commerce sites, but 90% offer commercials or other video, and the behind the scenes videos of the editorial shoots are even better. If, for example, you get bored half way through reading a story about the Jersey Shore, you can click to watch a video of Terry Richardson and Bar Rafaeli on set with The Situation etc. You’re reading Carey Mulligan’s story and want to know if her next film will be half as good as An Education? You can click to watch the trailer.
2. They developed their own page turning technology. On a Kindle, the text fades from page to page, on an iPhone, each page reloads, but on this iPad app, it looks like the page flips. And even better, the back of the previous page shows a faded image of what’s to come on the next. It doesn’t make it feel like a print book, but it looks cool.
3. The font is designed for a person with average eyesight. This means you can comfortably read the whole story without constantly zooming in and out. And if you don’t like the story you’re reading, the table of contents can pop up in the upper left hand corner, or you can scroll through thumbnails at the bottom of each page without actually leaving the page you’re on. This may not sound amazing, but it’s pretty convenient.
4. It’s pretty. The fourteen designers who worked on the development of the app wanted to highlight Interview’s brilliant design, so there’s nothing on the screen other than the corresponding magazine page. The screen has to be double clicked to access any of the tools or options which means you can just look at the pictures. And while we’ll never stop buying magazines – never – the editorials are awfully vibrant on screen.
5.
Interview’s sure that no other magazine has put this much time and effort into their app, and they’ve only released about 60% of what they’re developing. You can already Tweet and Facebook what you like, but in two weeks they’ll add an email option and hopefully, in ten weeks, a chat option so you can discuss your love or hate of Ke$ha with your closest Interview-reading friends.
