If you have an iPad, I highly recommend that you install a copy of the e-magazine called Zite on the device. It's revolutionary in a number of ways and sets a high bar as an example of the technology of the future. It's coded in HTML5 which is the latest version of this language used for displaying web pages. This enables a format that is closer to hard-copy magazines and allows easy "page-turning." For paying New York Times customers, an HTML5 version called Skimmer is also now available.
Zite also has the capacity to learn about the types of content that you favor in your e-magazine. It goes about this in a clever way when you launch the app. I use an RSS news consolidator called Google Reader. Over a number of months, I have tuned it to display the blogs and web sites that I like based on my interests. When I signed up for my free copy of Zite. I provided my user ID and password for Google Reader. When I clicked on Zite, the table of contents for the e-magazine had immediately and automatically taken note of my interests by creating the following sections in my copy of the e-magazine: Gadgets, Health & Exercise, Science News, Social Media, Technology, Health, eHealth, and Medicine. There is also a customize button at the bottom of the Section list and I have subsequently added the following new topics to the table of contents: Web Design & User Experience and Travel Blogs & Tips.
The array of articles and blog notes provided for me by Zite is broader and more interesting than I have ever experienced so there must be some human curation at play here in terms of the articles selected by topic. When you read an article, it is displayed in a beautifully formatted version -- alternatively, you can press the "web" button to go to the original web-based article. From there and with little additional effort, you can quickly "retweet" an abbreviated version plus the link to Twitter and Facebook. I have quickly discovered that Zite is now providing me with leads for the majority of blog notes that I post in Lab Soft News. I have quickly become a Zite addict. Give it a try and I am sure that you will agree that it's almost magical.
It appears that some of the big publishers, from whom Zite is using news content, are so unhappy that they're sending cease-and-desist letters to Zite, see
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110330/when-media-giants-attack-cease-and-desist-letter-to-news-reader-zite/
Presumably the smaller, non-commercial publishers that are described in this post are happy to be displayed via Zite.
Posted by: Mike Lougee | March 31, 2011 at 10:44 AM