Magazines on iPad...some for free! Goody Goody!

I am loving my iPad more now that when I first was given it as a gift. This is my latest discovery...magazines for my iPad! We only have one TV and it is football season. My husband loves football. I love it in small doses. I cannot write or work all of the time. I need my iPad magazines so I can pass the ever darkening evenings that come with Fall. It turns out that it is true:  Necessity is the mother of invention (or discovery in my case). Here is what I have learned...iPad has MAGAZINES...LOTS OF MAGAZINES!

The iPad allows me the option of reading and storing my magazines. Paper is kind of precious or that is what I think. Now I can read my magazines and not have piles under the table and on the table and in the drawer of the table. It is all good.

However, there are a few things I have noticed. While there are many magazines that can be downloaded using the magazine App, not all the magazine for the iPad are created equal.

• Take Country Living for example. This magazine has been one of my favorites for many years. I love the pictures and inspiration for country decor. However......this App gives you just a magazine and nothing more. You can turn the pages, enlarge the pictures to a point but that is about all.  There is no scrolling the print down at all. If you enlarge a picture, you cannot see the print because it is not in a separate sidebar type of location.  I had this experience with Oprah on my computer.
• On the other hand, I downloaded Real Simple Magazine this morning and I was delighted. The ability to see menus from each section of the magazine and pick which pages I wanted to actually view just blew me away. I know I am behind the curve here but still, I was impressed.

Be aware that, while the App is free, most magazines are not. You can get each issue separately or you can subscribe for a year. The cost is considerably less and if you buy a particular magazine every month you might want to go that way. I suggest you look at each magazine before you purchase a years worth. Don't waste your money. The iPad version may not live up to the real magazine experience.

4 Free Magazine 
Fat Wallet listed a few free iPad app magazines you may be interested in. I am downloading all of these.

• Slate  Slate is a news provider of the sorts. It is not liberal or conservative...it is contrarian! That might be fun. 
• Flipboard  News feed
• Discover for Ipad A wiki magazine that could come in handy
• Website Magazine for Ipad If you are a techie or are in a small online business, this is may be what you need.
• Net-a-Porter  Free magazine about style + shopping. (I like this one.)
• More...MacRumors forum has a wonderful list of free magazines you might check out.

Honestly speaking, I have struggled with my iPad. It did not seem to me that it was very useful for anything but going online with a bigger screen than my iphone gave me. My father taught me that if all else fails, read the directions. I need to apologize to the iPad makers. Reading the directions would have been useful. But I am now beginning to understand how the device works! I still haven't read the directions...for that I am sorry. I will do that soon...I promise. Oh and my piece of advice is don't always follow your father's advice!

I thought if I was expanding my horizons, you might as well join in.  What do you know about my iPad that I should know?

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