Reading magazines on the iPad is excellent, the possibility of sharing information via social networks is very attractive, and the simple fact of not having to carry a stack of paper from one side to another is already an advantage. When I look at my collection of Wired occupying much of the shelf I'm happy to live in the future.
But ... is that all flowers? Does this wonderful future of digital media is that good? The trees say it, but just as pro-vegetarian campaign starring cows, there is a hidden interest. There must be some downside.
There. And it is a serious problem, which was not considered, or at least made public.
Have hundreds of books on the iPad or the Kindle is something feasible, words are also very small, but magazines, mainly designed for tablets are another story. A revised edition of a relatively thin cover at least 200MB. If an issue with many pictures and videos, multimedia content that increasingly becomes mandatory, this number increases. The first issue of Wired came to almost 500MB.
The season is one that has adapted well.
Say you sign the season, with an average of 200MB per copy. In ten weeks we have 2GB of magazines on your IPAD. If a 16GB model over 10% of your storage space will be occupied by a magazine. If you're an inveterate reader, or even the Tumaz SEM, read more than one title.
Two magazines, 20% of storage.
52 weeks in a year. Multiplying by we 200MB 10.4GB.
The space occupied on the shelf stops being so ugly, eh?
"Ah, but there is no need to save everything"
Of course not, but what if I want or need to consult the magazine? One of the great advantages of electronic media is the ease with which large volumes of researched information. A magazine in digital format is no longer standing role and becomes a rich source of live data.
Storage in tablets is precious, it is still expensive and limited. Memory Cards do not solve, we are more things to lose, and Murphy will guarantee that you will need materials in two different cards simultaneously.
There is the possibility of cloud, but in the real world, outside of fairs, demonstrations of technology to speed and reliability of wireless connections continues to lag. There are many blind spots and low points of performance, plus the cost to maintain and make this content available for consultation.
For some this is already happening, but I understand that the subject has to be equal to a madman Murdock Squadron A to want to take 40 000 songs and 10 seasons of Smallville on one side to another. Normal people manage their media libraries and place only in a subset of mobile devices they own.
Except that even normal people always get ALL the books in your digital device.
Reading and Media consulting is perceived differently in the reader's mind. His own need has a different timing. Nobody sees a special download 200MB to look for something in a magazine, much less when not remember the number where the material came out.
Mainly, the digital purchase is still something that was not well understood by the reader. The lack of something physical to interact leaves many people uncomfortable. However cruel it is, the paper is real, information is intangible.
The feeling of deleting a number of a digital magazine, to make room on the tablet sounds like throwing money away by playing more than one magazine in the trash does not look old, and be the same.
Therefore it is likely that in the near future our iPads are crowded and have to make several choices in Sofia, however painful it is.
How to solve?
I suppose an alternative is the publishers create aggregators, archiving old copies of magazines under his banner. These specimens were stored without images, with text and highly compressed with many search indexes.
Thus the reader / researcher would avoid the most of online consultation, would have access to the bulk of the citations and material, and if it were the case then yes only drive down the article that matters.
Solve the problem of offline use or non-ideal conditions, would resolve the problem of space (the idea is that the newer tablets always come with more memory) and solve the problem of "sense of ownership." You did not erase nor gave up anything, just kept the old magazines in the digital version of the closet to the garage.
