Press Reader - Review - App for iPhone, iPad, Android...

I came across Press Reader over a year ago as I heard a lot of great things about it. What is Press Reader anyway? Here is what they say on their site: PressReader is the only application that lets you read a growing list of over 1,800 full-content newspapers from 94 countries in 49 languages available through the world's largest online newspaper and magazine kiosk PressDisplay.com.

With PressReader you will enjoy reading complete digital replicas of your favorite publications, often before the printed editions hit the newsstands! Every article, advertisement, crossword puzzle and cartoon is presented in its original context.

Hands On

Press Reader is available for the iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, Android mobile phones, Blackberry and Windows 7 Slate. So it supports most mobile platforms and is available as a free App. There are several purchase modes for the newspapers. You can do a pay as you go of 0.99 cents per newspaper or go for the "All you can eat" variety of $29.95 per month which lets you access over 1800 newspapers around the world. I have the $29.95 subscription. It is an amazing value considering you get so many newspapers daily and if you have certain favorites like me then it pays off in spades. I usually read the Adelaide Advertiser and the San Jose Mercury News which is a U.S newspaper and every now and then read a few others when I am travelling.

The beauty about Pressreader is you get the exact replica of the newspaper meaning what you get on the newsstands is what you see including all the advertisements etc. Downloading the newspaper doesn't take much time. For me it takes less than 2 minutes which is much quicker than their earlier releases where it used to take over 5 to 10 mins. The app has really improved since about a year ago.

You can set Press Reader to auto deliver your favorite newspaper. So as long as you have the app open it should automatically download the paper. As amazing as this sounds, I get my Advertiser very early. There were days I got the newspaper at 3:30AM but definitely before 6AM everyday. I get the San Jose Mercury Newspaper at around 5:30AM California time. It is amazing how far technology has come. I get to read the complete U.S newspaper even before some Californians wake up. I always look at some of the incredible technology deals of Fry's Electronics and other sales of different products.

You can see the various newspaper selections available for Australia. Most of these are delivered early morning. However there are times when delivery of certain papers are quite late like late morning.

Navigation is quite simple. Flick to move to new pages or backwards. You can go to various sections of the newspaper by simply scrolling left or right as seen in the screenshot above. You can also pinch zoom for some heavy magnification. You can also view the newspaper in portrait or landscape mode.

Click on the headphone icon (see screenshot above) and you can hear the text of the news content read out to you. Sounds like a robot, but works nevertheless. You can also increase or reduce font size. You can also share the news via email, Facebook, Twitter, or print in text or graphics. It's pretty cool.

Conclusion

Press Reader is an amazing App which has matured over the year and works beautifully on the iPad. It is the best and the only newspaper app that has such a variety. The only fault I could find with Press Reader was that their Android app was not as good as the iPad app. For example, if I pinch zoom the page, I can't move to the next page unless it is the original size, whereas with the iPad, I could move to another page regardless of the zoom. I also found the zoom on the Android to be a bit sluggish. I am sure over time they will improve these features. After all the Android app came much later than the iPhone/iPad app. As for subscriptions, the value for money can't be beat. For e.g, the Adelaide Advertiser subscription fee is well over $34 a month to have it delivered to your door. Compare this with $29.95 or slightly less with the current exchange rate and I get access to over 1800 full newspapers daily from over 90 countries and 49 languages. Now that's incredible value! While I write this at 3AM on the 13th and checking if the 13th newspaper is out, Lo and behold, it is downloading Monday morning's newspaper at 3AM. WOW.. If you are into reading news around the world, then this is the app for you. Even if you aren't, it is worth checking out.

Download Press Reader App for iPad/iPhone
Download Press Reader App for Android
Download Press Reader App for Blackberry

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