SMH Fairfax iPad App Review

The new SMH iPad app went “live” on Saturday. It is, for the next six months a free download and well worth taking a look at. I downloaded it yesterday from the iTunes store and decided to read my Saturday paper using it, whilst comparing it to the actual physical paper I have delivered to my door. I’m now taking a look at the Sun Herald also on the same App today.

The App was relatively fast to download and started up without any problems. I logged into my Fairfax

SMH New iPad App

account easily as asked, the App then loaded up without any glitches or difficulty. We are on about 5mb download here on the Northern Beaches and also on a wireless modem, not a fast connection. Unlike some other Magazine iPad Apps, where you have to download the magazine before reading, (sometimes takes days!!! hello “Project” and “Vanity Fair” ) The SMH App seems to stream the content straight from the web, and is immediate. The off-line content works very well also, if you have opened the App whilst connected online earlier. When you open the App, you will notice not only get your daily paper but the App also updates headlines minute by minute.

You cannot however (from what I can see) go back to the previous days paper, but you can access inserts and in-paper magazines from the previous papers from the drop-down menu. If you know you can’t read yesterdays paper I guess you can go through all the articles you know you want to read, and save them for later reading with the “favourite” option available on each page.

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Navigation through the app is very intuitive, you can either swipe to see all the sections one by one, or go to the top menu and jump right to them. The left side bar also works well for jumping to other articles. The resolution of the content is very nice and clear, pictures look so much better on the app, than printed (I’m on the 1st Gen iPad). The print is also easy to read.

The only thing I really hate is the ad pages that take over the entire screen every now and then, when you are swiping across for the next page, and you DO then have to swipe again to get rid of them. While the lack of traditional advertising in side columns means more room for content, this is sort of irritating…it’s irritating advertising not engaging…I loath interstitial advertising. SMH could take a lead from Richard Branson’s

Richard Branson’s Project Magazine

“Project” Magazine, and try to look outside the box for some advertising ideas, not just fall back to imitating magazine/news print advertising, which tends to irritate not engage. When I first swiped and got an advertisement, instead of the next page, I thought it was something I’d done wrong…I soon figured out that I was going to get a full page add about every 3 or 4 swipes….not fun…not “delightful” as Mr Jobs would say. Of course “Project” Magazine is a huge download, so this might be the pay off for this fast downloading app.

Accompanying video is also listed separately on its own page, as well as incorporated into the articles. But when you click on the video play button there is no indication that it is loading up, which is the normal thing on iPad. So you are not sure if its working..tap tap tap.

The Front Page Sunday’s Paper on SMH App

I love the ability to share stories and found it very easy to do with Twitter and Facebook, but its a shame that the photo from the articles are not shared as well, just the text. Included pictures are so much more attractive to get people to read shared articles on Facebook.

There is an incredible photo page as part of the app, but no ability to share those over Twitter or Facebook, copyright?

One thing I’d like to see is the ability to opt out of sections you don’t want. You can however rearrange sections in settings, but for instance I never read the sports pages, and it would just make it more efficient for me not to have them.

Overall I really like the SMH App and see it as being a great alternative to reading the still huge physical paper on a commute or in the office. My husband won’t use the iPad to read the weekend papers, but at least I don’t have to fight over the sections with him with this App, and we can still share our observations about the news.