By Lucy Battersby
THE Age today unveils a new iPad app, a convenient and interactive way to read Melbourne's oldest newspaper anywhere in the world.
Developed by Fairfax Media over the past months, the new application has features previously unavailable to readers on the website or tablet devices.
"We see it as something that people will read in the morning while they commute," iPad editor David Dick said, "and we expect them to look at the website during the working day and then we will update a lot of the content by the time people are commuting back home.
"This is our reading platform: you spend time with it and read it like you would a book, whereas the website is a much quicker browsing experience. The iPad is more closely aligned with the paper and the mobile phone app is more closely aligned with the website."
It has been designed to download in less than a minute so readers can install the new edition each morning before leaving home. It also gives readers complete control over when and how each section, gallery or video is downloaded to help them avoid excessive data fees.
Readers swipe their fingers across the screen to flick through the content and tap on photos to pull up a full story.
The pages and stories are advertising-free but a full-page ad from one of five sponsors appears regularly.
"We wanted to keep the design clean, we didn't want it looking like the web experience where everything is shouting at you. As far as advertising in digital media goes, it is as non-invasive as you get," Dick said.
The iPad app resembles the print edition of The Age, while other newspapers' apps are based on websites, he added.
The app became available early this morning and is free until November 30 under a sponsorship deal with Telstra.
Fairfax Media expects a tablet subscription will cost $8.99 a month, a quarter the price of the print edition. A version for tablets that use Google's Android software will be released in coming months.
Along with the day's news, the app features new photo galleries and videos and interactive graphics.
The fluidity of tablets gives The Age's photographers a chance to display work that will "jump" out of the iPad screen, a look that cannot be reproduced in print or online, images editor Viki Lascaris said.
The photography team will produce daily galleries and other projects, including high-dynamic-range (HDR) photos of Melbourne and a tilt-shift gallery of commuters around Flinders Street station this week.
A fresh edition is loaded every day but readers can store up to 50 stories indefinitely and weekly sections such as Epicure and EG are stored for seven days. Sports and business sections include live scores for matches and sharemarket quotes.
Sudoku puzzles and weather are already included, while old favourites of the print edition will be installed in coming months. Readers receive a notification when new updates are ready.
"The crossword is definitely on the list," Dick said.
TV and cinema listings, cartoons, the daily quiz and target are still in production.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are now available in four ways: print, online, mobile phones and tablets.