Wired’s Magazine App For iPad Won’t Work On The iPad – Oops!

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Wired's iPad application could appear in June. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Wired Magazine built an interactive version of the print publication for the iPad -- using Adobe's Air. But like Flash, Air isn't supported on the device. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

My old friends at Wired tell me that the magazine’s designers scrambled to finished their gorgeous digital version of the publication just in time for Apple’s big iPad launch last week.

Trouble is, the interactive prototype was built using Adobe’s Air — which means it won’t work on the very device it was built for. Like Flash, Apple isn’t supporting Air on the iPad.

“The magazine industry was hoping to finally get over the pay wall with a fancy, shmancy iPad version of their precious slick glossy (but) gets caught with their pants down and their wee wees out,” said one insider.

According to chatter, the app was stunning and fulfilled a long-held dream of Wired’s executives — to recreate the glossy mag experience in a digital format (and most importantly, the ads).

Wired’s was just one of several digital magazines built in mad, rumor-fueled run up to the iPad — but is likely the only working app. Demos from Sports Illustrated and others were just that: demos.

Built with help from parent company Condé Nast, the digital mag is easily ported from layouts in Adobe InDesign, the magazine industry standard. Wired’s designers slaved over it for months, significantly improving on the demo shown off last November in New York (see the video after the jump).

But one little problem: Apple has rejected Adobe technologies like Flash and Air — with extreme prejudice. No one at Condé Nast appears to have seen that coming, even though the iPhone OS hasn’t supported Flash since its launch in 2007.

All’s not lost though. Adobe’s upcoming Creative Suite 5 will allow Flash apps to be ported as native iPhone apps. Though not a sure thing, it’s likely Adobe will add similar capabilities for Air apps before the software ships.

Wired didn’t respond to a request for comment.

(Full disclosure: Until last April, I was the news editor for the Wired.com website).

Via NYT: To Deliver, iPad Needs Media Deals.

Here’s a prototype of the interactive Wired magazine that was shown off at an event last November in New York.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLc-8gT2eKg&feature=player_embedded

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