Wired has released a version of their magazine for the iPad. The new version costs $4.99 and is available from iTunes. Ironically, the video used to demonstrate the iPad version, can’t be viewed on an iPad due to its use of Adobe Flash.
The iPad version was released ahead of the scheduled June premiere by publisher Condé Nast. “Wired Magazine will be digital from now on, designed from the start as a compelling interactive experience, in parallel with our print edition,” editor-in-chief Chris Anderson told readers. Earlier this year, Anderson called the iPad a “game changer.”
What hasn’t changed is reliance on Adobe. The publisher will continue to work with Adobe into 2011, although Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace acknowledged Apple’s decision to not support Adobe Flash in any applications has made developing the iPad version “a little” complicated.
Condé Nast’s decision to use Flash rather than HTML5 is a departure from a growing trend away from the traditional Adobe multimedia technology. Earlier this month, CBS announced its Fall lineup would be available to non-Flash users online. Online video giant YouTube, along with video platform Vimeo have also pledged to support HTML5, which is compatible with the iPad and other Apple apps.
Other publishers, such as the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio have said their websites will include limited use of Flash, permitting iPad visitors.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Adobe have recently waged a war of words over who is in control. Before the iPad was released in April, the Anti-Adobe message was leaking from Apple. Adobe’s Flash was “too buggy and will crash the whole device,” one source said in January.
In April, Jobs issued a public letter, explaining his objections to Flash. Flash is the “number one reason Macs crash,” Jobs charged. The Apple co-founder also said Apple and Adobe had grown apart as the Cupertino, Calif. company moved more into mobile applications while Adobe still focused on the desktop PC.
It wasn’t long before Adobe shot back. “No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you can create it, or what you can experience on the web,” Adobe founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock wrote earlier this month. The statement coincided with an Adobe ads stating “Adobe [hearts] Apple” but “What we don’t love is anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it and what you experience on the web.”
[via 9to5Mac]
