Update: Saturday, Dec. 11, 13:59 EST
TAKEAWAY: The new Bild Zeitung iPad app is here, and it offers those pop up moments that we were waiting for a newspaper app to show us. Take a look.
Users can also do the crossword puzzle on the iPad: keyhoard appears, type away, and a clock at top of screen tells you how long it takes you to complete the puzzle.
Notice how touching a photo, as in the case of the model in the swing red chair, bottom of screen, allows user to rock it back and forth. There is no traditional navigator. Flip the screens horizontally. Touch the article and go.Surprises abound. Even the folio line for the date on landing page allows you to get specific calendar information. And don’t miss the reading of the circular horoscope at the end of the video
We begin to see how powerful an image can be in terms of storytelling: a man sits at his desk, numbers describe the various items on the desk, so click on the number and get an explanation for each item.
Watch how this new Bild app edition begins to strut its stuff in grand style. This is the way of things to come.
Readers of TheMarioBlog know how much I admire the many surprises that Germany’s Bild offers. Bild is read by about 5 million daily. It is a broadsheet in size, but a tabloid at heart. Big bold headlines find their way thorugh every page. The grid is non existent, and things may move to the right or to the left. Germanic order is not Bild’s forte. But it is fun and one is never bored flipping through its pages.
Now, its much anticipated new app is here. I remember sitting in an Axel Springer meeting during the summer and hearing the editors talk about how much better their second edition of the app would be. Indeed, they were right.
I usually mention the need for “pop up” moments in an iPad app. We do not wish to come here simply to turn pages and read stories. We need the pop up moments. A few will do, as we see here.
Take a look at the video and see how a photo of an older actor takes us back to a series of images of the actor all the way to his youth. This is what the tablet is made to do.
I plan to continue analyzing the app during the days ahead, and also do the same with another new entry, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter, a surprisingly attractive and rather magazinish take on a newspaper app.
Hoping to make it!
Of special interest: iPad use survey
Don’t miss this survey conducted by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the University of Missouri.. A total of 1600 respondents were involved in the study.
The headline: The findings indicate more than half of print newspaper subscribers who use their iPad at least an hour a day for news are very likely to cancel their print subscriptions within six months.
Other interesting findings:
—Three-quarters of respondents spent at least 30 minutes a day consuming news on their iPad, nearly half said they spend an hour or more.
—iPad users are predominantly well-educated, affluent men between the ages of 35 and 64 who tend to be early adopters.
—A positive iPad reading experience is influenced by age and traditional media habits.
—Overall satisfaction and time spent with the iPad is very high.