Better than print

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about e-readers – applications that presents content in digital format but in a way that closely resembles print. The New York Times Reader (Version 2.0) is a good effort indeed.

So, what’s the difference between the Reader version and the web version (www.nyt.com) besides presentation?

For one thing, because web readers may not visit every section, NYT plays the same story across many sections. For example, a story about the sale of a sports team might appear in both the business section as well as the sports section of the website. In print, of course it will appear only once. And that will be the case with the Reader version.

On the web, because readers may not visit the site every day, so NYT sometimes leave stories on the front page for a day or two. In print, of course, that never happens. Again, the Reader version will be like print rather than web.

The Reader is meant to work offline. Once the content is synced to your computer, the Reader doesn’t have to be online in order for you to read the content. And I’m happy to say that browsing the news via this device is a breeze. There is no delay at all. Once the content is synced, you can literally move from page to page by the click of a button, which is not always true with web – especially with the lousy broadband situation in this country.

One of the criticisms of news site is the “Daily Me” phenomenon where people just bookmark sections that they like and only visit those sections, totally bypassing other aspects of the site. This doesn’t happen with newspapers. When you want to get to a certain section, you still have to flip through the other pages. The good thing about that is you accidentally discover other news you normally wouldn’t look out for.

The Reader has a “Browse” function that gives you a broad overview of all the pages thus facilitating a serendipity factor that allows you to come across some interesting articles that catch your eye.

But lest you get the impression that the Reader is simply the print delivered digitally, let me highlight some value-added features that you get in the Reader version that you won’t – or can’t get – on print. There’s a full text search, video and interactive crosswords, links to relevant content and updates news.

So, you could say it’s like print but better. I like it a lot and see a lot of potential in this approach.

The best things in life might be free but the New York Times Reader service is not. To have full access, you either have to be a print subscriber of you can pay US$3.45 per week in subscription fees.

There are free sections for you to try out. These include Latest News, Front Page, Business Day and Most E-Mailed articles. Download the application now and give it a whirl at http://timesreader.nytimes.com. The application runs on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. So what are you waiting for?