AOL's New "Editions" Magazine Promises A Quick, Curated Experience
August 3, 2011
AOL has announced a brand new magazine experience for iPad owners. Dubbed Editions, the unreleased app isn't entirely original in concept; but, having been in secret development for several months now, the content-heavy exercise looks to be a uniquely crafted, enjoyable experience for current events junkies.
AOL imprint TechCrunch blogger Erick Schonfeld describes the new magazine, explaining how the ever-pervasive "dream of a personalized magazine tuned just for you keeps showing [up] on the iPad." In this instance, he says, AOL's newest production
assembles a digital magazine for you once a day from a variety of online news sources and blogs -- The Atlantic, Businessweek, CNNMoney, Forbes, TechCrunch, Cnet, Business Insider, Wired. It is trying to stake a position somewhere between The Daily’s all-original (and expensive) reporting and Flipboard‘s endless pages of prettified RSS feeds and social streams.As such, Editions is made to be perused in a single session, collecting and displaying between 30 and 50 entries across various genres of your choosing. All you do on start-up is select your sections, enter your zip code, and get reading. Over time, the app learns your unique interests and modifies its approach. Specifically, Editions
pulls out a few main topic tags associated with each story for which you can effectively give a thumbs up or down by tapping on a check mark or an X. The next editions will show more stories from those sources or on those topics. You also can add blogs or news sources via a search box on each section start page...In line with its intended usage model, the magazine is set to fetch data just once a day, updating all content every morning at 8:00 AM. For readers in constant need of small newsworthy updates throughout the day, Editions probably won't replace the likes Flipboard or most dedicated RSS aggregators. Officially marketed as "The magazine that reads you," Editions is better defined by AOL Senior Director of Mobile Projects Sol Lipman as "The app for when you crap." Sounds like the perfect fit for my morning ain't-a-fixin'-tos. What, you don't use your iPad on the john?
