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Richard Branson’s ‘Project’ mag beats Rupert Murdoch’s ‘The Daily’ to Apple’s revolutionary iPad

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 · 8:56 am · 26 Comments

Richard Branson’s digital magazine “Project” has hit Apple’s App Store ahead of Branson’s scheduled press conference today – and ahead of News Corp.’s and Apple Inc.’s rumored collaboration, “The Daily,” also slated (get it?) for iPad:

Project magazine cover video from Project on Vimeo.

Project’s official blog states:
• From the reader App you can download the latest issue of Project, a whole month’s worth of content, which updates over the month. You’ll be able to download future issues in the App too.
• You can keep back issues for as long as you like. When you download the latest issue the App will still hold older issues. If you want to free up disk space, you can delete back issues and download them for free again later.
• Project is digital only, built especially for the iPad.

The app itself is free, each issue costs US$2.99 or £1.79.

More info and download link via Apple’s iTunes App Store here: Project – Virgin Digital Publishing Limited

MacDailyNews Take: The future is now. Pretend iPads need not apply.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Joe Architect" for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

26 Comments

1 2 Next »

Wingsy

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:03 am · Reply

Off-topic I know, but…

If the answer is: $74 Billion

What is the question?
TowerTone

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:04 am · Reply

As expected, Virgin is offering some stiff competition….
aaplsaur

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:06 am · Reply

$74 billion more than my net worth, ignoring rounding errors.
?

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:25 am · Reply

What kind of software do these things get laid out in?
Gilby

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:35 am · Reply

@TowerTone

Bah dump dump.
John

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:44 am · Reply

All I gots to say is… TRON!
AtlantaX

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:52 am · Reply

Looks cool. Glad to see Richard stepping in here and beating Murdoch to the punch. The thought of Fox News in a magazine is way to “right” for me.
Cubert

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 9:55 am · Reply

No iPhone version I guess.
farm boy

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 10:34 am · Reply

This magazine is an identical format to a magazine called ‘VEJA’ that I subscribe to (in portuguese). There is nothing new here other than content. I was hoping that some new UI ground would be broken. Hopefully Murdoch’s magazine will push the boundaries.
Jose

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 10:44 am · Reply

Not that great of an experience.

Non-printable characters appear in the text. They must be Windows characters.

Animation is jerky.

It feels like it was designed with a common denominator mentality with Adobe technology.

The Daily will easily blow this mag away.
Spark

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 10:52 am · Reply

@AtlantaX

Don’t blame Fox for being too “Right”. Blame CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and NPR for being too wrong.
Petey

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 11:07 am · Reply

Looks great apart from the classic serif typeface.

Really dont work with the modern mag concept im affraid.
Dave

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 12:19 pm · Reply

I bought the first issue and I think it is not worth the money. The controls are confusing and it is very difficult to know where you are in the issue. I will not buy another issue. If this is the future of magazines on the iPad I will stick to the printed versions.
temprakneeoh

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 12:21 pm · Reply

@Spark
you’re truly an idiot if you think there’s a difference. all news sources suck and are filled with bias and lies.
Wingsy

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 12:23 pm · Reply

Jeepers. C’mon people.
The question: How much more is Apple worth than Microsoft?

Passed em last spring and left em in the dust.
YouCan'tFixStupid

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 12:45 pm · Reply

There was a study done that showed Fox Noise interjecting opinion into 7 out of 10 stories. MSNBC closest with 5.

BUT, the mouth-breathers that watch Fox are significantly more likely to believe the BS coming
out of the mouths of the talking heads.

Scary.

Thank the universe for Jon Stewart.
cogitoergomac

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 12:55 pm · Reply

No, you can’t fix stupid. Your comment, particularly this, proves it:

“Thank the universe for Jon Stewart.”

The number of folks who think that Stewart represents a source of news is scary. And I find it unnecessary to refer to Fox news watchers as mouth breathers. I watch at least four different news networks, one of which is Fox, one of which is CNN, and I also listen to PBS. So, “YouCan’tFixStupidf,” it may be true that you can’t, but you could try starting, with the one staring at you in the mirror.
LordRobin

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 1:03 pm · Reply

First I thought that was Richard Branson on the cover, but no, it’s just Jeff Bridges dressed as Richard Branson.

——RM
YouCan'tFixStupid

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 1:10 pm · Reply

@cogitgoergomac…Regularly watching more than just Fox puts you in a VERY small group of people and you know it. So, don’t sling that BS at me as if you’re like the majority of their viewers.

I never said Jon Stewart was news. Yes, it is scary how many think he us. Just as scary as the number of people who believe the same of Fox.
wiredzen

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 1:32 pm · Reply

@farm boy
Have you even tried Project? Veja isn’t even close in terms of UI.

***
@Dave

First, there is an explanation of the controls at the beginning of the issue.

Second, honestly & respectfully, if these controls are hard to comprehend, not sure the iPad is for you. What exactly could be done to make them easier? Other than telepathy, there have to be some buttons to push, pages to turn, etc. There are some controls on the right (3 in the panel, I believe), hidden nav controls that appear when tapping the screen (common to many apps, I might point out), up-down to read an article, left-right to move to another article. Not real challenging. If you want to just flip pages, put down the Pad and buy a paper magazine.

***
As for font comments, come on. Other than hyper-geeks, nobody gives a hoot about this. And it is extremely subjective. I find it annoying how people assume that their preferences in fonts must be true of all others. If it’s readable, most are not judging.

I am sure things will morph and advance with time as the whole concept is new. I find some harsh criticism to be a bit empty – such a new realm of publishing is not even really in its infancy yet. Unless harsh criticism is followed by some innovative ideas (in which case I’d suggest creating an iPad magazine and becoming rich), then it doesn’t really make sense. A bit like yelling at a cute baby for drooling on your shirt.

Overall, Branson’s Project is enjoyable and impressive to me. Obviously not a tech for everyone.