A Wrighter's Life

One of the things I love most about the iPad is the tons of free iPad-only magazines or books that, in contrast with plain PDFs, contain rich, rich multimedia content that are a feast to the senses (Travel+Leisure’s 500 Best Hotels issue, for instance, features a video clip of elephants making way for the opening of a temple gate, a very nice touch that PDFs unfortunately cannot deliver).

It’s the closest you can get to moving books you thought only Harry Potter and friends could afford. Never thought Steve Jobs was cooking up a treat for us all, eh?

This is the Wishlist 2011 issue of ISLANDS magazine, featuring Halong Bay’s limestone outcroppings, Saba’s otherworldly experience from the eyes of a migrant (including experiencing at least four hurricanes a year), and getting lost in Havana, among others (I’ve only gone as far as that as of this writing).

And because ISLANDS magazine - which is free on the Apple App Store by the way - is made especially for the iPad, photos come in slideshows, and videos are also embedded in some “pages” and can be viewed in full screen mode.Very, very, very cool.

I’m currently “hoarding” travel magazines and apps, and among the best so far are Think Sicily, a comprehensive multimedia guide of the charming Italian town covering everything a wanna-be visitor wants to know about it; Insight Guides Travel Photography , which provides one travel photo a day to users (although you can access previous ones from as early as November 2010); and Amazing World, a compilation of beautiful, beautiful National Geographic photos.

Not bad for a vat of inspiration and eye candy everyday.  

PS.

Screenshot above is actually an advertisement of Dreams Resort, a group of resorts in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, found in the ISLANDS Wish List 2011 issue. The largest photo is obviously a wedding venue in the resort group’s Cancun property, which is the closest I could get to the wedding venue of my dreams. Not that it’s coming in the near future, though. :)  

All mentioned apps are free on the Apple App Store. I’m kuripot just like that. :)