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Exclusive: The Age’s iPad app revealed

The Age iPad app  MumbrellaMumbrella can exclusively reveal the first screen shots of The Age’s iPad app, after a prototype of the Fairfax Media newspaper’s application briefly appeared on the iTunes store on Saturday night. And the app will even read the stories out for those who find looking at text too much of a chore.

Designer David Curry was able to download the app for $7 a month  – slightly more expensive than rival The Australian’s $4.99 app which made its debut on Friday to coincide with the Australian launch of the iPad.

Fairfax revealed last week that it was creating iPad apps for both The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. But it did not announce its pricing or when the products would be available.  

Last night’s brief appearance suggests the launch may be closer than many had anticipated.

Curry, a producer at production house The Money Shot, told Mumbrella that he stumbled upon the app while browsing the iTunes store with his new iPad.

He said: “It was only available for a few hours last night – I’m guessing for Fairfax executives who just got iPads to download and test.”

And Curry gave the app a positive review. He said: “As a newspaper application it looks very good. The entire paper gets delivered to your iPad at about 5am each day. The pages look exactly the same as the printed version. So you get a real sense of the big news of the day versus the other stories.”

The Age iPad app 2 Mumbrella

The Age's iPad app allows for reading text in newspaper-width columns

He added: “You can pinch-zoom to make things bigger – but the clever feature is when you touch on any headline a new box opens up with the story represented in a large newspaper column style format.”

Other features include a headphone icon, which triggers a computer voice to read the article aloud.

Curry said: “I used it in a cafe this morning and it was a satisfying experience – actually better than having to juggle the paper and my plates. The only problem was all the onlookers.”

The Age ipad app auto delivery mumbrellaUsers also have the option of either downloading a single edition at a time or subscribing  for automatic download as soon as each new edition becomes available.

One point of difference with The Australia’s app, is that Fairfax appears to be planning to make more specialist content immedaiately available as an additional option. As well as the likes of property supplement Domain, popular inserted magazines such as Sunday Life and Good Weekend appear to be included in the app too.

An early criticism from subscribers of The Australian’s app has been that certain sections are not included.

But Curry told Mumbrella: “It seems you can choose individual sections such as the Green Guide, Epicure, Domain etc to be downloaded or not – so there’s no need to burn bandwidth downloading Domain if you’re not in the property market.”

the age ipad apps sections 2 mumbrella

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