Engadget has just launched its new magazine iPad app called Distro. Yes, it's from the same stable as Huffington Post, but even if we weren't raised in the same family, we'd still take a shine to this free weekly magazine.
The new app delivers a weekly round-up of curated Engadget content covering gadget and technology news. Like a good old fashion magazine, it has an easy to use contents page plus you can collect editions of engadget and tack them via Bookshelf.
It's not complex, it's not confusing, and that's what we like about. It's a straight down the line magazine, laid out much like a traditional mag. Distro is a casual dip into the main things going on in tech, designed for delving into while you're sipping a much-deserved glass of red on a Friday night on the couch. Hit a link on the contents page and head straight to the article you choose, or pull up the nav at the base to flick the whole mag.
Distro is out today. Click to buy Distro on iTunes store or search on your iPad for "Engadget Distro".
Because AOL never stops releasing new products, we also want to bang on about Editions, another iPad app we genuinely rate. This one's out in mid November in the UK, and has previously launched in the US. While Distro is a classic magazine design, Editions is unlike any app magazine we've seen before.
The tech guys were fizzing over this, but in a nutshell, it's a completely personalisable daily magazine that draws on all AOL content, making no two editions of Editions the same. You can customise it to your postcode, it remembers what you like and makes suggestions and you can tailor the way it looks too.
So if you love fashion, but you also love space, you can draw in just the right mix of both to suit your taste. Love travelling but not to hot countries? You can filter that kind of thing out too.
The only downside to having a completely customised magazine app is that you lose the beautiful serendipity of discovering something fresh that changes your world view. (Of course if you have awful taste, you'll be desperately trying to see what your friends' Editions look like. Joke! You read Huff Post, you have SUBLIME taste.) The answer to that of course, is trash your preferences every so often for a new look at the world.