

NYT reader 2.0 - joubert
http://timesreader.nytimes.com/timesreader/index.html?campaignId=34W8F

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ghshephard
Interesting EULA clause for the Adobe AIR component - don't even think of
trying to read your NYT on a Tablet PC unless you are running Windows XP
Tablet PC Edition...

"...you may not use an Adobe Runtime on any (a) mobile device, set top box
(STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet and Tablet PC (other than with Windows
XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), game console, TV, DVD player, media
center (other than with Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors),
electronic billboard or other digital signage, Internet appliance or other
Internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming
machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other
consumer electronics device,"

~~~
ghshephard
I just spent 30 minutes with this App - It's a winner. I've subscribed to the
$3.45/week subscription.

I've been a NYT reader for the last seven years - it's basically my home page
- but for whatever reason, the web edition obscures my sense of what the
entire paper is offering. Keep in mind I read the NYT.com web page 3-5 times a
day for about two hours, and, seven years later, I _still_ feel like I'm
missing out from the "Paper" experience.

The NYT reader has the following features that I love:

o Flawless Article-Map. I've got my sections on the left, the article number
on the bottom, and the page number on the bottom right (Though, with a 30"
monitor it almost 100% of the time will fit an article onto a single page).

o Great navigation - Cursor Right/Left changes articles. Cursor Up/Down
changes Page. Command Up/Down changes Section.

o It's the NYT Paper edition, delivered electronically Sometimes, having that
authoritative "We commit this to history" version of the NYT is reassuring,
for all its faults.

o Great resizing - Text, Graphics all relocate themselves very well - much
better than the nyt.com page. This app works just as cleanly on a 30" monitor
as it does a 15" monitor - which is rare for Newspaper readers.

o Much less advertising - I expect that will change, but it's nice to have a
pristine page without having to load up your system with ad-blockers - just a
single banner at the bottom right now.

o News in Video - All of the video news in a single section. (Great Video
Article on West Point Cyber Warfare today, BTW)

o News in Pictures - Nice roundup of all the NYT pictures of the day.

o Latest News - A nice addition - gives you the dynamic element of nyt.com in
addition to the authoritative version.

We'll see if I'm as hyper-enthusiastic a couple months from now, but, this is
where I'm going for my NYT news. Need to see if WSJ (which has better
charts/graphics than the NYT, particularly on the financial side) has a reader
as nice as the NYT.

[Added:] Back in 1999/2000 or thereabouts, there was an earlier version of the
NYT reader that I did _not_ like very much. It wasn't as nimble as the
existing one, and , incredibly, didn't come out until quite late in the
morning. There were several occasions when the -paper- edition was available
before the electronic, and the web site was always more complete. Fail.

I'm happy to see the following note when I subscribed:

"Getting it first So fast, you get delivery while our presses are still
running "

We'll see.

~~~
tremendo
Thanks for the mini-review, sounds like they do deliver a better experience
than the Web counterpart. What about links? say to comment on an article from
a blog post, or following a link from another site to the NYT? I guess you
still need the Web/HTML version for that.

Any reason why it can't be the same experience over a Web browser? Nothing
wrong to try and sell subscriptions based on an enhanced experience, just that
personally the NYT isn't worth $150+/yr.

~~~
ghshephard
Links: The NYT is pretty schizophrenic about links - most of the time they'll
link to their own information on a link (ala Wikipedia, but nowhere near as
useful), sometimes they'll link to an external resource (Marketwatch for
companies), sometimes they'll actually link to the site under review (wolfram
alpha) - all of them, of course, require internet access + your browser.

The good news is that all of these links are somehow maintained in the "Time
Reader" version of the article - I have no idea how they accomplish that.
Makes me think that the paper version is now a _derivative_ of some primary
electronic version. Interesting.

Re: Same Experience in Web Browser - After I used Google Maps, I realized that
Javascript can do pretty much anything, so I have to believe if someone
really, really wanted to, they could create an application that would simulate
the "Times Reader" in a browser. I'm guessing that the design team that did
this for the NYT probably looked at the toolsets that were available, and that
they knew, and just decided that AIR would be the fastest, easiest, and
provide the best user experience. I'm guessing here.

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mixmax
_"The New York Times offers you a digital experience that reads like a
newspaper."_

I think this pretty much sums up why newspapers have problems. They aren't
looking ahead, they're looking back. They're trying to squeeze an old-
fashioned newspaper into a new format instead of using the possibilities and
limitations that the new medium offers. Yes, they talk a bit about video but
except for that it's just reinventing the old ways.

Instead they should focus on citizen journalism, user interaction, one-to-one
communication, personalisation and all the other possibilities that the web
offers.

It reminds me of the old Henry Ford quote _"If I asked customers what they
wanted they would say a faster horse"_

It looks like The New York Times is busy making a faster horse.

Edit: Just read schwanksta's comment, and maybe I was a bit too triggerhappy
in my criticism :-)

~~~
ixnu
Newspapers should not look beyond quality. I value well-written reporting as a
consumer and a citizen and want to see the NYT flourish. I really like the new
reader.

Of the foci you mention: Citizen journalism - I can get this on the local
broadcast news. Except for breaking local news - no thanks.

User interaction - there are a great number of sites that discuss issues and
they are filled with citizen journalists. I would rather the NYT concentrate
on well-written reporting.

Personalization - RSS feeds and sub-reddits are better at this for me.

I miss the pure joy of opening the newspaper and discovering something
interesting such as an in-depth investigative report on a unknown or
misunderstood problem.

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schwanksta
I really like this. Offline browsing for a full 7 days, video and even a
crossword puzzle? That's a pretty good bridge between Web-only reading and
traditional newspapers. This app could really take off if they promote it
right. At the very least, this would be awesome for an airplane or car trip.

Hopefully they roll out an iPhone/Blackberry/Whatever app too. Make it as
mobile and easy to read as the real paper.

~~~
ropiku
They already have an iPhone Application:
<http://www.nytimes.com/services/mobile/iphone.html>

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fortes
They've done a great job porting this to Air. The Fl(ash|ex) platform has
improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years, a kudos to both the NYT
and Adobe.

Performance is a bit sluggish on my machine, but overall it feels pretty nice.
There aren't many new features over 1.0 (having the crossword is great, and
obviously cross-platform is super-important). I'm looking forward to future
iterations.

(Full disclosure: I worked on the NYT Reader 1.0 back when I was at MSFT)

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Brentley_11
If anyone is curious on how they structure their data you can look at the
SQLite database files which are stored here (on windows at least):
%USERPROFILE%\Application
Data\com.nyt.timesreader.78C54164786ADE80CB31E1C5D95607D0938C987A.1\Local
Store\

"newsreader.db" contains all the article information and eventRecorder.db
contains records of all the actions you take in the application.

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andreyf
This might be my youth showing, but to me, this looks like a browser
customized to the NYT... nice, but why not let it be just another tab in
Chrome?

Also, where are the social features? I want to solve the crossword puzzle
faster than my friends, and post to my facebook profile how quickly I did it.
I want to be able to share/discuss the stories with those friends, also -
that's one of the reasons why I read them.

Aside from that, this is just a pretty redesign of the layout... not much to
see, moving along.

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absconditus
This seems much better than the horrendous New Yorker digital reader.

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ianbishop
Between this, map/reduce and everything else NYT has been doing the last year
or so, it is easy to see who will survive when the newspaper industry comes
crumbling down.

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marcusbooster
Looks great and feels great.

But before you download, it says a subscription for full access to Times
Reader is $3.45 a week.

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TweedHeads
I don't understand why a proprietary reader when the browser is the best
reader out there and html the best format.

Want to allow off-line reading? Give the user the full version as a single
html file so it can be saved and read anywhere, anytime, on any device.

Thumbs down.

~~~
jacobolus
> _the browser is the best reader out there_

This is a joke, right?

~~~
silentOpen
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=601190>

