IPad users rejoice! Slatenow has an iPad app, and it’s available—for free—in the iTunes App Store. (Get Slate’s iPad app.)
The app gives Slate readers ready access to the features they love: our articles, our videos, our podcasts, and our news aggregator, “The Slatest.” And while it’s long been possible to read Slate on the go—at mobile.slate.com or through our iPhone app—we think the iPad app creates the best portable Slate experience yet: It offers clean, uncluttered pages for your reading pleasure, includes art and illustrations, and features innovative, easy-to-use navigation that helps users explore the magazine section by section.
Close readers of Slate will recall that the Slate Group’s chairman, Jacob Weisberg, offered withering reviews of the earliest magazine iPad apps when the device first came out. He noted that Safari is a great way to read almost any Web site on the iPad and that too many apps recreate the print experience, ignoring the Internet and social media completely. Although we still think the Safari browser is a wonderful way to read Slate on your iPad, we also wanted to give readers a Slate app that takes advantage of the strengths of the form. Article pages are spare and crisp, designed with legibility in mind. You can read previously downloaded content even when you’re offline. And the app engages with the Web: It’s possible to share our content with friends via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. Links in our stories pull up relevant pages in Safari.
Please download the app—made possible by launch sponsor Marriott—and check it out. Take Dana Stevens’ reviews to the movies with you. Plop John Dickerson’s political analysis on the breakfast table next to your English muffin. We’re eager to hear what you think, so please do send along any suggestions you have for improvements. (Post comments below or send your thoughts to ipad@slate.com.)
