Gadgets14.06.2011

SA newspapers and magazines on your Samsung

Samsung Newspaper

Samsung’s tablets and their newest smartphone include “hubs” which act as portals to various activities such as social networking, reading, gaming and music.

While the “Music Hub” isn’t available in South Africa, a number of South African newspapers and magazines are available through the apps Samsung includes in its “Readers Hub.”

Readers Hub is really nothing more than a wrapper around three Android applications: PressReader, Kobo and Zinio.

PressReader and Kobo are available in the Android Market to virtually any Android device, with PressReader including SA publications such as Beeld, Die Burger, Sunday Times of Johannesburg, The Citizen, Finweek, Volksblad, The Witness, Weekend Witness and International Herald Tribune.

The application also has a large number of international publications available, such as the Washington Post, LA Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Readers Hub

Samsung Galaxy Tab Readers Hub

PressReader lets you download 7 editions for free as a way to try out the service.

Zinio is an app specifically geared towards magazines and offers subscriptions to South African magazines, including: You, Huis Genoot, Car, Men’s Health, Heat, Sarie, Fair Lady, Harvard Business Review, Getaway, True Love, and O: The Oprah Magazine.

Although Zinio is only available for Android Honeycomb (3.0) devices in the Android Market, Samsung has included the application on their Galaxy Tab which runs on Android “Froyo” (2.2) and the Samsung Galaxy S2 which runs Gingerbread (2.3).

Zinio also has a PC application based on Adobe Air, which according to the website, runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Readers Hub

Samsung Galaxy S2 Readers Hub

The full press release for the Reader’s Hub in South Africa is below.

The buzz over e-books cannot be ignored as they fast become the number one format in all book categories. In fact, when the Association of American Publishers released its sales figures in February this year, the message was clear – e-books have surpassed print in all trade categories, and this trend was mirrored by other online retailers just last month.

Says Adrian Lee, Mobile Content Lead at Samsung; “We always have a pulse on industry trends to ensure we are able to provide users with not only superior products, but also with the content and applications that make for an enhanced user experience. In line with this, the goal behind the development of the Readers Hub App for Samsung Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S/SII, is to provide customers with a universally accessible reading store, specifically built and tailored in recognition of the rise of the digital reader.”

The Readers Hub App for Samsung Galaxy Tab is a novel application specially designed to provide unsurpassed opportunities for reading, with wireless access to a wealth of bookstores, and it supports ePub and PDF formats. The Hub is stacked with newspapers, magazines and books users can peruse with their finger. Newspapers look like actual newspapers in miniature form; just a click brings the font into a more readable size. Books can be thumbed through with some nice page-turning action.

“While the concept of e-books and e-readers are still new to South Africa there is certainly a case to be made for e-reading,” continues Lee. “It’s inexpensive as you save in comparison to an equivalent in the bookstore. In fact, the e-book will pay for itself in no time. It’s also environmentally friendly, and a great tool to bring books to the masses.”

The Readers Hub comes pre-loaded on the above Samsung Galaxy devices giving users access to over 100 000 international and local titles as well as South Africa’s top newspapers and magazines. Additionally it provides access to 1,700 full content publications from 92 countries in 48 languages. The fast navigation and the rich graphics view are definite facilities for avid e-readers. Also, further advantages are the opportunities for cross-title search by keywords and automatic download of newspapers to be later read offline.

“Samsung Readers Hub is your one stop for books, magazines and newspapers from South Africa and around the world. Whether you’re travelling on vacation or just commuting to work, carry every single book, magazine and newspaper you want to read – day or night, with the night reading mode. The vibrant screen and familiar paperback size of the Galaxy Tab mirrors a traditional reading experience and we are very excited to be able to offer this to our South African consumers. We are also opening up new opportunities to customers and constantly welcomingly new publishers to ensure a wide and new scope of reading content is made available continuously – further cementing our commitment to providing a platform to foster an innovative atmosphere for mobile content development in Africa,” concludes Lee.

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