1. The nice thing about Zinio is that you CAN download it. Textify might beat reading their website, but will you be able to read when you're offline?

I guess this is really the whole web vs. application argument. I just see if being more likely that I will want to read books and magazines when I'm offline... moreso even than RSS, which I already can with Outlook.

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Tim Marman

2. Marc,

In addition to your comparison of Texterity to Zinio, I'd be curious to know how you think Texterity compares to reading newspapers via the application Newsstand Reader. Looking forward to reading your thoughts...

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Pam B.

3. I poked a little at Texterity after receiving an email from Popular Science informing me that,starting next month, my subscription would be delivered by that vehicle rather than Zinio. I found Texterity to be down-functioned and minimal when compared to Zinio. For instance, it does not provide for background delivery for future reading, does not remember one's display preferences from one use to the next or one publication to the next, and is slow changing pages. I've had an email exchange with the Texterity people who say those feature are "are in the works". To summarize, an unimpressive first effort. I informed the Popular Science folk that if they are going to insist on using Texterity in its present form then I shall vote with my Dollars and not review my subscription

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Paul

4. It's interesting that everyone here already has downloaded and installed the ZINIO (aka ZIDIOT) reader. I found this piece of fatware to be hopeless, and had to re-install the entire thing to "try" the latest version. I finally de-installed the mess. Maybe others have had luck, but I *like very much* the idea of a browser solution. And Texterity seems clean and fast. I'm getting MAKE magazine with Texterity and it's awesome. As far as downloading in the background, I don't see the big deal in pressing a "download" button and having the file being sent. You can continue to use the online edition. The KEY here is choice. ZIDIOT gives you NONE. Install, register, get spammed by them, and yes, finally, I can read the mag. Texterity - read it anywhere I want from my browser, and I have the download choice.

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by P Rezob

5. I received my first Texterity edition of Popular Science. I downloaded the file and it is terrible. The downloaded file cannot be viewed in single page mode on my tablet pc; takes over 3o Mb on my hard drive; took over 6 minutes to download on a 2Mb/s DSL line; and takes over 45 seconds to open on a 1.1Ghz P4 tablet with 2 Gb of RAM. What a ludicrous product.

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Paul

6. OK! OK! This certainly seems to fall into the YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) category. Name-calling aside, both varieties of magazine viewing seem to have their fans here and either might be a good option. Personally, I have used Zinio for a long time on a number of different systems and, on the rare occasion when I've had an issue, I've found their tech support team to be both accurate and very responsive in helping me resolve the issue. I have had virtually no problems with Zinio in the nearly two years I've been using my current Tablet PC.

I prefer Zinio to Texterity based on what I've seen. But that's all it is - personal preference. Zinio is a know quantity - works extremely well on my Tablet, and offers a great selection of both complimentary industry titles and paid subscriptions that interest me.

I love reading magazines when I'm offline (like on an airplane this week when I caught up with past issues of eWEEK, Network World, and others that had been piling up). I annotated, highlighted, and even shared with the person sitting next to me who was, as is often the case, completely fascinated with the Tablet but had never actually seen one before.

If Texterity offers the selection of titles you prefer and you're not bothered by the file size and speed issues raised in these comments, great. If you find yourself working offline on a regular basis and prefer the idea of locally delivered magazines, try Zinio.

Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Marc Orchant