Digital publishing platform Aquafadas updates its previewer app myKiosk, renaming it Aquafadas Viewer
The digital newsstand Magzter has updated its iOS app for its digital newsstand. The update claims to have added interactive magazines, though confirming this inside the app and on their website has proved to be difficult.
Magzter is known for only offering PDF replicas inside its digital newsstand. While a magazine such as New York may produce a hybrid edition for the Apple Newsstand – ads as seen in print, with the editorial reformatted – it’s Magzter digital edition is strictly a replica.
Magzter recently partnered with Groupon to promote its digital newsstand offerings which last year added books to the mix. The company also announced a partnership with Western Outdoor Interactive to bring its newsstand to airline passengers.
Magzter, at the end of last year, announced a Series B $10 million round of funding led by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH).
“Investing in Magzter Inc is an opportunity for us to enter into yet another new platform for content delivery and is part of our strategy to enhance content creation and distribution,” Deborah Lee, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development, SPH, said. “We are excited to be part of this round of funding and see great potential in Magzter for future growth.”
Unfortunately, Magzter appears to be maintaining its digital newsstand with about the same care as Apple is of the Newsstand. Opening the newsstand app on an iPad immediately produces news of a Thanksgiving sale that expired long ago.
Magzter, of course, competes in an interesting space. Because it is not the owner of a platform – like Apple, Amazon and Google – it has to get readers to use its service in direct competition with the device owners. In this regard, it is similar to Zinio. That company, which was founded 2001, has undergone quite a bit of change over the last couple years, changing leadership, moving strongly into library services though its partnership with Recorded Books, and now acquiring the app and CMS company Audience Media.
Aquafadas, the French based digital platform company, owned by the same company that owns Kobo Books, has updated its previewer app. Designers will notice that their myKiosk for iOS app is now called Aquafadas Viewer for iOS, complete with a new icon.
The previewer app is used, of course, by designers using the platform to preview their digital editions for either iOS, Android or Amazon content.
The new version of the application is being updated along side the latest Aquafadas plugin 3.3, to be released shortly the company says.
Earlier this year Aquafadas launched a new cloud authoring tool. Aquafadas Cloud Authoring lets publishers convert PDF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF files into apps, ePUBs and web reader files using a cloud based system rather than a stand alone application.