Tag: magazines

Winding Road — Free Car Magazine

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I’ve recently discovered Winding Road which, as you might guess, is a car magazine. Among other cars, they’ve recently reviewed the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, the Lexus IS350 and Nissan’s 350Z. The interesting part is that subscriptions are free.

Granted, it’s published digitally (as PDFs), but it has the layout and features of a regular magazine. Apparently, they’re doing this to form a readership so that they can attract advertisers more easily. Rest assured, that’s just print advertisers — they pledge not to give away your e-mail address. In any case, I’ve just signed up for a subscription (why not?).

Best 50 Magazines

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

Via MediaBistro, the Chicago Tribune has an article on the Best 50 Magazines. At the top is Cook’s Illustrated:

1) Cook’s Illustrated. The measure of a magazine is how well it covers its chosen field, and in that regard, Cook’s is a gem, notable both for the quality of its recipes, for its testing of kitchen gadgets and for the obsessiveness of its recipe testing (“Now I had solved the problem of the soggy crust, but there was still work to do. The egg wash had proven only deflective, not impermeable…”). Even if you’re not a foodie, this magazine’s tart, skeptical prose is well worth reading, and its product reviews are as trustworthy as can be, given its exhaustive testing and the fact that it doesn’t take any ads. […]

Cook’s Illustrated really is good, and I had a trial subscription for a while (I let it lapse only because I didn’t have enough time to read it). The Tribune’s description makes the magazine seem almost esoteric, but it’s very down to earth. Most useful are their tests of common kitchen tools and everyday food items (one issue had a comparison of a few dozen supermarket cheddars, for instance). Hmm, maybe I should give it another try.

Computer Power User Magazine

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I was reading over AnandTech earlier today when I came across an ad that said “The Shark is back from retirement! Help welcome back Alex ‘Sharky‘ Ross.“. For those not aware, “Sharky” is an online computer-gaming journalist. I first knew of him as an editor/contributor at VoodooExtreme, a gaming news site. From there, he had some type of falling-out with the VoodooExtreme people, so he started his own gaming/hardware review site, SharkyExtreme.

Intrigued, I clicked on the link and it looks like Sharky, among others computing experts are contributing to a new magazine "Computer Power User" (or, "CPU" for short, how convenient). At any rate, the contributor list reads like a regular Who's Who of trusted experts in the online computing field:

  • Anand Lal Shimpi: Of course, this is the “Anand” in “AnandTech” — one of the web's most trusted sources for hardware news and reviews. Seriously, when it comes to hardware reviews, I trust Anand's opinion above all others (online or otherwise).
  • Alex “Sharky” Ross &mdashl; as mentioned, Sharky runs SharkyExtreme. And, SharkeyExtreme is second-only to AnandTech in terms of reliable and trustworthy tech reviews.
  • Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda &mdash yes that CmdrTaco! Yeah, Rob runs Slashdot, the site for &ldquoNews for Nerds”.
  • Chris Pirillo — this fellow runs LockerGnome, an online newsletter with tips and tricks for Windows. It's not a bad site, but Chris can come across as a bit over-caffeinated at times ;).
  • Kyle Bennett — he runs [H]ard OCP which is the the overclocking site. Want to see some guy push his AMD Thunderbird to 2.5 GHz? This is the site.

At any rate, I couldn't have asked for much more from a dead-tree magazine. I see from the page above that they have a link for a Free Issue but, you know what? I'm just going to subscribe to this one.

Wired Magazine Revamped

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From Media Bistro, “Wired Magazine Rewires for a New Age”

Like the digital world it draws on, Wired is moving from revolution to evolution. Once known for its jarring graphics and edgy approach to culture and technology issues, the magazine today is easier to read — no crazy fonts in sight — and is settling into a more general-interest niche.[...]

Back in the early 90s, I got a few issues of Wired magazine from a free trial subscription. But, as legend accurately depicts, Wired was quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirky, and I let the trial subscription lapse. Hmm, maybe next time I'm in [B&N|Borders], I'll give Wired another look.

Update: Ah! I see that their June issue (post-update) is fully available online. That's convenient, as I'll be able to read it online (for free) to see if it really has improved.