Zinio reader: Anybody use it and the service? Worthwhile?

[JEBB]

On my new (refurb) PowerBook there is preinstalled a program Zinio Reader. It evidently displays magazines to which you can subscribe. I've never heard of it. Does anybody use it? What for? What is your level of satisfaction? Thanks.

[blooz]

I used it for a while because i got a free six month subscription to Macworld. I had to download the reader. It works well, but it's kind of funny because the magazine shows up on your screen looking just like a physical mag, and the reader turns the pages just as you would reading a physical mag when you click the mouse.

I forgot the subscription was for six months and tossed the reader after a month or two because it came up and asked if I wanted to look for a magazine everytime I turned on my computer. Didn't hurt anything, but it annoyed me. If you have your computer on all the time that won't be a problem. There's probably some way to turn that off that I was too lazy to look for.

I don't get that much pleasure out of reading long articles on the computer, but if you're okay with that, Zinnio is satisfying enough.

[Zoidberg]

It's in the Startup Items button in Accounts; you can remove it there. Probably in the preferences for the program itself as well.

I bought a couple of single-issue magazines via the service; it's what it says and what it is. The quality is so-so; it's basically a scanned copy of the magazine. (A copy protected PDF.) I may be wrong but an issue that I got could not be printed, only viewed onscreen. So it's usefulness is marginal.

[Refurbvirgin]

The advantage of the e-version is the embedded links. You can zoom in, too.