Tech Beever Interview: Ray Wang, PressReader App

We were lucky enough to catch up with Ray Wang from PressReader, the largest digital newspaper kiosk app for iOS (and also Android, BlackBerry, Win7 Tablet PCs and Windows Phone 7), and we interviwed him about PressReader, the latest edition to the PressDisplay family. Read on, womt you!



What exactly is PressReader?

PressReader is an application that provides readers with access to over 2,200 full-content newspapers and magazines from 96 countries available on iOS, Android, Windows and Playbook operating systems. Millions of tablets also come preloaded with PressReader from a growing list of leading manufacturers including Microsoft, ASUS, BlackBerry, HTC, Kobo and Samsung.

What does PressReader offer that other news applications don’t?

Unlike other mobile news applications or aggregators that only provide a selection of top stories, PressReader offers readers access to over 2,200 full-content publications from 96 countries—all available through the world’s largest digital newsstand, PressDisplay.com.
Every newspaper presented on PressReader is an identical replica of the current day’s printed edition, including each section, article, advertisement, editorial and comic strip shown in its original content.
Moreover, PressReader provides users with features dedicated to enhance the traditional news-print experience with functionalities like instant translation, on-demand audio, article sharing and our exclusive SmartFlow (a horizontal news-reading feature) and SmartZoom technology (allowing you to automatically zoom in to the beginning of an article).

What was the original reasoning for PressReader?

PressReader was developed as the companion reading application to PressDisplay.com, the world’s largest digital newspaper and magazine kiosk. Essentially, we wanted to provide our subscribers with a means of reading their favorite publications anywhere, anytime on any device.

The layout and UI in PressReader seems very clean and fresh, offering a number of sources, and even lottery number results, but will there be a feature to add RSS Feeds, such as Tech Beever's own news feed, for example?

Today, PressReader provides digital replica editions of printed newspapers and magazines to our subscribers with advanced digital navigation and reading features. That being said, we believe PressReader’s SmartFlow horizontal reading stream would be a perfect way to consume other types of content from sites such as Tech Beever.


What kind of syncing functions are there, I.E, could I sync my publications to other devices, including E-Readers?

Once a publication is purchased or downloaded from either PressDisplay.com or PressReader, users are free to download that same publication across multiple devices free of charge, including eReaders like the Kobo Vox running Android.

Will there be a support for magazine publications?

PressReader already has more than 250 magazines available such as Inside Golf, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, UNO Magazine and La Revenu to name just a few. We’re making a strong push to broaden the list of magazine available through the app in the months to come!

We've all had a play with the app, and we found it to be very responsive and fresh, especially on tablets. What's the response been to PressReader from the app world?

The response to PressReader from the app world has been tremendous. Subscribers love the fact they can get their favorite newspapers and magazines in one location on their favorite tablets and smartphones regardless of where they are in the world. In fact, some users told us that their reason for buying the iPad was for apps just like PressReader which makes us feel great!


Check out PressReader here!

iTunes

Blackberry App World

Google Play (Android)

Windows 7 (tablets)

Windows Phone 7