Newsstand, the most hated stock Apple app ever. Almost everyone wants to be able to delete it, or at the very least hide it. Apple took the option to put it in a folder away and will be giving it back in iOS 7. In the meantime, people have resorted to glitches in iOS that allowed it to be hidden in a folder and others have jailbroken their iDevices and installed the Cydia tweak that hides Newsstand from the device. I was one of those people myself. I had no reason to have Newsstand, I have some magazine subscriptions that I don?t even want, but that?s the price I pay for being tired and not paying attention to what I was being told on the phone. A costly mistake.
Now though, I follow my mobile tech news through the sites of Mobile Nations and tune in to the podcasts, or at least catch them later. Through this I was introduced to a website called The Loop Insight. A fun newsfeed of sorts, a collection of news stories with brief comments by the person who linked it. But some people wanted more than comments, they wanted full write ups to read. And after some time, The Loop Magazine was born. Again, a collection of stories that are interesting, many involved about mobile tech and just as many that are just great stories and great insight.
The Loop Magazine is available in Newsstand as a subscription. I wasn?t able to get it at first, but shortly after issue two was released I was able to. I subscribed to the magazine and I feel it?s well worth the money. It?s shorter than a regular magazine and without any of the ads. All there are, are great stories. And it?s a cheap subscription as well, just a measly two dollars a month. No other payment options of insane proportions, just two dollars a month and it can be cancelled at any time. What other magazine lets you do that?
So my question now is not why doesn?t Apple let you delete Newsstand, it?s now are there any other good magazines available? Or even why no one has bothered to see if there are any magazines that are interesting to them. If other magazines are as easy to read as The Loop Magazine, it?s not a problem to read them on your iPhone and I?m sure it?s even better on iPad. So why is Newsstand so hated? I think it?s not really Newsstand that?s hated, I think reading has become a hated part of life.
Today?s society is all about video and auditory information. People don?t want to read books, they want to watch TV shows or movies about those books, or listen to them instead. People don?t want to read anymore. This is a problem, so much information can be gained by reading. I read all the time, books, blogs, reviews, whatever, you name it. I read books because the world created in my mind is far more real than the TV shows or movies and is more complete than just listening to it. I know my mother and sister are the same as me when reading, we more or less watch the books happening than we read them.
Reading shouldn?t be a chore, it shouldn?t be a punishment, it should be fun and enjoyable. I think the world of technology has come to a point where information is so readily visible that people are losing the ability to create that world. So what?s great about Newsstand is that it can?t be deleted. It?s forces people to look at it. Maybe people shouldn?t be asking why it can?t be deleted and asking why they aren?t reading. There?s a world of unimaginable and limitless greatness hiding behind those words. If you don?t like reading you should be trying to figure out what is interesting enough for you to read.
Amazon and Apple have made it quite easy to find things to read. You have Kindle and iBooks now. Electronic books that automatically save your place. Believe it or not, there are also still bookstores and they sell physical books still. I just don?t understand what is so horrible about adventure and knowledge that people are afraid of it. They are afraid to seek it out, they are afraid to have an adventure in their minds that they can?t possibly have in real life. They are afraid to seek out knowledge, they are afraid of learning. One thing I realized a while ago is that conversation is all about learning. If you have nothing to learn from someone, you don?t talk to them. There is no conversation that isn?t about information and you learning it. Even if it?s only learning about how someone?s day went. It?s all about learning. When did people become afraid to take it a step further?
So the question now is, after you?ve spent your time reading this, will you seek out information you deem interesting and learn or will you continue to wait until someone else has done the work for you? Learning is fun, if you?re not learning then you?re dead or may as well be. A mind not learning is a dead mind and everyone?s opinions and views are different so don?t take theirs as wisdom and the ultimate truth; go and make your own opinions. Learn, it?s not as bad as it sounds.