This daily deal expired… If you missed it, it returns every few weeks/months…
One of the day-long Gold Box deals of the day at Amazon is a prepaid 3 Month Texture Premium subscription for NEW subscribers for $6.50 total. $6.50 covers three months of service.
Texture Premium is like a Netflix service for digital versions of printed magazines. You can read as many as you want while a paying subscriber, but you own none of them. Once you stop paying, you lose access.
NOTE #1 that you can only read these on tablets and phones. There no laptop/PC apps. So perhaps that’s one advantage for ChromeOS with Android app support – you may be able to read there using the Android app? [I haven’t tested this]
NOTE #2: this automatically renews at $14.99/month after the first 3 prepaid months. You can cancel at anytime.
This is the complete list of the 200+ included magazines, including:
+ Shutterbug, Outdoor Photographer
+ National Geographic main and four spin-offs
+ CNET, Consumer Reports, MacWorld, PC World, PC Magazine, Wired
+ Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, various biz magazines
+ various “six degrees of photographic separation” magazines including fashion, nature, sports, bridal, etc
Texture “Premium” has worse conditions than an octogenarian hypochondriac. No reading on a desktop or (fercryinoutloud) a laptop? That’s deal breaker No 1.
Automatically renews with a $14.99 credit card charge? In an online business environment notorious for charging the cards of people (a.k.a. suckers) who bit a low-price or free-trial bait for months on end *after* they repeatedly canceled — sometimes requiring intervention by a state attorney general to stop the madness? That’s deal breaker No. 2.
Stop paying the subscription outfit and you lose the magazine or access to it? Really? That’s deal breaker No. 3. If I want to read someone else’s magazine, I’ll go to the library and read it for free.
Not mentioned, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s deal breaker No. 4: Are these magazines “lite” (a.k.a. stripped-down) versions, with who knows what and how much content left out?
Almost a year ago I made the huge mistake of subscribing to a couple of those slick British photographic magazines through Zinio. A mistake I won’t repeat. They’re stripped down, often slow loading and have a clunky interface. Just logging into Zinio can be a challenge and their “support” seems to be in a state of denial that there is or even could be a problem.
Online subscription magazine editions should be 100-percent complete and be keepers. They should be available on the full range of devices and cancelable at any time — on the first notification of cancellation.
Thanks for letting me vent. The opinion expressed is strictly my own and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the dedicated and wonderfully diligent person who publishes Camera Deals.
Old Media keeps on resisting the new ways of the world. Also, I think most phones/tablets are probably too small to get the glossy magazine experience of the print.
I fully agree on the size problem and magazine experience, especially these tired old eyes of mine are concerned. I realize that’s a personal problem. But for anyone, I think many images lose their beauty, impact, immediacy, etc., if scaled down drastically.