We’re delighted to announce that PressReader 4.0 has been released and is now available for download from Google Play!

With PressReader, readers can access over 2,100 full-content newspapers and magazines from 95 countries on their favorite Android smartphones and tablets. This latest release of the app provides users with the ability to zoom in on publications deeper, faster and clearer than ever before thanks to its new proprietary PDF rendering engine.

Subscribers will also have the ability to read entire publications using SmartFlow, PressReader’s attention-grabbing horizontal content presentation feature. It’s a new take on newspaper and magazine reading for Android users and one we would love to hear your opinions of so, please don’t hesitate to post your comments or feedback below .

PressReader 4.0 for Android is our biggest update ever. It debuts advanced rendering technology that, for the first time, brings fast, high-resolution imaging to the Android platform. Users love the incredibly crisp text and high-definition pictures, and our SmartEdition publishers now have a compelling and flexible Android platform to showcase their content,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “Another great addition is our new SmartFlow technology, which takes the replica experience to a whole new level – enhancing it with intelligent and intuitive content presentation that compels subscribers to read more of their favorite publications.

Check out PressReader in action below:

PressReader 4.0 includes the following features:

• High-performance rendering
• SmartFlow advanced reading technology
• SmartZoom automatically positions the zoomed-in view to the beginning of an article
• Instant switching between Replica/Page View and SmartFlow viewing
• Share stories by email or on Facebook or Twitter
• Listen to articles through on-demand audio capabilities
• Copy and paste articles into applications that support it (e.g. Evernote, Instapaper)
• Share opinions by supporting or opposing a story
• Two-finger-pinch to adjust font and image sizes, and a choice of different font types
• Cross-title keyword search
• Desktop thumbnails of the most recently downloaded publications for instant access to the latest issues.
• Authorization of PressReader with a PressDisplay.com subscription

Enjoy the update and again, let us know what you think!

Cheers,

-Michael

Over the month of March, 19 new publications were added to NewspaperDirect’s Digital and Print-on-Demand networks.  Make sure to check them out online through PressDisplay.com or on your favorite tablet or mobile device through PressReader.

• Argentina | La Voz del Interior
• Australia | Sunday Mail (Brisbane) – U on Sunday
• China | The Time Weekly
• Croatia | Sibenski List
• Latvia | Diena – Sestdiena
• Poland | Angora
• Russia | Literaturnaya Gazeta
• USA | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Northwest Edition)
• USA | McDonald County Press
• USA | Northwest Arkansas Times
• USA | Rogers Morning News
• USA | Siloam Springs Herald Leader
• USA | Springdale Morning News
• USA | The Benton County Daily Record
• USA | The Times (Northeast Benton County)
• USA | The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, GA)
• USA | The Weekly Vista
• USA | Washington County Enterprise-Leader
• USA | Westside Eagle-Observer

For a complete list of the titles available through NewspaperDirect’s publishing networks, please click here.

Cheers,

-Michael

Will you be attending this year’s Publishing Expo conference on March 1^st and 2^nd in London, England?

If you are, make sure to catch Nikolay Malyarov, NewspaperDirect’s Vice President of Publishing and Legal Affairs and the Irish Independent’s Patrick Lenehan, CTO – INM Ireland Digital, team up for The Big Digital Debate: Which Platform? And What Strategy? scheduled for Wednesday March 2^nd at 2:10 pm.

And what can you expect if you attend? Well, nothing short of a great debate on hot button issues like:

• Which of the many varied digital options will suite you and your company best?
• Is the iPad right for you? and…
• How to build a multi-faceted strategy for the varied digital platforms available to consumers?

Guaranteed to be riveting, Nikolay, Patrick and other panelists will attempt to provide those in attendance with clarity and perspective on issues those in the publishing world are currently facing, so don’t miss out!

And don’t forget to drop by and chat with Johanie Marcoux, Director, Publishing at NewspaperDirect at booth B25 to see all the latest releases of PressReader and SmartEdition apps on the newest tablets.

We hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Michael

News junkies rejoice! PressReader v1.1.11.0221, now available for download through the Android Market or PressReader.com, brings users some great new features, functionality, enhancements and fixes.

With PressReader for Android v1.1.11.0221, users now have the ability to:

• Easily set up new accounts using in app registration
• Share articles via Twitter and Facebook
• Select and designate favorite titles (synced with PressDisplay.com “My Newspapers”)
• Sort and view titles in Store by favorite designation or recently ordered (in addition to country or language)
• Intuitively browse supplements grouped under respective main publications with the option to “download all supplements”  (a note to Pay As You Go subscribers:  once a supplement is purchased within a supplement group, all others within that group are available free of charge)

…where they will be able to enjoy:

• A streamlined auto-delivery process where a publication’s latest issue will be downloaded rather than its complete issue history
• A notification message appearing in the system bar advising download completion
• Enhanced search functionality when searching within a specific country (i.e. results from that specific country will appear first)
• The ability to select a specific account if multiple accounts have been authorized

…and will no longer have to worry about:

• The unavailability of 7 free trial issues associated with each new PressReader installation
• Not being able to “Connect to the server”
• Purchasing individual issues without receiving a confirmation prompt (applies to Pay As You Go subscribers only)

As always, we would love to hear your feedback, comments and suggestions! Please let us know how we’re doing by sending us a note through PressReader’s email utility, located under the Settings option, or by sending an email directly to androidsupport@support.newspaperdirect.com.

Cheers,

Michael

If nothing else, the 2010 edition of Digital Media Asia, held November 24^th to 26^th, helped reaffirm that 2011 will be another year on the up and up for NewspaperDirect!

With successful presentations and talks offered up by NewspaperDirect’s own Vice President, Digital, Igor Smirnoff, the event provided an opportunity to make significant inroads with publishers from Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Africa not to mention with several publishers from the host nation of Singapore.

The event also saw Samsung Electronics showcase their increasingly popular Galaxy Tab device, where, during the presentation, PressReader just so happened to be well featured and highly touted by Samsung executives .

So, what does this mean for PressDisplay.com subscribers and PressReader users?

Well, it means that in addition to the 1,700+ local, national and international newspapers and magazines already available on platforms like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry (and soon to be available on all Android powered devices), the coming year will offer an even wider, more diverse range of publications on more and more amazing platforms hitting the market.  What’s not to like about that?!

If you haven’t yet tried PressDisplay.com or PressReader, give it a try today!

Cheers,

Michael

Held January 7-10 in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, the 2010 International CES saw NewspaperDirect kick off the New Year in style.  Although not an official exhibitor at the event, our own Director of Strategic Development, Igor Smirnoff, was one of the 200,000 individuals in attendance taking in the sights, sounds and latest tech market offerings as well as getting a glimpse into some of the goodies that really aren’t all that far off (3D TV? Sign me up!).

More importantly, Igor’s attendance hinged around key partnership announcements made by Sony, Amazon and Google.  With these new partnerships, NewspaperDirect’s unprecedented list of 1,400+ full content digital publications, made available through PressDisplay.com, are now available to Sony Reader, Kindle, and Google Android mobile OS smartphone users!

Not a bad week by any stretch of the imagination.

And what’s even better?  You can expect to hear similar announcements over the course of 2010 as NewspaperDirect continues to push platform boundaries!

Stay tuned…

-Michael

What a way to kick off 2010!  Having announced support for both the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle earlier in the week, NewspaperDirect yesterday announced that PressDisplay.com is up and running on Google Android mobile OS devices!

So what does this mean for all the smartphone and press aficionados out there?  You got it!  You can now use your PressDisplay subscription on Google’s Nexus One and other Google Android mobile OS smartphones to bring NewspaperDirect’s diverse selection of 1,400+ newspapers and magazines to the palm of your hands.

All you have to do is open up your browser and point to www.pressdisplay.com and voila!  What you get is what you want – world press optimized and displayed on your smartphone in a really simple and easy-to-use format bringing you:

• Complete and full-content including images, cartoons, puzzles and advertisements.
• Great navigational controls, table of contents, zoom and pan capabilities and page scrolling.
• Full graphics and text only views and auto-jumps that link articles spanning several pages.
• Cross-title searches, article sharing, commenting, text-to-speech and access to back issues.

Check these out!

NewspaperDirect’s objective is a straightforward one…

“We believe in giving readers what they want: their favorite publications, in their entirety, presented in a familiar, intuitive format, wherever readers are, and on whichever device they prefer,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “And, in addition to providing the broadest range of distribution choices for our customers, we offer a proven paid content business model to our publishers — at no operational cost to them.”

Well, that’s week 1 of 52 down for 2010.  Make sure to stay closely tuned though, it’s going to be a great year .

-Michael