iOS 5 Newsstand could see influx of content thanks to Adobe tools

Adobe has decided to embrace the new Newsstand feature coming to iOS devices as part of the iOS 5 update. Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite will be capable of generating applications and subscription content that fully integrates with Newsstand, the company announced on Wednesday, allowing publishers to utilize Adobe's tools when creating subscription content for the iPhone and iPad.

Apple Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall briefly demoed Newsstand in June when Apple announced the iOS 5 update. Newsstand essentially functions as a special folder on the home screen that automatically collects apps that offer access to subscription-based content, like magazines and newspapers. The apps' icons are then displayed on a virtual wooden shelf instead of the usual folder view.

Apple's NewsstandKit APIs enable publishers to build apps compatible with Newsstand, allowing them to automatically push new content to the apps in the background as it becomes available. Cover art for new issues will automatically update as well, and will be displayed on the virtual shelf. Basically, users can always be sure they have the latest content, and can even get notifications when the latest issue is available to read.

Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite is a set of tools that allows publishers to build iOS apps for downloading and viewing content created with InDesign and other Adobe content creation software. When iOS 5 is released—likely sometime in the next few weeks—Digital Publishing Suite will fully support NewsstandKit APIs for automatic content downloads, cover icons, and push notifications. Apps crated with Digital Publishing Suite will also be automatically recognized and added to iOS 5's Newsstand.

Adobe noted that Digital Publishing Suite can also generate apps compatible with Android and BlackBerry tablets as well, though Newsstand support is unique to iOS devices.

How publishers will react to Apple's subscription payment rules is still unknown, however. The company originally planned to force publishers to offer subscriptions via Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism at prices that matched outside subscription offers. However, many publishers balked at giving Apple a 30 percent cut of subscription revenue. The company later made a compromise, allowing freedom in pricing as long as apps didn't contain outside links to pay-for content.

Financial Times decided to kill its iPad app in favor of an HTML5 Web app instead of giving in to Apple's subscription rules. Fashion and design magazine Clear, however, appears to be embracing the native app approach.

"Tablet devices are changing publishing forever," Clear publisher and creative director Emin Kadi said in a statement. "Now, with [Adobe Digital Publishing Suite] support for iOS 5 Newsstand subscriptions, we will be able to further monetize our digital editions and make our content more discoverable."

From arstechnica.com