Long-Lived Lesbians Do It Digitally: Comparing Curve In 3 Formats

curve digital

Pros and cons of print, app, and online edition.

 

In part one, this long-lived lesbian figured out how to get to Curve’s online site. In part two, after a little chat-screaming with Amazon customer support, I downloaded the Curve app for my Kindle. And now, newly savvy, or at least less confused, I’ll  compare the three different versions: print, website, and app.

 

Print version

As virtually every long-lived lesbian knows, print is simple. You get it in the mail, you pick it up, you open it, you read, you tear out any pages you want, you pass the rest of the mag along to a lesbian friend.

 

 

Pros

 

 

Cons

 

 

I’m already expert at using it.

 

 

Uses paper (which uses trees, and contributes to landfill)

 

 

Portability: I can easily carry it anywhere I go

 

 

Costs money to print and mail, which adds to subscription cost

 

 

 

 

Saved issues take up storage space

 

 

 

 

If I lose an issue, it’s gone for good

 

 

While I’m still getting used to seeing Curve on my Kindle, I can already see its pros and cons.

 

Kindle app

 

 

Pros

 

 

Cons

 

 

I can adjust lighting and font to my preferred size

 

 

I have to swipe my finger across the screen to turn the page – I’m still not used to that

 

 

Portability – same as the print version

 

Fewer ads, which seem more condensed and which don’t interrupt the pages of an article

 

 

The Kindle screen is small – it usually takes four screens to display one page-worth of material, and no images are really large

 

 

Can carry thousands of magazines and books in one small package

 

 

I find it awkward to skip around in the magazine – I can only go backwards or forwards, and have to see every page

 

 

I can’t lose the software (or if I do, it’s easy to download it again)

 

 

Takes a while to get used to this format

 

 

Curve online edition

Finally there’s the Curve website, www.curvemag.com, which contains both the current issue and lots of extra material, such as blogs

 

 

Pros

 

 

Cons

 

 

Since I have a large monitor, the pages are almost the same size as they are in the print edition

 

 

I can’t take my desktop computer monitor to bed, or the beach, or anywhere else.

 

 

Easy to flip through the pages or skip around the issue, come back to the table of contents, etc.

 

 

 

 

Lots of extra material handy on the website

 

 

 

 

Back issues are instantly available

 

 

 

 

 

So if I calculate according to my summaries above, I like the online version of Curve best, since it has the highest pro:con ratio. I’m glad I’ve started using Curve online and I’m glad I downloaded the app, too, if only because now I’m less fearful about getting other apps. But you know what? I still like the print version best. Some things, like Long-lived Lesbians, are really good to have around.

 

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