How long before I can subscribe to GRM in eBook format?

I was reading the NYT on my sister's Kindle this AM and... it would be kinda sweet to have my favorite mags stored for easy reference in something the size of a paperback instead of a huge pile of dead trees.

Not the steal your post but I cant create a new topic for some reason and was wondering if theres going to be an iPod app anytime?

wrote: Not the steal your post but I cant create a new topic for some reason and was wondering if theres going to be an iPod app anytime?

http://m.grassrootsmotorsports.com is as close as you get from a phone.

I hope it never goes to a digital format. Remember we had the huge digital issue a while back and while there were some cool features and links in it, it just wasn't convenient.

I've tried a couple of other digital mags and it just doesn't work. Now a daily or weekly video blog with some other content would be nice. A mag is just too much content in one bite.

Also there's something satisfying about thumbing thru paper. I can find lost articles &/or tips much easier on paper than I can in digital. For some reason I can remember locations of articles/ads better that way. I know it was on the inside column just after the X article and before the Y article. That doesn't seem to translate well in digital.

Also I can use the mag in soo many more places than I can the digital content. A phone is simply too small a screen to see the content well and a computer is too large. The kindle or ipads are much better but if you drop them in the commode they don't rinse off well.

carguy123 wrote: I hope it never goes to a digital format. Remember we had the huge digital issue a while back and while there were some cool features and links in it, it just wasn't convenient. I've tried a couple of other digital mags and it just doesn't work. Now a daily or weekly video blog with some other content would be nice. A mag is just too much content in one bite. Also there's something satisfying about thumbing thru paper. I can find lost articles &/or tips much easier on paper than I can in digital. For some reason I can remember locations of articles/ads better that way. I know it was on the inside column just after the X article and before the Y article. That doesn't seem to translate well in digital. Also I can use the mag in soo many more places than I can the digital content. A phone is simply too small a screen to see the content well and a computer is too large. The kindle or ipads are much better but if you drop them in the commode they don't rinse off well.

I like paper - but I do see the huge waste and cost involved. I also think that if I drop my magazine in the crapper - it won't rinse off well either :)

I personally prefer paper - because I always have used it - but the Kindle is pretty good except the Orwellian issues (but there are ways to put/manage your own stuff on there). I think I can adapt - being able to carry the whole library of congress and a few periodicals around on a small device is become an attractive tradeoff to the tactile niceties of real books. Especially when I fly a lot. I end up dropping $15 each way at the bookstore in the airport and then have to lug the stuff around.

Isn't the Kindle on the list of tech things soon to be superceded? I mean, look at "boomboxes", nowhere to be found. They were replaced by "walkman-type devices". I actually saw a real Sony Walkman for sale yesterday, but who buys them anymore? Now we all have i-pod type devices.

Like others have already said, paper mags are so last century, but, let's face it, so are most of the cars we love.

We are looking at all this stuff, but focusing on the print versions, our events and the website right now.

I heard that there would be a Podcast coming...When might we receive that? A VidBlog would be pretty cool too.

Tim,

What happened to the electronic version of The Mag? I haven't looked at it/for it, as I get the Dead Tree version which I'm quite happy with. But, if you expanded on the E version theme as a PDF/download/whatever, you could get the Kindle crowd. I mean, you lose money on every issue that gets mailed out, so you could just give away the E version and boost reader numbers at very little marginal cost.

I wish that there was a way that you could get online access to old articles online even if at a premium. Some publication such as Stereophile understand the value of their work and make it available for posterity. I'm sure GRM understands how good their product is and I would hope to have access to more old content.

It would be nice if every 5-10 years back issues were put onto a disc somewhere. The collection is getting way outta hand.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: http://m.grassrootsmotorsports.com is as close as you get from a phone.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I, too, am curious about this, although the color, print version would still be better.

I went to Barnes and Nobles and fooled around with a Nook for about an hour, very cool. As someone who originally said "Eff that, I can't read off of anything other than paper!" it's pretty amazing. I highly recommend one to anyone looking at a Kindle...for one thing, you can replace the damned battery! And the little tiny color screen at the bottom makes navigating a lot easier.

Meh. This whole internet fad thing won't be around much longer. Give me the paper copy. I ain't sittin' on the crapper with a laptop.

First: thanks for the link to GRM Mobile. I did not know. My new iPod Touch (aka iPad Nano) will now spend some time there.

As an avid, avid consumer of ebooks - they're awesome. Just as having the ability to access any of my music at a moment's notice changed how I listen to music and meant I no longer had to carry 400 CDs with me all the time, having access to my books at a moment's notice has freed me up considerably. Heck, I just took about 50 lbs of dead trees off to Goodwill yesterday because I now have the digital versions. I'm a fan of the Sony reader, BTW.

Would I read a digital version of GRM? Hard to say. GRM is half resource, half entertainment for me. The entertainment part relies in large part on big shiny pictures, and you need the screen size of a laptop to make that work out. But from a reference point of view the digital version would be perfect. Then I could have all my GRMs with me all the time, so if I felt like going back through the Miata-powered MGB GT articles I could do so without having to dig into the big pile of paper in the closet.

I think a free PDF version would be awesome - both from the viewpoint of a reader and from the viewpoint of an advertiser. I was a little disappointed with the 25th anniversary issue that it wasn't a PDF that could be shared, as that would have been faster to read, easier to distribute and would have reached a wider audience. But it can be hard to let go of the reins...

Related note: one of my books is going out of print. It's just not economical to keep the dead tree copies in the warehouse, it seems. But it's probably going to get converted to an ebook format, so the title will live on!

I just installed the new Family Handyman magazine app on my iPad - it seems like a good e-issue solution. If you have an iPad check it out, it's free for a limited time.

There's a lot of talk about digital magazines, and it's definitely on our radar.

Our current mobile site works pretty well for smart phones, at least for the message boards. Other content needs a bigger screen to really work well the way it's currently coded, especially for event information. Expect improvements to this in the first quarter of 2011.

As far as an individual app goes, I don't know what it would do differently from our site. If you want, though, you can fake it by adding a bookmark to the home screen. The GRM button it creates will work just like an app.

1) Go to m.grassrootsmotorsports.com with your iPhone / iPod touch 2) Press the plus sign icon on your iphone nav bar 3) Select "add to home screen" 4) Enjoy a sweet GRM logo that launches the mobile site when pressed.