Want a Magazine stand? Cheap!!

By Manzanillo Sun Writer from the February 2016 Edition

If you spend more than a month away from home, you probably miss your monthly magazine subscriptions. That is unless you now prefer the Spanish versions.

There is an alternative. Texture is a subscription service that provides access to over 100 magazines starting at $9.99 per month. The subscription allows members to read the magazines on up to five devices, including tablets, smart phones and computers.

To add magazines and start reading them with the Texture app:

– Go to http://www.texture.com to browse the titles and choose a plan

– Sign-up for a free trial

– Download the Texture app and sign into the app with your Texture account. Using the Texture app is required, there is not a web browser version of the Texture reader, the Texture web page is used only for purchases and managing your account.

– Get the app from:

iPad, iPhone and iPod touch: App Store

Windows 8 & 10 tablets and PCs: Windows Store Android: Google Play

Texture has two plans, how are the two plans different?

Premium includes unlimited access to the entire catalog, including all weekly and monthly magazines. Basic includes unlimited access to monthly magazines only. Each plan includes all the available back issues. This is a nice feature because you can go back years to check an old article. I started my subscription Jan 2014 and all past issues of magazines are available for me to download from that date. The premium plan is $14.99 vs. $9.99 for the basic plan.

There are 173 magazines in the premium plan and 148 magazines in the basic plan.

The magazines display on a tablet just like a full page magazine article. The magazines even include the ads. One nice feature is that unlike a paper magazine, the digital version is interactive. For instance if you are looking at an ad for kitchen counters or cabinets, you can change the colours for comparison shopping. Some articles include multimedia video to enhance the stories. Also the links listed in an article allow you, the reader, to further research the information presented.

Weekly magazines include Time, MacLeans, People, Billboard and many more. For a full list of both monthly and weekly magazines goto their website.

The subscription is like having a magazine store on your device. With the selections available, you will not be able to read all the content and do anything else. But if you enjoy reading magazines, go to their site for a free trial.

We had 30 years of National Geographic magazines. When we downsized, no one wanted them, not even the Library. The five boxes of magazines had to be sent for recycling, which is a shame as there was a treasure of excellent articles and photos. Now the magazines can be stored digitally, and will be available to read anytime. When we fly, we download the issues we want to read, this keeps our tablets from filling up with data. After the issue has been read, it can be deleted from storage, but can be downloaded again in the future.

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