Magazines for Apple Fans

Magazines for Apple Fans

  Apple’s new iPhone may be just around the corner, with a Sept. 9 debut believed to be coming. And even if we blame Apple, more than any other tech company, for the drop in magazine readership, the magazine-killer still supports three print products to give us the scoop on everything a Mac lover could want to know — and then some.

MacLife

  For publications that cater to Apple product devotees, MacLife is the most critical of the lot. Surprisingly, it’s got a slightly boring cover for the Mac audience of design gurus — the people who kept Apple alive before it wisely captured the teen market with iPods and iPhones. Perhaps that’s why we liked its column on iPhone addiction, another asking whether Apple Maps will ever get it together and news on wireless charging (Yes!).

Macworld

  Macworld has long been the go-to publication for Mac fanatics, but compared with MacLife, it’s gotten a little staid. Both say the same thing. The “news” on topics like the Samsung-Apple infringement suit is so old it shouldn’t be taking up space. We did like the spread on “eye-catching” iPad cases and some forward-thinking ideas such as Mac-iPhone phone integration. Apparently, this is coming in “Yosemite” — the next generation of operating systems, which reminds us that everything innovative in America comes from the West Coast. And there’s a subtle advertisement for Twitter, which appears to be the first thing MacWorld writers look at in the morning.

iPhone + iPad Life

  If those two magazines haven’t given you enough Mac news, there’s a special one just devoted to iPhones and iPads: iPhone + iPad Life. To prove that design and not reading is what it’s all about, there are even layouts on black paper with white ink. We’ve always loved that look — and it’s so expensive to print — but there’s simply too much of it, too close together, here. There’s a look at “Uber,” the app that provides an alternative to taxis and could be worth $10 billion. OK, it’s a tech version of hitchhiking, so we’re skeptical. Five pages of that are quickly followed by a two-page spread on Beats headphones, which all the Mac mags think is a mediocre, expensive product. So why did Apple buy it? “It wants to be cool,” says the magazine that is trying too hard for the same effect.

MaximumPC

  For contrast, there’s MaximumPC. If the covers for MacWorld and MacLife were a tad boring, at least they had a minimalist chic. This one is cluttered, as if to remind the reader that the PC is one of the hardest-to-use products on the planet. Proving the case to this Mac lover, one of its main features is on the mouse — you know, the thing PC users still are stuck with. Apparently, they have new life as gaming products. In fact, judging from the articles in this magazine, the PC is all about gaming. Isn’t there an app for that?

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