One of the pictures you see here represents the online future of print journalism in a sleek, easy-to-access open Google web app format. The other comes in a 500-megabyte (that’s half a gigabyte, people) download on a tightly locked-down device.
Above is Sports Illustrated editor Terry McDonell at Google I/O, showing us the new HTML5-optimized version of last week’s issue. And we expressed our excitement for it at the time. And we’re even more excited about it now that we’ve seen Wired magazine come out with its gianormous 500MB file size for its first iPad issue.
Judging from the screen shots at TiPB (we haven’t gotten a chance to actually use the app yet), the Wired app indeed looks like a beautifully designed translation from print to online (an endeavor I know a thing or two about). But the mere act of having to download the app (Will each update be the full 500MB? We hope not.) doesn’t sound so futuristic to us. No, Google’s SI web app beats the pants off this one.
Don’t believe us? Check out McDonell’s segment from Google I/O after the break. Just like the Wired app, there’s no Flash. (Erm, except for the YouTube video on our site, but that’s changing.) And there’s noo 500MB download. Just pure web goodness.