Creative Competition with Mag+

When the iPad was launched in April 2010 with much fanfare, Popular Science+ was among the first magazines there from the beginning. The magazine was built on the Mag+ platform, a tool for turning magazines, books or other printed material into eye-catching and engrossing reading on a tablet computer. A year and 25 titles later in April 2011, the platform was being run by a new company, Moving Media+ and just as important, was now being offered for free to anyone who wanted to use it to create publications - Mag+ would only start charging once the finished product was published.

Most recently, Mag+ has been making headlines with 12 of its titles available at the launch of Apple's popular new Newsstand feature. But not content to rest on its laurels, Moving Media+ has taken another tack to further push the development of the platform and show the world what it's capable of - with a design contest.

"We constantly strive to make Mag+ better and the best way to do that is to collaborate with our users," says Staffan Ekholm, CEO for Moving Media+. "The design contest is one way to do just that. We are asking the creative community to show us what they can do with our tool by designing their dream tablet publishing idea. By doing so we give them the chance of winning their very own iPad App."

Ekholm says he is hoping to get new ideas and cool design features. "But not just that, since Mag+ truly enables new ideas to thrive and to be brought to life quickly and easily - we also hope that anyone who's been itching to try their hand at tablet publishing, will take the opportunity to get started. We're starting to get some cool submissions!"

The last day to submit ideas is November 28, and the three finalists will be announced on Dec. 7 by the jury - Mike Haney, former Popular Science executive editor and U.S. director for Mag+,  Jacob Nordström, Mag+ creative director and Matthew Cokely, Mag+ art director. The public will then be able to vote until Dec. 16 for their favorite, when the winner will be announced. Check out the site here.

Along with the contest, Moving Media+ is helping the development of the platform with a newly launched series of webinars aimed at developers, the next one scheduled for Oct. 27. And in November, Mag+ 3.0 will be released, with many new functions and improvements. "We'll be adding easier and more ingenious features that take users' rapid learning curve into account and make their experience more rewarding over time," says Ekholm. Customers and users range from the largest publishers in the world to individuals aiming to take advantage of the content and distribution opportunities that the tablet revolution offers. "Mag+ is ideal for anyone - from magazine and book publishers to catalogue marketers and design agencies - wanting to bring beautiful, immersive content to the millions using this new generation of digital devices," says Ekholm.